Jeremy rowed in the Great Britain under 23 VIII at the Nations Cup in Paris in 1994. He is at present on his bicycle somewhere in India. This is the first article to reach the Editor by fax from Kathmandu, in Nepal. I have had to guess some indecipherable words

After the close denial of the Oxford Brookes crew of a place in the Under 23's last year, 1994 was to be the year when we sent a crew to the U23 Nations Cup in Paris. Winter assessment consisted of a series of small boat head races over 10km. The results from these indicated that we were on course to send some people to the championships; hopefully the VIII would go as an entire unit, or if not, a couple of changes might be made to strengthen the boat.

During the Summer, all candidates were told that were expected to attend Nottingham City Regatta in Pairs and two out of three other regattas. It was interesting then that Oxford Brookes were the only unit which eventually went to the Championships who were present at Nottingham.

Henley was upon us as quickly as ever. The usual hype as to which crews were entering for which event was as rampant as ever.The main worry for us was that the Brown University Freshmen were very quick in the Thames Cup, having been unbeaten in the United States, and Imprerial College who had only just lost to the British National Squadin Duisberg earlier in the season. Their entry in the Visitors slipped through a loop hole in the system; they had too many previous Henley winners to enter the Wyfold and would have been bumped up to the Stewards if they had entered it. Oh, the joys of Henley bureaucracy and politics! Our racing started in the Thames Cup with us being awarded a false start, the video later showing that both crews went at the same time; the opposition just weren't connecting their bodies with the blade! During the week (as per usual) we were hampered with members of the crew having to rush back to Oxford to take college exams; the worst case of which was on the Saturday when we raced and beat London RC in the first race of the day at 9 a.m. Two of the crew were due in an exam at 9.30 a.m. (needless to say, they were late), and we had our semi- final against Brown in the evening. Brown had equalled the Hansa-Dortmund Barrier record set in 1989 the day before. and with due accord they took a length off us by the Barrier; this was increased to 21/2 lengths by Fawley, though we increased our tempo through the enclosures to lose by 11/4 lengths. Brown then went on to beat Goldie in the final in an easier race (according to them). Final trials were held for the U23's at the London Docklands a week after Henley. Our VIII had two changes because two members (iHenley was upon us as quickly as ever. The usual hype =eluding Peter Alvis) were too old. One of the newcomers was a member of the Brown crew that had beaten us at Henley. Trials were held in IVs and VIlts. Abingdon School turned up, but they found themselves out of their depth against undergraduate crews. The final selection for theVIII was the Brookes crew that had raced at Henley, with replacements from Brown and Goldie included. The IV was a Goldie and UL composite.

In the two weeks to the championship, the VIII moulded together as best as it could in the time available, training twice a day at Wallingford. Our arrival in France was marred by the fact that one of the crew had forgotten his passport, and so missed the plane. It could only have happened to someone who wore the lighter shade of blue! Eventually we were in the race - two heats, repechage, Final A and Final B, placing the crews in order 1-13. The first heats saw Poland and Germany through to the final and the other eleven in the repechage. A close race between us and France saw us beating France and winning the repechage, with Australia winning the other.

The final was the last race of the day; a head wind was still blowing, and we were in lane 5. Tension was high (too high?) with a lot to prove. A bad start saw us placed last after 500m. We eased past Russia during the middle 1000m, but were too far behind Germany to make enough ground on the leading crews to be placed among them. Although we had the fastest final 500m out of all the crews, it was only enough to place us 5th. 11/4 lengths covered the first five crews; Germany winning, France 2nd (did they have the sheltered inside lane?) and Australia 3rd.

The Brookes composite in the lightweight IV saved the day by taking gold, UL in the IV - silver and Goldie 4th. It was amazing to see that people all of the same age from throughout the world were so close in a boat over the course. The championship taught me a lot, racing at a new level, and hopefully I shall return again in 1995. I am very grateful to Bluefriars for helping with my expenses for the Championships. It made the year's expense on rowing, which amounted to about £1000, slightly more manageable.