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Committee

Committee 2014/15

Executive Committee

Oliver Whalley

President

MUBC’s very own pharmacist, in the third year of his degree, Oliver Whalley began his rowing fairytale at Manchester.

Over the years he’s progressed from rocking up straight from a night out into the sophisticated president that you see today. Having started as a novice in Manchester he quickly went onto becoming novice men’s captain in his second year to pass on his knowledge of the sport, but also put his status as novice captain to good use, particularly at the first few socials.

After a magnificent speech he was voted to become president of MUBC where he will hope to thrive and allow the club to attain the heights of his ambition.

Jake Brown

Performance Captain

Jake is in his fourth year studying aerospace engineering. He began his career at MUBC in his second year having spent his first trying to imitate his childhood hero Steven Gerrard “playing” football for the university team and going out on the lash most nights in the search for love.

Luckily he found rowing to get him back on the straight and narrow and since then he’s never looked back. Consistently being a top performer in the men’s squad always results in him being present in the top boats.

Whilst impressive on the erg, he has managed to disappoint several members of the women’s squad over the years, leaving him with a reputation he intends to hush up over the next 12 months.

Cat Taube

Secretary

As Secretary Cat is the principal organiser of the club. She is responsible for entries, transport and accommodation, at all the races of the year from Novice Race Day in November all the way to Henley Royal Regatta, the last race of the season, in July.

Secondary to this Cat also organises the club kit order, keeps and publishes minutes from committee meetings and manages the health and safety requirements within the club.
When not chasing rowers around the country, she spends her time studying as a medic and is fond of italian food. 

Tom Barr

Treasurer

Consistently a big hit with the ladies, Tom is a mathematician in his second year at Manchester and as stated in his speech he “loves rowing and numbers” so he should be well suited to dealing with the clubs finances.

Tom is another member of the executive committee who began his rowing career at Manchester where he was quick in his attempts to stand out, most notably with his shocking kit varying from clone unisuits to mankinis.

Despite his choice in rowing wear, Tom was a committed member of the squad and was placed at stroke of the men’s 2nd VIII for the Henley campaign.

Captains

Jack Roe

Senior Men’s Captain

Captain Jack is a legendary pirate of the Bridgewater and the irreverent trickster of Fallowfield. A captain of equally dubious morality and sobriety, a master of self-promotion and self-interest, Jack fought a constant and losing battle with his own best tendencies. Jack’s first love was the canal, his second, his beloved boat the Nicola George.

The son of Captain Lenny Roe, Jack was born on a pirate ship in a typhoon. Before he was known as “Captain Jack Roe”, he was simply “Jack”, a teenage stowaway with a desire for adventure. Jack first rowed on the Henley reach with a young ragtag crew on a quest to locate and procure a legendary National Schools Medal.

After his teenage adventures, because of rogue 18th birthays, Jack was forced to abandon the junior life and started a course in medicine at the University of Manchester. He quickly joined the boat club and rose through the ranks to become Captain at the end of his first year.

Roisin Cogan

Senior Women’s Captain

Roisin learnt to row at Monkton Combe School and later went on to row for Minerva Bath BC; she joined MUBC in her first year at university. Roisin is a second year social anthropology Student and amongst  her duties as Senior Women’s Captain are organising outings and training sessions alongside providing counselling for troubled senior women.

Roisin also holds a terrifying record, with her conquests over the year having an average 2k time a GB athlete would be proud of.

David Bentham

Novice Men’s Captain

Dave is an English and Russian student who began rowing at the University last year, he took on a lead role in squad integration between the novice men and novice women. Despite his successes away from the boathouse Dave was plagued with injury throughout the year, some might compare him to the Owen Hargreaves of rowing, however he never went as far as making a video to show he was still fit.

Despite being constructed from glass, Dave was fortunate enough to make it back from his 6th or 7th injury of the year to go down Henley qualifiers in the MUBC IV+.

Heidi Mitchell

Novice Women’s Captain

Novice Women’s Captain for 2014-15, Heidi started rowing at MUBC in first year and had a thoroughly enjoyable year training and competing for races with highlights including seats in the women’s second boat for Women’s Head of the River and Henley Women’s Regatta, as well as a night to remember spent watching the Emperor’s New Groove.

Heidi started at Manchester studying Social Anthropology but changed to Politics after first year due to incorrigible difference between her and the course. For this season she is trimming down and intends to compete at lightweight whilst also pushing the big girls out of seats in the first eight, but faces stiff competition from one of her own Vice Captains.

