Where’s the Catch: the story of how we got the Armageddon

You know that feeling when you read something too good to be true, and your heart misses a beat? Well, that happened to me on Monday 4th March. I’ll recount the story in chronological order.

I am the electronic mail representative for the club, which up until now has meant an irregular dialogue with potential members and the odd coach. However, I received quite a different proposition on Monday. I checked my e-mail when I got in, as I usually do. Buried in the work related bulk of my correspondence was the following, which came with a title of ‘Boat needs new home quickly’:

I replied, of course, with a bit of a sob-story to convince Rob that I, on behalf of SRC, was worthy of it. And guess what, he bought it! The only catch was that it had to be collected by the weekend. Mansfield lodge with Hereford college, who have been threatening to build a new boathouse on the site of their old one for some time. At the beginning of March, Mansfield were told that they had to move everything out by Saturday 9th March. This caused panic and desperation. Rather than lose their lesser boats, which they need to coach the large influx of novices they get every year, they felt it best to lose a more fragile racing boat, which required more tender loving care than they could give – or indeed find a home for.

There were over 20 responses within the first 12 hours of the original message, so I was very lucky indeed to get it.

But that immediately raised the problem – how to get it? With Tony away, Matthew was the only other member of the club with a tow-bar, so we arranged to go down on Friday night and collect it.

Then, to compound things, Deborah decided I should go on Chris Opperman’s morning radio show on BBC Radio Suffolk that Friday and explain all about it and promote the club. A little local interest thread I got in there was Adam Frost having just been confirmed as stroking Oxford in the Boat Race on April 6th. So I found myself neatly sandwiched between ”Thought for the day“ and the weather forecast at 07:55.

Thanks Aidan, I’ll get you back somehow… but actually, it went alright. I did enjoy it, at least after the event, though to those of you who had been tipped off and were listening, it might not have sounded like that at the time! So off we went, full of elation, expectation, and not a little trepidation. I have cursed the wooden VIII so much – could I really dare believe that this was happening?

But it was not to be, at least not on Friday. We were held up on the M.25, and when we got there the guys who were detailed to meet us had given up – it turns out (!) that it was the last night of term, and they had gone off to celebrate!

So we left the trailer, and came back empty handed. I had arranged with Rob and City of Oxford RC that we would leave the trailer in CORC’s car park overnight, and Rob would guarantee that the boat was loaded on Saturday morning. Matthew was unavailable, so in the end Danny and I hired a car with a tow-bar, and returned that afternoon to get the boat.

After the manic organising, and dreadful Friday night, you cannot imagine my relief as we swung into the car-park to see the gleaming white shell on the trailer! After a quick check, and retying it down, we left – both as high as kites.

So the club now has Armageddon – a Burgashell VIII. It has Len Neville riggers and Reebock feet, but no seats. At the time of writing this, a fairly close inspection shows nothing more wrong than the inevitable scratches and grime of regular use.

So I’m still looking for the catch! The biggest problem we have now, and it is a nice problem to have, is a boathouse so full of boats that you cannot move in it. We will need to have a rationalisation of the space in the next 2 weeks or so!

Historical note: I phoned up Bill Burgass, to find out more about the history of this shell. For those who like to fill their heads with rowing trivia – and I plead guilty – you may remember from True Blue (Dan Topolski’s account of the infamous Oxford mutiny in 1986-7, shortly to be released as a “Chariots of Fire on Water” film) that Mansfield was the college of Donald MacDonald and Chris Huntingdon.

Armageddon was one of the early Carbon VIII’s, and was sold new to the National Squad in 1985. They used it for a year, but found it a little small (it’s for 13st). There is a photo of the boat in Tideway Sculler’s clubhouse, from an occasion when TSS were racing the Squad. The boat went back to Burgashell, where it was refurbished. At the same time, Hugh Macdonald, Donald’s brother, went to Burgashell to collect a sculling boat. Bill Burgass mentioned that the VIII was going for a good price, and Hugh tipped off his brother. And so the boat became Mansfield’s first VIII.

That was 1986. In 1987, due to the added bulk of the huge Chris Huntingdon, they really needed a bigger boat. Armageddon thus became the college’s second VIII, which is what it has been ever since.

A full set of all the correspondence involved in getting this boat has been lodged with Ken for the club’s history – and is available for inspection from him.