Mansfield College Boat Club

Mansfield College Boat Club

Mansfield College Boat Club (commonly abbreviated to MCBC) is a rowing club for members of Mansfield College, Oxford. It was founded in 1965 by a group of students led by Michael Mahoney, later College Dean. It is run by the Boat Club committee, which is elected annually by members of the Mansfield College student body. It is affiliated to Oxford University Rowing Clubs (OURCs).

MCBC currently shares a club room and boat storage space with St Hilda's College Boat Club at the Longbridges boathouse, which opened in April 1997.

On July 4, 2005 Longbridges boathouse was hit by an arson attack which destroyed most of the equipment owned by MCBC. However thanks to the efforts of the committee, the college and the generosity of alumni, the club was able to replace old equipment with newer boats and two new sets of blades.

The club always fields a Men's First VIII and a Women's First VIII in the annual inter-collegiate Torpids and Summer VIIIs bumps racing competitions. As a new entrant, initially placed at the bottom of the rankings, the club achieved several years of regular success in the 1960s and 1970s as it slowly worked its way up through weaker boats to reach its natural level. In May 2008 the club achieved its highest positions in Summer VIIIs to date, with the Men's First VIII gaining 11th place in Division Two (equalling the peak reached by the Men's First VIII in 2004) and with the Women's First VIII reaching second place in Division Three (winning blades for the second year running in the process). In 2009 the Women's First VIII won blades again with a crew featuring three university level 'blues' rowers and are now the 10th crew in Division Two. The presence of three 'blues' in one boat was unprecedented in Mansfield's Boat Club history, and goes some way to proving the oft repeated notion that Mansfield College punches above its weight at inter-collegiate sport. The club also usually fields a Men's Second VIII and a Women's Second VIII. The Men's Second boat won 'blades' in the 2009 Summer Eights which was a considerable achievement.

The most famous alumnus of MCBC is Donald MacDonald, who was President of Oxford University Boat Club in the mutiny year of 1987, the events of which received considerable publicity in the book True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny and the film True Blue.

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