All race reports for Christopher Elsby
Event: May Bumps 2011 - Thursday
Posted as: Chris E.
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The start felt much better. The stride was still a bit indistinct, but we managed to find a fairly solid rhythm, and initially held Clare 3 at a roughly constant distance.
Unfortunately, when Clare began to get a bit closer, it seems that we responded predominantly by rowing shorter, leading to a loss of boat speed and thus a bump before long.
Despite the result, we need to realise that we are improving rapidly. Tomorrow we just need to keep our improvements from today and focus on retaining our composure, avoiding rush on the slide and getting out to full length every stroke, even when under pressure, as this is the only effective way to keep the boat moving.
Event: May Bumps 2011 - Friday
Posted as: Chris E.
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As we were pushing off, there was a slight problem with the cox box leading to a high-pitched electronic sound. This was fixed before the starting gun, though it might have left some of us feeling a bit startled.
Nevertheless, the start seemed reasonable, and it felt like we were getting more length right until the end. This was unfortunately not long after the motorway bridge.
We still have improvements to make: we were not always quite in time, balance was variable, and the stride could have been stronger. Let us keep up the improvement and finish off with a last day of Bumps that we can be really proud of.
Event: May Bumps 2011 - Saturday
Posted as: Chris E.
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We went off powerfully from the start, moving up on Trinity Hall 3 and holding station with St. Edmund's 2.
The stride felt stronger than on previous days and we kept going hard, apparently closing to between 1/2 to 3/4 lengths off Trinity Hall 3. This represents a huge improvement considering that yesterday they gained on us and bumped.
Unfortunately, not far after the motorway bridge, I (at 7) scraped my blade against the bank. This took some boat speed off in itself and also disrupted the rhythm, which took a couple of strokes to fully recover, leading to a further loss of speed. By this point we were also beginning to tire after the previous push, and thus seemed unable to accelerate the boat back up to speed. The bump from St. Edmunds 2 came before First Post Corner.
Overall, a disappointing set of Bumps results, which I think above all shows the importance of keeping the training up. If we had rowed on the first day like we did today, Catz would probably not have got the bump. More outings, especially just before Bumps, would have helped us to do this. More ergs throughout the term would probably also have helped to improve power and fitness.
I urge everyone not to be disheartened by these results, and to keep training over summer, looking to get into M2 or better next term.
Event: May Bumps 2011 - Wednesday
Posted as: Chris E.
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The start felt a bit panicked, and the stride seemed weak and indistinct. A fair amount of rush remained throughout and balance was not really there. Catz 3 kept moving up on us, and bumped before First Post Corner.
This is a disappointing result, but it is important to remember that we have a lot of potential for improvement. The very first outing after so much time off is unlikely to be ideal, and for most of the term we have been rowing much more cleanly with better rhythm and balance, so we should be able to get back into it if we approach things more calmly.
We need to approach tomorrow with a positive mindset to be ready to take advantage of any Lolcatz incident that may happen ahead, and also for the possibility of chasing Selwyn 3 for an overbump in the case of a bump ahead of us.
Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2012 - 3rd Mays
Posted as: Chris E.
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The paddle up to the start was unremarkable, and somewhat messy. However, once we started winding up for the race I quickly found myself struggling to keep up and actually rather scared. This was partly because it was very rushed on the slide, but there was also a strong sense of fierceness and aggression during the drive, feeling rather more enthusiastic than last term's M2.
Throughout the downstream part of the race, ratio, length and timing never really came, and technique remained messy. However, the power stayed on, and every time a push was called there was a noticeable increase in boat speed.
For the upstream part of the race, I had suggested that we focus on ratio, and I feel there was a bit of improvement in this respect but not as much as might have been hoped for, and it was still difficult to get length. Commitment was still there throughout the race, but as we began to get tired our technique worsened and there were quite a few bad strokes where we lost a lot of speed.
