About Us

St. Anne’s Boat Club is one of the younger college boat clubs, but also currently one of the biggest.

The club itself was founded in 1974 by Oxford Blue Christine Dymakowski, who was succeeded as Captain by Elizabeth Young in 1975. The early years of the boat club remain somewhat shrouded at the moment, and the first records we have are from here.

Over the past 28 years, the women have had mixed fortunes. They reached their highest position ever in 1986, placing fourth on the river in Eights. In Torpids they reached fifth on the river in both 1982 and 1983 before settling at the lower end of the first division for a number of years. Fortunes slipped a little in 2003 and 2004 as the girls dropped into the third division, but strong performances in 2005, 2006 and 2007 have led to the girls grabbing a number of blades and breaking back into the second division in Eights, optimistic of further rises with a keen and strong squad for 2008.

On the men’s side, the past 28 years have been one of constant rises as they worked their way up from the bottom of the bumps charts. Simultaneous rises in the Eights and Torpids charts have been somewhat rare in the last fifteen years, but both showed a trend upwards. The last four years have been particularly strong, and as a result the men’s first eight are currently holding their highest ever positions in both Torpids (9th in Division II) and Eights (5th in Division II). The Men’s first squad capped a particularly successful 2006-07 season with a mixed entry into Henley Royal Regatta, narrowly missing out as the fastest non-qualifying crew. Overall the bumps have fallen less favourably than for the girls with the last Men’s First Blades coming in 1997, a fairly big carrot for a good 2007-08 crew.

As you can see, our history is still very much a work in progress. We are always keen to fill in more of the blanks in our history, so if you’d like to contribute please email us at Robert[Dot]Winter[At]st-annes[Dot]ox[Dot]ac[Dot]uk