Emmanuel Boat Club Association Newsletter 2026

Dear Member

Welcome to the 2026 newsletter. As you may be aware next year is the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Club.  We have been giving a lot of thought as to how best to mark such a momentous occasion.   Initially we considered a dinner but finally settled on a garden party, our thinking being that we could have more people and that mingling would be easier.  This will be held in College on Saturday 10th July so save the date.  There will be some gentle rowing available to those interested on the morning of the 10^th. Booking is not available at the moment but will be advertised in due course.  Various other colleges are also having their anniversaries and it will also be the two hundredth anniversary of the bumps; I imagine there will be some sort of celebration of this.

Obviously sport was becoming more relevant in Georgian England as this year is also the two hundredth anniversary of Cowes week.  Chester and Durham regattas were also founded in the subsequent decade, the latter starting as a parade of boats to celebrate victory at Waterloo.

In addition to the anniversary garden party, our Senior Treasurer, Charles Powell, and other  alumni thought it would be fun to do some competitive rowing. Plans are not firm yet, but we hope to run an additional division in the 99s Spring Regatta for EBC alumni VIIIs on Sunday 23rd May in a knock-out plate format (i.e. min 2 races). Firm details will be sent out in due course. To help with planning, expressions of interest to race, marshal, or put together a crew, should be sent to alumniregatta@emmabc.org.

As we mentioned last year, we are putting the newsletter on the EBC website created by Harith Haboubi.  However, we felt it appropriate that the finances of the Emmanuel Boat Club Association (the Association) are only available to members of the Association. Accordingly, the treasurer’s report, details of the grants made and the financial position of the Association are available only to verified members. Harith describes how to get on the website and members’ area below.  

The Club has had varied fortunes this year as reported by the Captains.  As last year we have had various members competing for CUBC in both the various Boat Races and at Henley.  Pete Twitchett’s report gives further details.

I mentioned last year that the EBCA was going to buy a bolt of blazer cloth.  We have done this and I’m pleased to report that several blazers have already been purchased.

Thank you for your continuing support of the Association.

Best wishes to you all

David

In addition to the 200-year garden party celebration, some fellow alumni and I thought it would be fun to do some rowing. Plans are certainly not firm yet, but we hope to run an additional division in the 99s Spring Regatta for EBC alumni VIIIs on Sunday 23rd May in a knock-out plate format (i.e. min 2 races). Firm details will be sent out in due course. To help with planning, expressions of interest to race, marshal, or put together a crew, should be sent to alumniregatta@emmabc.org.

The Club continues to be in a very healthy position with 8 boats taking part in the May Bumping Races. Although our results were mixed the Boat Club continues to be a happy welcoming environment. Our Fellows VIII continues to train and race and will be entering the Town Bumps in July. This year we had a 5 students competing in the Boat Races.

We are fortunate to continue being supported by College – notably the Master and the Bursar – in everything we do as a Boat Club. We are looking forward to working with our new Captains this coming year – Harry Smith and Isabel Cotton.

Please do get in touch with anything rowing related from a simple tour of the Boathouse, a row on the river or a reunion dinner – this Mays we had a 25^th Reunion of the Men’s First Boat who went head of the Mays in 2001 the only time in the Club’s history – pt318@cam.ac.uk 07990572848.

Our 5 Students who competed in the 2026 Boat races:

• Matt Moran (Women’s Blue Boat)
• Luke Beever (Goldie)
• Ellie Sillar (Blondie)
• Simon Nunayon (Goldie)
• Olivia Wright (Lwts)

My highlight of the year has been M3 and W3 both blading in the Lents and the efforts of M1 in the Mays – being chased by a fast Jesus crew they were overlapped on the first three days but fought a mighty battle to row over all 4 days. There is some very exciting videos available – please click on the link:

This will take place at 5.00pm on Saturday 14th November 2026 in College; all members are welcome to attend. This will be followed by dinner at High Table which needs to be booked at least a week in advance.

