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Lighting Times
September 8th:
06:55-20:51
September 9th:
06:57-20:49
Posted: Sunday 21 December 2008, 11:40AM by Mike Marsh
The end of Michaelmas term ended for SSBC as it always has: with us taking part in the annual Fairbairn Cup, organised by Jesus College Boat Club to remind everyone that rowing isn’t just about having fun, it’s also about doing excessively long and miserable races in the freezing cold...
We entered 7 Novice and 6 Senior crews in this year’s competitions (although for various reasons only 10 and a half of those 13 crews actually crossed the finish line!), and were expectant of some reasonable results given our form in the races earlier in the term.
There were a lot of good performances from across the club, special credit going to the 2nd Ladies’ crew for winning their Fairbairns shield for being the fastest Ladies’ 2nd Senior VIII in the University.
Senior results:
M1 – 15:29
16th College VIII
M2 – 16:45
33rd College VIII (11th Men’s 2nd VIII)
M3 – 17:15
35th College VIII (2nd Men’s 3rd VIII)
W1 – 17:33
8th College VIII
W2 – 18:21
18th College VIII (1st Ladies’ 2nd VIII)
W3 – 15:56
14th College IV
Novice results:
Men’s Novice A
DNS
Men’s Novice B – 12:11
60th College Novice VIII
Men’s Novice C
DNF
Men’s Novice D – 12:01
55th College Novice VIII
Men’s Novice E – 12:19
64th College Novice VIII
Ladies’ Novice A – 13:11
33rd College Novice VIII
Ladies’ Novice B – 13:30
39th College Novice VIII
Well done to everyone who took part, and an even bigger well done for the excellent Boat Club Dinner! Bring on 2009 and the Bumps!
Posted: Tuesday 30 December 2008, 9:11PM by Lisa Meegan
The other weekend saw the WNA crew head down the river for their first race of term. Although nervous, the crew were excited and determined to enjoy the regatta. They had been drawn against Jesus Novice A who were looking quite intimidating in their lycra. The girls set off well, not allowing Jesus to get a strong lead off the start line, unfortunately the Jesus crew kept veering to our side of the river and impeding the crew causing us to catch a crab or two. Although Jesus had pulled away WNA kept with them the whole way to the finish line and regained a length when Jesus caught a crab of their own 50m from the finish line. Although they could not catch Jesus before the end, the crew should be proud of their efforts; a very strong row, well done!
On the 4th December the Cam saw many Sidney novice crews competing in the big race of term; the Fairbairn Cup. Very windy conditions made marshalling a challenge for all of the novice crews and caused some delays in starting so that the crew was more than cold when they began racing! The girls produced some of their best rowing of the term, and Andrew took excellent lines around all of the corners. Their solid row earned them 36th place out of 58 and the title of the fastest Sidney women's novice crew! An excellent way to round off the term!
Race Report by Beth Parker
Posted: Tuesday 30 December 2008, 9:24PM by Lisa Meegan
After losing four crew members to everything from a head injury to an interview at Buckingham Palace, Kirsty, Elin, Rhiannon and Emily from W3 were still so keen to row Fairbairns they begged me to let them enter in a IV. Despite rowing in Sidney's old, heavy wooden IV, Cambelles, with a stroke actually rowing on the wrong side, the girls produced a gutsy row and more than earnt their right to attend BCD!
Report by Elin Gosby:
Once upon a time, in a far off place called Sidney, in the land of Cambridge there lived a crew of boaties. The crew was called W3 and in the crew there were 3 big boaties (who had rowed quite a lot) 3 middle-sized boaties (who had rowed for a term) and 2 baby boaties (who hadn't rowed at all). The crew wanted to row, but had no one to teach them. Then down swooped their Fairy Godmother who said that she would brave the cold and the early mornings to teach them and that when she wasn’t there, the Great Coach-Man would help them. The crew were very grateful.
Slowly the crew learned to row and fought off the cold and tiredness that frequently attacked them. The crew was often attacked by the evil yellow-flag monster but luckily the text-fairy warned them so they could all stay in bed and the crew were grateful. Every week the crew fought a swarm of Ergs – those creatures that every boatie learns to fear and dread – but each week they were successful despite the battle being so early in the morning. Though the battles were hard, the crew improved and grew in power and togetherness. A great camaraderie developed between the crew and they always sought ways in which to help each other. The greatest of these were the word searches and anagrams for when they were stuck in traffic as well as the group song “out of touch, out of time”. Thus the crew learned to row together and (vaguely) in time. They were pleased when the Great Couch-Man told them that they were shit “but not that shit”.
Then one day the crew decided to face the First Challenge, whose name is Winter Head. Winter Head was a very hard challenge, because the crew had not faced a Challenge before and neither the Great Coach-Man or the Fairy Godmother could come. However, a kind Mummy-Boatie helped them by shouting encouragement from the bank and by giving them yummy things to eat. Just before the challenge one of the boaties had a Big Problem: she was locked out of her personal boat house and had only her slippers, which were not suitable for rowing in. But the magic cox-fairy swooped down and gave the boatie her shoes and so she could row. And the cox-fairy was very warm in the slippers. Before the challenge they crew were very scared but the Cox-Fairy sang to them and soothed their nerves and the crew did well, despite one boatie’s blade trying to run away.
The crew then felt ready to face the Second Challenge. This Second Challenge was called Fairbairns and was far harder than the First Challenge but the crew were determined to try it for that evening there was to be a Great Feast at the Castle of Lady Francis of Sidney and it would be better if they had completed the Challenge. But then, disaster! An evil wizard named Colin cursed the boat and terrible things befell its members: one was summoned by the queen, another was seized by an enormous giant and dropped on her head, another was given an evil potion by the evil imp of illness and became very sick and the fourth was held prisoner by an evil Supervisor-monster. Only four boaties remained, but they were determined to face the Challenge so they could go with glory to the Great Feast and also so they could wear the pretty costumes they had bought. Thus, with the help of the Cox-Fairy, they begged the Text-Fairy to help them. The kind Text-Fairy persuaded Jesus to let them face the challenge as a four and Jesus said yes, however this was not the end of the obstacles in front of W3. The boat they were allowed to use was old and heavy and had no cox-box or ratemeter to help the poor boaties and the boaties had weird sized feet so the shoes did not fit: the boatie with the smallest feet had to use gloves to make hers fit and the boatie with the biggest feet got sore toes. The curse even hit the boat the crew were meant to be rowing in before the curse hit four of their members and the novices crashed poor Tominox. Up and down the land people mourned for the loss of Tominox.
On the day of the Challenge the crew were excited but scared, as they missed their friends and had never rowed without them. But then out of the distance there rode a great host: Mummy and Daddy boaties, the Text-Fairy and the Fairy Godmother as well as two non-boaties all came, and they were known as the Bank Party. The crew felt very loved and became less scared. The Challenge was hard for the little boaties for the others who were doing the Challenge were far more experienced and had rowed in a four before. The boat was very old and hard to balance and the boaties were frequently attacked by shoals of River-Crabs but the boaties persevered and defeated the Challenge. As a sign of their success, the Cox-Fairy was presented with a cloak of finely-wrought silver to wear to row home in. The return journey was hard as the boaties were very tired and cold but they were encouraged by the thought of their achievement and of the yummy food that was waiting for them at the Boathouse. When they arrived they were very pleased that the boaties held prisoner by the evil Supervisor-monster had managed to escape and had come to meet them, and also that they received much help in getting the boat out of the water, for they would not have been able to do it by themselves. They all ate much chocolate and felt better.
That night at the Great Feast they were reunited with the rest of the crew and much merriment was enjoyed by all.