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New College Boat Club
British rowing club in Oxford From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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New College Boat Club (NCBC) is the rowing club for members of New College, Oxford. The club's existence can be dated to 1840 when it first raced on The Isis in Oxford.[1]
The club shares a boathouse on The Isis (part of the Thames) with Balliol College Boat Club, as well as using boat racks at Godstow for the Men's and Women's first boats.
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History
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Partly due to the college's status as one of the smallest colleges in Oxford and its disproportionately small number of undergraduates, New College's initial presence and performance in college bumps racing was poor. Their first recorded Eights campaign in 1840 started and ended at the bottom of the bumps chart ('footship'), and involved several days where the college failed to put out a crew. Following this, New entered a boat in just two of the following 23 years of Eights, despite a rule that permitted them and other weaker colleges to form composite crews.
An improvement occurred in the late 1860s, as after decades of sporadic entries, New College entered crews for every Eights campaign from 1864 to 1867 and 1869 onwards. Their fortunes were initially somewhat erratic: the club might fall or rise as much as seven spots in a given year (Eights consisted of eight days of racing until 1878 and six days thereafter). However, a rapid ascent in the Torpids chart from footship in 1875 to headship in 1882 indicated the club's changing fortunes. A few years later, Eights performance also stabilised at a high level, when NCBC climbed to third place for the first time.
1885 proved to be a watershed, after which the club enjoyed prominence at or near the top of the Eights table for decades: 1887 marked New College's first headship, one of several over the following years, with the club often staying at the Head of the River for several years at a time, as occurred from 1896 to 1899 and 1911 to 1913. From 1886 to 1922, New College always placed third or better in Eights.
A key feature of the pre-war era was the development of an intense rivalry with Magdalen College. Magdalen, like New, finished in the top three at Eights without fail from 1886 to 1913: in each year, the clubs raced from adjacent bunglines and either threatened or achieved a bump on each other. Given their unparalleled dominance (the remaining spot in the top three was held by several different colleges over this period), it was natural that a 1900 account referred to the two colleges as ‘the two great rivals of later days’.[2] This sporting enmity was later cemented in the Stockholm Olympics incident of 1912.[1]
The 1912 Stockholm Olympics
The New College Boat Club represented Great Britain at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm and won the silver medal in the men's eight.[3]
The two British crews - New College, and a Leander Club boat largely drawn from Magdalen College, Oxford - were the favourites for gold so started at opposite ends of the draw. They both worked up through the competition to make the final.
According to New College records, the final featured controversy over lane choice. The course in Stockholm was not straight, and one of the two lanes was clearly favoured, the other requiring the cox to steer around a protruding boathouse and then back under a bridge. Before the final, the two British captains met to toss for lanes. New College won the toss and following gentlemanly tradition offered the choice of lanes to their opponents, who would - in a gentlemanly fashion - refuse this offer. However the Leander/Magdalen College captain accepted this offer and chose the better lane. Leander went on to win the gold medal, leaving New College with the silver.[4]
According to New College tradition, King Gustav V of Sweden was so disheartened by this display of ungentlemanly conduct that, as a consolation, he presented his colours to New College; ever since then, New College have raced in purple and gold, the colours of the royal house of Sweden.[clarification needed] A further tradition has been the adoption of the toast: 'God Damn Bloody Magdalen!', the supposed words of the New College stroke Robert Bourne as they crossed the line. The abbreviation GDBM has been used commonly ever since, and is still on bottom of the NCBC letterhead.[4]
Henley Royal Regatta
The club has won four events at Henley Royal Regatta in its history.
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Torpids
In 2025, the women's first VIII climbed four places, bumping Jesus, L.M.H., Trinity and Magdalen to finish 10th in Torpids, while the men's first VIII climbed one place and finished 9th. The men's and women's second boats are in Division 4, placing 4th and 7th respectively. The club qualified four men’s and three women’s boats, making NCBC the joint largest club on the river.
Eights
In 2025 the club qualified seven crews for Summer Eights, the second most of any club on the river. The men's first VIII climbed three places to 7th and the women's first VIII climbed one place to 12th. The men's second boat finished 12th in Division 3, while the women's second boat climbed two places to finish 4th in Division 5.[5]
External Races
In February 2025, a composite of the men's first and second Torpids crews came 1st at Hammersmith Head in the Open 8+ Development category.[6] In March 2025, the women's first eight competed at WEHoRR, coming 2nd of 7 Oxford college crews.[7]
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A number of members of New College have gone on to row for the University.[1]
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