All race reports for Peter Ford
Event: Fairbairn Cup 1966 - Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Peter
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B M. G. Lord
2 D. R. Du Croz
3 M. J. C. Harbour
4 M. N. Dalton
5 C. W. Daws
6 J. B. L. Cadbury
7 D. F. Bowden
S J. H. Cobbe
Cox M. T. J. Fitzgerald
Event: Lent Bumps 1967 - Saturday
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Crew list: B M. G. Lord 11.5 2 D. R. Du Croz 11.6 3 D. F. Bowden 12.3 4 J. H. Cobbe 12.13 5 R. C. W. Church 12.2 6 C. W. Daws 13.1 7 H. N. Blackford 13.3 S J. B. L. Cadbury 12.6 Cox M. T. J. Fitzgerald 8.7
Event: Foster Fairbairn Pairs 1967 - Men's 2-
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M. G. Lord
D. R. Du Croz
Event: Head of the Cam 1967 - 1st division
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Bow H. N. Blackford 2 D. R. Du Croz 3 J. H. Cobbe 4 R. C. W. Church 5 C. W. Daws 6 A. H. Pooley 7 M. D. Tebay Str J. B. L. Cadbury Cox M. T. J. Fitzgerald
Event: Fairbairn Cup 2007 - Senior VIIIs
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Event: Fairbairn Cup - IVs 2007 - Senior IVs
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Event: 2nd Trinity Challenge Sculls 2008 - Shell
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Not sure the 1s I'll gain from getting a bank party next time I race and taking the corners 2-3 feet tighter will help much... might have to do some training instead.
Event: Fairbairn Junior Sculls 2008 -
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As Stutt seemed not to have fallen in in spite of my best efforts, I spannered my way down the rest of the course, the binbag having found its way to a docile resting place on the bank, and grassy providing surprisingly few close misses. As I came onto the reach, the marshal cycling with me started saying things which sounded bewilderingly like "you're on station". As this was clearly entirely impossible, I eventually realised she was saying "you're gaining." However, it seems this was probably less due to my frantic attempts to get somewhere near a respectable mid-race rating for the last 250m, and more to do with Stutt winding down. Ah well, I learnt quite a lot about how to race in a single, even if I was entirely in isolation. It seems the answer is to put my blades in the water quite often, rather than trying to get the longest possible strokes, infrequently, by half-lying down in the boat. I should probably have realised that before.
Event: Bushe-Fox Freshman's sculls 2008 -
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Thanks are due to Bryn, who definitely gained me a good few seconds, to no avail.
Event: Lent Bumps 2008 - Saturday
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That kind of row gave me a lot more confidence that we were going to be fine; otherwise my nerves might have been a bit more of a problem, with several recent crabs and my inability to get the hang of this "racing round corners" thing constantly at the back of my mind. Now onwards to the summer, where I feel Fitz maybe threatening once more... at least I'm prepared for them!
Bow: Height 5'5", Weight 10st 10, Only previous bumps finish: (vaguely illegal) bump on Wolfson in M2 the day before.
Event: Foster Fairbairn Pairs 2008 - Men's 2-
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The first kilometre seems to have mostly faded from my brain, which means it must have been quite uneventful; a good start was followed by a shock as turning round grassy was enacted in about 3 strokes. Somewhere along plough reach I was somewhat discouraged by the gentle tinkling noise of the footplate nuts falling off, and then a rather epic Ditton corner began. Sadly John chose the moment at which I no longer had a rudder (or in fact a way to push off my left foot) to mildly blow up and lose all power at the catch. In spite of Ming's crazed shouting, we nearly managed to land on the outside of the corner. Following the eventual straightening up onto the reach, we vaguely spannered our way towards the railway bridge, before John gave up at the moment Preiss finished and we drifted across the line.
On the whole, a working pair might have made the racing more comfortable, but once we'd drawn these two hope was slim. Ah well, hopefully next year I might manage to both not draw the winner in the first round of every competition I enter, and be in a position to make some kind of use of a more friendly draw.
Event: Peterborough Summer Sprint 2008 - Senior2 2-
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Anyway, onto the race. Laffan had informed me that the IC pair we were racing was going to be good, so we had to beat the Staines pair to progress. So, going off the start level with staines and a length and a half up on IC was a bit confusing. However, in the moderately choppy water I hit a wave, semi-lost control of the blade and a length disappeared. After that, IC got into their stride and powered away, just pipping Staines on the line with both finishing in 1:40s. As we guessed from the other heat times (next quickest being 1:45, 1:46, 1:49...), Staines and IC went on to win the two semis and finish first and second in the final. ah well, I seem to be good at picking bad draws this year.
Comically, when we watched the final we discovered why IC were slow off the start; the crew next to them, doing a fairly ordinary looking start, managed to get 3 draw strokes in before IC had put their blades in for the second. By about 150m in, they were rating a good 30 or so, and by the finish line they looked as if they'd just about got upto their 2k race pace and were ready to cruise, whereas the crews around them seemed to have mostly blown up with 100m to go. Had nobody told them they were coming for sprint racing?
Event: University IVs 2008 - Light IVs
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I claimed to the crew that we'd won by 7s, and it seems the timers agreed with me.
Having steered surprisingly accurately on the course, I made up for it by crashing twice within 20m of the new footbrige.
Event: Cambridge Small Boats Head 2008 - S2 2-
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The rowing was on the whole rather better than it had been last summer, with reasonable timing and the boat going relatively straight throughout the drive phase. However, it turned out that the Broxbourne pair chasing were fairly fast and took a lot out of us, looking like they might overtake on the reach. We got a co-ordinated push together and held them steady for a while, and then after the P&E it suddenly looked like we might be back in the race. The Broxbourne threw away most of the 20s they'd gained by crashing into a moored boat and a swan, and narrowly avoiding some kayakers, but they extracted themselves with just enough time to cross the line and beat us by a few seconds.
Hopefully we can find some race sometime in the future where we've both been training, aren't ill, and have been in the boat together for a while and finally get round to picking up a pot.
