Cambridge University Lightweight Rowing Club (CULRC) was founded in 1974 for the sole purpose of winning the Lightweight Boat Race against the Oxford Lightweights. The race has been held at Henley in March or April every year since 1975, currently Cambridge leads by 21 to 14. In addition members of the club have won medals at both national and international competitions, and athletes who have represented CULRC have competed at each of the last three Olympic games.
Last week the CULRC squad raced in Cambridge at the Fairbairn Cup. Organised by Jesus College Boat Club, the race runs from the JCBC flag-pole to the little bridge near the Lock (around 4.3km). CULRC entered two VIIIs. The VIIIs were originally planned to be of equal strength, but with a key injury to one crew the gap between the boats ended up being larger than expected. The quicker crew came 2nd overall with a time of 14:17.3 while the other crew struggled and came 8th overall with a time of 14:44.9. Crew photos are shown below.
CULRC fielded 6 crews this weekend at the Cambridge Winter Head. Of these 6 entries 5 were in the top 10 for the event (of 250 crews). Only the scratch quad combination missed out on a top 10 spot.
(Penelope's eight goes off the start in the first division)
Last weekend CULRC's scullers took to the tideway to compete amongst 454 crews at the Four's Head of the River 2011. Entered in the 'Elite Lightweight Quad' category, the crew of Liam Downes, Piran Tedbury, Rupert Price and James Wedlake went off 8th amongst some of the best scullers in the country including a few members of the GB Rowing Team likely to be representing the country in the Olympics next year.
The season started with a 2-week training camp, during with the 24 triallists began this year’s Henley Boat Races campaign. Early groundwork was made with training, and the camp ended with an open-road cycle race 76-mile cycle race from Cambridge to Norwich. 3 members of the squad finished joint second in this race in a time of 3h 42m, and a notable effort was made by Alex Randall who completed the entire distance on a single speed (fixed gear) racing bike.
