Torpids

"Torpids is latin for big arguement" said Matt Urhammer of Exeter College and a fellow MBA student, just after the St. Hugh's mens boat was caught in a pileup of half a dozen boats. The bigger the arguement, the more the fun of the event.

Torpids are an Oxford tradition that goes back more years than anyone can remember and in true Oxford style, the rules are nothing short of ridiculous. As far as I can tell, the point of torpids is to "bump" the boat in front of you in the race before they bump the boat in front of them. And by bump, we literally mean touch the other boat with your boat. How crazy is that?

Of course, everyone goes out to watch the fun.

The girls boat did much better, naturally, as they had our very own Kate on the boat. They bumped after the first corner and are on to the next stage. Go St. Hugh's!

News just in: Using photographic evidence taken by Jason (on the MBA program) the St. Hugh's mens team managed to appeal and win the decision that they had bumped Exeter before the pileup occured.

This means that both the men and womens boats will be rowing for blades today - both being chased or chasing Exeter. A fantastic achievement, and one which almost never happens. Well done team!

PPS. Both our mens and womens teams won their blades on Saturday. Very well done.