A tale of the triumph of persistence over adversity during Torpids 1979. This was the year when the 1st VIII achieved four bumps despite having sunk about twenty minutes before the start of the race on the third day…
So, the saga goes something like this:
It happened in Torpids 1979, Wednesday, 28 February to Saturday, 3 March. Jesus 1st VIII started on Wednesday at the bottom of the Second Division chasing Magdalen 1st VIII. Magdalen bumped Merton 1st VIII first but as the rules for Torpids do not require both boats to drop out, Jesus were able to go on an bump Merton as well. On Thursday, the same happened with Wadham, ie Wadham were bumped by Magdalen first followed by Jesus.
On Friday, Jesus was due to chase Oriel II. As usual, we took our boat, T.E Lawrence, up to the Gut and turned to come down the Green Bank, doing starts and a few short pieces. The river was busy and so Will Carter, our Cox, stayed close to river bank (the north side), so close in fact that there was suddenly a juddering noise followed by lots of water in the boat! Unbeknownst to Will, we had hit a submerged branch of a tree that took out six feet of the starboard side of the boat.
We were sinking fast and so the crew had no option but to get out onto the Green Bank, which, given that the Cherwell was between us and the boat houses, meant we were stranded there.
The 1979 Men’s Torpids crew.
Having sunk us, Will did the decent thing, which was to swim across the Cherwell and look for another boat while the rest of the crew waited for the punt service to get us back to the boat houses. By the time we arrived at the boat houses, Will had secured a boat from Merton and so with just over five minutes to go until the start of the race, we got in and, still trying to familiarise ourselves with the boat, headed at full speed for the start.
We arrived just in time to turn and get ready for the start. Unsurprisingly, it took us until nearly the end of the course to catch Oriel II. Overnight, Peter Bowley, the College’s Boatman, performed one of his usual miracles, applying an effective emergency repair to T E Lawrence, so that on Saturday, we rowed in her and caught Trinity 1st VIII, thereby completing our four bumps!
The crew that week were:
Bow: Stuart Woodward
2: Colin Westlake
3: Nick Sykes
4: David Jones
5: Dan Hogan
6: Mike Booker
7: Ed House
8: Mick Rigby
Cox: Will Carter