Event: University IVs 2008 - Light IVs
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Many thanks to Tom and JPD for some pretty effective coaching, and I hope all of the crew go onto great things in the next few years.
Finally, personal thanks to Tom, JPD, Flo, Sonya, and anyone else who managed to keep me between the banks and pointing the right way (most of the time) without developing any neuroses.
Event: University IVs 2008 - Light IVs
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The result was entirely in spite of me going round the outside of Ditton (thankfully Pembroke followed me round), and mostly down to putting plenty of work through the bulk of the race, with fitness to back it up.
Event: Head of the River IVs 2008 - S3 4+ (A)
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Once I stopped combining coxing from stroke with forgetting I was as stroke and failing to react to requests for stern pair, marshalling went pretty smoothly. The rowing up to the start, in some of the bouncier water I've experienced, had plenty of balance and finesse and was a definite positive to take away from the morning.
After a brief chat with Laff and Charlie below Chiswick bridge, we set off in front of the Abingdon crew that would win the category. With slight confusion (between me and everyone else, it seems) about how we were starting the race, we settled to about 30, which I thought possibly ominous. It felt pretty relaxed, possibly too much so, but we can't have been going too slowly; the Abingdon four took most of the way to Barnes to get clear of us. After that, we battered our way down the course in almost complete isolation; the crews ahead were seeded, and it later turned out that the crews behind us (325-328) were slow to very slow, with only 327, Bedford Modern, producing any speed.
Sonya's lines were good (as far as I know; even after 10 Tideway heads, including steering and coxing, I still don't really know where I am on the river), and the rowing held together quite well, commendably well I thought with 4 Tideway novices in the boat, until we hit the expected fairly rough water after Hammersmith. By this point Bedford Modern were a couple of lengths of our stern, but as we hit the big waves and gusts, our rating dropped to the mid-20s, theirs stayed in the low 30s, but they stopped moving on us. All our low rate firm and bungee work paid off, as the boat felt even heavier than with the bungees, and Bedford sat a length off our stern most of the way down past Fulham. Sadly, as the conditions cleared up a bit for the last k, we had nothing left and my attempts to get the rate back up resulted in further collapses back into fairly awful rowing. Bedford rallied and rowed off into the distance, and we struggled over the line.
It's hard to tell what to make of the result. Undoubtedly we could have done much better by preparing for the race, both in terms of rowing in the 4+ and ratework, but it's rarely going to he worth it for HOR4s where a win requires a substantially good crew. A large majority of the rowing we did was pretty good, with it only really falling apart when extreme fatigue was setting in, and we achieved respectable results against plenty of other crews in similar situations; beating the Jesus S2 4- was a pleasant surprise, and the gap to the FaT 1st crew was about what might be expected given the personnel differences. In the context of a training plan geared towards, at the earliest, the last week in February, this was a pretty reasonable demonstration of technique beginning to bed in, and the fitness to keep putting down work throughout a 20 minute race, even if the boat was no longer going anywhere.
Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2009 - 1st division
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Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2009 - S2 2-
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Event: Foster Fairbairn Pairs 2009 - Men's 2-
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The excitement was what was happening behind us. Gonzalo had about the same warning as me in Lents last year of needing to race, about 5 minutes. Having done an outing with him earlier in the week, I knew he could make a pair go quite fast, but I hadn't realised how fast he and John would set off. Even before we got to the posts on Plouch Reach it was obvious they were gaining substantially, and my best guess is that they had over 10s on us 800m in. However at that point John clipped the inside of Grassy (probably the steering error with the best excuse, it being necessary to be quite close to have a half-decent line), Gonzalo threw up, and an angry narrowboater shouted at them. After that it seems they were struggling; we didn't really get any faster until the last 250m, and the margins at the three sets of posts were 5s down, level, and 5s up. A very impressive bit of rowing (and steering, for the majority of the course), and I imagine with a day's notice of the crew for the race, Gonzalo and John might well have had us easily. Go and get it next year!
Event: Lowe Double Sculls 2009 - Mixed 2x
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I was a bit worried 600m in that my technique/lungs weren't going to cope with the reasonably aggressive rate (compared to my sculling career), but shortly after that Emma's calls made it clear that as long as I kept the boat between the banks we would have the race. We hit their wash outside the plough, kept the inside line round Ditton, and then sat alongside them for a while down the reach, occasionally overlapping blades as they drifted back towards us. With 200m to go to our finish and a call of "Let's go" we pushed a bit and went a few lengths clear. We then easied, realised they were going to run into us, so paddled off in front of them again to let them finish.
After the race I realised I should have stayed at full pressure, as I won't much fancy going for a time on Wednesday morning if I have a FF final to follow. However, we might well go faster for less effort in future by the useful measure of me rowing in time. I enjoyed a lot sculling well, if I can get my bladework that sorted in a single it might actually be an enjoyable way to train.
Event: Foster Fairbairn Pairs 2009 - Men's 2-
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Event: Lowe Double Sculls 2009 - Mixed 2x
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Event: Lowe Double Sculls 2009 - Mixed 2x
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I'm still quite surprised by the lack of speed of this competition; I've rowed in a couple of mixed doubles before, with girls probably 50s of erg slower than Ro, and I'd have expected them to be able to get inside 7:54. Can I get any Trinity girls pre-emptively keen for next year if there aren't any Bradburys entered?
Event: Foster Fairbairn Pairs 2009 - Men's 2-
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We probably didn't pull hard enough, and that wasn't helped by the cold that had come on hard the day before; on Plough reach I attempted a 3 word call and nearly threw up, so went back to the relative safety of monosyllabic grunts after that. Being able to breathe is useful.
However, we probably also put too much effort into pulling against each other, pulling against the rudder (must try not to put rudder on and quiche...), and trying to make the Cam go backwards at speed. The C2s would have helped on the last front, because you can actually push as soon as the blades in the water with them, but they weren't to be had, and the problems would more have been solved by either spending more time in the boat, or me being better at rowing.
