This summer the current varsity champions CULRC were keen to build upon their Henley Boat Races victory over the dark blues in March, and were presented with several opportunities to do so at home and on the international stage.

Disappointingly the eight failed to reproduce their peak form on the familiar Henley Reach at Henley Royal Regatta, losing out to heavyweights Eton who made their extra 3 ½ stone per man count into the headwind.

Much greater success was to be found abroad for the lightweight squad, particularly for two athletes who had begun GB trials in Autumn 2009. John Hale and Charlie Pitt-Ford, both in this year’s blue boat, were selected to represent GB in the lightweight coxless four (LWT 4-) at the World University Championships in Hungary and had spent the previous 5 weeks training at the GB training centre at Caversham. They won their heat well in a time of 6:10.39 to go straight to the A-final beating France, Canada and the Czech Republic.

The crew however could not build on their success in the heats, as the wind swirled around to give a strong cross-headwind. “In theory, we were probably one of the physiologically better crews” said John Hale, “but we’d mostly trained with tailwinds at Caversham”. With Italy out in front, France made advantage of a more sheltered lane in the first 500m to pull away from GB, who fought with Hungary down the entire course, only for Hungary to take the home advantage and claim bronze. “Whilst it was a shame to have missed out on the medals, we raced as well as we could have expected.” John is now weighing up his GB chances for next year.

Fresh from this performance Charlie Pitt-Ford rejoined teammates Matt Lawes, Alistair Chappelle and Chris Kerr for the European University Sports Association (EUSA) in the LWT 4- in Amsterdam. The four lined up against student crews from Poland, Holland, Germany and GB rivals Nottingham. They won the silver medal, finishing one length behind Poland, in a creditable time of 6.22 (which was inside the old event record).

On top of this, CULRC was invited to Beijing for the first of two regattas to be raced in China, up against the most prestigious universities the Chinese Water Sports Administration could muster. Whilst the heavyweight competition boasted such names as Princeton, UL and Otago among others, the lightweight line-up consisted of Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale. Racing was held on both the Olympic course in Beijing, and in Xinjing city. The first lightweight race saw Cambridge narrowly beaten by Oxford, with Harvard and Yale out in front, the light blues faring unfavourably in the heat and humidity of Beijing in August. The racing win Xinjing however saw a return to form for Cambridge, coming third in front of Oxford by 8 seconds.

Such success bodes well for the high performing club, which now turns its attention to the 2011 campaign against Oxford, with a new appointment of Chief Coach. John Thicknes has been appointed to the two part-time posts of Chief Coach to CULRC and Coach Co-ordinator to Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club after close collaboration between the clubs.

John has experience of coaching both men and women in the university sector, and his success identifying and working with talented beginners gives John the perfect background to lead these Cambridge clubs.

‘John will bring experience and a new perspective to the CUWBC coaching team, I am looking forward to what I hope will be an exciting year for the club,’ commented Lizzie Polgreen, CUWBC President. Chris Bellamy, CULRC president for 2010-11 added that CULRC ‘are really excited about working with John, and building on the clubs successes together.’

John said, ‘I’m very pleased to have been offered this position, it is an exciting opportunity for me to work with two clubs with a strong rowing tradition and help build their infrastructure to secure lasting future success.’

CULRC hope that this new appointment can make it three wins in a row at Henley against Oxford on Sunday 27th March 2011.