Appendix 6. About Captaincy and how our smallest college still has a chance, even given today’s challenges. #

All of the foregoing, our fun story about winning, leads us back to W.G.Herten’s advice to Captains. So much has changed on the river and even more has changed in our society, that one can only wonder how on earth he would approach the subject today. What can WE leave behind to guide incoming Captains?

For a start, a much more cautious approach must surely be taken these days. “Authority” and “discipline” were acceptable norms in years gone by, but now even the words are dangerous. They are still tremendously useful notions, and if a goal is to be seriously pursued, then someone has to create consensus and call the shots. There is a fine line between accepting instruction from a peer and rebelling; so much depends on the personalities of the Captain and the members of the club. Anyone who hasn’t read “True Blue,” should do so; it’s a riveting read. John Ironside (I think it was John) remarked to me just before going down, in jest I hope, that he was glad he was leaving before the “reign of terror” began. I didn’t view my captaincy in that light, but something he had observed must have given him the clue that we weren’t going to fool around and spend our time to no purpose – we had a goal. Fortunately, we all developed together and there was general agreement on how much work we should do, and could afford to do.

For another thing, the river must now surely be so crowded that trying to get a good row in must be like fighting the crowd at a Boxing Day sale. So how does one put in that so desirable mileage? On a soul-destroying erg or in the wee small hours?

How does one fill boats and maintain a development sequence which will in each succeeding year generate strength, endurance and efficacy in enough members? How does one toughen the body to at least the same degree as others? Without that, there can be little satisfaction in the boat and certainly never the pleasure of winning.

Does one now rely entirely on boatmen and others to coach, or do as we did when we took words of wonderfully sage advice from Danny and worked things out for ourselves? I don’t think, for example, that we had a coach on the bank more than two or three times in the Fairbairn term, or indeed during the Lent and May terms. Despite Danny’s engineering professor, Petrean Roy Lubbock, having urged him to concentrate on coaching the boat, Danny did have academic responsibilities. The boat will teach you, if you think hard about it and learn to watch and feel. That was the strength of Fairbairn’s notes – they made you think about what you were doing. Use the mind or watch T.V.?

One may bemoan the dilution stemming from splitting our small numbers between two sexes, but that dilution is the same for all colleges and our women have since been, and will be again, excitingly valiant performers adding to our story.

So … what can the current generation of members and coaches, perhaps prompted by our recollections of what it took to win … what can they now write down for guidance? That is a task beyond me. I know only the thrill of a surging boat.

B.