Churchill College Boat Club - History

History

The men's boat club was founded in 1961, following a remark during the Lent Bumps of that year that a college was not really a College until it was on the River. Frank Maine and Ed Markham lead the effort to get the club on the river, under guidance from Canon Noel Duckworth, the first chaplain at the college. The boat of postgraduates used the, as yet unheard of, training time of 6am-9am on weekday mornings as the river was deserted. This time is now common across all clubs at Cambridge. The 1st boat started the May Bumps in the seventh (bottom) division in 1961, bumping twice before being stopped by carnage on the third day, then being bumped themselves on the last. Following a successful Lent Bumps in 1962, the Churchill 1st VIII were repositioned up into the 3rd division for the May Bumps of the same year.

By the early 1970s, the men's 1st VIII had risen to the 1st division of the Lent and May Bumps but found itself back in the 2nd division by the end of the decade. It achieved its highest ever position at 5th in Lent Bumps 1998. In May Bumps 2006, the crew rose to 6th place, an all-time high for that competition.

The women's boat club took part in the very first women's bumps in 1974, racing in fours until 1989. The 1st women's VIII took the headship of the Lent Bumps in 1984. In the May Bumps, Churchill women have been Head of the River a total of 6 times (1978, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1990), the joint most of any other women's boat club (with Pembroke ), although only for the last headship were the races held in eight-oared boats. Between 1985 and 1987, Churchill finished Head of the Mays on 12 consecutive days – the longest ever continuous defence of the women's Mays Headship.