In any case, it's not clear that the things we could have changed (like training) would have been enough, the Jesus pair went very fast. Glad tho to finally produce a decent time in a pair since leaving school, so thanks to John for helping me do that. Finally, many thanks to Emma for both keeping me on the river during my abysmal steering on Monday, and not getting scared when I went back to 6-12" margins for days 2 and 3.
I'll be back.
Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2009 - 4th and lower division
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Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2009 - 4th and lower division
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I appealed semi-automatically as we crossed the line, and was rather surprised to discover a few minutes later that Queens' had been disqualified. I'd probably expect that result in an ARA regatta, but I wasn't expecting coxes to be held to the same standards here. Whatever.
Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2009 - 4th and lower division
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Whatever, we took most of half a length early on with a semi-decent start, the stride wasn't particularly ridiculous, and we settled probably a quarter of a length up. At this point I was quite worried; with a crew who'd shown some pretty ropey bladework under pressure in the previous race, sitting 1/4 of a length up on a closing crew is probably about as hard mentally as it gets. Both the power and the technique held together well though, and we sat more or less there to the finish, with them closing a little through the railway bridge. The power I could put down varied with the togetherness through the race, but in what I assumed to be the good bits (in that I could pull very hard) we took a few seats in not many strokes, then drifted back again. We came towards Morley's Holt probably a canvas up on them, with the stagger taking it out to the esoteric official margin of 1/3 of a length.
I can't remember the last time I competed in a race this close; it's conceivable it was 4 years ago where I won a sculling race by the truly bizarre margin of "305mm", judged by eye after a free start... Anyway, this was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon's entertainment, and I hope the crew manages to take some of its finesse into rowing at rate over the next fortnight, and starts to realise the potential locked away in these lightweights.
Event: May Bumps 2009 - Wednesday
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Impressively good discipline from everyone who wasn't me meant only stern pair realised that Christ's had stopped because their 2 man had caught a spectacular ejector crab. Magdalene probably couldn't have done much about not hitting him, as they were only about a length behind at the time, but the fact Robinson rowed round them and still hit him seems pretty clueless. Anyway, we soon discovered that carnage in the gut had stopped the whole division, spun delicately with some assistance from Robinson(? or someone else? What where they doing there?) and rowed back for a second attempt.
We demonstrated again that we're not very distracted by the crew behind us; the first 300m, this time with 6.5 lengths back to Robinson, were a carbon copy of the previous attempt. After that, we battered our way down the course, apparently never making much impression on Fitz. After they bumped, we took it down to a meandering sort of 30, and made our way down the Reach.
Tomorrow is going to be fun!
Event: Lowe Double Sculls 2009 - Men's 2x
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I turned up at the lock a few minutes before their start because it sounded like it might be a race worth watching, and offered to bankparty them if they wanted one. Unfortunately, it seemed Flo took that to mean that I'd treat them as a radio-controlled double... Tom O'Neill might have just about been an accurate enough banksteerer, but I certainly wasn't up to controlling Flo's unexpected veering.
I can't remember the distances now, but Tom and Flo on bottom station had closed quite a lot by First post, where the meandering started. On Grassy I looked down at my watch for a moment to take a split to the Jesus double, and when I looked up Flo was steering dramatically towards the outside of Grassy. After the uninspiring set of calls: "Away hard! Harder! No, really, more harder!" and 5 strokes of ghost pressure on strokeside they got the boat pointing along the river again, but the damage had been done. 10-15s had probably been chucked on the first two corners, and Jesus were ahead. Mark Beer said he thought Jesus were 2s up at the bottom of the reach, and they'd probably practised a bit; their wind to the finish was at least as effective as Tom and Flo's, and considerably higher rating, and they held their minimum winning margin.
Jesus went on to push Nash and friend quite close in the final, so it was a great pity some reasonably good looking sculling wasn't rewarded with a potential SBR (and Michell cup) win. Apologies for being entirely surprised by and unprepared for the demands placed upon me!
Event: Peterborough Summer Regatta 2009 - IM2 8+
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Chris initially seemed to be struggling a bit; he certainly seemed a bit shocked when I told him Coker has a tendency to go off starts at 50. We only found out during the day that he had only started rowing in November, which makes his performance in the races very impressive; I'm not sure any of our novices would have been able to contribute in the same way.
Anyway, to the actual race; all the controlled aggression we'd displayed during the practise starts disappeared and we all just attacked the water at random moments, causing us to lose a few seats immediately and more shortly after. By 250 we were about half a length down on Lea, and I think it may have got out to 3/4 of a length? The other two crews were well back, so both crews were going to be through to the final, it was just a question of pride/lanes. After various pushes, none of which were heard in the bows unless accompanied by a roar from James, we held their advance and started coming back; 3 tens (presumably...) in the last 250 started getting us really moving and we came through a surprised looking Lea to win by a couple of seats.
Event: Peterborough Summer Regatta 2009 - IM2 4+
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The issues with getting the blades out of the water still hadn't been dealt with by the time of the first stroke, and we were slightly down coming through 250. A push from Sonya at 400m gone, accompanied by plenty of shouting, got us moving, and from there we steadily moved on John of Gaunt (the only other crew up with us) to finish about a length up, without much of a wind in the last 250m.
Event: University IVs 2009 - 1st division
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Sadly my steering was significantly below my usual standard, wandering quite wide on Ditton in particular. Not assisting me was the power difference; even if I went ghost pressure, Strawson could pretty much keep the boat straight on his own... Apparently Maggie went wandering at various parts of the course, but that's not really much consolation.
Anyway, time for fireworks parties. Overall, we would probably have gone a bit faster with some training, better steering and a bit more length, but there's no reason to think Maggie didn't have an extra level if they'd been really pushed. Well done to them, I at least underestimated how fast they were going to be, even after watching them cover 2k in an uncontested race 20s faster than any other crew on Monday. 4 weeks to get the work down and get back where we belong.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2010 - 1st division
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Event: Pembroke Regatta 2010 - 1st division
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Event: Pembroke Regatta 2010 - 1st division
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In any case, with nothing to save for we rowed off into the distance considerably more than Natasha's report credits us with; my out-of-breath counting put the finish whistles at 11s gap, which would equate to about 3 lengths.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2010 - 1st division
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http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/boatclub/node/1616
I also don't believe that we took half a length in two strokes. Maybe their first two strokes took longer than ours.
