25th Anniversary of the Most Important Event Ever, Part 2; the morning after the night before.

jules: University College's boathouse, the balcony of which was where many of the photos from Part 1 were taken, looks like no other, as it burned down only a few years ago and was recently rebuilt. And at 7am on the Sunday after the Eights party the night before it was very quiet; only people about were a slightly apprehensive boat club president, 8 unfeasibly tall men in their mid to late 40s, someone who used to be a little cox, a grisly old coach, and an insignificantly female photographer.

James continues: The night (and whole day) before had been lots of fun, a sunny Saturday afternoon at the river catching up with the old crew while the current Univ women's first eight collected their 4th bump and therefore blades before the men had a solid row-over. Then followed a rather good dinner and speeches that should quickly be passed over (if only the speakers, or rather one particular speaker, had done the same...). Of course us oldies were just a minor sideshow to what was really the annual UCBC dinner, but I can hardly continue without posting this picture from 1990, because this is what it was all about for us:

Univ bumping Oriel, Friday 25 May 1990

Anyway, I was rather surprised to see the full crew turn up at the river at 7am, as this was only finally arranged in the bar around 11pm the night before, at which time were were also reminded that the river was closed from 8am. But this did at least ensure that we had just enough of a paddle to work up an appetite for breakfast, and not enough to worry our cardiologists.

 

The crew, almost exactly as on the blade and the pic above, though some weights (and many hairstyles) might have changed:

From bow:

Derrick Pitard (90)

Miles Eddowes (89-90)

Rob Leland (87-90)

Nick Screaton (88-90)

Rob Martin (86-91, Isis 90, OUBC 91)

Justin Cheatle (86-89, Isis 88-89, subbing in for Don Miller 90, OUBC 90)

James Annan (89-93, Isis 93)

Dan Johnson (89-90, Isis 89-90)

cox

Mark Ross (90-91)

I might not have got all the rowing details quite right, but I think I'm quite close. Actually the thing I'm probably shakiest on is my last two summers when we were no longer head but assume I would have rowed both times.

Mission completed with no serious mishaps:

On the right is Ali Cigari, boat club president who perhaps most amazingly of all got up to let us in to the boat house and let us use one of his boats! And coach Cliff Smedley is in the natty red shorts.

Last but not least a bit of video, I thought it wasn't bad for a 7am scratch crew most of whom hadn't rowed at all, let alone together, in over 20 years:

 
Here's to a repeat performance in 2040 (or possibly sooner)!

By the way, I haven't completely forgotten about climate science, we've got a paper in press which will be blogged about when it eventually comes out (scheduled for August, last I heard).