Overall, I was pleased with this race, especially as a first outing. I felt that the level of power and aggression was very good, and we should keep that, but we need to really work on being calmer during the recovery, staying in time, and improving our technique. Our result was not too bad, though it could definitely have been better, and these points show that we have a lot of room for improvement.
Event: May Bumps 2012 - Saturday
Posted as: Chris E.
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So a disappointing result from the Bumps campaign considering the standard of the crew, but this was mostly because of the antics of St. Catharine's III and Trinity Hall III ahead of us. Yesterday was the only race that we could have done anything about ourselves, and that may have required planning not to chase the bump but just to go at a steady pace and hope for an eventual overbump - which is considered a dangerous strategy.
Event: May Bumps 2012 - Friday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Alex did a very good job of steering us around them, but the Bumps push had taken a lot out of us and it soon became apparent that Christ's III were noticeably gaining on us and we did not seem able to respond.
We went quite wide around Grassy Corner and they got overlap, but they steered for the bump and so came through outside us, allowing us to pull away coming out of the corner. This, however, did not last for long: they moved up again and caught us outside the Plough.
So, a very disappointing result, and again one that was influenced by the goings on in front of us. It is a shame that we did not find the energy to keep off Christ's III, whom we managed to beat in Nines Regatta, as we had apparently got most of the way to overbumping Jesus III, but I think we can be pleased with our performance especially considering how much we had put into the earlier Bumps push.
Tomorrow is a new race, so we need to go into it aiming to do as well as possible and not let ourselves be put off by today (or by protesters).
Event: May Bumps 2012 - Thursday
Posted as: Chris E.
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We did gain quite well on Trinity Hall III, apparently getting to within about 3/4 length of them, but then St. Catharine's III in front of them caught some crabs and so got bumped promptly despite having rowed over yesterday. Then we were closing on Selwyn III and seemingly fast enough to get the overbump before the finish line, but they also bumped up before we could catch them.
Two more pairs of boats also bumped out, so the only thing we could possibly chase was a quadruple overbump on Clare Hall. This was judged not feasible (or perhaps they had actually reached the finish line by this point) and the boats behind us had also bumped out so we were instructed to wind it down near the Plough.
On the Reach, Jason at 6 kept expressing concern that Homerton II would get a double overbump on us, but in fact there remained plenty of distance between us as well as the scope for us to have wound it back up if necessary. Having said that, we did not seem to keep this part of the race as tidy and efficient as we might have.
This result denies us blades, but there was not really anything we could have done about it - in Bumps we will always be subject to the whims of the crews around us. We need to keep the focus tomorrow: maybe we will catch St. Catharine's III or maybe they will bump back on Trinity Hall III and we will be chasing the overbump on Jesus III (who are down 2 so far). Also, we might have some real pressure from behind this time from Christ's III (who are up 2 so far), so we need to keep our cool and be prepared to keep pushing on even if we are having to row over.
Event: May Bumps 2012 - Wednesday
Posted as: Chris E.
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In the first few strokes, we were treated to the sight of Jesus IV behind us travelling across the river and soon reaching the bank, having perhaps not got their starting angle quite right.
Then St. Edmund's II in front of us caught a couple of severe crabs, and we bumped them at about the 10th stroke of the race.
So, a good result for us, but bad luck for St. Edmund's II. We need to keep focused and be prepared for harder races for the rest of the week: we still don't actually have much idea what St. Edmund's II (who will be chasing us tomorrow and hoping for revenge) are like when not catching crabs: apparently we were gaining on them before this happened, but there was not really enough time to get a good idea.
Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2012 - 4th division
Posted as: Chris E.
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Having beaten Clare M3 by several seconds in Champs Head, we were expecting this race to be easier than the previous one, though much closer than the first one.
We remained about level with them off the start, but once again we were rushing and they soon began to get noticeably ahead. Then it seems that we suffered a couple of mini-crabs (fortunately each resolved within a stroke), each of which cost us a lot in speed and caused us to fall further behind. And then they put in a push and moved even further ahead. For a while we seemed to react by panicking and rowing shorter and with worse rhythm, which unsurprisingly did not help.