Event: Lent Bumps 2010 - Saturday
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Sparring with the women was spactastic, but did involve hitting 50 at (nearly) full slide.
More to come when I don't have a dinner to go to.
Event: Women's Head of the River Race 2010 - Novice VIIIs
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Event: Metropolitan Regatta 2010 - IM2 8+, Sunday
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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.
Event: Metropolitan Regatta 2010 - IM2 8+, Sunday
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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.
Event: Wallingford Regatta 2010 - Intermediate 2 VIIIs
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Event: Wallingford Regatta 2010 - Intermediate 2 VIIIs
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We went off the start quite nicely, although I was a bit confused about why Natasha had us sat on the buoyline for ages. Apparently she was even more confused, as the rudder was entirely unresponsive. In light of the situation, it seems a bit remarkable that we made it to the 750m mark in more or less a straight line.
At that point, however, we started veering into the lane to our left, containing Jesus, who with a fast start were half a length up on us and in second (I think?). We blade clashed with them, got shouted at by an (understandably) angry Jesus cox, and headed off away from them once Natasha called for some of bowside to drop out. We veered a couple of lanes to bowside, then veered leftwards again and hit Jesus again, still only half a length down. After extricating ourselves we stopped in disarray and allowed the race to continue before being given a talking to by the umpire.
The umpire at this point attempted to stop the race and order a rerow as we had somewhat obstructed Jesus. Unfortunately all of the crews ignored the umpire and continued to the finish line, where they were told they needed to go to back to the start to rerow. With the regatta substantially delayed by the wind, King's Chester (who would probably have won even without our assistance) decided to go home and the rerow took place without them.
When we made it to the landing stage and got the boat out, it turned out the rudder had sheered off at the hull. The conclusions we came to were that we must have snagged a buoyline and damaged the rudder pin while reversing across lanes onto the stakeboats, and that when Natasha had to steer to bring us straight after a wobble in the start the rudder gave up and sheered off.
Personally, I was quite surprised by how difficult it was to keep straight once we'd lost the rudder, even paddling back to the landing stages. As soon as I realised something was up with the steering, I started giving steering calls to Matt and Tom in an attempt to pressure steer; I would back us to stay in lane in a rudderless 4-, if not manage to stay straight. The dramatic ineffectiveness of this makes it seem likely that the rudder is acting as a large part of the fin when there, so the eight was very unstable with just its Dunleavy-modified fin to guide it.
A disappointing end to the day, but encouraging speed for the brief periods we were making use of it.
Event: Wallingford Regatta 2010 - IM2 4+
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Event: Lowe Double Sculls 2010 - Mixed 2x
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With little time to spare to adjust anything we met at the FaT boathouse, climbed aboard and set off. We quickly discovered that neither of us could fit through the shoulders of the Burgashell, but there seemed no obvious solution; Coker was using his seatpad and we couldn't think of anywhere else to acquire one from.
After some unexpectedly bad paddling (in comparison to the previous year's scratch attempt), I came to realise that Ro was making up for not being able to get past half slide by putting huge power into the finish; as long as I also loaded up what felt like a 70 kg bench pull, we extracted together and it ran much more smoothly.
When we got to the start we discovered the Georgina was following us down and we had a little time to play with, so we added a few inches to the outboard and awaited our opposition. I hadn't looked them up sufficiently at the time, or I might have been even more worried; they had a 3rd and a 4th place at the Junior Worlds between them, and Will was getting fit for starting at Leander the following September. Given my relative lack of power and sculling experience, it was certainly going to be a challenge even without having to row at half slide.
The sculling was reasonably effective, given the circumstances, but at 1500m we were still either level or barely ahead, and when I communicated this to Ro the rate came up still further (going fast at half slide already necessitating a fair amount of rate) and we wound frantically for the line, eventually finding a reasonable margin before I collapsed over the line.
Event: Lowe Double Sculls 2010 - Mixed 2x
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Instead we were left to race some guy from Jesus and a cox, who looked like they were sculling quite nicely but who were presumably several hundred watts of power down.
Given the unpleasantness of sculling fast at half-slide, we did the minimum necessary to safely win, as evidenced by the time.
It was a pity my last races on the Cam with Ro were hampered by inappropriate equipment, but it was still very good fun and very instructional.
Event: Foster Fairbairn Pairs 2010 - Men's 2-
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Given the standard of the crews that turned up (I can think of 4 FaT pairs who entered FF in the last two years who would have won this event), we were definitely looking to win.
Sadly Matt still hadn't got anywhere with getting his forearms to work properly, particularly with wooden handles and in the slower boat. The race went reasonably well (although my line was a bit dodgy) upto about 1k, then Matt started to lose control, and by 400m to go he was square blades and only occasionally managing to put down any pressure. The (practised...) up 8 into the mid 40s simultaneous with going to ghost pressure maintained boatspeed for a while, but I was having to keep the boat down to strokeside to keep Matt's square blade clear of the water and eventually we took a duff stroke. The high rate ghost pressure wasn't possible for re-accelerating the boat, and I ended up rowing the last 150m basically on my own; while this is a useful exercise in the tubs, it doesn't work as well against a little racing rudder and we limped across the line.
Event: University IVs 2010 - Light IVs
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Our brief practise outing (an extra reach on the way to the start) was promising; Pedro and I didn't seem to have entirely forgotten how to row, and Jacob and Aaron were sending back a solid rhythm. We hoped the delicacies of rowing well, like actually catching and finishing in time, would come with the few km of practise we gained on the way to the start.
