First and Third Trinity Boat Club

The blade colours of 1st & 3rd Trinity Boat Club

The First and Third Trinity Boat Club is the rowing club of Trinity College in Cambridge, England. The club formally came into existence in 1946 when the First Trinity Boat Club and the Third Trinity Boat Club merged, although the 2 clubs had been rowing together for several years before that date. The first boat club associated with Trinity was formed in 1825 and came to be known as First Trinity in 1833 when the Third Trinity Boat Club was formed (a Second Trinity Boat Club was formed in 1831 but did not have a continuous existence until 1840). Membership of Third Trinity was originally confined to Old Etonians and Old Westminsters. Members of Third Trinity were allowed to also be members of First or Second Trinity and often were.

History

In the nineteenth century the various Trinity boat clubs were very strong and regularly won events in Cambridge, at various regattas around the country, notably the Henley Royal Regatta, and regularly contributed rowers to the Cambridge boat for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Indeed in the 1849 Boat Race, all members of the crew were from Trinity, seven from Third Trinity and two, the cox included, from First Trinity. Boats from the three clubs could often be found at, or near, the top of the Bumps and they sometimes combined their resources in races against the rest of the University.

In 1876 Second Trinity was disbanded due to insufficient members. However, a legend claims that during the Bumps in that year, the rowers of Trinity's arch-rivals, St John's College, attached a sword to the front of one of their boats such that if they successfully bumped the boat in front (which turned out to be one of Second Trinity's), it would be holed and sink. The plan supposedly worked in the sense that the Trinity boat did sink, but in the process the sword also hit and killed Second Trinity's cox, which of course wasn't intended. So the legend claims that this is the reason why Second Trinity Boat Club was dissolved, and why St. John's College is no longer allowed a boat club under its own name. Though a wonderful legend, it is not entirely true. The unfortunate incident did in fact occur - but between boats from Trinity Hall and Clare colleges, in 1888, 12 years after the dissolution of Second Trinity. Also, no sword was involved- the bow of a rowing eight is sufficiently pointed to be dangerous, and the incident led to bow balls being made mandatory. The more prosaic explanation for 2nd Trinity's demise is that membership was restricted to Theology scholars, which over time proved to be an unreliable source of oarsmen.

In the twentieth century the clubs remained competitive and continued to achieve success in various events. The 2nd World War forced the 2 clubs to combine resources and after the war they formally merged in order to remain competitive with the now larger boat clubs of other colleges. In the same year First and Third won the Visitors' Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta and the following year won the Ladies' Challenge Plate. They repeated this feat by winning the Ladies Plate again in 1954 and 1967 which was the last year that a college crew from either Cambridge or Oxford has won the event. The difference in the standard of rowing between Oxbridge colleges and non-University clubs has changed greatly over the twentieth century, possibly due to standards within college clubs falling or to the quality of rowing in other clubs improving, but probably a combination of the two. For example First and Third, like all other Oxbridge college crews, now have difficulty achieving a standard of rowing to even qualify for events at the Henley Royal Regatta, let alone to win these events. In spite of this, rowing within Cambridge remains popular and the Bumps, the main inter-college event, see well over a thousand students competing, typically around a hundred from Trinity.

First Trinity Boat Club

The Trinity Boat Club, the original rowing club of Trinity College, Cambridge, dates from 1825 and was usually called First Trinity Boat Club after 1833. It was open to all members of the College.

In 1946, the club amalgamated with the other remaining boat club of the College, Third Trinity Boat Club, to form First and Third Trinity Boat Club, and in this form continues to compete today.

The Club was very successful throughout its history, but especially in the 19th century. Its early history is very well covered by W. W. Rouse Ball's 1908 book, A History of The First Trinity Boat Club, which is available online in its entirety.

