Christ Church Boat Club

Row for Christ Church

Rowing at Christ Church is an amazing experience combining team spirit, fitness and plenty of fun.

If you have never rowed before coming to Oxford it's not a problem at all as many of our rowers began at Oxford and our excellent coaches train our Novices from the beginning. It's a great way to meet new people and make friends when you arrive and gives you a chance to take part in something quintessentially Oxford! If you already row then you won't want to miss out on College rowing - rowing at Oxford has a unique aspect fuelled by the competition between Colleges and the 'bumps' races that happen twice a year (Torpids and Summer Eights). The atmosphere on Saturday (the final day) of racing is quite spectacular - most of Oxford comes to the river to support their College boats, from the bottom division to the top, which makes for quite a crowd - reportedly thirty thousand people watched the Saturday races in 2006.

Naturally racing and training as a team means that we also like to celebrate and party hard together so the social side of rowing is always great fun too. Races invariably end with Boat Club dinners, which gossip and legend can advertise themselves.

There are boats for all abilities- whether you are looking for the adrenaline rush of racing (and hopefully winning) in the College's top boat or you prefer the more relaxed atmosphere of the lower boats there is something for you. We are always open to new people joining throughout the year, regardless of age or experience.

Varsity Crews

For the most experienced and ambitious there is, of course, the powerful draw of the world-renowned 'varsity Boat Race against Cambridge - and its equivalents for women and for men's and women's lightweights. Training for OUBC commences in September and continues through to March or April when the 4.25 mile race takes place in London. For the other 'varsity crews a series of races takes place at Henley over a 2000m course, usually a week before the Tideway race. Once these Oxford representative races are done, those crews disband and their members return to row for their colleges in the bumps races for Summer Eights - usually at the end of May and external regattas. Christ Church BC has produced more "Blues" than any other college boat club - and indeed granted use of our famous dark blue blades to the very first Oxford crew, which still holds good today.The club also has an enviable record at Henley Royal Regatta, having won more rowing events there than any other Oxford college. It is customary for the ChCh men's first eight (and sometimes other boats) to attend the Royal Regatta which takes place in early July and marks the end of the rowing season for the Club.

Those with the ability and ambition to trial for the 'varsity crews will be supported to the utmost in this by their college club.

The OUBC, OUWBC, OULRC and OUWLRC websites are a good place to begin.

If you're interested in rowing for Christ Church the Captains are a good place to start:

guy.arnold@chch.ox.ac.uk (Men's Captain)

or

sahana.jayakumar@chch.ox.ac.uk (Women's Captain)

President: Tom Montgomery

thomas.montgomery@chch.ox.ac.uk

© Christ Church Boat Club 2005-2010