We moved away from the line remarkably cleanly, with the kind of power application I'd be pretty happy with after 10 outings in a four, rather than after 10 strokes of practise start. Settling onto a smooth, aggressive rhythm, we looked up to find that in spite of our nice rowing and Neil's early adventurous lines, Maggie were already looming towards us. As we had previously feared, whilst Maggie nicely fulfilled the first necessary attribute for a gents crew (a strong rowing history), it seemed likely they were most ungentlemanly in the others (being fit and having trained together)
The next parts of the race were relatively uneventful; we rowed along quite nicely, with only minor wobbles on the corners, Maggie plowed along much faster than us through the water but with some remarkably circuitous routes along the river.
Coming upto the railway bridge, their relentless charge had brought them to only a length or two off our stern; at this point, a big lift from us pushed them back a couple of lengths, but unfortunately I got a bit too excited by this and decided that the quickest route from Morley's Holt to the finish was a straight line. After we scraped all the way along two barges before pushing off, Maggie had gained to overlap on us. We set off at a sprint, just about matching their speed, and I realised that my last hope was that Neil was in fact a 'gent' after all and would fancy stopping for a drink after all this rowing. With them 3/4 of a length down and slightly to bowside, I headed across the river, straightening up just before landing at the P&E. Sadly, just before they would have ended up in the bank Neil pulled out his tenth remarkable recovery in the race and straightened up. With no more tactics left, we held them at a length until they reached their finish line.
I've now lost to the winning LMBC crew three years in a row in Light Fours, and continue to be disappointed by everyone else's failure to provide some opposition to some very classy crews; in two of the years we turned up with reasonable crews and were completely outclassed, and in the other year even Strawson dragging us down the river was only enough to lose by a few lengths.
Hopefully one year I'll actually do some training and get the captain to put the top rowers in a 4-, and we might finally manage to stop this LMBC small boats machine.
Alternatively, we could get the engineers to perfect some kind of remote-controlled and/or parking sensor based steering system, and some faster people could row without having to drag me down the course.
Event: Cambridge Winter Head 2010 - Invitational VIIIs
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Event: Christmas Head 2010 - IM3 1x
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I discovered on the way down that my finishes were, as expected, abysmal if I put any pressure down, but not so bad if I kept the rate high and tapped it along.
After some banter with the two pairs crazy enough to be racing, and a Hughes Hall/Lucy Cavendish mixed eight who kept asking me whether I knew Saulty, I set off in a very wobbly fashion at as high a rate as seemed plausible.
It quickly turned out that having persuaded Tom O'Neill to come along to steer was crucial; I came round half the corners to find myself unable to see anything (including the banks) on the next straight due to the low afternoon sun.
By the white footbridge (designated as halfway) my combination of no fitness and no technique were starting to drag the rate and the speed down, until I realised there was a real possibility of being caught by the Hughes/Lucy eight who had started a minute behind me.
Not relishing the prospect of having to row the last canalised section in their wash, I decided to pick up the pace and hold them as long as I could. It turned out they couldn't sprint very fast, and only went from a (single) length down to 1/4 of a length down from the Emma footbridge to the finish outside Goldie, at which point I conveniently collapsed onto the bank.
Top tip for the day: It turns out returning the three cheers of the crew you've just raced to the line sounds really pathetic on your own, particularly when you run out of breath after two...
Event: Lent Bumps 2011 - Tuesday
Posted as: Peter
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Event: Lent Bumps 2011 - Tuesday
Posted as: Peter
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However, the two key elements of the off-season training kicked in.
Firstly, my enormous cookie and Coca-Cola consumption over the summer meant that Aaron and I were taking stern pair substantially above the 60kg average weight of the rest of the crew and digging the stern into the water.
Secondly, the interminable weighted pullups our weight trainer had us doing meant I was able to pull really, really hard while finishing like a spanner.
The combination of the two meant that once Sidney got inside 1/4 of a length of us, they looked to be struggling in the wash/uber-puddle combination and we got to hold them in the scary position of only-overlapping-by-6-feet until they started going backwards again.
From the P&E onwards they gave up and let us have a bit of recovery for the last 300m of the race.
Two days rest, and then time for more of the same!
Event: Lent Bumps 2011 - Thursday
Posted as: Peter
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Good luck to them for the rest of the week.
Event: Lent Bumps 2011 - Friday
Posted as: Peter
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From there we watched Jesus investigating whether they could manage some manslaughter as well as spooning, after Wolfson decided to join Newnham's garden party.
--edit: It seems I caused much hilarity on the messageboards by conceding vigorously from the stroke seat. The result was obvious, and given the apparent standard of Catz' coxing I didn't want to give them any more chances to crash into things.
It left me wondering why strokes conceding isn't a more normal thing to do; we have a better view of when an 'overlap' bump happens, and can in almost all cases get our hands higher in the air than the cox.
Event: 2nd Trinity Challenge Sculls 2011 - Shell
Posted as: Peter
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If I got fit and learnt to finish in time, it might almost be worth doing some racing with two blades again.
NB Racing the advertised course, little bridge to Peter's Posts
Event: Head of the River Race 2011 - In3
Posted as: Peter
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To keep Jacob and Gonzalo involved, we trained in a rotating VIII and small boats until settling into the race crew relatively late.
After doing our best impressions of a tourist information boat for a German couple who were wandering along the bank by TSS and wondering why there were so many boats drifting around, we eventually span and set off.
It was generally agreed that everyone had pulled very hard, that the rowing had been pretty bad, and that it wasn't the most pleasant experience we'd ever had.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2011 - 1st division
Posted as: Peter
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Event: Lent Bumps 2011 - Saturday
Posted as: Peter
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We thought this would be an epic battle for the M2 headship; sadly we were wrong. In spite of an effective and aggressive race, never dropping below 40, Caius had no difficulty munching up the distance and taking us down at the exit of First Post. In spite of a prompt easy from them, Caius' bowball got ripped off on first contact with a bolt on our shell, and the remaining pointy metal thing had a second stroke to rip through Penelope's sleeve.
This made me unduly angry about the stupidity and negligence of boat manufacturers, and I unfortunately went and complained about this to Caius' bankparty. Hopefully my out-of-breath rambling was sufficiently incoherent they weren't too offended.
