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Rowing at Magdalen
Magdalen has a long and distinguished history of rowing spanning the last 150 years, which continues right to the present day. The rowing year in Oxford is centred around Torpids (Hilary term) and Summer Eights (Trinity term), the two rounds of inter-collegiate bumps racing. Bumps is run in divisions of twelve, the aim being to hit the boat in front in order to start ahead of them the next day and work your way up year on year to the top of Division One – Head of the River. Magdalen has been Head of the River 31 times, including once a year for the last five years. We also have a very strong history of association with the University squads, having provided 161 Blues for the Boat Race, and 69 Half Blues for the other races against Cambridge. Continuing this tradition, the current Oxford University Lightweight Boat Club President, Ben Harrop-Griffiths, is a Magdalen oarsman, and there are three oarsmen trialling for the University squads.
Experienced
In view of the above, if you have rowed before coming to Magdalen, there couldn’t be a better place to continue your rowing career. Our senior squads train throughout the year on the 6km stretch at Radley, a short cycle from Oxford, allowing us to escape the busy and crowded Isis. The squads which train at Radley benefit from a very high level of professional coaching – the 1st boats are coached by Andy and Nic Thomas both experienced rowers at club and university level. The men’s coaching is headed by the vastly experienced Donald Legget, coach of Cambridge University for over 40 years and architect of the success of many Olympic and World Championship crews, as well as a string of wins at Henley Royal Regatta. We are extremely fortunate to have a field of boats which is the envy of the other college boat clubs – the top boats all row in very new Empacher eights (see ‘Boats’ page). The senior squad crews compete outside of Oxford several times each term, and often enter crews for the Fours Head in November and for Henley Royal Regatta.
Novice
The vast majority of people who arrive at Magdalen have never rowed before, but every year around half of the freshers row in their first term. We run an extensive program for novices in Michaelmas term which culminates in Christ Church Regatta, an event entirely for those who are new to the sport, and in terms of participation, the biggest sports event in the whole university. Many of those who try rowing when they first arrive quickly get hooked and go on to compete in Torpids and Summer Eights, and it is not unheard of to end up in a 1st boat in the same year if you show particular promise! It is testament to the strength of our novice program that five of the men’s 1st boat and six of the women’s 1st boat in 2008 were novices when they arrived at Magdalen.
 Social
The Boat Club is by far the largest club in college and prides itself on a packed and very varied calendar of social events. There is at least one major formal dinner each term and all crews have several ‘crew dates’ with crews of the opposite sex from other colleges, as well as numerous other Boat Club curries and drinks parties.
The Constitution
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