For the search: 116 entry(s) where found.
| All-in-One |
Description:
An extremely flattering one-piece item of rowing kit, sported in the main by Homerton men. |
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| ARA |
Description:
The Amateur Rowing Association, they sort out registration, insurance and all sorts of things for rowers. Annual subscriptions. |
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| ATBH |
Description:
At The BoatHouse. Abbreviation for notices, texts, etc. |
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| Aylings |
Description:
They make boats. They made Sarah-Ann, Percy and The Lady Hilary. |
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| Backstops |
Description:
Position at the back of the slide, with legs straight, ready for recovery. |
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| Band-Jaxed |
Description:
Absolutely knackered. |
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| Blade |
Description:
A more commonly used word for oar |
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| Blues |
Description:
Rowers that row for the university. They are the best. |
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| Boat Race (the) |
Description:
The race of all races, where Cambridge and Oxford try to kill each other in a gentlemanly fashion on the Thames, over 8km, against the current, with an international audience, after devoting six months of their lives, all or nothing, and all for the sake of tradition…Glorious. |
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| Boatie |
Description:
A reference to somebody that rows, usually describing those who have succumbed to the addiction that is rowing. |
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| Bow |
Description:
The rower sitting at the front of the boat.
The person at bow usually has suicidal tendencies. |
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| Bow Ball |
Description:
The rubber attachment on the bow that acts as a safety device. |
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| Bow side |
Description:
From a rower’s view, bow side is on the left (starboard) side of the boat. Usually indicated by a green stripe on the blade. |
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| Bows |
Description:
The front of the boat, the end that rowers have their back to. |
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| Bufty |
Description:
People no longer at the University who used to row (and possibly still do), they claim to maintain a strong interest in the rowing world, but in general just love to reminisce. Preferred habitat – on the bank at the May Bumps. |
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| Bump |
Description:
V: To overtake or hit the boat infront of you in a bumps race.
Or:
Bump, Mr: The Ladies' 1st VIIIs beloved (and now rather muddy) mascot.
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| Bumps |
Description:
A set of races held over 4/5 days in Lent and May term. Eighteen divisions of boats start 1 ½ lengths apart in a starting order that changes according to race outcomes. Each boat attempts to bump the next whilst keeping off the one behind.
This is one of the most traditional aspects of Cambridge racing – and the most fun, stupid, extremely unfair and dangerous! |
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| Burst |
Description:
A short and intense piece of training. |
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| BUSA |
Description:
British University Sports Association. We are all members, they organise inter-university sports championships and they represent University sport interests. |
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| Cam |
Description:
See River Cam |
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| Catch |
Description:
The point in the rowing stroke when the spoon enters the water. |
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| Chunder |
Description:
Nickname given to rowers who throw up after combinations of formal halls and erg tests. First given to John (Chunder) Evans in Michaelmas term 2000. |
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| Clare Novices |
Description:
A regatta for novices that usually happens mid-November. Novice crews (two at a time) race over a set distance. |
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| Cleaver |
Description:
Sometimes referred to as ‘big blades’. These are the larger blades used by more experienced rowers. |
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| Cox |
Description:
The short person who usually sits facing the rowers. They steer the boat and put rowers through pain. They are to be revered and loved. |
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| Crab |
Description:
Usually occurs when the blades enters the water at an incorrect angle, causing the blade to dig deeply and jerking it parallel to the boat. |
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| Croker |
Description:
They make blades |
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| Draw |
Description:
The initial stroke, sometimes taken at three-quarter or half slide, that gives the boat a smooth glide which is then accelerated upon.
Drive – the point in the rowing stroke where pressure is applied through the legs to accelerate the blade through the water. |
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| Eight |
Description:
A boat made for eight rowers. |
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| Empacher |
Description:
They make very good boats. |
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| Erg |
Description:
Erg or ergo is an abbreviation for that 'damned piece of machinery'. No erg is your friend (see Ergometer). |
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| Ergometer |
Description:
A rowing machine. The piece of machinery that rowers predominantly train upon. Erg (-onometer) tests are pieces set over a set time or distance. |
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| Excessive Celebration |
Description:
A fine spontaneously made up jealously fine a Homerton crew for extremely good results in the Bumps. |
History:
This fine was spontaneously made up in the May Bumbs of 2001 to jeolously fine Homerton's Men's 1st XIII for moving up eight positions in their division and getting blades. |
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| Fairbairns |
Description:
THE race at the end of Michaelmas term. It is a head race, timed over 5km. |
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| Feather |
Description:
To rotate the blade so that the spoon is parallel to water over the recovery period of the stroke. |
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| Filth |
Description:
1) A reference to the very taste meat delicasies commonly known as kebabs.