Thanks from me to the crew and coaches who made this a very fun fortnight, far surpassing my expectations when I was parachuted into the stroke seat 10 days previously; both in levels of entertainment and rowing.
PS To explain Penelope's cryptic comment: We talked about doing a complete swap of crew order for the row home, but decided we couldn't be bothered and ended up with Josh stroking and me trying to be a big 6 man. I was quite happy to paddle back spackily at 60% of our previous length, but Penelope seemed to find this unpleasant.
Event: Lent Bumps 2011 - Thursday
Posted as: Peter
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Event: University IVs 2011 - Light IVs
Posted as: Peter
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After our extensive training for the event on Wednesday morning, the mood in the post-outing loafing-around-period/chat was a fascinating mix of amazement, disgust and despondency. It turns out that if you take 4 decent rowers, send one of them to start some revolutions, another to wander around America, and then reconvene 18 months later, you produce a four which rows like novices. More precisely, it rows mediocrely for 15 strokes, and then loses all core strength and coordination and drifts off toward anti-phase.
Given this context, we were quite happy when we made it to the start on Friday afternoon having only stuck the riggers into the (millpond-like) river a few times, and with a few isolated 'decent' strokes. We lined up on the downstream station, attacked it off the start and according to our very helpful shell-guardian Iain may even have gained slightly. Then we hit the wash under the railway bridge, most people's cores gave up, and we "strode" down to a more relaxed rhythm. According to the (possibly generous) reports of our large bankparty, we then drifted out to perhaps 2 lengths down by the Plough.
It's unclear whether this (surprisingly small deficit) was due to LMBC's carefully developed JIT (Just In Time) method of avoiding the banks, or because we were actually moving the boat for the first 1k. In either case, the river straightened out, Miles' back suddenly stopped him from breathing (no, we don't understand either), and we wandered our way down the course to finish a long way off to give Maggie their hat-trick.
Nothing more to say, other than to express my continuing disappointment that nobody outside the big red boathouse down the river is willing to take this event seriously and mount a challenge to the LMBC small boats machine.
PS - Time added as an approximate (+-10s) guess based on LMBC's estimate of their time.
Event: Fairbairn Cup 2011 - Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Peter
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Why would you not be at 33-34?
The second half (which I saw from the plough onwards) looked cohesive and committed; to translate this into boatspeed and results, you need to find the power to match your competitors.
Event: Lent Bumps 2012 - Tuesday
Posted as: Peter
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Returning to the race we were involved in, FaT and Emma were fast enough to threaten the crew in front of them, and Emma and Pembroke were tough enough to avoid being bumped.
Event: Foster Fairbairn Pairs 2012 - Men's 2-
Posted as: Peter
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We sat around chatting to some of the other pairs about some other races which had apparently been settled by email argument, and then lined up on bottom station. We seemed to move away quite nicely, and although Ali seemed to be unwilling to take the rate particularly high, I was confident we were overgeared enough and with reasonable enough length this shouldn't be an issue. After some cautious lines round the corners (30s power differences are a bit scary when you're steering) we were told we'd moved up nicely, and when Emma called "5 lengths down" at 500m to go, it took me a moment to realise we were close enough she'd switched to literal distances. Apparently they then called a sprint, Emma told us to take it up, but their sprint disintegrated after a few strokes while we wound to the heady heights of 34 (at a guess) and we crossed the line in some comfort.
We then battle paddled back a couple of lengths in front of the Caius pair who had won the race after us, at the point they started lifting the rate into the mid 20s past the Tit Hall boathouse I decided it was time to bow out and came to a halt on the bank.
Onwards to tomorrow, where I suspect we'll need to keep improving to meet the challenge of the multitude of Caius pairs still in the competition
To see (among other things) just how much I quiched round Ditton (never done it without using rudder before...), see
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/171354982
and switch to the HR&Speed plot in "Player"
Video of us paddling afterwards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMF7-U0jJJ0
Event: City of Oxford Rowing Club Bumps Races 2012 - Saturday
Posted as: Peter
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More astute readers will realise that Addenbrookes and the Theological Colleges weren't actually making a surprise appearance; Theological Colleges = Barnes Bridge Ladies, and Addenbrookes = CORC lower boats which the website refuses to believe could possibly exist.
Event: Foster Fairbairn Pairs 2012 - Men's 2-
Posted as: Peter
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We had a reasonable start and looked from my seat to be rowing away nicely from the Downing pair down First Post reach and through the Gut. Unfortunately some combination of scrappy bladework and a lack of legs from me (2 2k races in 90 minutes is a lot if you aren't doing any training!) meant I struggled hard to turn Ali round Grassy and we took the long route around the corner. Thomas called us as 2s up at the Plough, I called us a length down, and the same calls were made at the exit of Ditton. We wound reasonably effectively for the line, but presumably so did they, and it looked like they won the deadheat by feet at most.
With the rules requiring a 2s margin for races in the chase format, we did an awful practise start into the headwind under the railway bridge and paddled back to Ditton, lining up on the towpath station. As I expected, we started crisply in the tailwind, took half a length in the first few strokes, but then slowly got rowed down. With 20 strokes to go we were half a length behind, managed to pull much of this back with a frantic wind to the line, but were left "a few feet plus the stagger" behind. The Downing pair went straight on at the kink and for a few moments I thought they were going to park on the outside bank and leave us to it, (apparently they were hearing Thomas calling "Away" to us, more than the three members of their bankparty frantically telling them to come "Towards"! Maybe coded signals for next time...), but they came round at the last moment.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/171674205
Thanks to Ali for some fun racing, if we can produce this with no practice (and still having never rated above 35) and me quite unfit I hope this can inspire a return to some FaT successes in the SBR 2013.
Event: Fairbairn Junior Sculls 2012 - men's
Posted as: Peter
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Just as we were about to set off, Thomas splashed his way towards us along the mudbath of the towpath. Without his guidance, I would almost certainly have ploughed into the two Cam Conservancy boats who were meandering downstream around Grassy on the wrong side of the river, so many thanks for braving the weather, Thomas!
