First and Third Trinity Boat Club
| First and Third Trinity Boat Club | |
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| Location | Cambridge |
| Coordinates | 52°12′41.28″N 0°7′48.78″E / 52.2114667°N 0.1302167°ECoordinates: 52°12′41.28″N 0°7′48.78″E / 52.2114667°N 0.1302167°E |
| Home water | River Cam |
| Founded | 1825 |
| Membership | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Affiliations | British Rowing |
| Website | firstandthird |
The First and Third Trinity Boat Club is the rowing club of Trinity College in Cambridge, England. The club formally came into existence in 1946 when the First Trinity Boat Club and the Third Trinity Boat Club merged, although the 2 clubs had been rowing together for several years before that date. The first boat club associated with Trinity was formed in 1825 and came to be known as First Trinity in 1833 when the Third Trinity Boat Club was formed (a Second Trinity Boat Club was formed in 1831 but did not have a continuous existence until 1840). Membership of Third Trinity was originally confined to Old Etonians and Old Westminsters. Members of Third Trinity were allowed also to be members of First or Second Trinity and often were.
The boat club also gives its name to Trinity college's May Ball, which is the oldest such event in Cambridge and originates from the club's celebrations after the victories in the May Bumps.
In the nineteenth century the various Trinity boat clubs were very strong and regularly won events in Cambridge, at various regattas around the country, notably the Henley Royal Regatta, and regularly contributed rowers to the Cambridge boat for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Indeed, in the 1849 Boat Race, all members of the crew were from Trinity, seven from Third Trinity and two, the cox included, from First Trinity. Boats from the three clubs could often be found at, or near, the top of the Bumps and they sometimes combined their resources in races against the rest of the University.
In 1876 Second Trinity was disbanded due to insufficient members. However, a legend claims that during the Bumps in that year, the rowers of Trinity's arch-rivals, St John's College, attached a sword to the front of one of their boats such that if they successfully bumped the boat in front (which turned out to be one of Second Trinity's), it would be holed and sink. The plan supposedly worked in the sense that the Trinity boat did sink, but in the process the sword also hit and killed Second Trinity's cox, which of course wasn't intended So the legend claims that this is the reason why Second Trinity Boat Club was dissolved, and why St. John's College is no longer allowed a boat club under its own name. Though a wonderful legend, there is no traceable record of a crew from St. John's attaching a sword to their bow, and while a St John's College Boat Club was disbanded in 1876, the original boat club at St. John's was the Lady Margaret Boat Club. However, a somewhat similar incident occurred in 1888, 12 years after the dissolution of Second Trinity, after which bow balls became mandatory. In his History of the First Trinity Boat Club, Walter Rouse Ball notes: " The third day was the occasion of a sad tragedy. Clare bumped Queens', and drew into the bank by Grassy. Behind these boats was the Trinity Hall third boat. This, instead of rounding First Post Corner, ran, by some mishap, across the river, and the nose of the boat struck number 4 in the Clare boat just over his heart, killing him on the spot. The further races were at once stopped. Since this dreadful incident small india-rubber knobs have been fixed on the bows of all the racing boats". The more prosaic explanation for 2nd Trinity's demise is that membership was restricted to Theology scholars, which over time proved to be an unreliable source of oarsmen.
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