Sorry we’ve been a bit quiet on here, that’s all about to change though with so many exciting events coming up, there’s going to be loads to share with you all! But for now, we wanted to give you all a quick update with what we’ve been up to since Rutherford Head, so in the last month of 2014 and the first of 2015!
UCLBC annual Christmas dinner
Every December UCLBC holds its club Christmas dinner though this year was slightly different. Firstly, we had two very special guests in attendance – Will Satch and George Nash, currently World Champions and Bronze medal winners in the pair at London 2012. A massive thank you to both Will and George. Along with presenting awards, they gave a funny and inspiring speech that was apparently unrehearsed not that anyone would believe this. 
And secondly, along with celebrating the successes of the year so far, as we do every year, this dinner also celebrated that moment in June when UCLBC became Henley Women’s Champions for the first time in history. The crew (except the cox Chris who was sadly unable to attend) were presented their Henley medals again by Will and George, and also given presentation blades to commemorate their achievement.
Will and George also presented some of current club members with a number of awards. These were ‘best rower’, ‘most improved rower’ and ‘athlete’s athlete’; the first two chosen by respective coaches and the last one voted on by the squad.
Senior Men
Best rower – Charlie Haynes
Most improved – Jack Ren
Athlete’s athlete – Mark Portnoi
Senior Women
Best rower – Claire Garnett
Most improved – Zoe Watson
Athlete’s athlete – Jess Rankine
Novice Men
Best rower – Rishi Anand
Most improved – Boyang Pan
Athlete’s athlete – Juuso Turtiainen
Novice Women
Best rower – Georgia Statham
Most improved – Phoebe Farlow
Athlete’s athlete – Charlotte Booth
Coxes
Athlete’s athlete – Isolde Schlumberger
The dinner was a huge success by all counts and it was wonderful to have so many members of the boat club, past and present, there to celebrate the year so far. All in all, this was a Christmas dinner to remember!
Pudding Races
You may be forgiven for thinking that the Christmas dinner was the last event on the UCLBC calendar but you’d be wrong! On the last weekend of term, there was Pudding Races!!!! You turn up, put your name down and eagerly wait to hear what crew you’re in whilst sampling mildy luke-warm mulled wine and mince pies! Christmas jumpers/decorations were out in full force, with the novice squads fashioning some particularly eye-catching garments!
There were some very exciting races though sadly the all-coxes 8 did not make it past the first round and the eventual winners had already been knocked out in an earlier round…..all very confusing! But hey ho, with Pudding Races it’s the taking part that counts!
The end of Pudding races meant home time for most of the club and with this, people’s trainers and running shorts were dusted off for a lot of cross-training to keep the fitness levels ticking over as copious amounts of food and drink were consumed.
Winter training camp – January 2015
UCLBC started 2015 as they mean to go on, training hard! The last week of the Christmas holidays we were all back on the Tideway for a short, but intense, winter training camp. We had 4 sessions a day, 3 on the water, 1 on land. The land sessions were usually that good old ergo but on Thursday we were lucky enough to have Kara come and do yoga with us to stretch out those aching muscles and even develop some new ones!
Some great improvements were made amongst the squads, with a couple of individuals in particular standing out for making a huge step on over the week.
What’s coming up…..
We’re now back into our usual routine with preparations well under way for our upcoming races. We’ve got Quintin Head next weekend with 2 8s from every squad entered and then BUCS Head at the end of February.
February also sees the first ever British Rowing Indoor Championships at the Olympic park velodrome and a group of 4 girls will be going to compete in the team event. You can buy a spectator’s ticket (£10) if you fancy coming down to support UCL and see hundreds of people competing in this iconic venue!
Plans are also afoot for our next training camp to Avis, Portugal…..watch this space!
University College London Boat Club 