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Message board > Members' Opinion Polls > Members' poll: Who should be in the Fairbairn VIII?

Who should be in the Fairbairn VIII?

Everyone knows how difficult the captain's job is. We can make it easier for him by democratically selecting the Fairbairn VIII. You should pick 8 rowers and a cox (unless you have a radical new strategy). Bear in mind availibility and motivation issues.

Bullock		0%

Byrne		24%

Chamberlain		84%

Clouting		24%

Coker		49%

Colvin		35%

Dunleavy		5%

Holland		86%

Ingram		57%

Koryczan		14%

Lea-Cox		54%

Miller		8%

Milos		41%

Minch-Dixon		5%

Noble-Nesbitt		0%

Mycroft		32%

Peacock		49%

Sankey		16%

Silvey		27%

Thorne		65%

Walker		19%

Duan		16%

Earl		41%

Munro		30%

Wong		11%

Fisher		27%

Total: 37 members' votes

by mjb - Sun 9th Nov 2003, 6:46pm

I think that this should be an important part of the crew selection process. The top 8 rowers should be forced to row together whether they like it or not.

by Dubya - Sun 9th Nov 2003, 7:12pm

It's like 'ask the audience' option in "Who Wants to Be Boat Club Captain (and win a Million Pounds)"?

The 30 most recent of the 52 remaining posts in this thread are shown below
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by Ingram - Tue 11th Nov 2003, 6:25pm
I put the coxes at the bottom presuming that the resetting of the alphabetical order would be obvious and people would choose 8 from the top and 1 from the bottom. I agree that I should have put Earl in twice, however I doubt there are any others with cox and rower votes

by mjb - Tue 11th Nov 2003, 6:32pm
Of course this is based on the premise that people have only voted for one cox. If, for example, a short blonde cox with a track record of breaking polls were to vote for all the coxes at the same time ...

by Sarah - Wed 12th Nov 2003, 11:37am
<i>presuming that the resetting of the alphabetical order would be obvious/i> so why is Fisher at the bottom of the list then? is he some sort of 'other' category? coach? bank party? cheerleader?

by Mike - Wed 12th Nov 2003, 12:11pm
Sarah said: so why is Fisher at the bottom of the list then? is he some sort of 'other' category? coach? bank party? cheerleader? Clearly that's a vote for a combined bank party of Graham and Al...

by Ingers - Wed 12th Nov 2003, 1:55pm
I make the total percentage 795 which means that lots of people have failed to pick 9 people. Now, we know that short people from oxford have no idea how to read instructions/count but are there others in ourt midst? Or do people believe that the patented Oxford Brookes strategy of racing with just 7 rowers is the way forward?

by Andy - Wed 12th Nov 2003, 2:04pm
It's the new radical 8- No more putting up with that bundle of noise in the back of the boat :-)

by Martin - Wed 12th Nov 2003, 2:28pm
Ingers said: I make the total percentage 795 which means that lots of people have failed to pick 9 people. All the percentages are rounded down, but of course this doesn't explain the size of the discrepancy. I calculate we are 30 votes short of the expected 288 - equivalent to 8.06 each. That said, we seem to be doing better than some!

by RTT - Wed 12th Nov 2003, 2:48pm
It seems the women are doing better than the men at counting. Eight women have registered 66 votes, an average of 8.25 each. Twenty four men have registered 192 votes, an average of 8 each. So women are better at following instructions. Please would any women reading this come and do my ironing. However, there have been eleven votes by women for coxes, and thus we can conclude that it is some of them that want to see Dubya rowing.

by confused - Wed 12th Nov 2003, 3:38pm
are the women the little white things, and men gold??

by Martin - Wed 12th Nov 2003, 4:03pm
confused said: are the women the little white things, and men gold?? Yes. You are right in thinking it doesn't really say this anywhere (sorry!) - though there is something of an explanation to be found in the comments of the first (maggie) poll. Looks like Dubya needs to get dieting!

by Andy - Wed 12th Nov 2003, 4:26pm
Does this mean we have to do a poll on crew order now?

by Simon - Thu 13th Nov 2003, 9:25am
[buftying]I didn't vote for 9 people because, frankly, there aren't 9 people good enough. In my day, you had to pull a 5:40 ergo to get in the Fairbairn crew and it was considered a warm up for the Olympic selection. And then, after the race, we'd row back at firm pressure as well... [seriously]I don't know enough about all of the people on the list, couldn't be bothered to look, so just chose a few.

by Simon - Thu 13th Nov 2003, 12:07pm
Mike said: Clearly that's a vote for a combined bank party of Graham and Al... Or indeed for a special appearance by the teacher/headmaster from Home & Away.