However, when Alex called for a push through the railway bridge, the rhythm suddenly came together and we were rowing more calmly. We saw that we were gaining on the other boat, and realised that there was a good chance that we could catch them, but that there was not very much distance left on the course. With this motivation, we began really putting down power and gaining on them more rapidly, while they seemed shocked and unable to find a response. We had a wind for the finish, which came with effective power and took us to about a quarter of a length ahead by the finish line.
This was our last race, winning the "MenD" event of the competition. This is definitely a result that we can be pleased with, and bow pair deserve a special mention for coping without being able to hear the cox properly, but we need to work on more reliably finding a good rhythm even under race conditions, as it was a theme throughout this event that we were initially rushing in each race but then gained a significant increase in boat speed when we finally settled.
Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2012 - 4th division
Posted as: Chris E.
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Initially, we got ahead by about half a length. However, we again had difficulty establishing a good rhythm, and they gradually moved back up on us for a while. Fortunately, when we eventually found our rhythm, we started moving ahead again, finishing about three quarters of a length up.
Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2012 - 4th division
Posted as: Chris E.
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We moved ahead off the start and quickly got clear water between us. Once we were a few lengths ahead, we gradually wound it down for a relaxed row to the finish line.
One thing that did become apparent during this race is that we were rushing off the start and had difficulty settling into a decent rhythm: when the first "Down 2" was called as part of our winding down, we actually started moving away faster from the other boat.
Event: Champion of the Thames Eights Head 2012 - Men's 4th div. Mays
Posted as: Chris E.
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Our start did in fact turn out quite well (though unfortunately not quite prize-winningly well), and the rhythm throughout the race was much better than in the previous race. Matt at 4 did a very good job of keeping things together when one of his feet came out. When we started feathering, things became messy as had happened in outings. There were also times in the race where the power seemed to drop off, though it did come back when called.
We clearly have more to gain by continuing to work on catching and finishing square when rowing feathered blades - but also I think it is important that as we keep focussing on technical points and rowing with a calmer rhythm we do not lose the underlying racing aggression.
In terms of results, we were 5th in the "College Men's 8 - Mays 4" event and the fastest boat entered under the name "M4" (though Queens' entered 4 men's boats that were faster than us). We were only 6.9 seconds slower than the next FaT boat up by results, though it should be noted that we both had subs.
Event: Lent Bumps 2012 - Saturday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Our start was still rather messy, and LMBC II quite quickly got within a length of us. They then continued to close on us, albeit more gradually. In the Gut as they got very close, we had some strong pushes that picked up the boat speed and held them off for a bit longer; however, we ended up getting bumped just as we were approaching Grassy Corner.
Our quality of rowing was better than yesterday but probably still not as good as on Thursday. I do feel that we were persistently tidier in the practice starts and bursts on the way down than in the actual races, so calmness is definitely something that we can work on.
Nevertheless, I think that we can be pleased with our effort and commitment, and we probably did as well as we could from our starting position in Bumps. It should be remembered that the first outing we had in the actual Bumps crew was just before Pembroke Regatta, and we did really bring things together in the 10 days between then and the start of Bumps.
Event: Lent Bumps 2012 - Friday
Posted as: Chris E.
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What was encouraging about today is that despite Jesus II getting a lot closer behind us this time we stayed committed and held on, and when we had an off stroke we managed to recover and get on with the next one.
Tomorrow we really need to focus on staying calm, keeping the focus in our boat, keeping the length in the stroke and pushing out the cover, as LMBC II are not going to give us any slack. We need to make sure we finish on a high with no regrets.
Event: Lent Bumps 2012 - Thursday
Posted as: Chris E.
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The rowing felt more confident and in control today, and we did well to keep calm throughout. However, our cover was not as good as it has been, so we have room to improve that and gain boat speed through efficiency.