I was reasonably happy with my sculling, most of the practice for which had come while coaching; sitting up into the catch a little more and rolling out a little more length would afforded some more speed, but it was fairly irrelevant. At the Plough Thomas called it as 10s down, and at the exit of Ditton the margin was "large", so I took it down to a paddle to try to recover for the pairs races a short hour in the future.
Racing 2k on the Cam for the first time since Freshman sculls was useful experience, and my intention is to actually train next year and have a more serious shot at this. Whether said intention will last the winter is less clear...
Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2012 - 1st division
Posted as: Peter
Event Link
http://tiny.cc/3fpnew
suggest they have very large feet at 99s.
Well done on almost taking a serious scalp, whatever the margin!
Event: Peterborough Summer Sprint 2012 - IM2 2-
Posted as: Peter
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In 500m races you don't have to hold on for long though, and our race plan of "stay on rate throughout, push a bit harder in the last 10 strokes" worked fine; even after visiting the opponents' lane a few more times than necessary, the finishline still came a stroke earlier than I expected.
It was nice to note that in the following Sen 2- race (which we would have been in if we'd picked up a point the previous day) we would have been very close to 2nd and a length down on the Cantabs pair who won to become Elite. This makes it feel slightly less bad that we're now ineligible for the event we failed to win on Saturday... maybe I should have regressed a point when I had the chance.
Event: Peterborough Summer Sprint 2012 - Mixed IM2 8+
Posted as: Peter
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Sonya kept us calm on the start and the first few strokes were effective, taking half a length before 100m. I think some members of the crew were finding the "wind to 43, lengthen to 39, hammer it" race plan a bit out of their comfort zones, but the finish stayed clean and we kept moving away, breaking clear by around 250 to row home in some comfort.
Some slightly out of the ordinary tankards for everyone was a nice way to finish off the weekend, thanks to all for a fun weekend, and particularly Sonya, Thornton and Sarah Faull for subbing at varyingly short notice, and to Fletcher and my mum for hanging out/guarding all the electronics/debating rules with umpires!
Event: Peterborough Summer Regatta 2012 - IM2 2-
Posted as: Peter
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Event: Peterborough Summer Regatta 2012 - IM2 2-
Posted as: Peter
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When we heard the hooter as they crossed the line we essentially stopped rowing, so the result was exaggerated a little, but other than that I didn't think we did a huge amount wrong in the race. Not fast enough.
Event: Cambridge Autumn Regatta 2012 - IM3 4+
Posted as: Peter
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Hertford took back our half length stagger in the first few strokes, but they only slowly moved through us in the next 250m. The fact we were still holding the rate in the 40s in order to keep up proved too much for a scratch four (apparently Hertford had been seen *training* on the Isis; definitely cheating!), and in the second half they moved out to a couple of lengths. We passed the static umpire (who turned out to be about 100m before the finish) and stopped rowing, then realised we hadn't finished and paddled over the line.
The most amusing part of the outing was probably being accused of behaving like a married couple; Matt and I have rowed together for long enough to know quite well what to bitch about in each other's rowing.
Event: Cambridge Autumn Regatta 2012 - CRA IM3 VIIIs
Posted as: Peter
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The most amusing part of the outing was, in a rush to leave the landing stage after collecting our pots, pushing off and leaving McT standing there looking confused. A close second was having an twelve year old girl threaten to "put you in hospital" when we rowed back close to (but avoiding) her fishing line.
Event: Cambridge Autumn Regatta 2012 - Oxford/Cambridge challenge
Posted as: Peter
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Although we seemed to be doing effective things in the water, the bladework was shoddy and on the paddle up it was by far the least stable "good" crew I've ever been in. Fletcher decided that 48 was a good rate to start at, although Ali (having not been in a boat for a while) was struggling to keep up; we moved quite convincingly on Hertford off the start, and they then oscillated between half a length and a length behind us. Julia then decided to make it slightly more exciting by crashing into the bank as we crossed the line; apparently cross-wind + small person at bow + strokeside never putting their blades in at the front made it quite hard to keep straight...
We collected our pots, drank our complimentary cans of Carlsberg, and rowed back considerably better than we had in the paddle out; it was up for debate whether this was due to remembering how to row as time went on, or the relaxing effects of the beer taking away some of the twitchiness.
Event: Fairbairn Cup 2012 - Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Peter
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A lingering cold meant my feeble attempts at training had petered out a few weeks before (and still left me with a hacking cough a minute into the race), I hadn't rowed in an VIII which was more than 25% male in a long time, and it was my first M1 race on bowside in almost two years.
In spite of all this whining, I think I gave at least a passable impression of a 5-man, and had a very enjoyable row with M1. As Thornton says, it felt like a crew with some obvious flaws, but with the potential to move a lot of boat when they get fixed; combined with the strong performance from M2, I very much look forward to seeing what this group of people can produce in the coming terms.
Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2013 - 1st Mays
Posted as: Peter
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Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2013 - 1st Mays
Posted as: Peter
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Event: Lent Bumps 2013 - Tuesday
Posted as: Peter
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However, M2 also gave me plenty of practice at rowing in wash by chilling out once we got to a length off Maggie and sitting there for a few minutes before bumping. Given I was rediscovering that the problem with me rowing bowside is that I almost entirely use my inside arm and thereby was starting to blow up by 40 strokes in, this wasn't entirely appreciated...
In light of my inability to use my left arm, Preeyan kindly swapped with me for the paddle back, and I determined that I definitely prefer strokeside.
Good luck to the crew for the rest of the week; even if the race was rather scrappy, it was a pleasure to briefly (I was subbing for a sub...) row with such a classy crew, and I'm sure with a little composure in the wash you'll have a successful week.
Event: Lent Bumps 2013 - Wednesday
Posted as: Peter
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Event: Lent Bumps 2013 - Wednesday
Posted as: Peter
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Event: Lent Bumps 2013 - Thursday
Posted as: Peter
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With far more control than at any point in yesterday's race, the girls pushed Jesus back down the Gut, took a clean Grassy, and at the start of Plough Reach it was clear we were in a true sandwich; we had another shell within a few feet of both ends of Valkyrie. The FaT girls held it together and came out of it best, moving away from Jesus down the Plough Reach and clipping Emma's stern as we turned in for Ditton.