by becca - Thu 13th Nov 2003, 2:41pm
Ingers said: I make the total percentage 795 which means that lots of people have failed to pick 9 people. Now, we know that short people from oxford have no idea how to read instructions/count but are there others in ourt midst? Or do people believe that the patented Oxford Brookes strategy of racing with just 7 rowers is the way forward? I know you're referring to Esther here, but I am short and also from oxford. i did only pick 4 people though. I am being coached by a Brookes rower at present, although I hadn't heard of this patented strategy, I simply didn't like the idea of any of the rest.....

by Dubya - Thu 13th Nov 2003, 5:02pm
Simon: in your day people were getting into the Fairbairn VIII with 7:10 ergos routinely because people like you weren't rowing ;)

by Simon - Thu 13th Nov 2003, 5:53pm
Dubya said: Simon: in your day people were getting into the Fairbairn VIII with 7:10 ergos routinely because people like you weren't rowing ;) Worse than that: Graham got in with 7:25 in the term I didn't row becase I was taking driving lessons (as the boat club captain had been critical of people who were having to miss outings because of driving lessons the term before, I felt that this was valid). On the other hand, my debut as a coach hopefully contributed towards the 2nd novices who came 11th (and 2nd in the 2nd 8 division) In my fourth year I didn't want my knee to screw up and have to miss Lents again, although a fat lot of good that did in hindsight...

by gf - Thu 13th Nov 2003, 6:09pm
Graham got in with 7:25 Not sure it was quite that quick!

by stroke of that boat - Thu 13th Nov 2003, 11:26pm
I think it was a rather comedy 7:27 which translates into a 1:52 split average(!) but I think the standard deviation of the split was probably pretty similar. It should be pointed out that Fisher took the 7 seat in the end but, if I remember rightly we did come 4th though.

by Sarah - Fri 14th Nov 2003, 11:02am
erm, 5th actually Stroke of that boat's own member record Mich Term 1st men's VIII at str Fairbairn Cup (Senior VIIIs): 14:42.54 5th of 52 men's VIIIs your poor webpeople work hard to provide you with access to all these lovely facts and you rely on your own (obviously failing) memories... shame on you..

by Sarah - Fri 14th Nov 2003, 11:22am
Or do people believe that the patented Oxford Brookes strategy of racing with just 7 rowers is the way forward? I think they are refering to the comedy incident at BUSA last year where there were a few Brookes rowers doubling up between the four and the eight. Having just win gold in the four they were running to boat for the eight, one man was lagging behind (possibly saving his energy for the race coming up?) and the boating marshal told the cox that they had to boat - last man didn't make it into the boat, so they rowed off with 7 men - and took the silver (only 2 seconds behind UL). Reported comment to the marshal - 'thanks for that, would have been gold without you, but we're happy with silver' gutted if you were in the other boats I guess! I heard this verbally from someone who knew someone in the boat, so it is likely to have mistakes...

by Mike - Fri 14th Nov 2003, 11:24am
Sarah said: erm, 5th actually But 4th college crew. Getting beaten by a bunch of ringers from the Engineering department doesn't count. Results here

by Simon - Fri 14th Nov 2003, 11:51am
Has anyone checked to see the top 8 people chosen are an even match of stroke and bowsiders? (I would, but I wouldn't know.)

by mjb - Fri 14th Nov 2003, 2:27pm
Simon said: Has anyone checked to see the top 8 people chosen are an even match of stroke and bowsiders? (I would, but I wouldn't know.) With the three front-runners being multi-talented people who can row on either side, it seems like a valid VIII could be made up quite easily.

by Dubya - Fri 14th Nov 2003, 3:51pm
Gregor should be afraid, I might edge him out of the top 8 before the poll closes! But: as a rower or a cox?

by AHLF - Sat 15th Nov 2003, 2:14pm
Why am I included in this poll? Having not been in a senior boat this term (or indeed for the last six months) and having no desire to ruin my back again, I think my candidacy for cox of the Fairbairn VIII is perhaps slightly ill-thought-out. It could be that this is because I am a member of mms, though that is for purely social reasons... ;)

by Dubya - Sat 15th Nov 2003, 5:00pm
Apart from being conned into subbing into an eights outing yesterday I have been similarly uninvolved, yet I seem to be leading the coxes... hm... they should put harvard girl in the list and we can all vote for her!

by dw229 - Sun 16th Nov 2003, 4:25pm
A question about the Winter Head: Why did the 1st VIII use macons? Is it an attempt to psych-out the opposition?

by mjb - Sun 16th Nov 2003, 5:59pm
dw229 said: Why did the 1st VIII use macons? Because we row like novices ??

by Dubya - Sun 16th Nov 2003, 11:49pm
Time to bin that Attitude...

by RTT - Mon 17th Nov 2003, 8:56am
So, can we confirm the line up as Holland, Chambers, Thorne, Ingers, Lea-Cox, Peacock, Coker and Milos, with Earl coxing?