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Magdalene Boat Club
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Magdalene Boat Club’s Year to Date 2018-19

The Magdalene Boat Club has been flourishing in the early stages of the 2018-19 season. The success of the previous year has drawn back a large contingent of senior rowers looking to further their involvement in the Club.

The returning members have truly hit the ground running this season with some great training being completed by all crews. The Senior Crews have been developing rapidly under the guidance of coaches, George Wallace, Perran Ziar and Alex Turnbull. Alex is the newly appointed coach for the Senior Women’s team and has joined us from Rob Roy Boat Club.

The first major results of the season showed early dividends of the coaches’ efforts with the W1 4+ placing 7th, the M2 4+ placing 1st, and the M2 8+ placing joint 1st in the Winter Head on the 17 November.

Magdalene Boat Club W1 4+ at Winter Head
Magdalene Boat Club W1 4+ at Winter Head

The MBC has also reinvigorated its social calendar this year and this has drawn in a wealth of new recruits. Through this balance we have managed to foster a fun and competitive atmosphere which everyone is keen to be a part of.

Michaelmas term began with over 40 novices keen to become Magdalene rowers. For the first time the Mallory Club sponsored MBC T-Shirts for all novices with the aims of making newcomers feel welcome, tidying up their crew appearance for races and hoping it will encourage retention into the Lent term and beyond.

Magdalene Boat Club Novices
Magdalene Boat Club Novices

As a result the Club has managed to field two men’s and two women’s novice boats this term. These boats competed in a number of events, including; Queens’ Ergs, Emma Sprints, Clare Novice Regatta and the Fairbairn Cup. Notable performances were the 1st place finish by the NM2 crew in Queens Ergs as well as the hard-fought victories by NW2 which took them to the final of in the Clare Novice Regatta. NW1, NM1 and NM2 finished 15th, 16th and 31st respectively in the Fairbairn Cup which is a significant improvement on last year’s results. Special thanks must go to Joey Giorgio, Beth Forsyth and Tonia Kefala for their guidance to these crews.

Magdalene Boat Club Novice Women at Emma Sprints
Magdalene Boat Club Novice Women at Emma Sprints

The later part of the term unfortunately saw some of the senior crews being plagued by illness and injury. Despite this the crews rose to the occasion and still performed strongly in the Fairbairn Cup alongside two of the Club’s alumni crews.

The women’s fours placed 14th and 17th overall in a competitive field.

The M2 8+ placed 4th after a power first half of the race which saw them leading the eventual winners.

The M2 4+ won their category while also beating a number of M1 fours to post the 10th fastest time.

Magdalene Boat Club Fairbairn 2nd 4+ crew and coach
Magdalene Boat Club Fairbairn 2nd 4+ crew and coach

The honour of top spot, however, went to the M1 4+ which recorded the fastest time of the day, 20 seconds ahead of the next crew, and thus retained the title from 2017.

Magdalene Boat Club Fairbairn 1st 4+ Winners
Magdalene Boat Club Fairbairn 1st 4+ Winners

The successes of the term were celebrated in true MBC style at several social events which included the annual Ornithological Dinner and Fairbairn’s Dinner. The events saw the return of a number of alumni and friends of the Club. The events have all been extremely well supported and have contributed to building a close-knit community within the MBC and its alumni.

We have also continued to foster good relationships with Worcester College Oxford and Green Templeton College Oxford, both of which we hosted this year. We are looking forward to hosting our sister college Magdalen Oxford in the New Year as part of the inter-college sports day.

The Club would also like to recognise the invaluable support of the Mallory Club this year. The club shirts donated to the novice crews really have fostered a sense of unity and pride for the Club on and off the water. We hope to continue to build on this positive start and progress towards further successes this season.

Let’s keep weaving dreams. 


Mr Sam Vosper (2014), Captain of Boats for 2018-19