After exams, many of the students made their way to the river, still in sub fusc.
Sub fusc is the formal academic wear of Oxford, and includes, for men, a black suit, white shirt, white bow tie, appropriate gown, and mortar board. For women, a black skirt, white blouse, and black string tie are worn under the gown and mortarboard. Sub fusc is worn at matriculation, graduation, and all exams. Crazy, huh?
Lots of students enjoy both the view from the bank and the bit of privacy the tall grass provides.
Ah, the boathouses in full swing for the races.
If you look closely, you can actually see a race going on!
New College Men's 1st VIII
Here we are bumping Balliol
A Bump actually consists of making physical contact with the boat ahead of you. The idea of Bump racing is to, in essence, ram the boat ahead of you while not getting rammed by the boat behind. Fun stuff :-)
There's nothing quite like rowing past a crowd like that!
Of course, before we were out of the boat on the last day of racing, we have to down a Pint of Pimms.
Pimms is one of England's 'finer' creations. Consisting of some sort of alcoholic beverage, one proceeds to mix in lemonade, lemons, limes, cucumbers, mint, oranges, and really whatever else is handy at the time. After 3 weeks of no alcohol and 4 days of racing, you can imagine what a pint of this stuff will do. . . and it did.
We liked Greg so much that we threw him in the water.
He liked us so much that he dragged us along!
The Boys.
Will, Mark, Me, Mike, Owain, Malcom, Dave, Tucker, and Greg, our cox and coach.
It was a quick shower, and then off to the Eight's Dinner, an evening in honour of rowing.
Mike got to wear the New College Blazer as a sign of his Captain's position.
As members of the 1st VIII, 8 men and 8 women were entitled to take their place at the High Table in Hall.
This happens but once a year in College. The rowing teams are the only group of students I know of that have ever been allowed to sit at High Table without being accompanied by a don.
Dave, who had acquired the name 'Donkey' over the course of the year, found a shiny new trough gracing his place at the table.
The Girls had a good time.
The Guys were having a good time.
