Oxford won the 154th Boat Race, defeating their Cambridge rivals by over six lengths. Isis, the Oxford reserve crew, also beat their Cambridge counterparts to give the Dark Blues their first double-victory over the Light Blues since 2002.

This past weekend saw the OUBC Family gather at the Wallingford Boathouse, fondly known as "Fortress Oxford", for a great day of Dark Blue celebration.

The Topolski Room, located at the centre of OUBC's new home, was officially opened by the man it is named after - Dan Topolski, Oxford Blue from the 1960s and legengary coach of a plethora of Boat Race winning crews from the 1970s and 80s. It is envisaged that the room will grow as a repository of memorabilia and momentos, from throughout the history of the Boat Club and the Boat Race. To mark this and on the occassion of its opening, a series of prints of paintings made by Dan's father, artist Felixs Topolski, of Dan out coaching Oxford on the Tideway were unveiled and hung on the walls.

In keeping with recent tradition, the day also saw a provisional Blue Boat line-up race a crew of Old Blues in an exhibition sprint race past the Boathouse. As was perhaps to be expected, the Old Boys went off rating an aggressive 50 strokes per minute and took the race to the young tykes of the current squad; rating a full ten pips lower and rowing a fair bit longer, the crew of current OUBC oarsmen drew back level by halfway, and then just inched in front come the end of the OUBC's plot of land that was acting as the finish line. The watching supporters got a great view of the action from the balcony of the new boathouse, on what was a beautiful spring day morning.

The OUBC headed to Mequinenza in Northern Spain from 2nd to 10th of January for the annual winter training camp. After a 10 day break for Christmas this was a camp designed to allow the athletes to complete a high volume of training in a more exotic climate.

The team stayed in a small hotel and were well looked after by the friendly staff and locals, even taking the opportunity to become more fluent in the local tongue - every member of the team confidently able to request "mas pan" by the end of the week.

The team trained twice a day, typically rowing for up to 100 minutes in each session and taking the chance to hone the technique and skills required to be victorious in March. Aside from the rowing, Mequinenza offered many diversions for the athletes including table tennis (with former Under 16 Home Counties Champion and OUBC coach Andrew Neldor happy to give free lessons), Fashion TV and the ever popular Cafe Bonbon.

Evi the physio travelled with the athletes, who were very grateful for her presence and expertise in keeping the team functioning and injury free.

Back in the UK all the athletes and coaches are looking forward to building on the positive work done during the camp and making the most of the next 11 weeks.

Oxford's 2007 Trial Eights race took place on Wednesday 12th December. The Eights this year were named "Shirts" and "Skins" to evoke the original competitive and true sporting nature of this amateur race, which sometimes we need to be reminded of. Shirts and Skins symbolises a return to the old school, jumpers for goalposts if you like.

Shirts won the toss, after tails failed for the second consecutive time this year. They chose to race on the Surrey station. The race commenced at 2pm, and by the Black Buoy Skins had pushed out to half a length lead after a fantastic start. Skins continued to lead, a canvas short of clear water, as they turned onto the Milepost Straight. At this point Shirts set a speed that Skins could no longer match, and Shirts (stroked by Justin-6times-Stangel) began to move through Skins as the Harrods Wall approached. Coming into the start of the long Surrey bend, Shirts drew level and a minute later they had half a length. This soon became a length as a result of a strong push Shirts put in under Hammersmith Bridge. They moved out to 2 lengths clear by St Paul's. Skins fought hard to not lose contact and increased their rate of striking. Skins, the cleaner and sharper looking crew, made a valiant and determined effort, but could only reduce the margin at a handful of moments before the Finish Line. However they did very well not to lose by more than three lengths by the end and Chiswick Bridge.

Although set back through illness in the days leading up to the race, both Eights together were of higher standard than has been seen in recent years' Trial Eights races. Overall Oxford is very happy with this Trials race. We put out two fantastic Eights both with different strengths and weaknesses. The key now in the next stage is harnessing and developing the strengths from both boats to produce two unstoppable Eights for 29th March next year. Coaches Sean Bowden and Andy Nelder have worked as a fantastic, somewhat formidable duo over the last few months, and we are all excited to boat their line-ups in the coming months.

The 2007 Oxford Trial Eights crews can be found here:

http://www.oubc.rowing.org.uk/new/trialeights.jsp#trialeightscrewlists

The 2007 Fullers Head of the River Fours results are in and it appears that the Oxford boys have given the Tabs plenty of reason to spend their winter hours training...

The OUBC fielded five boats at this event, with ISIS II finishing at the top of the OUBC boats in 2nd place in the Elite Coxed Four event and 26th overall (i.e. against the quads and coxless fours as well as the coxed fours). The boat was coxed by this year's President Nicholas Brodie and contained German Olympian Jan Herzog, Aaron Marcovy (Columbia '05), Michal Plotkowiak (Polish U23; BB '07), and stroke Will England (Princeton '06). Close behind was ISIS III who finished 4th in the Coxed Four event, coxed by Phil Clausen-Thue (ISIS '07) and stroked by Oliver Moore (GB U23) with US Olympian Mike Wherley, Toby Medaris (Harvard '07) and Andrew Write (BB '06). ISIS IV had the pleasure of rowing through the Tabs, and ISIS I - the OUBCs only coxless four entry - finished 41st overall and 4th in the Elite coxless fours event. ISIS V finished 69th overall but won the Senior I pennant.