The Oxford and Cambridge Society of Hong Kong Annual Regatta 2010

“Jolly boating weather”, a stunning location and the promise of rivalry dating back more than 180 years brought out any late hibernators to Middle Island on Saturday 24^th April, 2010 for the Annual Regatta of The Oxford and Cambridge Society of Hong Kong.

Under the meticulous organization of RHKYC Rowing Coach, Jonathan Cantwell and RHKYC Rowing Captain, Alexandra Bidlake, all one had to do was jump into a boat and  “swing, swing together with your bodies between your knees” to defend the honour of one’s alma mater.

Cambridge had a greater turn out of rowers, enabling them to field two good crews for both the Goldie/Isis race and also the Blue boat, but Oxford had some heavy artillery in attendance.

For the 'seconds' crews, the Goldie combination of Alessandro Fiscaris, Lucy Wordley Matt Tarlesse, Stephan Herwig, coxed by Alexandra Bidlake, was too clean in the first race and was easily able to beat Isis over the short course by a length and a half. The strong headwind did not seem to slow Cambridge down, while the lesser experienced Oxford crew of Cynthia Lau, Tim Yip, Charlie Nixon, John Irwin, coxed by Paul Tattam, struggled to bridge the distance.

In the Blue boats, Oxford had the advantage on paper with a crew containing four rowers with blues (including two Lightweights): Mike Bonham, Dave Livingstone, Dick Caitlin, Phil Fellowes, coxed by Paul Tattam.  With so much power on hand, Oxford were able to easily defeat a skillful, but smaller, Cambridge crew, comprising of James Emmett, Alexandra Bidlake, Jon Witts, Ray Shuai, coxed by Lucy Wordley.

Celebrations after the race may go part the way to help Oxford recover from the loss in the 'real' event some weeks ago on the Tideway.

As ever, the Society is indebted to RHKYC for their hospitality in hosting this annual event and in particular to the superb organization and support of Jonathan Cantwell, as promoter, organizer and umpire.

If you missed this event, mark it in your diary for next year as unmissable; in the immortal words of Ratty: "There is nothing- absolutely nothing-
half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats…..In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it."

Gail Southward