 Alice Campbell Davis

Coxes Captain

Having rowed at Norwich School for many years in my past, she joined MUBC ranks in her 3rd year of a Material Science and engineering degree, we think.

After starting off as a rower she quickly acknowledged she could make a greater impact on the club as a cox. Following this decision she spent every subsequent hour of the year at the boathouse coxing. She was delighted to be elected as Coxes Captain, and with her long experience as a cox is looking forward to the opportunity to train and organise the squad this year.

Whilst is she studying to be a Material Scientist, she has some novel ideas on economic theory that have so far worked well in her favour. We expect a paper to be released on the subject later this year after she has completed more research.

Auxiliary Committee

Tom Anderson and Jim Miller

Novice Men’s Vice Captains

Novice vice captains this year include Jim Miller and Tom Anderson.

Jim is in his second year studying history and sociology, he began rowing at Manchester in his first year and has decided to give something back to the club by teaching the new wave of rowers all he has to offer. After those first 10 minutes are up Jim intends to encourage and inspire his novices to new heights with his charming personality and malleable face.

Tom learnt to row at Northwich rowing club, before joining MUBC in his first year. He is now in his third year studying mathematics and was played by Steven Segal in the 2009 direct to DVD biopic “A Dangerous Man”, so has a vast wealth of knowledge to pass on to this year’s novice squad.

Megan Townsend and Ellie Higg

Novice Women’s Vice Captain

Our two novice women’s vice captains are Ellie Higg and Megan Townsend.

More commonly known as Sharapova for strictly anatomical reasons, Megan “studies” History of Art and likes to spend her spare time taking breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Ellie is a driven performer which has resulted in a fierce and bitter rivalry between her and the Novice Women’s Captain, both of them striving to be the best lightweight in the squad. Don’t be fooled by her calm exterior, this girl is out for blood.
Both girls started rowing last year and are extremely keen to pass on their rowing knowledge to the new novice women who come in.

Georgia Critchton and Emily Cornish

PR & Fundraising Secretaries

A partnership ran for the role of Public Relations and Fundraising Secretary for this committee hoping to promote and improve the image of the club on and off campus as well as raising the much needed funds to keep MUBC competing at the highest level.

Georgia Crichton the club’s resident horse girl and started coxing in her second year. She instantly became an integral member of the club and within a few short months had aquired the position of ‘presidential jockey’. She has now decided she has had enough of the life of a cox and is coming back in her 3rd year to row for MUBC.

Emily joined MUBC in her first year and after a semester of learning the basics of rowing she was told the news that her stature would suit coxing more. She has since coxed events such as Men’s Head of the River and BUCS. It didn’t take long for her to feel like a valued member of the club and she looks forward to many more years with the boat club.

If you are interested in sponsoring the club, collaborating in future events or have any promotional ideas for the club please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

James Bennett and Emma Carter

Social Secretaries

Emma Carter and James Bennett have both been keen members of MUBC for two years; they have had a great time with the club; competing in many head races and regattas throughout their two years, not to mention the many socials they have attended.

That is where their job comes in; as social secretaries they are responsible for organising all the social events you’ll attend, from the welcome curry at the start of the year, to the end of year ball with our alumni, Nemesis and everything inbetween. They’ll aspire to do you justice in the fancy dress department at the infamous AU socials regularly throughout the year and make sure you have a great time with MUBC.

By her own admission Emma absolutely loves roosters, often saying she ‘can’t get enough’, whilst James is a die hard Bristol Rovers fan and was devastated at their relegation last season.

 Felix Chapman

Training Camp Secretary

Felix Chapman is the committee member in charge of organising training camp this year, he learnt to row at Eton College then went onto study at Bristol university.

After 2 years rowing and studying engineering at Bristol he decided that he would rather save lives than build bridges and now finds himself studying as one of many Manchester medics who row for the boat club. During his many years rowing he has been on many training camps and has a wealth of knowledge about the sport.

Jonah Jones, Ben Adey Johnson, Ben Coverdale and Sam Thornton

Boatmen

For the 2014/15 committee four members of the club ran for Boatman together in the hope that they’d be able to run the club whilst not actually being in a position of authority, as well as the kit that comes with the position.

Ben Coverdale, Sam Thornton, Benedict Adey-Johnson and Jonah Jones are all experienced rowers and long time members of the club. Their aim is to maintain the fleet whilst also taking others under their wing teaching them zen and the art of racing shell maintenance.

All the members of team boatman are friendly, approachable and will readily help you with your problems or questions, except before and after outings where the boatman species can be easily aggravated and bad tempered.