2) The nickname of 5th Avenue nightclub. |
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| Fin |
Description:
A fixed piece of plastic or iron, similar to a rudder, that steadies the boat. |
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| Finish |
Description:
The point in the rowing stroke where the blade leaves the water at the end of the drive. |
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| Four |
Description:
A boat in which four rowers row. |
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| Frontstops |
Description:
The position at the end of the recovery with legs bent, ready to drive. |
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| Gate |
Description:
The device on the end of the rigger that holds the blade in. |
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| Head |
Description:
The crew or boat that currently holds the Headship for either Mays or Lent. |
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| Head of the River Race |
Description:
A race that takes place on the Thames involving hundreds of crews from all over the world, raced in the opposite direction on the Boat Race course. |
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| Head race |
Description:
A race in which crews are timed over a set distance. |
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| Headship |
Description:
The very top position that can be reached in the bumps. |
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| Heart rate |
Description:
The number of beats of a person's heart per minute. |
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| Heart rate monitor |
Description:
A piece of equipment that often uses a chest strap and wrist piece that moitors the heart rate of a rower during a piece. |
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| Henley |
Description:
Thames Valley town, home of Leander boat club. Also where the Henley Royal Regatta and the Women's and Lightweight's University boat races are held. |
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| Henley Royal Regatta |
Description:
An International regatta held in late June on the Thames at Henley. |
History:
The race was first held in 1839 and the reigning Monarch is the patron of the event. Hence why it is refered to as Royal. |
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| Hilary |
Description:
The classic and most loved men's eight. |
History:
The boat has been with the club for a long time and has numerous bumps of lesser boats to Her name. |
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| HOLD IT UP!!!! |
Description:
A command issued by the cox when they want all the rowers to place their blades square in the water to stop the boat.
Normally signifies the moment before the boat crashes… |
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| Homers |
Description:
Homerton |
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| HORR |
Description:
(see Head of the River Race). |
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| Jump |
Description:
When a crew winds up the rating in the middle of a race or piece. |
History:
Often used in precarious positions in bumps racing. |
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| JYA |
Description:
Our American friends who come over to row with us for a year. |
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| Lard |
Description:
Any foodstuff that contains excesses of fat.
see filth and Chunder. |
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| Lents |
Description:
The Lent term bumps. |
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| Lightweight |
Description:
Rowers that are under 72.5kg (men) and 59kg (women). Note that the boat they row in must have an average body weight that is less than this! |
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| Lycra |
Description:
Worn by boaties for practical, never fashionable reasons! |
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| Macon |
Description:
A type of blade used by novices and seniors who are scratch training. |
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| Mays |
Description:
The May bumps. |
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| Novice |
Description:
Someone who has never rowed before. To learn to row. |
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| Novice (fake) |
Description:
Soembody who has rowed before, but not yet at Cambridge so can enter novice events and whoop the real novices. |
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| Novular |
Description:
(see novice) |
History:
Term believed to have been devised by Hannah Cadman. |
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| Novulate |
Description:
When a senior pulls a novice. |
History:
The term entered common usage due to the actions of the infomous Social Secretary, Miss L Townsend. |
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| Outing |
Description:
A training session held on the water in a boat. |
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| Overbump |
Description:
A bump on a boat three boats ahead. The first two boats ahead have bumped out and then the next one is bumped. |
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| Phaffing |
Description:
Time-wasting. |
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| Piece |
Description:
A piece of intensive rowing on land (ergo) or water with targets of time or distance. |
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| Pony |
Description:
Used to describe an action, group or person that is crap (eg. 'that crew was pony'). |
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| Prang |
Description:
To break the boat in a very bad way through stupidity. |
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| Pressure |
Description:
The amount of effort applied in each stroke (light, half, three-quarter and full). |
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| Pull |
Description:
To snog or sleep with a member of the opposite (or same!) sex. |
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| Pyramids |
Description:
A type of training involving sets of twenty or so strokes at full pressure, each one at a higher rating than the next, until a peak rating is reached. The process is then reversed. |
History:
This generally results in rowers being band-jaxed at the end and is a common causing for phaffing before starting. |
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| Race pace |
Description:
The speed and length of stroke that will best enable a boat to win a race. Usually set by the length of the race etc. |
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| Racks |
Description:
Horizontal bars moveable by means of a sliding system upon which boats are stored when in the boathouse. |
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| Rating |
Description:
The measurement of strokes being taken per minute. |