Tomorrow we again have Jesus II chasing us. After today we can be very confident, but we mustn't be complacent. They will be looking to go harder off the start and take tighter lines around the corners, which may put us under more pressure. We need to stay in control but push out the cover more, and see if we can catch Caius II.
Event: Lent Bumps 2012 - Tuesday
Posted as: Chris E.
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We held Downing II to station off the start, though it was not quite as composed as the practice ones we did on the way down. However, they then began to close on us and caught us on the Gut.
A disappointing result, but I think we gave a really committed row. We need to go into tomorrow confident (but not complacent) and not afraid to try to bump Downing II back over the length of the course.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2012 - 2nd division
Posted as: Chris E.
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We were on the towpath side again with conditions still very windy.
Downing II moved away from us off the start, and then continued to gain ground throughout the race, finishing 2 lengths up on us.
However, I think that we gave a very committed row, and made them fight for it. I did feel that we were probably letting the worst of the conditions affect us more than was necessary, and not properly taking advantage of lulls to get in some higher quality rowing. Hopefully, conditions will be much more pleasant for Bumps, but we have to be prepared to cope with whatever each day brings - and there is no guarantee that it will not be like today.
How well we do in Bumps will depend on how well we are able to take advantage of the final week of training: there is a lot that we can do to neaten up our rowing and improve the efficiency. This will give us more distance with every stroke. Combine this with a bit more work on the start and there is no reason not to be very hopeful about Bumps.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2012 - 2nd division
Posted as: Chris E.
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This time the other crew was Trinity Hall II, and they gained on us off the start. However, once we had settled into as much of a rhythm as was possible given the not altogether flat surface of the river, it did not take us long to move back up on them and overtake, and we were 3 lengths up by the finish line.
This might suggest that we have a fair bit to gain for bumps by getting our start (which we had only had one previous outing practising) more coordinated, together and confident.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2012 - 2nd division
Posted as: Chris E.
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From the start of the race, there seemed to be a lot of water going everywhere, and this remained the case throughout the race. Each stroke was a matter of trying to get the end of the blade into the river and keep it there until the finish, with little attention to spare for what it was actually doing there.
However, it seems that we were more successful at this on average than Wolfson II, and so we steadily gained on them and were comfortably ahead by the railway bridge. Nonetheless, merely rowing to the finish line while avoiding any boat-stopping incidents was still far from a trivial matter.
I think our cox Ellie deserves a special mention for getting the boat pointed in the correct direction at the start and keeping us going along the course without any encounters with the bank, despite the awful conditions.
Event: Robinson Head 2012 - 2nd division
Posted as: Chris E.
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We went quite well off the start, settling to our target rate of 32 and keeping things composed and committed. Towards the middle of the race some rush crept in and power dropped off. However, we picked it up again as we approached the end.
We came sixth overall and the second M2, 8 seconds behind Christ's. (It should however be noted that Caius were not racing.)
Despite the shortened course, I think this served as useful race experience. We need to work on keeping the composure and commitment throughout the race, and seeing how much higher we can push the rate.
Event: Lent Bumps 2016 - Friday
Posted as: Chris E.
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However, there was naturally some nervousness and excitement in the crew, and this translated into less neatness off the start and a higher rate than we had planned after the stride. But when Queens did not come close and we very quickly got a whistle on Downing, we knew that things were looking positive. The next whistles took longer to achieve but we kept moving on Downing without having to change what we were doing and without Queens causing us any worry. When we reached three whistles, a Bumps push was called and this achieved the bump fairly promptly (even though I think I stopped rowing a couple of strokes prematurely having misheard something as "hold it up"). I cannot remember exactly where we bumped but I think it was at First Post Corner.
This result is our reward for the performance yesterday - we have earned it and should savour it - but I think our rowing was not as composed as it has been. Tomorrow we are not anticipating pressure from behind, and Darwin will be difficult to catch, so we should try to settle to our target rate and keep things clean to give ourselves the best chance.
