Pulling together: family unity at Caius Boat Club
- 20 June 2025
- 4 minutes
精东影业 College鈥檚 Boat Club has played a crucial role both in and beyond the student experiences of Tom (Medicine 1994), Emma (Biological Sciences MPhil 1997) and Jamie (English 2023) Fardon.
Before coming to Caius, both Tom and Emma (n茅e Crawford) were aware of the significance of rowing at the University of Cambridge, but neither imagined that they would one day be captains in their College鈥檚 boat club.
Having grown up in West Yorkshire with little context of the culture and structure of rowing at Cambridge, Tom was pleasantly surprised by the inclusive nature of Caius Boat Club (CBC). Taking up the sport in his first Easter Term, he was rapidly engrossed, and CBC became the focal point of his social life as he worked his way up from a complete beginner to Captain of Boats for the academic year 1997-98. He even admits that continuing to row for Caius was the primary motivation for his decision to stay and do his clinical training at Addenbrooke鈥檚 Hospital in Cambridge.
Emma grew up in Salisbury, which is built around five rivers, and fondly remembers her time renting out small rowing boats from a local pub called the Boathouse. Upon arriving at Caius, she, like Tom, found CBC to be highly accessible and friendly, and it provided a strong source of emotional support throughout her MPhil. It was also through CBC that Emma and Tom first met and began their relationship.
In 2000, while Emma was Women鈥檚 Captain, CBC became the first Cambridge boat club ever to achieve a double headship in the May Bumps 鈥 a feat which no other college has yet matched. As CBC鈥檚 men had been Head of the River since 1998 and the women had been increasingly successful throughout the 1990s, Emma felt that the double headship had 鈥渁 sense of destiny about it鈥.
She says: 鈥淚t was always in our game plan on the women鈥檚 side because we felt it was within our grasp. It was a bit of a given that the men were going to retain the headship, and there was a degree of pressure on me as Women鈥檚 Captain to steer things. But we just did the very best we could all the time and hoped that it would work out. And, as it turned out, it did.鈥
Tom attributes CBC鈥檚 increasing success in the Bumps throughout the 1990s to the club鈥檚 culture. He says: 鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 happen by accident; it鈥檚 an attitude within the club. It鈥檚 nurturing, supporting, welcoming in novices and giving people opportunities to row in whatever boat provides them with some joy and support.鈥
Tom and Emma鈥檚 son Jamie is now also a student at Caius and rows for the College, as well as serving as a Social Secretary for Caius Boat Club. Jamie did not feel any pressure to follow in his parents鈥 footsteps and apply to Caius but was attracted by the beauty of its Library, its central location and the familiarity it offered owing to his family connection.
Likewise, Jamie did not feel forced into rowing but is glad to continue the family tradition He says: 鈥淕rowing up, it wasn鈥檛 thrust on me, and if I had decided not to row I don鈥檛 think there would have been much uproar. But it鈥檚 nice to be able to have people to talk to about rowing 鈥 people who have been through the whole thing, have hindsight and are able to give good advice. The best part is that I get to bring my parents down during Bumps. They get to reconnect with the club, and the club really loves them.鈥
Visiting Cambridge from their home in Dundee to watch Jamie鈥檚 participation in CBC offered the perfect opportunity for Tom and Emma to become more involved again. Although they had always maintained a strong interest and supported the club as benefactors, they now began attending races and the Boat Club dinner, and helped out with last year鈥檚 May Bumps, when Tom pushed off the M2 boat. The couple have found reconnecting with CBC highly enjoyable.
Tom says: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a real privilege to share the experience again 鈥 the apprehension of the four-minute gun, the panic, the joy of bumping, the disappointment of being bumped, the pain, the agony, the jubilation, all of it. 25 years has passed, but it鈥檚 all so familiar to me, it feels like home.鈥
To mark the 25th anniversary of the double headship, Tom and Emma are planning a celebratory reunion this year for both the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 crews from 2000.