Home of TCBC
History
If you know of anything that is missing from the History section then please e-mail us.
There's also a list of all the past presidents and captains here.
Trinity College Boat Club – a brief history
Like all colleges, Trinity is no exception in having a varied and rich history of its boat club. From the days when the Trinity men’s 1st VIII led the way (literally) in collegiate rowing at the head of the river, to the triumphant return to the first division that the 2005 1st Torpid secured recently. It seems a fitting time to look back over the years of rowing during our 450th anniversary, and pick out the highs and the lows that have accompanied Trinity teams past and present.
From the early decades of the nineteenth century, rowing and sailing had become ever increasingly popular amongst university students. Coupled with the rivalry and competitiveness that embodies the various relationships between Oxford colleges, rowing at college level soon became an acceptable alternative way of keeping fit and showing college pride. Rowing in a team requires many qualities in a person, as well as returning to the members of a team the thrill of exhilarating racing and comradeship. No wonder then that from the 1830s onward, the number of college teams competing against one another rose year by year. In 1838 Trinity join the records which can still be seen in the college’s boathouse, and move up three places over the week’s rowing from eighth to fifth. A Trinity rower in 1831 by the name of James Pycroft detailed how the men within the team would pay for a boat for college themselves, and would levy a rate upon all members of the college to help pay as ‘it being considered that the boat and its anticipated victories were for the honour of the college generally’(Pycroft, ‘Memoires’). Trinity’s first rowing Blues are both depicted in the earliest known depiction of a Trinity crew, from 1842. John Cox and Edward Breedon both rowed in Oxford’s sixth boat race on the Westminster to Putney course in 1842.
Another nineteen years passed with rowing at Trinity growing in its importance within the college, until finally during the Eights in 1861, Trinity bumped University, BNC, Exeter and finally Balliol to go Head of the river. The run of great rowing remained until 1865 which unfortunately marked the beginning of a disastrous few years of racing at Trinity. However, the period at the head was again matched with a similar stretch of dominance at the top of Division one, just a few months before Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Several of Trinity’s ‘old boys’ rowed at this time and experienced being the best team amongst the Oxford colleges on the Isis. In addition to this, past Trinity crews were involved in many regattas outside of the college including the Henley Regatta, and the Thames Regatta.
Even at the outset of rowing at Trinity in the 1830s, James Pycroft records in his memoirs an incident whereby a scholar named Thomas Lewin ‘had thoughts of joining the boat, but received a hint that it would not do’ (Pycroft, Memoires). The reason behind this being that members of the boat club were known to be uproarious, riotous and generally interested in having a good time while they studied! This small piece of information shows that some things throughout history never change.