"To be or not to be" should have been the question; but if it had I doubt if in the fullness of time the answer would ever really have appeared; but more of that later. The Colts started with a will, "will I or won't I row?", and thus the promise of last year failed to light the fire in the hearts of all, and so the numbers were to be rather low, though this was not to be the standard of those trying for places. Thus the Lent Term commenced with an VIII and a scul- ler and of course training!!, and it was the latter that caused the first problem. This was because the crew had a long way to go in order to attain the necessary levels of fitness for Junior Under 16's in the 1980's and this required a belief in the CREW in order that members of it could give everything; there was a lack of this belief.

The required regime was to be five outings each week with a long run before and after one of them, this was tempered with tea at Avon- view, and all did their part with only weekly requests for some form of free time in which to lose all that had been already gained. However, this did not affect the feeling of hope that ac- companied the Heads though it was perhaps part of the reason that they were not as good as I expected, until the excellent result in the Head after a week's solid training in the Easter hol- idays. It is here that I must thank Dave Wheel- don for,stepping into the breach when Peter Martin finally agreed that he should not get out of his sick bed. I must also thank the Stears for allowing us to relax in such excellent sur- roundings. Therefore the Lent Term ended on a high and my fears that the crew did not totally believe in the CREW faded for the time being.

The Summer term dawned and with it my fears reappeared, this time never to fade, for the CREW did not believe in each other and thus could not give of their all, a fatal flaw in any crew. The unfortunate truth of this was that most of the reasons for disbelief were totally ungrounded; but when has this stopped them. Thus the term progressed and success only just evaded them as they progressed towards the National Schools Regatta. It was here that all was to fall apart for as the day progressed the chance of success really increased; but we were never to prove this as it was cancelled and within 24 hours we were no longer to have even eight oarsmen, though we always had one of the best and definitely most vociferous coxswains. In fact two of our number were caught breaking school rules and proving why they were not as fit as they should have been and so they were drop- ped. This meant that the second eight 'bor- rowed' another and so the Colts Four was born. This crew had the advantage of the new four; but unhappily the disadvantage of too litle time, '0' levels and the best half of the most victorious crew in the country.

I must also take this opportunity to thank the Bullocks for there accommodation of the crew in the Summer Term, and all the parents for their feeding us and their help that made my life so much easier.To conclude, obviously this year the breaks were against us; though there would have been less need of them if the crew had been theP8:and they had stayed within sensible guide- lines, and so we had no real success. However we did achieve a certain maturity as the mem- bers of the crew will, in the fullness of time realise. So I believe that it will be "to be"; but that it was "not to be".