Of particular note is that in 1839 First Trinity won the Grand Challenge Cup in the first Henley Regatta (not made "Royal" till 1851). The crew rowed in a boat named the Black Prince, the bow section of which is still owned by the First and Third Trinity Boat Club but which is on loan to the River & Rowing Museum in Henley. They defeated the other three entries, who were Wadham College Oxford, Brasenose College Oxford and the Oxford Etonian Club. First and Third Trinity Boat Club still names its higher quality men's eight-oared boats as 'Black Prince'. As new boats are purchased, older boats are demoted to lower boat use and are referred to as 'Black Prince II', 'Black Prince III' and so on.

1st Trinity managed to win Olympic gold on two occasions. The coxless-four of Charles Eley, James MacNabb, Robert Morrison and Terence Sanders won gold for Great Britain at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, with Canada gaining silver, and Switzerland the bronze. In the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, 1st Trinity managed to successfully defend the coxless-fours title (Richard Beesly, Edward Bevan, John Lander, Michael Warriner), with the United States getting silver and Italy receiving bronze.

First Trinity was also very successful on its home water, the River Cam. Between 1827 and 1908 First Trinity was "Head" crew in the University of Cambridge's Bumps races thirty-eight times, more than any other Club.

Second Trinity Boat Club

The Second Trinity Boat Club was a short-lived rowing club at the Trinity College, Cambridge in England. Little is known about the club, as very few records survive from 2nd Trinity. 2nd Trinity was reserved for members of the clergy and theology students who were studying at Trinity, and, by 1876 the club folded due to a lack of members.

2nd Trinity competed in the early bumps races in Cambridge from 1829 until its demise in 1876, going Head of the River in 1835 and 1849.

The club was originally known as the Nautilus Club, changing its name to Second Trinity, Queen Bess to reflect the name of its boat, a common practice at the time. The name of the club continued as Queen Bess until 1838, when it ceased competing. The club reformed in 1840 as the 2nd Trinity Boat Club, but was often described as Reading Trinity and nicknamed the Hallelujahs, in reflection of its membership. By the mid 1860s, the club was in decline, and despite efforts by the First Trinity Boat Club in 1866 to limit their membership in order to boost those of 2nd Trinity, this failed to help, and the decline continued. 1st Trinity voted to remove their membership limit once again. By 1870, the club had abandoned its original entry requirements, and allowed new students who did not have a connection to theology courses, and this allowed the club to continue for a few years, even rising back up to 7th in the bumps races in 1873. Thereafter, numbers dwindled once again, and by the Easter term 1876, the club had dropped to last but one in the first division. At a meeting of all three Trinity clubs, the 2nd Trinity Boat Club was formally dissolved, with its members given an invitation to join First Trinity.

In 1894, a group of students had claimed to have re-founded 2nd Trinity, and raced in the bumps, but the new 2nd Trinity was not recognised by the CUBC and did not race again.

One of 2nd Trinity's trophies, the Baines Cup is used to day as the main prize of the Second Trinity Challenge Sculls, a sculling race run by the current 1st & 3rd Trinity members.

An account of its history can be found at First and Third Trinity Boat Club.

Recent Form

Below are tables showing the performance of the men's and women's 1st VIIIs over the last decade in the Lent and May Bumps.

Lent Bumps

Men

Year	Finish position	1st day	2nd day	3rd day	4th Day
1999	3rd	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	bumped by Caius	bumped by Lady Margaret
2000	Head	bumped Lady Margaret	bumped Caius	rowed-over head	rowed-over head
2001	2nd	rowed-over head	bumped by Emmanuel	(cancelled)	(cancelled)
2002	3rd	bumped by Caius	bumped by Lady Margaret	rowed-over	bumped Emmanuel
2003	2nd	rowed-over	bumped Lady Margaret	rowed-over	rowed-over
2004	2nd	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over
2005	2nd	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over
2006	2nd	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over
2007	Head	bumped Caius	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head
2008	Head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head
2009	Head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head