Event: May Bumps 2016 - Saturday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Thus off the start we went quite a lot faster than both Clare M2 and Downing M2 and I was thinking that the revenge bump was actually going to happen.
Unfortunately we were still not fully in time on the recovery and one thing that had remained a concern during the warmup and the approach to the starting position was balance: we were not sitting the boat well and it was lurching rather chaotically from side to side.
As we got into some choppy water this got worse and finally a crab was caught. We recovered from this but it had brought an end to our absolute sprint and despite a valiant effort to bring the boat speed back up we were caught fairly soon by Clare M2.
Event: May Bumps 2016 - Friday
Posted as: Chris E.
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We moved up half a length on Corpus M1 off the start and then sat there for some time. However, when the boats behind us bumped out and we didn't have anything to push off it seems that (as on Wednesday) we slowed down and Corpus M1 moved away from us substantially. We wound it down when they eventually bumped Downing M2.
Event: May Bumps 2016 - Thursday
Posted as: Chris E.
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In the race I again feel that we were not managing to translate our underlying ability into boat speed and Downing M2 and Corpus M1 both went faster than us. We had better lines around the corners than Corpus M1 which gained us some distance but we were caught quickly on the Reach.
Event: Lent Bumps 2016 - Saturday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Unfortunately we never really started rowing cleanly today, and we rowed the course as a very messy piece without ever putting Darwin under any pressure. This probably didn't affect the result, as it seems they were simply a faster crew than us. However, Downing M2 actually came within a length of us before being bumped by Queens M2, and although they were obviously sprinting as hard as they possibly could, this still suggests that we were being rather ineffective today, given how much faster we were than them yesterday.
We can all be proud of what we have achieved this week as a crew, despite the slightly lacklustre performance on the final day.
Event: Lent Bumps 2016 - Thursday
Posted as: Chris E.
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The starting gun went off about 5 seconds before we were expecting it but we reacted well and had a reasonable start. Queens did indeed gain on us though it was a bit more gradual than expected, and as we went into Grassy they were visibly inside station though not worryingly close.
Meanwhile, ahead of us, Corpus M1 and Downing M2 had bumped out and did a very effective job of completely blocking the river. We held it up but still ended up entangled with one of them. The umpires thought that Queens were likely to bump us, and therefore arranged a rerow with just the two of us, from Head Station to Top Finish. "If you get that far," they said.
With some consternation we focused in on the new race. Our start was good and again Queens did not immediately take much out of us. For the first part of the course, they gained slowly on us but we stayed focused and rowed our own race as we had confidence that they were sprinting harder than they could sustain. We did a much better job of pushing into and out of corners to maintain the boat speed, but Queens continued to move on us. If I remember correctly, they got their first - rather dubious - whistles at some point around Grassy, and by the time we got onto the Reach they were scarily close.
However, we kept rowing well together and having committed pushes. Queens got overlap on us not far into the Reach but we did not let go. Queens steered for the bump through the Railway Bridge but missed and this helped to maintain the lateral distance between us. From then on we knew the finish was within reach and we gave it everything with a final push.
This was rewarded by Queens falling back, so we pushed out a large gap behind and then had a relaxed row for the last section of the course after Queens started rowing in sixes. (I'm not sure whether they just gave up, had a problem or had forgotten that we were racing until Top Finish.)
It is in this sort of race that we really prove what we can do as a crew, and I am proud to have been part of it.
Tomorrow we should be able to put the "Down" into Downing M2 without too much trouble - but we do need to be patient about it, avoid complacency and make sure we stay ahead of what will undoubtedly be a very angry Queens M2 crew, as we know we can.
Event: Lent Bumps 2016 - Tuesday
Posted as: Chris E.
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However, after Grassy our speed had come down and Corpus gained on us throughout Plough Reach. Then we lost a bit more speed around Ditton and Corpus had a big push. We responded when they got very close but too little too late, and we got bumped around Ditton.
