This year, Cantabs will be entering 15 men’s eights to Town Bumps, the same as last year when the Cantabs men’s crews went up a net of 12 places overall.
2017 marks the 10th anniversary of Cantabs achieving the men’s headship for the first time, holding it for 8 of the 10 occasions since, and the Senior Men’s Squad has entered a strong crew to try to continue this tradition of success.
With HoRR being cancelled this year, opportunities to impress have been limited for the men; however they have still managed to set a record pace on the Cam (Winter League 3), and raced at Henley Royal where they beat the New Zealand National Club Champions, Avon Rowing Club, before losing to TSS in a race that went right to the line. M1 contains 5 members from this crew, and M2 contains 1 member.
There are 3 junior crews and 8 masters-age crews. The make-up of all of these crews is very multicultural, with athletes from countless different nationalities taking part. In the Aquaphobes alone, 7 different nationalities are represented – English, Welsh, Italian, Canadian, American, New Zealander and Iranian.
The 2017 Cantabs men’s crews
The stroke man of M1 is former Great Britain international oarsman and Olympic medallist Richard Chambers. Richard represented Team GB between 2006-16, appearing at 3 Olympic Games, winning silver at London 2012 in the lightweight men’s 4-, and is a multiple world champion. After Rio, he left international rowing and he now lives and works in Cambridge as part of the coaching team for Cambridge University Boat Club.
M1 – Senior Men’s Squad – starting Head of the River:
Sara Russo (cox), Richard Chambers, Guy Fiddian*, Erik Sullivan, Hannes Burfiend, Finn Grimwood, Andrew Marsden, Jimmy Adams, James O’Dell*
M1
M2 consists entirely of men who learned to row at Cantabs through the club’s relationship with Hills Road Sixth Form College, and who are now at university, apart from cox Rachel Grewcock, whose partner Peter is in M3.
M2 – Hills Returners – starting 11th in division 1:
Rachel Grewcock (cox), Harvey Dinkele*, John Broadbent*, Robbie Neal*, Cam Wilson*, Angus Beauchamp*, Karlo Miracle*, Tim Savill*, Bartu Atamert*
In M3’s 2-seat is Tom Rose, whose wife Merodie rows in the same seat in W2. M3 cox Amy Henfry steered M1 to a row over every day last year at the head of the river and so will be looking to get some bumps this year.
M3 – Senior Men’s Squad – starting 8th in division 1:
Amy Henfry (cox), Jonathan McCree-Grey, Jonah Harris, Andrew Foster, Peter Ford, Ross Buckingham, Magnus Whittle, Tom Rose, Petr Arnold
M4 contains most of the athletes who have been racing in the Hills Road first eight all year, competing at events including the Schools Head of the River and the National Schools Regatta.
M4 – Hills Road M1 – starting 12th in division 1:
Ben Whitelaw* (cox), Edward Crampton*, Finlay Beauchamp*, Robert Oxford Pope*, Shaun Parren*, Samuel Gibbs*, Harry Selwyn-Smith*, Michael Welsh*, Inigo Hunnable*M5 – Hills Returners/Senior Men’s Squad – starting 7th in division 2:
Kristina Bifiani (cox), Tom Wilkins, Seb Perkins, Derek Rutter, Sam Bray, XiHe Jiao/Seb Perkins, Meelis Lootus, James Haynes, Sandy Perkins
Aquaphobes’ bow man Lucio Cicolecchia‘s wife Rebecca is racing in W5, and his children also row at Cantabs.
