Categories
Oxford Regatta

Torpids

Men’s Torpids

by Jaime Valdemoros Gomez [Men’s Captain]

M1 warming up

Despite worries about the weather during Hilary term, the wind and rain cleared up enough in time for Torpids to go ahead without restrictions. A strong term of rowing ended with brilliant results for Merton’s M1, bumping up four places over the course of the week: an unfortunate crash on Wednesday left M1 with a technical rowover, however they pulled ahead by bumping St. Hugh’s on Thursday, Exeter and Christ Church M2 on Friday (the second as sandwich boat, pushing ChCh back into Div III) and finally Somerville on Saturday, leaving them firmly in the Division II and securing the best results for Merton’s M1 in Torpids since 1999. We will be pushing hard for an equally successful run in Summer Eights next term.

Merton’s M2 was less fortunate – a good term left a well-set boat, however a series of strokes of bad luck dropped them out of ranked divisions. We will continue to work hard next term and look forward to a good set of races in Eights.

Women’s Torpids

by Sally Bolton [Women’s Captain]

2015_Torpids_W1

Day 1 – Wednesday
We started at the head of Division III and were hoping to row on into Division II later, but unfortunately a very quick Wadham W2 bumped us early on. We nevertheless rowed the full, (rather gruelling!) course and then had a good rest before day two.

Day 2 – Thursday
A well-executed bump on Exeter meant that we were head of the division once again and therefore did get the opportunity to row in Division II. We rowed over this time and therefore remained head of Division III overnight.

Day 3 – Friday
After a tiring second day, Brasenose bumped us early on and then Linacre a bit later.

Day 4 – Saturday
With nothing to lose we went out all guns blazing. As expected we were bumped by a very strong Green Templeton before the gut but then closed on Queens, who had started two bung lines ahead of us, finishing less than a length behind them. Everyone was very happy with the overall performance of the crew and we finished 4th in Division III.

Overall summary for this years Torpids:

M1: technical row-over/+1/+2/+1
Start: 3rd Div III
Finish: 11th Div II

M2: -5/-1/-1/-3
Start: 6th Div V
Finish: 4th Div VI

W1: -1/+1/-2/-1
Start: 1st Div III
Finish. 4th Div III
 
 
 
 

 
Crews:

Men’s
Bow
2
3
4
5
6
7
Stroke
Cox
 
Men’s
Bow
2
3
4
5
6
7
Stroke
Cox
– 1st Torpid
Frederick Money
Jacob White
Benedict Holden
Edward Thomas
Daniel Kennedy
Henrik Hannemann
Jaime Valdemoros Gomez
Lukas Koch
Tiffany Brydges
 
– 2nd Torpid
Hristian Hristov
Alexander Eperon
Ian Dawes
David Felce
Edmund Wrigley
Michael Withers
Stefan Marjanovic
Mantas Abazorius
Sven Kirkerup
W
Bow
2
3
4
5
6
7
Stroke
Cox
– 1st Torpid
Kristina Gedgaudaite
Rebecca Hardy
Alexandra Pike
Sally Bolton
Caitlin Armstrong
Laura King
Zijun Chen
Kailan Sierra-Davidson
Toby Adkins
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
both photos by Hilary Wynne.

Categories
Oxford Regatta

Torpids wash out

Torpids rained off

Unfortunately Torpids which were due to take place this week have been called off completely. With continued rain over the last days and the overall flooding around the Thames and the heavy rain falls in the upper catchment, even red-flag racing under contingency plans are to dangerous. The SUs have decided not to risk the safety of everyone just to get in one or two days of racing in at the most.
As much of a shattering news that is to our crews who have been through a gruelling ordeal of land-based training, we have to accept the safety concerns. On the bright side, a substantial head start on the fitness levels for our Eights crews may pay off later in the year so the term might not have been a complete loss after all.