The Club

» President's Welcome

Welcome to the new website of the Cambridge University Lightweight Rowing Club. Trials for the lightweight crew to race Oxford next March are well underway and we can already look back at some early successes.

This summer our annual development squad saw approximately 20 oarsmen join us to row for 3-4 weeks. The intake was from both those that had rowed at college and those who had learnt elsewhere, and was backed up by athletes from last year's blue boat. We had a successful month, getting good speed to reward our efforts. The highlight for me was definitely having the whole squad support our four and eight to wins at Kingston Amateur Regatta. Dev squad was a huge success: the rowing was better than a year ago, the ergo scores impressive, everyone had a lot of fun and as a result we have retained a large number of the group in our current squad where they continue to progress well.

The squad is currently training on the Cam, following a demanding training programme set by our new head coach, Nick Brown. Our squad numbers 24, with a strong mix of undergrads in all years plus mature grads. Besides preparing ourselves for next March, the main focuses of the term will be the Fairbairn Cup (where we aim to both improve on last year's performance and enter two VIIIs) and our Trial VIIIs (to be held in Henley-on-Thames on the 14th December).

Last Sunday saw a reunion of the 2007 VIII, including a 1100m race to remind us all of how quickly it was all over last March. Whilst some members of the crew were clearly suffering by the end of the row it was unanimously enjoyed. Even if we aren't all as fit and trim as we were 6 months ago there was at least still something in our legs, and it served as a good reminder to those of us still involved with the club of why we do what we do.

As a squad we are always delighted to hear from our alumni and supporters and I hope as many of you as possible will join and support us while we race, particularly at the Henley boat races on the 23rd March next year.