City of Cambridge Rowing Club (CCRC) is the oldest 'town' (or CRA)

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...

and

sculling Sculling is the use of oars to propel a boat by moving them through the water on both sides of the craft, or moving one oar over the stern. A long, narrow boat with sliding seats, rigged with two oars per rower may be referred to as a scull, it ...

club in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, UK, and with about 300 members, it has one of the largest active rowing memberships in the region. The club's colours are dark blue, with a band of claret sandwiched between two bands of 'old gold'. The club has one of the most successful historic records in town rowing as the only club to hold the men's headship for ten successive years (between 1951 and 1961), and its recent record includes winning the John Jenner trophy as the most successful club in Town

Bumps A bumps race is a form of rowing race in which a number of boats chase each other in single file, each crew attempting to catch and ‘bump’ the boat in front without being caught by the boat behind. The form is mainly used in intercollegia ...

for four successive years (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), with its women having reached " Head of the River" in 2008. The club also won the Lester Trophy (for Intermediate Club Coxed Fours) at

Henley Women's Regatta Henley Women's Regatta, often abbreviated to "HWR" or "Women's Henley", is a rowing regatta held at Henley-on-Thames, England. Chris Aistrop and Rosemary Mayglothling were jointly responsible for setting up the Regatta in June 1988 and Aistrop ...

in 2010. The club has squads for all ages and abilities, including juniors, men, women, masters and novices.

Facilities

The club was the first

town rowing club to build its own

boathouse A boathouse (or a boat house) is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. describing the facilities These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats ...

on the banks of the

River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distance from Cambridge to ...

, and it is still based at the same site, in the main row of boathouses opposite

Midsummer Common Midsummer Common is an area of common land in Cambridge, England. It lies northeast of the city centre on the south bank of the River Cam. The common borders the River Cam and houseboats are often moored on the common's bank. The boathouse ...

. Many local CRA races are run from this clubhouse. In July 2019, the club opened a new 3 storey boathouse, giving it the newest town club boathouse on the river Cam. The new boat house has a large boat bay on the ground floor, club room and changing rooms on the first floor and gym on the top floor. The club has a large fleet of racing shells and training boats, with a mixture of 8's, 4+/-/x and small boats. The club's boats have

ARA ARA may refer to: Media and the arts * American-Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences * '' Artistička Radna Akcija'', compilation album released in former Yugoslavia * Associate of the Royal Academy, denoting membership in the British Royal Aca ...

alphanumeric registration codes starting with the letters "CAM" followed by three digits.

Racing

The club competes all year round at local CRA races on the

, at regional

regattas Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...

and

head race A head race is a time-trial competition in the sport of rowing. Head races are typically held in the fall, winter and spring seasons. These events draw many athletes as well as observers. In this form of racing, rowers race against the clock wh ...

s such as those at Peterborough, Bedford and Norwich, and at major national events including Men's and Women's Tideway

Head of the River Race The Head of the River Race (HORR) is an against-the-clock ('processional') sport rowing, rowing race held annually on the River Thames in London, England between eights, other such races being the Schools' Head of the River Race, Women's Head of ...

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thre ...

and the National Championships. Club crews also occasionally compete at international events such as the

Head of the Charles The Head of the Charles Regatta, also known as HOCR, is a rowing head race held on the penultimate complete weekend of October (i.e., on the Friday that falls between the 16th and the 22nd of the month, and on the Saturday and Sunday immedia ...

, the

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

Head and

FISA The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA" , ) is a United States federal law that establishes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and the collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign pow ...

Masters. The biggest race in the local calendar is the CRA

(or "town bumps") in which almost all club members participate. In 2008, the women's squad reached first position ("Head") in this race.

CCRC Events

The club hosts and runs several local rowing races on the

, including the CRA Winter League (a "league" event run over the Cam

Head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...

Course over three successive months), the Head 2 Head races (where the standard Head Course is rowed twice in quick succession; first downstream and then, minutes later, in the more usual upstream direction) in spring and winter, the CCRC Sprint

Regatta Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...

(a short ~400 m side-by-side sprint regatta outside the boathouses along Midsummer Common) and the Christmas Head (an upstream race past most of the boathouses).

History

City-of-Cambridge-Rowing-Club-from-across-the-river

City of Cambridge is the oldest town rowing club on the

Cam Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bind ...

. Early records show the existence of the 'Cambridge Boat Racing Club' in 1844, the largest contingent of which went on to become the 'Cambridge Town Rowing Club' in 1863. The Town club was formed by John Harvey in the working men's club that used to be on Market Hill; this formed the core of what became CCRC in 1932. The club's colours are dark blue, Claret and Old Gold. Records are scarce for the first part of the twentieth century, with results in both the

and the Eight's Head on the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

existing from the late 1940s onwards. In 1953 the first eight finished 53rd on the Thames and held the headship in the Town

. In the same year, the club's 90th anniversary, the first Town regatta was run on the

. The course ran from the Pike and Eel all the way down the long reach and round to the Plough. The Cambridge Daily News reported that R. Evans of St Neots was disqualified for knocking M. Clay of Nottingham and Union into the river during their singles race. Clay appeared to collect the trophy 'soaked to the skin, his hair on end and in bare feet'. The City Sprints are now held in front of the boat houses over a shorter course. City purchased the freehold to the boathouse in 1959 and in 1963 celebrated its official centenary by opening its new boathouse. In July 2019, the club opened a new 3 storey boathouse, giving it the largest town club boathouse on the river Cam.

Bumps Racing

University

races had been held from the 1820s onwards but the town bumps only really took shape with the formation of the CRA ( Cambridgeshire Rowing Association) in 1868. City were head of the river in the Town Bumps in 1875 but performed poorly until 1914 when they reached third place. In 1949 the 1st boat won their blades and in 1951 they were head of the river for the first time since the headship was lost in the 1870s. They retained the headship for the next 6 years and in 1958 had the chance to equal Rob Roy's record of 8 consecutive headships (set from 1904 to 1911). In the buildup to the 1958 Bumps, Robs and City posted identical times in the 'Timed Race'. On the first night of the Bumps proper Robs caught 99's to go second and leave themselves three nights to catch City. But for all their endeavour Robs could not bump a determined City crew and the record was equalled. City went on to retain the headship for a further two years and a new record of 10 consecutive years of Headship was thus set by City before they were eventually toppled in 1962 by 99's.

British champions

References

External links

Official CCRC Site

The Last Amateurs - an account of the 2007 Boat Race by CCRC club member Mark de Rond, including (as Chapter 7) an account of CCRC's race at the Head of the Charles
{{DEFAULTSORT:City Of Cambridge Rowing Club Cambridge town rowing clubs Rowing clubs in Cambridgeshire Rowing clubs in England Rowing clubs of the River Cam