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All race reports for Will Thorne

Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 1998 - 4th division
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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I found this pretty uncomfortable, subbing on the other side, and we worked for every inch that the boat moved, but the crew seemed pretty happy with it!!

Event: Lent Bumps 1999 - Saturday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Blades: sweet!

Event: Lent Bumps 1999 - Thursday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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A better row, but not fantastic by any means: still managed to bump.

Event: Pembroke Regatta 1999 - 4th division
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Can't remember how we did, but 'twas a great warm-up for the bumps, and if you ever bump into Dirk, get him to sing "as I was walking down the street, I saw a house on fire"

Event: Lent Bumps Getting-on Race 1999 -
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Spacked down the river, but qualified anyway

Event: Lent Bumps 1999 - Tuesday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Spannered down the river faster than Churchill III

Event: Lent Bumps 1999 - Wednesday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Caterpillared down the river faster than Trinity Hall III

Event: Lent Bumps 2001 - Wednesday
Posted as: Will Thorne
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First eight looked good off the start, pulling away from Caius; however, I then lost track of them....

Event: Lent Bumps 2001 - Thursday
Posted as: Will Thorne
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It had been decided that the row against Jesus II, whilst producing the goods, had been a little too unsustainable; therefore we decided to go for a longer race strategy, as we knew we were faster than them. This was probally done a little too well....
We had a good start, closed *reasonably* consistently to about half a length off at Ditton. Christ's then put in a good push, pulling away slightly (to ~3/4 l). We then decided to take as long as possible rowing them down, eventually hitting them at the Railway bridge.

Event: Lent Bumps 2002 - Thursday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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(I've been asked to submit a report: looking forward to ripping my rigger off tomorrow). The plan was to row over, but it was acknowledged that the distance you could trust Maggie was less than a two year old could throw them. The start was apparently good (I have to admit I'm not judging the technical prowess of my crew during a start) and we held distance. Whilst the row wasn't bad, there wasn't any feeling of tearing off of riggers.

Maggie's race plan seemed to consist of up 2's until they bumped or blew up, unfortunately the first happened, so credit to them - would like to race them over a course, and they are still not turning up to the stomp.

At the end of the day, they are still rowing for Maggie.

Event: Winter League, 1st leg 2002 -
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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With a crew that had never rowed, let alone raced, together, this was a very satisfying row. Conditions were better than the day before, although far from ideal, and a number of events ATBH meant a rush to the start line. Finally once we were Marshalled, the crew settled down, and put in a hard row many people were pleased with. We were the fastest crew in our Marshalling division (this would have had a significant effect) and came top five overall - quite good, and pleasing given the amount of improvement that can be easily made by outings together!

Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2002 -
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Hard row, loads of guts, esp. from Andrew Cenko whose seat broke on both legs: after spending a given amount of time trying to fix it, he decided to just do all the rest of the race without: beans! They cancelled the Fairbairns in 2000 under less extreme conditions, but apparently the City captain wasn't around so they couldn't call it off..... These things build character!

Event: May Bumps 2002 - Wednesday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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In the style of a buftie who has been away from the club for ten years or so:

It had been a non-ideal warm-up for the race: passable, but a bit nervy. Our fears were put slightly to rest by a good practice start by the
plough, and it remained to prove what we all knew that we could do.

We had a reasonable start, closing upon Jesus and getting an early hooter. However, it was at this point that it became apparent that Queens, knowing we were faster, had decided upon a one-and-a-half minute race plan, aiming to "do or die".

To give them credit, it nearly worked, with them closing to about a canvas at first post corner; however, they hadn't taken account of us being made of sterner stuff, and holding them off, Sam displaying some great coxing all the while. Down the gut, they were giving everything they had to just not have us pull away, and blew up rather soon after, being 1-2 lengths away at Ditton, and 5-6ish lengths back when they were bumped by Wolfson who had a rather more sensible race plan: a good attempt that we felt throughly deserved the three cheers that we gave them after the race.

During this time, we had closed to about half a length off Jesus at Ditton. Their wily cox then proceeded to urge his crew on to greater and greater things, convincing them to give their all and then some. This, and the (non-deliberate) failure of many of the crew to hear when our pushes were and thus time them together, caused the rate of closing to reduce to a crawl.

Many a bump has been missed in a similar situation, but the crew spirit was never to give up, and we eventually broke them just after the railway bridge.

Overall a fantastic race, one that was great to watch, and all crews could hold their heads up high at, but shorter ones would be preferable for the rest of the week!

Event: Pembroke Regatta 2003 - 2nd division
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Quite a nervy row, with the surge being an afterthought:- we still won convincingly, but unanimously agreed it was a shocker: have to do much better next time!

Event: Pembroke Regatta 2003 - 2nd division
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
Event Link

To tell the story of this race, let me take you back to an event that morning, 6.15am, before the day's racing....
I turned up to sub into a 1st VIII outing, to discover that they had removed their rudder getting BP1 off the trailer. Two members of the 1st VIII were busy attempting to remove BP2's rudder to replace it. Dispite protestations, they continued, attempting for a good 10 mins until they realised that they would never remove it, no matter how hard they tried.... We had the outing in BP2, but I digress:

A much stronger start and a powerful surge saw us onto a glorious row: the kind that is painful but you don't want to stop because it is going well. The Queens boat had burned it off the start (see photo of Mays 2002 for Queens' ability to do this) and gone up by three seats or so. 40 seconds down the course, they were starting to blow, whereas we were in our rhythm: we stopped the rot and started to pull back. It was developing into a wonderful row through and a decent scrap. Imagine our surprise to have our rudder break during the next push.... We ended up getting far too friendly with banks, marshalling boats, etc. and decided to pull in further down the course until the end of the set of races and then limp home.

A day of bizarre coincidences, no?

Event: May Bumps 2003 - Friday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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We have a bad start
Lady Margret are closing;
we spring on Emma

Event: Robinson Head 2004 - Lower VIIIs
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
Event Link

Fairly good row: if I had to fault it, come the bumps we want to rate a few pips higher; but overall we did very well.
As far as the race times go - hmmmmm, think about the following results:

Second leg of the H2H - we beat Corpus by 45 seconds in a not very good row. Robinson head - they beat us by 18 seconds when we had a good row. Hmmmmmm.

Likewise, second leg of the H2H, we beat Girton by 53 seconds. CCAT managed to pip them by 13 seconds in Newnham. Despite pulling away from them over the course (started behind a reasonable way, couldn't see them as we crossed the line), they have 'beaten' us by 15 seconds.

(This isn't even starting on the fact we came in behind our 4th VIII)

These things always sound like sour grapes, but at current counting, two results have already been changed by the organisers significantly.

Event: Lent Bumps 2005 - Tuesday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
Event Link

Been there, done that ('98, in exactly the same boat).

Downing have a "unique" method of pushing off, meaning that the bank party were left with the rather curious moral quandry (spelling?) of whether to call "1 length" before the starting cannon....

They were slightly less awful in '98 (only just - probably took us 10/15 strokes further) but were a lot more vocally rude.

Event: Lent Bumps 2007 - Friday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Legend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Event: Lent Bumps 2007 - Friday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes......

Event: BPBC Karting 2009 - Twin-engined Honda pro-karts
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Given how much I spun (purely due to not knowing the car and track, you understand... ;-) you all really should have done better!! :-D

Event: BPBC Karting 2009 - Twin-engined Honda pro-karts
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
Event Link

See above!

Event: Lent Bumps 2010 - Tuesday
Posted as: Anything to do with being short
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Good luck for today guys: get 'em back!