Unfortunately the contact was gentle enough that although the Peterhouse umpire was calling for both crews to stop rowing, neither crew believed it had happened and (all three crews) raced round Ditton before easying.
I think Jesus, other than the disappointment of failing to bump, appreciated not having to chase the overbump on Downing (!) as they tucked in behind us and held it up.
Event: Lent Bumps 2013 - Friday
Posted as: Peter
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When the start gun eventually went, we were expecting to be pushed from behind, but Emma and Jesus quickly dropped back to leave us concentrating on the crew ahead.
We stuck with them for some time, but they drew away down the reach to leave us with too much of a gap to close coming into the finish.
Event: Lent Bumps 2013 - Saturday
Posted as: Peter
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Having sat a little inside station early in the course, Jesus moved up strongly on the reach, and coming under the railway bridge they had overlap (but were on the wrong side of the river). Coming through Morley's Holt, there was a terrifying stroke when I thought the bump had to happen; Jesus gently steered across, our stern sank as we approached the catch, and Jesus's bow floated over our stern with at least an inch of clearance. After that W1 squeezed it out to a comfortable few feet and crossed the line before taking avoiding action yet again from Downing, who had stopped 3/4 of a length beyond the line.
Event: Peterborough Sprint Regatta 2013 - IM2 2-
Posted as: Peter
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Event: Peterborough Sprint Regatta 2013 - IM2 2-
Posted as: Peter
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Event: University IVs 2013 - 1st division
Posted as: Peter
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It turned out to be a bit irrelevant; we moved away from Clare slightly off the start, but before the rudder had come on for First Post corner they had closed more than half of the initial 100 yard gap and the result was painfully obvious. As they politely asked to overtake coming into Ditton, a brief debate was held as to whether they had the umpire's permission to do so before the reach, but a quick check revealed that CUCBC hadn't deigned to supply our race with an umpire. We therefore had the pleasure of racing alongside Clare's 1.5 Blues crew for... a few strokes, as they took the outside of Ditton.
With the race over and Clare out of sight, we rather lost cohesion/power/interest for the slog up the reach and so don't have much idea how races against Queens' or Kings' might have played out. Three of us (with the addition of Bence) look forward to our return on Thursday for a lighter and more wiggly race against the old enemy.
Event: Lent Bumps 2014 - Tuesday
Posted as: Peter
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In any case, blades were recovered from somewhere behind the strokesider's heads, no-one seemed to be more than bruised, so we set off again, apparently two lengths down. We clawed our way back up to a length, and then looped through:
*Hear three whistles from the coaches ahead, or a panicked shout from Thomas, suggesting the crew ahead would bump out soon
*Frantically wind the rate
*Give up after about three strokes when nothing happened.
This didn't work very well, so we staggered our way to the railway bridge, where Churchill (who'd presumably expected that we would remove Magdalene if they gave us enough time) finally fell to Magdalene.
Event: Lent Bumps 2014 - Thursday
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Event: Lent Bumps 2014 - Friday
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Event: Lent Bumps 2014 - Saturday
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Then JGS's dad pulled a large branch off a nearby tree, we distributed bits of it amongst the crew, and Bence kept the remainder. This caused much hilarity on the bank and on CamFM, but after a while he got tired of having to row inside arm only and Alex took over the tree-waving.
Event: Molesey Amateur Regatta 2014 - IM3 4+
Posted as: Peter
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Event: Molesey Amateur Regatta 2014 - IM2 2-
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Event: Molesey Amateur Regatta 2014 - IM3 8+
Posted as: Peter
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Event: Molesey Amateur Regatta 2014 - IM3 8+
Posted as: Peter
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Thanks to all who made today somehow work out (I've still no idea how it all hung together in the end...). 15 hours spent either outside in the sunshine and high-twenties temperatures, or on even warmer trains, might be considered unpleasant but I think everyone survived, and the promised thunderstorms never turned up. Somehow a plan involving multiple trips up and down the Thames by bike and by borrowed VIII got us to the right places at the right times, and we somehow scraped our way to novice "pots" (nobody told me we would only get medals! admittedly nobody told me anything, because this started with "hey Matt, we should go and watch the girls race at Molesey. We might as well take a boat to race in") for six of you.
The above writing seems verging on incomprehensible. I blame 15 hours of dehydration and far too many miles of badly surfaced roads/towpaths on a road bike...
Event: Lent Bumps 2015 - Wednesday
Posted as: Peter
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Event: May Bumps 2015 - Wednesday
Posted as: Peter
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Thankfully they survived to fight another day, and hopefully have a shot at giving W1 2016 their first ever chance to aim at a Mays headship :-)
Event: University IVs 2015 - 1st division
Posted as: Peter
Event Link
https://www.strava.com/activities/421297282/analysis/264/381
Event: University IVs 2015 - 1st division
Posted as: Peter
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Event: May Bumps 2017 - Thursday
Posted as: Peter
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Event: May Bumps 2018 - Saturday
Posted as: Peter
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Moved up a little off the start, perhaps dropped back a little in the first two corners, had a good move into Ditton and got back inside station. Hit big headwind on the reach and the gap between the crews oscillated between 1.3 and 1.7 lengths, but we finally got the first whistle near the pink house, and from then on steadily inched towards Emma, passing the P & E at 1/4 of a length. Not sure whether they got any closer in the final minute. When we got back to the boathouse, I learnt the coxbox hadn't been working for most of the race; we were impressed by how cohesive it looked in spite of this.
Event: May Bumps 2018 - Saturday
Posted as: Peter
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After failing to make up much ground on Girton over the full course yesterday, W1 decided to have a go at them over a shorter distance today. They made up a bit more ground than yesterday, but didn't get close enough to threaten a bump, and later fell back towards Churchill's waiting bows, succumbing on Ditton.
