By Ambre Bertrand, Reuben Boat Club President
Training camp in Bayonne, France
Earlier in April, we travelled to the beautiful city of Bayonne, in South West France, for a 4-day intensive training camp hosted by the Société Nautique de Bayonne (founded 1875). Given the poor conditions in Oxford this year, it was fantastic to get some much needed water training together as a mixed eight and in fours, as well as bonding over excellent food and drinks in town.
Racing successes for Reuben M4+
Our men's squad managed to put together a competitive M4+ for a couple of races in preparation for Summer Eights. The crew was made up of: Zhaoying Ma (cox, Wolfson College), Maksymilian Brzezicki (stroke), George Petkov (3), Ollie Fletcher (2, Falcon Boat Club), Jakub Hantabal (bow). They travelled to Bedford for a head race mid-April, and raced in the first edition of the Isis Spring League (ISL) here in Oxford, where they topped the college leaderboard of men's 4s! Their racing shell, 'Charlotte', was named after the daughter of Wade Newmark, SBHBC alumnus, who very generously purchased the boat for SBHBC a few years back.
Upcoming Summer Eights (Wed 22 May - Sat 25 May)
Reuben's first ever Bumps races are soon upon us! Our women's and men's First VIIIs are shaping up nicely and getting ready for 'Rowing On', the qualifying races, on Saturday 18th May. Subject to qualification, we should row the following week in Summer Eights from Wednesday 22nd May to Saturday 25th May. The women are expected to start in Div 6 (13:45) boating from the LMH/Trinity boathouse, and men in Div 5 (14:15) boating from Corpus boathouse. Timings are an hour earlier on the Saturday. Please come cheer on our college crews, friends and family welcome! We should be fairly easy to spot sporting our navy, white and dark green club kit. Alternatively, watch out for blades with a navy stripe and a green stripe on a white background...