Having seen some ups and downs in the past few years, MCBC’s women’s squad saw a steady rise this academic year. We experienced quite a difficult first term, complete with torrential rain, terrible weather, high stream, and more, which caused a lack of rowing that was especially saddening for our novices. This generated many different types of land training, including the brand new women’s side circuits, as well as many themed ergs, including the fan favourites: Merg (musical erg) and Ergtic Monkeys (does this one need explaining?).
A positive aspect of our first term was the arrival of our new Head Coach for the year, Rachel, who taught us about the menstrual cycle in sports, nutrition, REDs, recovery, and just generally being a female athlete in a sport that is often catered towards men. Meanwhile, Tímea, our Novice and Lower Women’s boats coach, gave our Novices a passion for the erg that I have rarely come across (see the many Mergs they took part in).
One of my goals as captain this year was to enable my squad to race outside of Oxford as much as our budget would allow. Alas, the season did not quite start the way we intended it, with Wallingford Head being cancelled 10 days before the event due to the ground in the trailer park being completely saturated. However, we managed to get the senior squad to Quintin Head in January, which was a huge success for the women’s side. We finished second in our category, despite the 6 seat backstay that broke in the middle of our two hours of very chilly marshalling, and which was held together by electric tape during the race.
Hilary also saw the end of the Isis Winter League, in which Merton finished third overall. We entered every one of the races, despite two out of five of them being cancelled due to the river levels. Amongst the races cancelled were Autumn IVs and Nephthys in Michaelmas and, more importantly, Torpids 2024. Indeed, we experienced our first Black Flag in many years and had to save the Boathouse from the flooding.
The women’s side decided to instead focus their training towards Women’s eights Head of the River, which Merton Women haven’t participated in since before the Pandemic. Since our home stretches of river kept hovering between red and black flag, we decided to turn our efforts towards new rowable waters in Gloucester. This proved to be wet, cold, and invaluable training. Unfortunately, WeHoRR was not meant to be. Because of the river levels on the Tideway, the organisers had to cut half of the crews from the race, including almost every Oxford College crew. After a sobering night of disappointment with the crew, we turned our prospects towards Summer VIIIs. Our biggest achievement of the term was probably the sheer amount of boats we rigged.
In the run up to the end of Hilary, MCBC took on a 24-hour Ergathon, accumulating over two-thousand pounds for Homeless Oxfordshire. Thank you to everyone who donated. Aside from the charitable success of the Ergathon, it was a beautiful event for the whole squad to bond over, having spent little to no time on the river together that term. There is nothing quite like meeting up with your teammates at 3am for a two-hour shift on the erg and sitting down on a seat that is already too warm for comfort!
Our Easter training camp took place at Wimbleball Lake. On theme with the year we had had so far, Wimbleball was wet, but even wetter due to the many capsizes MCBC went through. Our head coaches, Rachel and Jess, made sure our novices got to finally experience the joys of rowing by immediately putting them in singles. Sounds terrifying, but the novices I am referring to are the new captains for the next academic year, so clearly it wasn’t terrifying enough.
In Trinity, we finally saw something that we thought we might never see again, an OURCs green flag. I have never been as impressed with anyone’s hard work as I was with our ex-novices this term. Most of them had only ever been in a boat a handful of times, but with the help of our brilliant W2 coach, Timea, and five training sessions a week, W2 made waves. In the meantime, our Women’s 4+ made it to Bedford Regatta in St Edmund Hall’s new Filippi 4+ and won their category, taking home a beautiful tankard.
Last but not least in our ‘successful despite itself’ season came Summer VIIIs. This last week of the season brought double blades for the women’s side, an accumulation of 10 bumps across our two crews, with both crews going up a division. And this was despite W1 only having five members able to participate in all the training and having to find subs a couple days before the first day of VIIIs, and W2 learning to row that very term. Eights week exhibited a fierce unity in the crews and throughout the women’s side and MCBC. Our coxes, Daniel and Victor, had never yet had the chance to navigate the beautiful chaos of Bumps, Daniel coming to the Isis from the Tideway, and Victor usually sitting in one of the opposite facing seats of the boat. They adjusted to it remarkably, and their commitment to the perfect racing line and transformative racing calls was unmatched. It was a shame for Daniel’s hyper-detailed race plan (which he spent many hours on) that W1 bumped before the Gut every day.
The most remarkable thing about the 2023-2024 Women’s side has been their complete inability to settle for less than their dreams and goals. Merton women have been absolutely restless and stubborn, their minds tunnel visioned on success. It has certainly paid off.
Becka Pickard (2022)
Women’s Captain 2023-2024