Dear Friends,

With the worst of the winter and nearly 6 months of solid training behind us, UCBC is again looking forward to a glorious summer of rowing in the build up to Summer Eights 2015. It seems like yesterday when it was the first week of Michaelmas and we were hosting all of the new novice recruits at the UCBC taster day.

Since then, Univ has had a successful first half of the season. The senior women had several wins and moved up 4 places in Torpids to 7th on the river, with 4 crew members who only began rowing this year. On the men’s side, the highlight was the blade winning men’s second VIII, while the first VIII had some hard and closely fought races at Torpids. All of these successes demonstrate the quality of novice training and the strength and depth in Univ rowing that we are all proud of. They are also all signs of great things to come once University squad rowers re-join the crews for the Summer Eights campaign.

I am thankful for the hard work of all the committee members, coaches, college staff and senior members over the past few months. However, the biggest thank you goes to our old members and friends who have supported us over the past year, enabling the purchase of various pieces of equipment, including a new women’s IV, trailer, blades and cox boxes. As you might remember, this time last year, we set ourselves a target of £100,000 for the Friends of UCBC fund to generate a much-needed annual income. I am pleased to say that thanks to a few of our Friends, we now have just over £70,000 in the fund,up from £42,000 at Summer Eights last year.

However, our plans for the continued push towards Headship still depends on us hitting our original target of £100,000, and I hope you can help us achieve this. You can donate online by visiting ucbc.org.uk/give or by getting in touch with me on ucbc.president@univ.ox.ac.uk to discuss any donations further.

You can download a pdf version of the FoUCBC Newsletter here, or you can read the captain's reports in the links below:

• From the Men's Captain
• From the Women's Captain
• From the Men's Vice-Captain
• From the Women's Vice-Captain

I hope you can join us this year on the Saturday of Summer Eights for racing at the boathouse and for the Boat Club Dinner in hall on 30th of May, when we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the last time Univ went to the Head of the River in 1990. Invitations will follow shortly in the post, but please save the date and start planning your visit.

Best wishes,

Ali Cigari
UCBC President

Posted on Mar 21, 2015

posted under: FoUCBC Newsletter

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