The Committee of the Emmanuel Boat Club Association 2025/2026

D B Sprague (Captain EBC 1974): Chairman, C.J.PMantell (Captain EBC, 2016, CULRC 2014): Honorary Secretary, A P Walker (Captain EBC 1984): Honorary Treasurer, Doug Chalmers: President EBC, Lord Wilson of Dinton: Life President EBC, Dame Fiona Reynolds: Life President EBC, Dr F Leeper (Fellow, Emmanuel College): Senior Treasurer, M B Mennie (Captain EBC 1958), M A Edgar (Captain EBC 1959), H Edwards (EBC 1975), C.T.Winslade (EBC 1979), Mrs Louise Tunbridge (EBC 1980), R Robinson (EBC CULRC 1980), D Hampton (EBC 1981), Ms S M Church (Captain EBC 1988), Ms M Hunter (Captain 1992), D Rogers (Captain EBC 1994 and 1996), T Killick (EBC 1996), Ms B Gordon (Captain EBC 1997), H Dullage (Captain EBC 1998), R Hopkirk (Captain EBC 2000), H Haboubi (EBC 2001), Mrs M Twitchett (EBC, CUWBC 2002), T Reed (Captain EBC 2004), D Barnes (Captain 2005), Ms R Dowbiggin (EBC, CUBC 2007-2009), Mrs S Brown (Warrillow)(Captain EBC 2007, CUWBC 2008-2009), C.Jones (Captain 2009),  Ms Isabel Nimmo (EBC 2012) Mrs M Brookes (Beadles) (Captain 2014), Ms Z Maikovsky (Captain 2017), F J Davidson (CUBC 2017-20), T Eveson (Captain 2019), , C W Powell (Captain 2020), Ms A K Cardno (Captain 2021) , P C Twitchett (Boathouse Manager).

The women’s side’s 2025/6 season was best captured by the enthusiasm of the 45 novices who began their Cambridge rowing journey with EBC, alongside the wisdom of a handful of returning seniors.

An unseasonably warm start to Michaelmas brought over 100 freshers to the boat house barbecue for their first official introduction to the club, while the 15 returning seniors had enjoyed their week of training camp before the academic year began. A grand total of five novice women’s boats were fielded, alongside a W1 8+ and a W2 4+. We were fortunate to run our Emma Sprints Regatta, where the seniors had fun marshalling and helping with the event organisation, and NW2 were the winners of their division. As ever, the Fairbairn Cup was the culmination of Michaelmas, with all crews giving solid performances; notably, W1 placed 11th out of 35 crews, and NW1, 17th out of 31. 

A commendation to the hard work of the Lower Boat Captains is in order for their efforts in Michaelmas, which led to the retention of all but five novices. This resulted in 48 athletes attending Lent training camp, in which we enjoyed a few days of clear water on the Cam pre-NPR, before many other colleges returned. Five crews were set, all training regularly throughout Lent. The term started strong with W2 placing third at City Sprints’ Regatta, then ninth at Newnham Head. In the first senior race for many of these athletes, W3 placed second out of 32 crews at Newnham Head, also a commendable result! To give our athletes a taste of the thrills that side-by-side racing brings, we raced at Pembroke Regatta, where W1 had a strong performance in their first round against Sidney Sussex but eventually lost to Caius, who were the overall winners of their division. In a cold but eventful Lent Bumps, W1 fought valiantly to avoid spoons – going down three, while W2, in the middle of a tight field, went down four. A particular mention goes out to W3, who went up 4 and achieved blades!

Four boats’ worth of athletes returned for our Mays campaign, where we once again got some training on the Cam before the academic term began with Easter Camp. For the first race of the term, Champs Eight’s Head, W1, placed fifth in incredibly tight competition, with only six seconds separating the top five crews. W2 and W3 also placed fifth, and W3 and W4 were the unofficial fastest W3 and W4 crews in the field. With some side-by-side racing before Bumps, W3 won their first race against Queens W3 in the Nines’ Regatta and then lost the second round to FaT W2.

Bumps was a tough campaign, well-fought by all crews but not quite with the results we’d wished for after a committed term’s training. W1 and W2 both went down four places, while W3 went down three. Our W4 successfully competed in the Getting-On-Race, and had three days of trading places with Darwin W2, and finally ended down one place.

This year brought a mixed bag of results for the women’s side, from blades to spoons in Bumps and solid performances in head races. However, on-paper results often paint an incomplete picture of the time spent at the boat club, a very special place that holds a wealth of memories not only for this cohort of athletes but also for those before us and those yet to come. The women’s side has seen a high rate of novice retention, putting us in an incredibly promising position and finally bringing us back to the pre-COVID era. None of this would be possible without the support of the EBCA, to whom we are extremely grateful for their contribution.

