The Club's Results

Our first outing as a crew, so perhaps predictably bad. Terribly tense, angry and rushed all the way down the course, so it's no surprise City gradually moved through us. (Penelope)

We did a few practise starts after elizabeth way road bridge, and then we marshalled and raced, we rowed alright, so not a bad effort. (S.J. Lings)

We rowed terribly, but somehow managed to beat them (S.J. Lings)

oh how much better they were than us... we just gunned it and stayed ahead, just :) (Lorry)

Our beautiful style of just get the blade in and jump on it seemed to work, though seeing them paddling after the finish put us to shame a bit.

As Lingo said, ''I feel bad beating technically better crews''. (Martin Y)

we rowed terribly, there was a swan, we lost. (S.J. Lings)

give us a week in a four and we'd have them (Lorry)

Gave them a damn good run for their money, a practice outing in the iv+ and I'm fairly sure it would have been a damn sight closer. (Martin Y)

We rowed very badly indeed, but our power advantage over the other crews was sufficient to retain the title. (Tom C)

How could you, guys, honestly. They are only kids! (Pia)

This was by far the best race, kept the rate at an effective 39 despite the headwind slowing the catches. I guess this was because they were built like coat hangers and losing would have been too embarrassing. (Tom C)

We had the inside of the bend and hence started half a length down. We made up that distance in the first 100 meters or so and held them at roughly that distance for the rest of the race, not counting the premature wind-down from Tom. (James)

The other boat -- guys who would be in the 1st/2nd VIII if they weren't playing darts so much, ahem ahem -- took us off the start by half a length or so, as befit their weight advantage. We then made that distance back again over the next 150 meters or so, and held that distance for the rest of the way. The course, you see, was not damn straight. We then had a nominal wind past the FaT boathouse to head for the finish, but instead of speed, the general theme for that was spackiness.

Shocking quality at the high rates, though given the quality of some of our paddling, I reckon we could be decent with some practice.

We also performed the mandatory thunderbirds past the City boathouse as the hail quickly approached. We then conspired to dunk Dan Newton in the river, resulting in him, me, and Pedro all getting soaked. Ab fab.

Get back on it! Gotta get back on it! (insert dance here) (James)

We'd won the race before it started by simply having more fun than the opposition. Indeed, they were looking pretty bored while marshalling, whereas we quietly acted out an entire blackadder episode, and despite Dan's volcanic enthusiasm he only shouted one line loud enough for them to enjoy. The race was really fun for us, the bladework amusing and the power exhilarating, they just looked like sore losers. And finally we had the most fun cos we got to drink our free beer in pewter. (Tom C)