The Club's Results

After about 90 seconds, and for no obvious reason, LMBC III mounted the bank (the meadow-side, just past the outflow) in a painstakingly deliberate manoeuvre with more instalments than a Didier Drogba dive. Extraordinary (I would say "lolmaggie" but I'm a bit old for that - perhaps someone could oblige).

One member of this crew (despite naturally having obeyed the "ten outings" rule) had done "a bit of sculling at school several years ago" and precisely one tubbing session's worth of sweep rowing, yet fitted in seamlessly and contributed to a very solid row all round. I don't think I can adequately convey how impressed I was with this. (Neil T)

I don't think being 19 counts as 'old' in this sense, so: lolmaggie (Rebecca)

Not much to say here really - a late drop-out and futile attempts to find a sub meant we had to scratch. Hopefully we'll race tomorrow; given their easy ride so far (bumping a crashed Maggie boat on the first day), Anglia Ruskin W2 deserve a decent chase. Hopefully, having not yet made it even close to the motorway bridge, their fitness will be lacking and their egos will be overinflated. (Rebecca)

There was not much the crew could have done about the result today. Catz II were quite a quick crew for their position on the river and moved up very quickly from the start to make contact at the Motorway Bridge. (Richard)

Anglia Ruskin were slow, we were quick, Catz were quicker. (Rebecca)

A gutsy start but unfortunately Christ's W3 were faster. However, although we have been bumped down three times (and although things probably would have been different if we could have rowed on Wednesday), I think we can still call this a successful bumps campaign, as
a) We are the second fastest W3 on the river
b) We are the best ever Lents FaT W3
c) We didn't get spoons
These are all things to be proud of, so well done girls! (Rebecca)

Almost an action replay of yesterday. Christ's moved up rapidly to make contact just before the motorway bridge. It's disappointing not to finish the week as top W3 crew, but at least they're higher than Maggie W3! (Richard)

Excellent work girls - for a start it's brilliant to have a FaT W3 in Lents and not finishing arse of the river is a massive win... not that I didn't have a ball doing so :) Definitely a sign of bigger and better things to come. (Charley)

A combination of wind and some, shall we say, "controversial" positioning led us straight into the bank by the third wind stroke. We managed to pull back and hold Christ's off at 1/4 length for what seemed like eternity, before they finally went for the bump just after the motorway bridge. It was a good row and I couldn't be prouder of us all for coping so well with what was just bad luck. Let's do it double tomorrow :D (Kristina)

I agree with Kristina - there are plenty of positives that we can take out of today's row, even though obviously we're pretty disappointed. We managed to hold off Christ's for quite a while as they never went in for the kill, which bodes well for tomorrow. We never really found our proper rhythm, but what we had felt OK from where I was, not too rushed, and we pulled together nicely for a decent push under the motorway bridge. The less said about the start the better - these things happen so we need to refocus and get ready to bump tomorrow! (Charley)

See you tomorrow Christ! (Alex)

I feel I probably should apologise to the crew for this one. The wind caught the bows and the chain went taut, skewing us round a bit. We ended up pointing a little towards the far bank and in trying to get round, we clipped strokeside blades on the foliage. After we were back together, Christ's had their first whistle, and closed on us going into the first corner. The gap closed to a few feet round the corner, but the girls pulled it together well to push off them for a while. We were finally hit just beyond the gunsheds. Disappointing for me in mucking up the push-off - especially given that Emma III ahead were potentially bumpable. Sorry, girls (Richard)

Looked pretty neat coming past first post corner! (Dubya)

Once again disappointed not to have cracked this Bumps thing but still a row to be proud of :) A MUCH better start than yesterday (i.e. rowing in water, not grass!) saw us gain a bit on Christs II, although they unfortunately pulled away and bumped Emma III pretty quickly, leaving us an almost clear river to just keep going...and going. Rowing over is a world of pain, especially in such horrific conditions, but we sat up well into the wind and kept it together for a strong and committed row. The rhythm went a bit towards the end, but luckily Pembroke IV spacked it up by going into a barge, and even though we were told to pull over before the race actually finished we held them off no trouble. I can feel our first ever bump coming on on Friday...please! (Charley)

A decent push out this time, and the girls got a better start than yesterday. Christ's II ahead got a bit away from us as we settled - and went on to get the bump on Emma III pretty early on. Meanwhile, the 12 crews ahead of Emma also bumped out pretty early on. We had no-one to chase!

It seemed that most of these bumping crews seemed to bump out on 1st post corner - Sarah's coxing to avoid this obstacle course was excellent.

Going around Grassy, Pembroke seem to head for the Ditton bank and hit a barge. We settled into a nice lower-rate row to take it home. Unfortunately, the incredible wind in the reach seemed to take our bows out a bit wide and we had some blades get close to the far bank. We pushed off, but seemed then to head to the near bank - again catching blades on the bank. Pembroke, however, were still nowhere to be seen - we eventually got moving again and paddled the 50-100m or so to the lower finish to row over.

Anyway, a better result than on Tuesday, hopefully the girls'll be able to bump Emma III when they next race on Friday - and apparently the weather is expected to be better as well! (Richard)

OK, so we have to bump Emma III, because I don't want to row all that way again... 40 mile/hr winds suck! We did awesome girls... (Narelle)

Awesome row over today girls, but please please go make them pay tomorrrow. Shame about the re-row - I think you would have got them if you hadn't stopped. Chins up, go out and kill them tomorrow (Fran)

Rowed over...again! Our first start was pretty good but then Clare Hall spacked it up by ending up horizontal under the railway bridge, so a restart was in order. We never really seemed to get it together today, I think we lost our focus a bit after stopping and starting, and although it did the job it wasn't our best row by far, not helped by my knee blowing out half way along the gut which threw me and the rhythm a bit. But tomorrow's the last day so we'll throw everything we have at Emma, although we're prepared for another row-over, hopefully getting-on-race stylee this time! (Charley)

Arse of the river! And a pretty damn fine arse as Alex pointed out. I know I wasn't the only one to end up in tears after this one, as we really thought we had the bump or row-over in us, but it just wasn't meant to be this time. Although as several people have said, just getting on was our bump and a historic achievement that we should be really proud of. I've had such an amazing time this week, you girls have made rowing so much fun, as proven when we had to row back partly as bow 6 because I was laughing too hard to row! Thankyou for such an awesome term, I'll miss the sausages and the banter, but bring on the stash!!! And thankyou to the wLBCs, Neil, Erica and everyone else who has coached/supported us this term, we couldn't have done it without u guys :) (Charley)