Christchurch Regatta
The Savills Christ Church Regatta is a novice regatta held in 7th week of Michaelmas every year, around mid-late November. The regatta takes place from Wednesday to Saturday, with racing from 12pm until dusk. It is usually the first taste of racing in Oxford for our new members and is the culmination of the novice training season.
The regatta is a knock-out competition: each crew gets at least two opportunities to race side by side against another college's novices. The course ranges from 500-750m depending on the stage of the competition, but the finish is always at the head of the river near Folly bridge. MCBC usually fields 4 novice crews: 2 men’s and 2 women’s, although we occasionally enter a fifth when recruitment is particularly succesful.
Recent Performance
The most recent Christchurch Regatta saw some seriously impressive rowing from our novices. Day 1 saw 3 wins out of 4: Boat Vouilloz and Boat Beanz confidently despatched the Regent’s Park WA and Green Templeton MB respectively, each putting 2 lengths between themselves and their competitors. Boat Ali had a tough first race against the Keble MA, with the two crews neck and neck for most of the course before our boys pulled away to beat Keble by 2/3 of a length. Boat Sinnott rowed admirably against New College WC in a very even race until a bad crab stalled our crew. Despite a quick recovery they unfortunately ran out of water to catch up to New College, with 1 and a half lengths between them at the finish.
It was even tighter on day 2 for our WB as they fought against St Anthony’s WB, but a strong row from the competition and several early crabs saw our girls beaten by only a length. Both Boat Vouilloz and Boat Beanz received byes in round 2, allowing them both to progress straight into round 3: our MB were up against an impressive Exeter MA and although the two crews were even for the first half of the race, Exeter unfortunately pulled away along boathouse island winning by 3 lengths. The WA drew the Wadham WA, a crew widely seen as the favourites in the women’s competition. Our girls had a great start and held Wadham well, but sadly it was not to be, and they came in just half a length behind their rivals.
Boat Ali had to take the long route to round 3 on Friday, but Merton MB were no match for our boys as they put over 5 lengths of clear water between themselves and the Merton crew. Friday was then a very successful day for Boat Ali, as they despatched MA crews from Corpus and Oriel, powering straight into the quarter finals on Saturday. They were up against the eventual winners of the regatta, St Catz MA. Our as yet unbeaten start was as effective as ever, and the two boats were neck and neck as they reached boathouse island. Our boys pushed hard but St Catz proved to have a little more in the tank and began to pull away, with the two crews crossing the finish two lengths apart.
