Reuben Boat Club updates from Michaelmas Term 2025

28 January 2026
A group of graduate students by the river posing together. One at the back lifts a flag with the Reuben crest

Following a very successful summer rowing programme, Reuben Boat Club (RBC) continued the momentum into Michaelmas term 2025.

Uniting rowers from Reuben and Blackfriars colleges, the club hosted two taster sessions in October. These gave people who were keen to row an opportunity to jump in a boat and try it out. Each session ended with a BBQ, providing an opportunity to network with current members. These tasters were very popular and resulted in our largest intake in RBC history.

Rowers used indoor rowing machines for workouts and training in the rowing tank, which is an indoor facility allowing to practice handling the blade (oar) in isolated conditions with detailed coaching support.

Lion and Chough Regatta

The first (and newest) racing event of the term was the Lion and Chough Regatta, organised by the Balliol and St Edmund Hall Boat Clubs. We entered both a men’s and women’s crew, each racing in boats of eight people over two days.The crews faced ones that were more experienced and had trained together for longer. Despite racing in difficult weather conditions, both crews won their first race of the day and faced another crew afterwards. This regatta set a solid baseline for the squad, leading into an iconic racing event the following week: the Tamesis Novice Regatta.

Tamesis Novice Regatta

At the Tamesis Novice Regatta, both our women's and men's crews faced other novice teams from across Oxford University. Again, the crews showed resilience and performed strongly, advancing through the first two days of the four-day racing event. Unfortunately, due to illness in the squad, our campaign ended early. However, the club is very proud of our novices for their performance and effort in the races we did complete. 

Isis Winter League

Both men’s and women’s crews also entered some of the Isis Winter League time trial races. These are part of our training programme to complete longer distances at race pace, allowing us to see how well our crews are progressing.

A crew of rowers rowing out on the water. The sky is grey and they're wearing hoodies.

Winter break

Following a busy term combined with the adverse weather making the Isis river unrowable, the RBC athletes took to land-based training over the winter break. This period has been used to build strength ahead of plans to re-start club activities at the beginning of Hilary term.

The RBC committee would like to congratulate everyone on a great term – especially the novices who made amazing progress and put on strong racing performances. We are excited to watch the squad develop into senior rowers over Hilary term. We’ll keep building racing experience leading to Torpids, the first bump racing event of the year.