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| Recovery |
Description:
The part of the stroke where the rowers is relaxing up the slide in between the finish and the catch. |
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| Regatta |
Description:
A competition with many different events, usually involving boats of all sizes including sculls, fours, eights, coxed and uncoxed. Regatta's usually have heats and semi-finals as well as a final for each event, and all boats in direct competition row side by side simultaneously from a standing start. |
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| Rig |
Description:
To put riggers on. (Bow rigged when stroke is a bow side rower and stroke rigged when stroke is a stroke side rower) |
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| Rigger |
Description:
The metal contraption attached to the side of the boat next to each seat. They keep the blade attached to the boat through the use of the gate. |
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| Rip |
Description:
When a rower wrenches the blade through the water (usually with too much pull in the arms) instead of taking a controlled and efficient stroke. |
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| River Cam |
Description:
The river we row on. Not recommended for swimming in. |
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| Rolling start |
Description:
A race start where boats are timed from a position that they reach once having attained race pace. |
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| Row over |
Description:
To row the entire course of the bumps race, during a race, and not bump or be bumped. |
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| Rudder |
Description:
The device the cox uses to change the course of the boat. |
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| Sandwich boat |
Description:
The boat at the top of each division in the bumps (except the first division), after their division has raced. They must race again at the bottom of the division above. |
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| Saxboard |
Description:
The wood running along the edge of the boat. |
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| Scratch training |
Description:
When seniors embark on a series of training sessions as if they have never rowed before so that they pay full attention to every aspect of the rowing stroke. |
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| Scull |
Description:
A boat made for single rower. Two blades are used, one for each hand. |
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| Scum |
Description:
Particularly used in reference to Oxford University Boat Club but can also refer to members of Oxford University in general. |
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| Senior |
Description:
A rower with some experience (normally a title bestowed upon novices after they have raced in Novice Fairbairns). |
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| Shell |
Description:
The shape and construct of the boat. |
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| Slide |
Description:
The two metal strips in the boat along which the seat slides. |
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| Slider |
Description:
A device which yopu can place an erg on to recreate the feeling of being in a boat on the water. |
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| Spack |
Description:
The method of rowing in a panic, resulting in a complete loss of technique and/or power. This is also a reference to somebody who spacks reguarly. |
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| Splash jacket |
Description:
A waterproof outer garment bearing College crest and name. A source of pride and arrogance. |
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| Splashular jack |
Description:
see splash jacket |
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| Spoon |
Description:
1)the wide end part of the blade that is painted.
2) the award given to a rower who's crew is bumped on each day of the bumps. The spoon is traditionally of the wooden variety and not normally displayed to the public. |
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| Square |
Description:
When the blade is rotated so that the spoon is perpendicular to the water at the end of the recovery to prepare for the catch. |
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| Standing start |
Description:
A race start that requires a boat to be stationary and rowers at front stops. |
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| Steady rate |
Description:
A piece of training at high pressure but low rating (20-22 rpm). |
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| Stern |
Description:
The back of the boat, the end that the rowers face. |
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| Stride |
Description:
The call made to get a crew to lengthen out after the wind. |
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| Stroke |
Description:
1) the process of recovery and slide in one continuous movement.
2) the name given to the rower sitting at the back of the boat (usually nearest the cox). |
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| Stroke side |
Description:
From the rower's view, stroke side is on the right (port) side of the boat. Usually indicated by a red stripe on the blade. |
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| Sweep |
Description:
The type of rowing done when each rower in a boat uses just one blade. |
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| Tap |
Description:
A light stroke taken to direct the boat's bow. |
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| Tap down |
Description:
When the hands are lowered at the end of a stroke to extract the blade from the water. |
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| Trestles |
Description:
A stand with pliable straps used to hold up a boat out of water for cleaning or repairs. |
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| Trial |
Description:
To trial for a position in a boat. Usually in reference to somebody trialing for a place in a Blue boat. |
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| Triallist |
Description:
Someone who is trialling. |
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| Triple overbump |
Description:
When a bump is made five boats ahead. |
History:
A very rare occurance that was achieved by Homerton's Men's 1st VIII in 2001 May Bumps. |
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| Ultralight |
Description:
A type of oar |
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| Whoop |
Description:
To absolutely slaughter the opposition. |
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| Wind |
Description:
or wind it up.
a piece of rowing at excessive rating to get a boat moving from a standing start. |
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