Most of the crew went to the Ball on the last night of term, so it was not possible to go to regattas at Kingston and Burton on the follow- ing week-end. Llandaff offered a nearer venue, so the VIII raced there on the Saturday and the Sunday.

SATURDAY — 1000m course

There were three entries for Senior B VIII — Monkton, Bewdley and Cherwell. We were drawn against Cherwell. We had our customary good start, and were a length up after 400m. We were racing in the outside lane, and had to steer round widely placed buoys above the bridge, and lost all of the length advantage gained in the first minute of the race, and were about half a length down at the bridge. In the home straight we came back slightly, at about 37/38, and fin- ished a canvas down. The Cherwel crew (from Oxford University) had on board one member of ISIS, two Univeristy Lightweight crew mem- bers, two Americans, and three others who are members of the Oxford 'development' crew. Their average weight wat about 14 stone (com- pared with our 11 and a half). The canvas loss by Monkton was an excellent result against older competent oarsmen. The coach reckons that we would have won the race if we had been on the inside lane; he had a long conversation with the course designer, who agreed that the inside station had an advantage. The corner had been buoyed wide for the sake of coxless boats which need more room to allow for their mistakes. The extra width of lane on the corner is worth more than a canvas to a competently steered eight on the inside of the bend. Anyway, the race was close and hard-fought, and the 'bunch of school- boys' (Oxford's description) proved a good match for the university oarsmen. Cherwell went on to beat Bewdley by about a length and a half.

SUNDAY — 500m

Our first race was against Wycliffe, who were racing in an eight for the first time for some years. We went off at a sizzling 48 (or 46/47 if the coach took the rate badly), and maintained a high rate for most of the course. We beat Wy- cliffe by two lengths, which is a lot over a 500m course. The final was against Bewdley. Once again, we went off at a high rate, and very soon left the other crew two lengths behind. One member of our crew was chosen for a random drugs test after this race. The r suit will take some weeks to come through, and it is con- fidently expected to be negative! NB for other oarsmen — some commonly used drugs, obtain- able from chemists without prescription are on the list of drugs banned by International Olym- pic Committee, FISA and ARA. If you are in a competitive crew, YOU MUST CONSULT THE LIST OF PERMISSIBLE DRUGS. A copy has been given to the San, and another is available from JMB. The crew went off from Llandaff for 10 days away from rowing before meeting for their last event at Bewdley.