Churchill College Boat Club is the rowing club for members of Churchill College, Cambridge.
The club colours are pink and brown, chosen as they are Sir Winston Churchill's racing colours. In recent years, the club has become famous for its lurid pink shells. The men's 1st VIII started the trend in 2002, with the women taking delivery of their own in 2006. The trend has continued to the extent that the club now has a pink double. The women also sport pink splashtops and lycra in the summer months.
Churchill College shares an unattractive but practical boat house with Selwyn, King's, and The Leys School[1]. The boat house is the farthest downstream of all the College boathouses, which is a natural advantage for early morning outings.
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The men's boat club was founded in 1961, following a remark during the Lent Bumps of that year that a college was not really a College until it was on the River. Frank Maine and Ed Markham lead the effort to get the club on the river, under guidance from Canon Noel Duckworth, the first chaplain at the college. The boat of postgraduates used the as yet unheard of training time of 6am-9am on weekday mornings, when the river was deserted. The 1st boat started the May bumps in the seventh division in 1961, bumping twice before being stopped by carnage on the third day, and being bumped themselves on the last. Following a successful Lent Bumps in 1962, the Churchill 1st VIII were repositioned up into the 3rd division for the May Bumps of the same year.
By the early 1970s, the men's 1st VIII had risen to the 1st division of the Lent and May Bumps but found itself back in the 2nd division by the end of the decade. It achieved its highest ever position at 5th in the Lent Bumps in 1998. In 2006, the crew rose to 6th place in the May Bumps, an all-time high for that competition.
The women's boat club took part in the very first women's bumps in 1974, racing in fours until 1989. The 1st women's VIII took the headship of the Lent Bumps in 1984 and currently reside in the 1st division. In the May Bumps, Churchill have held the headship a total of 6 times, more than any other women's boat club − 1978, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1990, although only the latter when the races were held in eight-oared boats. Since then, Churchill have been roughly in the middle of the 1st division. Between 1985 and 1987, Churchill finished Head of the Mays on 12 consecutive days − the longest ever continuous defence of the women's Mays Headship.
Churchill Women won the 'College A' event at the inaugural Henley Women's Regatta in 1988, and again in 1990.[2] Churchill Men last qualified for the Temple Challenge Cup in 1996 at Henley Royal Regatta, progressing to the second round.
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