We have certainly shown that we have plenty of speed, and we did a very good job of remaining composed and together under pressure. However, we should be able to get more out of ourselves in terms of pushes into and out of corners and pushing up the speed at an earlier stage if we lose distance to the crew behind, in order to avoid giving them a chance.
Event: May Bumps 2016 - Wednesday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Nevertheless, we gained on Darwin M1 from the start of the race, but Downing M2 also gained on us (despite having seemed noticeably slower than us when paddling). This movement continued until Downing M2 unexpectedly stopped rowing and were then overtaken by Corpus M1.
It seems that most of our crew hadn't realised that we were gaining on Darwin M1 and when the pressure from behind was removed our commitment flagged and we let them move away again. After about half a minute there was a klaxon due to a dangerous incident ahead.
When we were allowed to proceed, Downing M2 and Darwin M1 went home but we and Corpus M1 were informed that there would be a rerow and were made to wait near race control. This was apparently because Downing M2 had said that they stopped because someone on the bank had shouted at them to hold it up, and the umpires felt that they needed to honour this to encourage good safety habits. This was annoying for the club because last year when First and Third M1 stopped in similar circumstances there was no rerow and a bump was instead awarded against them.
Furthermore, the rerow was scheduled for a later time and our 6-man had to leave before then, so we needed to find a sub and none of the obvious choices were available at such short notice. Eventually we set off towards our starting position with 7 rowers in the boat (rowing quarter-slide-ish in sixes with our 5-man carrying two blades). Michael Thornton kindly agreed to sub in even though he had not been training and the vacancy was on the wrong side for him.
Thus in the rerow we had a lot of anger and not much respect for the situation, and knew that we had to try to make something happen off the start. We set off and kept the rate high with no stride, and managed to hold off Downing M2 for much longer than anyone expected, making it onto the Reach, but were eventually bumped. Then Michael needed to leave and we rowed back to the boathouse in the same comedic configuration as before.
Event: May Bumps 2017 - Friday
Posted as: Chris E.
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On the row up to the start things were feeling much better than they had done on previous days, with the balance of the boat staying closer to central for more of the time, and in the race I think we produced our best row yet. The start went smoothly, and this time we moved inside station on Peterhouse M1.
Unfortunately, Emmanuel M1 simply were faster. They just missed bumping us on First Post Corner, and got us on Grassy.
By this time, we had apparently closed up on Jesus M1 (who were 2 in front of us) by more than 1.5 lengths. So we can be very pleased with our rowing today, but it is just a shame we did not find this on Wednesday.
Event: Cambridge Regatta 2017 - Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Chris E.
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They took quite a lot of distance out of us on the first 3 strokes, but we got most of it back as we wound up. Unlike in the time trial, we took the rate fairly high (I think it was something like 37) and kept it there as long as we could. I think our pace roughly matched Cantabs, sitting the same distance behind them, until shortly before the railway bridge when we began to tire and they began to move away.
Event: Cambridge Regatta 2017 - Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Chris E.
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The row to the start was, unsurprisingly, not very tidy or together, but I think it was better than might have been expected and it was improving over time.
The race piece seemed fairly solid for a scratch crew, and we could tell we were gaining on the boat in front, but I think our pace suffered a bit from under-rating - I don't think we spent much time above rate 31.
Our time was 2nd out of 5 in the Open Eights category.
Event: May Bumps 2017 - Saturday
Posted as: Chris E.
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However, in the race they just steadily closed up on us and we did not seem to be able to do anything about it. I can't remember exactly where we were bumped but I think it was quite early. Perhaps they were executing a hard sprint off the start which we were just unable to match, or perhaps they were simply a faster crew than we were expecting.
I think our rowing today was not as good as yesterday, but probably better than on Thursday. I am not sure how it compared to Wednesday.
Down 4 is not a result that anyone wants. To some extent we were the victim of the cruel nature of Bumps racing that the result on the first day has a lot of influence on the whole week's results. Given the very disrupted lead-up to Bumps it is perhaps unsurprising that it took until the third day to find our best rowing. But now we need to accept that we will have to start from 10th place next year, and start work right away to make sure that we go up from there next year rather than falling further down.