M6 – Aquaphobes – starting 15th in division 2:
Emma Smith/Anna Bickerstaffe (cox), Matthew Garley, Paul Casciato/Matthew Crowe, Jan Wildenhain/Richard Harper, Duncan Gibson, Brian Larson*, Mehrdad Ekbatani*, Dave Rayment, Lucio Cicolecchia/Neil SparnonM7 – Hills Road M2 – starting 1st in division 3:
Angus Hutchison* (cox), Benjamin Hunt-Deol*, Abdel-Hadi Haque*, William Bryant*, Owen James*, Oliver Brigstocke*, Simon Powell*, Thomas Holmes-Chatfield*, Aiden Bennett*/Will Holmes-Chatfield*
Poachers cox and club Publicity Officer Katrina Purser‘s daughter Millie is the stroke of Cantabs W1. Katrina took up coxing after becoming involved with the club through Millie and her younger daughter May’s rowing. Unfortunately May can’t race this year due to injury.
M8 – Poachers – starting 5th in division 3:
Katrina Purser* (cox), Rob Roddis*, Kelly Bolen*, Gavin Swanson, Levente Kantor*, Nick Siragher*, Lindsey Tate/Jonny Staplehurst*, Tim Walker*, Malcolm Frazer*
Roz FitzGerald, cox of the Past Masters, is also coxing W5. Carrie Frazer coxes both the J15s and the Hunter Crew. Her husband Malcolm is at bow in Poachers, and her son Oli coaches the Junior Performance Women and Senior Women.
M9 – Past Masters – starting 15th in division 3:
Laura Brightman (cox), Paul Meadows, Bob Shardlow, Andy Foster/Pete Tappin, Creon Taoself, Robin Hellen, Ben Hayek/Mike Ellis, Joe Ouroussoff, Tamas Vlastis/Steven McBirnie
M10 is mainly J15s… with club stalwart Phil Gunning increasing the average age a little bit in the bow seat!
M10 – J15s – starting 16th in division 3:
Carrie Frazer* (cox), Sam Askew*, Joshua Pearson*, Robert Almqvist*, Ethan Collier*, Joel Newsham*, Borisz Kantor*, Tom Vamos*, Phil Gunning
In men’s division 4 there will be fierce competition between Cantabs crews as M11-14 will start directly behind each other.
M11 – Activ8 – starting 5th in division 4:
Rosie Tween (cox), Nigel Burrows, Paul Lacey, Guy Beauchamp, Paul Beresford, Andrew Rowson/Bob Brittain, David Hawkthorne, Howard Griffiths, Ray Gay*M12 – InVeterEight – starting 6th in division 4:
Emma Metcalfe (cox), Steve Seaber*, Jim Howarth*, Mike Moreton, Ted Tracey/Lucian Hatfield, David Winch/Gavin Rowden*, Rob Harvey*, Mike Walker*, John RailtonM13 – Hunter Crew – starting 7th in division 4:
Carrie Frazer (cox), Dave Meredith*, Mike Hunter*, Pablo Porras Millan*, James Ryley*, Matthew Scott*/Paul Robinson*, Mike Staplehurst, Paul Reis*, Paul Leivers*/Richard Grisenthwaite
All but one of the After Eights are Town Bumps novices, and several of this crew only learned to row in the autumn. For 2-man Andrew Bradshaw it is a family affair. His wife Katie also learned to row this autumn and will be racing in W12, both inspired to take up rowing by their daughter Beth, who learned to row at a Cantabs as a junior and is racing in W6. Similarly, 4-man Phil Brownjohn was inspired to take up rowing by his wife Alice, who was in the crew which won Henley Women’s Regatta this year, who rows in the same seat in W1.
M14 – After Eights – starting 8th in division 4:
Phil Gunning (cox), David Brailsford*/Chris Rose*, Nick Kirkham*, Roy Swain*, Chris Pearson*, Phil Brownjohn*, Tom Gay*, Chris Roberts*/Andrew Bradshaw*, Pete Dunkley*M15 – Motley Crew – starting 10th in division 4:
Christian Howard* (cox), Paul Hoegger*, Simon Nesbit*, Conor McManmon*, Richard Player*, Dan Sharrock*/Alan Johnson*, Peter Rodgers*, Gary O’Shea*, Paul Brammar*
* indicates that they learned to row at Cantabs
