The Club's Results

With exams on the Monday, Matt didn't fancy spending 12 hours in the sun with four 2k races, and we contemplated various possible super-subs. The discussions at one point were suggesting borrowing two blues and racing Eton and Durham 1st VIIIs in Senior, but eventually we decided that was a silly idea and stuck with John as a low-pointed and more than adequate sub. Once we had un-gimped the two seat and gimped the bow seat, we meandered our way down to sit in the mess of the warm up lane.
I don't remember much about the race other than it going quite nicely to plan; the feature of note was the 4:29.9 clocking at 1500m, suggesting that staying flat out would have brought us in under 6 minutes. However, with 3 going to the final and potentially another three races for stern four, we sat a comfortable 3/4 of a length up on the rest of the field and settled for 6:03. The wind changed a little later in the day and the opportunity was no longer there in the final. (Peter)

After lounging around in a fire escape for much of the day, and watching stern four racing an Irish crew, we lined up for our final, racing for the George Hallowes Memorial Trophy.

After the flurry of the first minute, a UL crew headed the field by something over half a length, with us leading the chase. With a good display of commitment from the crew, we steadily took a few inches every stroke to row them down and narrowly lead the field entering the last 500, with UL now in second. Unfortunately, Nottingham Uni were creeping up on us relatively un-noticed, 3 lanes across by the bank. With a minute to go to the line, they produced an impressive lift and there was nothing we could do to prevent them moving from half a length down to half a length up; the surge from the whole field left UL 4th, less than a length down on the winners.

Thanks to the crew for one of the most enjoyable multi-lane races I've been in for years; just unfortunate that we didn't quite have the finish to hold on for the win. (Peter)