The men’s side had a fantastic start due to the commitment and passion the novice turnout brought in vast numbers, letting us field 4 novice crews; but also the 20 seniors who returned for Michaelmas Camp. At Uni IVs, our First Men won their first round but lost to a strong Pembroke crew in the second, a solid result despite illness and subs. At Winter Head, both of our First Men’s IV and our Second men’s VIII took home the victory,  receiving hip flasks for their efforts (you’ll sense a theme here) and setting the scene for a very successful year. Our First Novice Men placed 2nd in their heats at Queens’ Ergs, and placed 7th place overall. Emma sprints was a fantastic way for our boats to get a taste of racing, and NM1 and NM2 committed to strong efforts and showed promise. The term came to a close at Fairbairns, where the novice First Men came 7th out of 28 after being heavily impeded during the race by traffic. The novice 2nd men came 10th out of 30. Our Second Men’s VIII won Fairbairns with a comfortable lead of 20 seconds despite a penalty.

We returned to Lent Camp in numbers, with 42 athletes on the men’s side. M1, M2, and M4 placed 6th out of 12 at Newnham Head. At Pembroke Regatta we faced off Caius in Round 1, and with a rocketship of a start we held the lead for 400m, but it slipped away in the end. Both M2 and M3 won all of their rounds and took home 2 victories on that day. Lent bumps saw Ben Isherwood jump into the First Men’s boat during the week of bumps due to illness. We comfortably bumped Magdalene by first post on day 1 and Clare by the gut on day 3, building momentum, but Jesus provided tough competition in-between and we ended the campaign net +2, placing us 5th on the river and the highest we have been since 2005. Our second boat faced some tough competition and defended their position the best they could, scrapping with college first boats to have ended a net -2. Our Third Men produced a spectacular week of rowing, earning the only blades this year. 

Easter camp saw 32 athletes return, and we made a quick start to training. With the return of Matt Moran, the First Men were kept accountable with a wealth of experience in the boat. At the St Rad Mile, both M1 and M3 won, bringing home more hip flasks. At the Spring Head to Head, the First Men placed 3rd overall, beating all college crews apart from Caius and LMBC. M2 placed 6th, and M3 2nd. At Champs Head M1 had some tough weather in later divisions and placed 6th, however Emmanuel M2 won their division to bring another trophy home. With this wealth of racing experience the focus shifted to May Bumps. The Third and Fourth men were blading crews out of luck. They both went +3 but unfortunate circumstances stole their blades from them. The Fourth Men keep the fourth boat headship over Jesus, and similarly the Third Men keep their third boat headship over Jesus too. The second men, starting 8th in the 2nd division among first boats, defended their position well and succumbed to two bumps. They are the fourth highest 2nd boat on the river. The First Men, after 4 gruelling row overs, defend their 4th position on the water, fending Jesus off and keeping Headship in sights. They are 4 rows that none of us in the crew will forget.

The year ends an incredibly successful one. Emmanuel won 8 races across a wealth of divisions this year, fielded its largest novice turnout, its largest novice retention rate. We made 12 bumps across the year, earned a set of blades, and are now 5th in Lents and 4th in Mays, positions we haven’t been in since the early 2000s. Headship is soon coming and inevitable with the momentum and passion everyone in this boat club is building. I’m proud of our lower boats and the strong positions they are in, signalling that we are a club of true breadth and depth.

This year would not have been possible by the passion, support and help of so many. I’d like to thank the novices for putting themselves out there and trying something new. I’d like to thank the freshers who came straight into the senior squad, your experience was essential to our success this year. Next, the EBCA for supporting our camps and every part of training we do. Our volunteer coaches, who make all of this happen, and who are integral to putting out the sheer number of boats that we do. To my LBCs Dan Harry and Zunera, you have lead incredibly and really taken captainship into your stride. And to the foundation of the club, Pete, Mary, this wouldn’t be possible without you.

I’d like to say one final thank you to those who are leaving. I hope you’ve made some fantastic memories here that you will treasure for years to come. Keep these memories with you, stay in touch not only because we want you to come back and coach, but also because the connections you form with your crew rowing are special and one of a kind.

It has been a true honour and privilege to serve as Men’s Captain this year, and I thank all of you for making it so wonderful.