The Sculloars IV circa 1958. Left to Right: Bill Simmons, Phil Archer, Marcus Champ, Robert Herbertson, and Paul Marriott. Must look up the official school rowing photos to check the year. During term, we used to run down to the river from the MCS site at The Plain, via Iffley Road, turn first right down the unmade-up road on the south side of the Iffley Road running track, then left along the muddy lane at the back of the Iffley Road houses as far as Donnington Bridge (then a footbridge) and the boat house was right there, beside the bridge. However Sculloars rowing was mainly during school holidays, so we may well have come for this training session on our bikes from home.
Bill lived in Iffley, Robert in (or towards - I never went to his home), north-Oxford, and Paul (perhaps) Iffley also. Where Marcus lived, I just don’t know. Perhaps Cowley? At one time he had a large beautiful blue Triumph (350cc? 500cc?) motorcycle, on which he once gave me a ride up Donnington Bridge Road (between Donnington footbridge and the Cowley Road). It went rather well. Sadly, Marcus died in (approximately) the early 2000s. A real character who could do a very realistic rock-star take-off. He was a good cox. And a splendid example of the wonderful mix at MCS in its Direct Grant School days (1940s/50s/60s) of town and gown, of ordinary mortals (including me), and academia.
So, at ‘City’ boathouse, we rented one or two boat racks for the boats we used. And all our Sculloars racing at that time was in fours. So, we used a IV kept at City boathouse.. Not sure if it was ours (owned by MCS) or not. I think not.
This was the crew which won the City Bumping Races that September. Will scan and display the medal we won for that achievement! We also won the School Fours event at the Serpentine in 1958/9/60, as I say elsewhere on this site. Will exhibit the silver mugs we won.
I suppose this was, in many ways, the best of my rowing achievements. About 57 years ago as I type this caption on 6.2.17. Afterwards I did a little rowing at UMIST in Manchester, and at Teddy Hall when I came back to Oxford in 1964/5 to do a Dip-Ed, and was offered a seat in the Teddy Hall 2nd VIII in Trinity Tern 1965, when they may well have done very well in the Ladies Plate at Henley, but I had to turn it down as it would have meant missing much of that term’s lectures and exams, as the crew trained at Henley, Heigh-ho. My last big chance in sport. None of our MCS crews in those days got a Blue for rowing at Oxford or Cambridge, though Mark Gallop won the Ladies Plate at Henley, I recollect, at Lady Margaret Hall, Cambridge, in about 1960, which was (to me, then) a very great achievement.