User:Aloneinthewild/Linacre College Boat Club

Linacre College Boat Club is the rowing club of Linacre College, Oxford. One of the newest boat clubs, it was formed in 1869.

Formation
Linacre College Boat Club was formed in 1969, racing for the first time in Summer VIII’s of that year. According to Geoff Bertram, the first captain, its founding is in large part attributed to Joost Crouwel who rallied a group of his friends to form the club and who formed the first VIII in the summer of 1969. The crew was mixed and rowed from bow to stroke as Sue Wilson, Jaki Leverson, Geoff Bertram (Cap), Sydney Richardson, Masa Moroto, Joost Crouwel, David Doley, Margaret Beniains (Cox). The club won blades in their first season bumping Hertford IV, Jesus IV, Mansfield II and Magdalen IV. Geoff recalls, “Vincent's Club wouldn't let our cox in for the 1969 Eights Week briefing meeting because no women were allowed through the door.” With a start like that, in a borrowed practice boat courtesy of Brasenose no less, Linacre was sure to have a long-standing and successful boat club! In fact, the first boat to be purchased by the college was a cedar shell bought in 1970 for £10 from Queens’ who were about to burn it (presumably for being Head of the River at the preceding bumps, as is traditional). The college acquired racking at Univ boathouse due to a close association with Norman Dix, the Univ boatman, who took the fledgling club under his wing. Later that year, a small ceremony named the boat ‘Thomas Linacre’, and a set of women’s blades were acquired for £132 – provided by the CR. The following summer eights, which was hampered due to the loss of the stroke two weeks previously to injury, was successful until the last day, when the crew were bumped upstream of Donny Bridge by a strong Corpus crew. In the confusion, the Corpus boat rode over the back of the cox’s seat between her body and elbow, spearing the boat into the bank and breaking about a meter off the bow. The boat was successfully pieced back together. Part of the destroyed bow had an intact ‘Thomas Linacre’ name on the side, which although not initially celebrated, was held on to by a member of the CR, and is now proudly mounted over the bar. The boat club continued to thrive through the 70’s, but it was the arrival of Elspeth Garman that sent it in the direction of the club we know today. With a growing interest in the club, and a surge of female rowers, Elspeth formed the Linacre College Women’s Boat Club. The current W1 boat is named in her honour. By 1978 the club had swollen to be able to field three men’s eights and two women’s eights at Summer VIII’s, on the back of the men’s first eight getting blades in Torpids. Through the 80’s the club had continued success with a men’s first eight receiving blades in 1985. Huw William’s (Stroke) remembers that an elite tandem pair rigged 4+ was entered in the Marlow Head, coming second. It was at this time that a future principal of the college, Nick Brown, joined Linacre and rowed for the club in the men’s first eight. The 1991 men’s first eight gained blades in Torpids under the captaincy of David Pemberton and Margaret Faber (née McCutcheon) stroking.

Boathouse fire
However as the 90’s came to a close, the boat club was struck a formidable blow. On Saturday the 25th September 1999, the boathouse burnt down. At the time we were sharing with Univ, along with Wolfson, St Peter’s, Somerville, St Benet’s and the University Boat Club. Up to 50 firefighters attended the blaze pumping water directly from the Thames, resulting in the boathouse being torn down. The fire was eventually deemed to be arson. After the boathouse burnt down, the boats (as they were replaced) were stored in temporary storage behind the wreckage of the boathouse. Stephanie Fishwick remembers; “Our boathouse was a big tin shed behind the current building divided into sections for each college. There were four or five other colleges there too and we had a turning circle in front of the sheds to try to get past each other when we came in or out. It had no light and no concrete floor and we carried the boats down a muddy track alongside the new construction to get to the river.”

Modern day
Into the new millennium, Linacre was still using temporary storage behind the wreckage of the boathouse. It took eight years for Univ to rebuild, and in that time Linacre chose to move to their current boathouse, which they share with Trinity and LMH, situated on Boathouse Island in Christchurch Meadows. The club moved in in June 2007, just before Summer VIII’s. These days the club is thriving, having merged with Nuffield College. The club has continued to have success, with its most recent victories being the women’s first eight of 2010 getting blades at summer VIII’s, the men’s second eight getting blades at Torpids 2011, and the men’s eight winning the College Cup at the Abingdon Head in 2011. Other regular fixtures in the club calendar include the men’s and women’s London Head (HORR and WEHORR respectively) as well as recreational trips further down the Isis.