Women

Year	Finish position	1st day	2nd day	3rd day	4th Day
1999	10th	bumped St. Catharine's	rowed-over	bumped by Churchill	rowed-over
2000	14th	bumped by Caius	bumped by Downing	bumped by New Hall	bumped by Clare
2001	14th	rowed-over	(not completed)¤	(cancelled)	(cancelled)
2002	15th	rowed-over	bumped Churchill	bumped by Churchill	bumped by Girton
2003	14th	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over	bumped New Hall
2004	13th	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over	bumped Queens'
2005	7th	bumped Christ's	bumped Churchill	overbumped Girton	bumped Newnham
2006	4th	bumped Lady Margaret	bumped Jesus	rowed-over	bumped Downing
2007	Head	bumped Emmanuel	bumped Caius	bumped Clare	rowed-over head
2008	Head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head
2009	2nd	bumped by Emmanuel	bumped by Jesus	bumped Jesus	rowed-over

¤ Girton, 1st & 3rd Trinity and Churchill were scheduled to re-row their race after a dispute, but the Lent Bumps were cancelled due to an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease before the race could take place. In the 2002 Lent Bumps, Girton, 1st & 3rd Trinity and Churchill started in the same position as they had following the first day's racing in 2001, namely 13th, 14th and 15th positions respectively.

May Bumps

Men

Year	Finish position	1st day	2nd day	3rd day	4th Day
1998	3rd	bumped Trinity Hall	rowed-over	bumped Queens'	bumped Downing
1999	3rd	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over
2000	5th	rowed-over	bumped by Emmanuel	bumped by Downing	rowed-over
2001	9th	bumped by Lady Margaret	bumped by Trinity Hall	bumped by Christ's	bumped by Robinson
2002	9th	rowed-over	bumped Christ's	rowed-over	bumped by St. Catharine's
2003	7th	rowed-over	rowed-over	bumped Jesus	bumped Emmanuel
2004	7th	rowed-over	bumped by Queens'	bumped Queens'	rowed-over
2005	7th	bumped Robinson	rowed-over	bumped by Queens'	rowed-over
2006	5th	bumped Downing	rowed-over	bumped Trinity Hall	rowed-over
2007	2nd	bumped Queens'	bumped St. Catharine's	bumped Lady Margaret	rowed-over
2008	Head	bumped Caius	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head
2009	Head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head	rowed-over head

Women

Year	Finish position	1st day	2nd day	3rd day	4th Day
1998	19th	rowed-over	bumped by Robinson	rowed-over	bumped Sidney Sussex
1999	19th	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over	rowed-over
2000	17th	rowed-over	bumped Magdalene	bumped Homerton	rowed-over
2001	21st	bumped by Girton	bumped by CCAT	bumped by Peterhouse	bumped by Magdalene
2002	20th	bumped Magdalene	bumped by Magdalene	rowed-over	bumped Robinson
2003	20th	rowed-over	bumped by Darwin	rowed over	bumped CCAT
2004	18th	rowed-over	bumped Peterhouse	bumped Queens'	rowed-over
2005	15th	bumped Darwin	rowed-over	bumped St. Catharine's	bumped New Hall
2006	12th	bumped Selwyn	rowed-over	bumped Christ's	bumped Magdalene
2007	7th	bumped Churchill	rowed-over	overbumped Clare	bumped Trinity Hall
2008	10th	rowed-over	bumped by Lady Margaret	bumped by Clare	bumped by Downing

See also

• University rowing (UK)
• First Trinity Boat Club
• Third Trinity Boat Club
• First and Third Trinity Boat Club
• Trinity College, Cambridge

References

• Durack, John; Gilbert, George; Marks, Dr. John (2000). The Bumps: An Account of the Cambridge University Bumping Races 1827-1999 ISBN 0-9538475-1-9
• CUCBC (various years) - Lent and May Bumps programmes.

External links

• First and Third's Official Website
• A History of the First Trinity Boat Club
• First and Third Trinity Boat Club website