It was excellent to host over 160 current and former First and Third members and their guests for the Trinity College First and Third Trinity Boat Club Association (TF & TBCA)  Biennial Dinner, almost four years to the day since the last such event.

This year’s dinner was held in honour of Peter Brandt (1951) – Olympic oarsman, double Henley champion, Captain, Mays Coach for many years and President – who died in April this year.

The event began at the First and Third’s boathouse for a naming ceremony, 8 crews then took to the river in the September sunshine. This was followed by a drinks reception and group photo in Nevile’s Court. A high-resolution version is available to be downloaded here.

Alumni, Guests, Fellows and Students were welcomed into Dinner by TF & TBCA President Tony Pooley (1964). After an Autumnal Feast, wonderful reflections on Peter’s life were shared by Peter’s brother Denis and son Edward Brandt. Captains, Luke Barratt (2018), Laila Dell’Anno (2019), George Mears (2019) and Matilda Watts (2020) provided reviews of the past years on and off the river.

At the end of the excellent dinner provided by College Catering, Tony Pooley toasted King Charles III, also an alumnus of Trinity, and Peter Brandt, and mentioned the Boat Club’s Bicentenary in 2025.

Trinity’s Alumni Relations and Development Office will lead a Bicentennial Appeal focussed on the increasingly important 1st & 3rd Coaching Fund established in 2017 by Sir Dominic Cadbury from the estate of his late brother Joss Cadbury, stroke of the successful 1967 Lent, May and Henley crews. Peter Brandt’s coaching of 1st & 3rd for three decades makes this focus on coaching particularly appropriate.

The evening was rounded off with a post-dinner drink or two in the College Bar.

If any former members do not currently receive information about TF & TBCA events and would like to do so, please contact Alumni Relations here.