Event: May Bumps 2017 - Thursday
Posted as: Chris E.
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However, things were feeling especially rocky in the warm-up, and in the race it became clear that we did not have as much energy in us today as we did yesterday, and so we were just slower. We didn't move on Downing M1, and Peterhouse M1 did move on us, catching us around Ditton corner.
Event: May Bumps 2017 - Wednesday
Posted as: Chris E.
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The first few strokes were very messy (and I think there may have been an airstroke at some point), but then things gradually started coming together. On the rhythm call we did have rhythm, albeit at a substantially higher stroke rate than we were planning, and soon started getting whistles on Jesus M1 and moving away from Downing M1. By the time we were approaching Grassy, I (at Bow) could clearly hear the Jesus M1 cox near me sounding rather desperate, and I definitely thought that the bump was coming.
Unfortunately, despite several consecutive pushes, we didn't make it to overlap. By the time we were at the Plough, the boat was feeling much heavier and although Jesus M1 never got far away, our impetus was gone. We kept rowing solidly, but we had spent ourselves and Downing M1 behind us started looming larger. As they closed up we fought hard to hold them off, but succumbed shortly after the Railway Bridge.
I think our race performance exceeded expectations, and we can all be proud of stepping up to form this crew. But in the end we got bumped, and I will always ponder what might have been.
Event: Lent Bumps 2017 - Saturday
Posted as: Chris E.
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I don't think we rowed quite as well off the start and around the corners as we did on Tuesday, and Christ's M1 managed to get inside station. But then, coming onto the reach, we had a push that brought more power and a big rhythm, and at that point it felt like we were going to move away and probably get the bump on Peterhouse M1.
Unfortunately, we were possibly going slightly too all-out with power and becoming incautious with platform. Or maybe we just got unlucky. Either way, a crab brought an end to our move, we did not manage to recover it in time, and Christ's M1 caught us.
Event: Lent Bumps 2017 - Friday
Posted as: Chris E.
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We had some very messy strokes in the start, but then things seemed to settle down and I was not particularly worried. But then the messy strokes happened again and the balance of the boat became very chaotic, before seeming to settle down again for a while. Again and again this kept happening, and it quickly became apparent that something was wrong.
In fact the button (also known as the collar) of our stroke-man's oar had broken, meaning that he kept getting stuck with his blade at the wrong angle, unable to take the stroke and instead slowing the boat down.
Peterhouse gradually gained on us, and were clearly dangerously close by the time we came out of Ditton. We tried to hold them off with some increase in pressure, but we got bumped a short distance along the Reach.
Event: Lent Bumps 2017 - Thursday
Posted as: Chris E.
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We found more calmness and solidity right from the start, and it soon became apparent that Peterhouse were not getting particularly close. Thus we were able to keep calm through the corners. Out of Ditton we took a push and started moving away from Peterhouse M1. We kept moving throughout the Reach, and finished a long way ahead of them.
Event: Lent Bumps 2017 - Wednesday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Unfortunately, our rowing was untidy and overexcited, trying to use brute force that we didn't really have. We didn't really get anywhere near Jesus M1, and by the time we got to the Reach they had pulled away quite convincingly and so our bank party got us to take the rate down.
Event: University IVs 2016 - 2nd division
Posted as: Chris E.
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The row to the marshalling area was not very promising, with the boat always down to one side or the other and little sense of rowing together (even after my footplates were successfully attached to the boat). Our practice start (unsurprisingly in the circumstances) was rushed and chaotic.
However, upon arrival we discovered our captain's cunning plan: by marshalling 90 minutes early for our division, we were presumably hoping that the race officials would assume either that our opponents had scratched or that we were 90 minutes faster than them. Unfortunately no-one was fooled and we had plenty of time to get cold on the bank before our opponents, Maggie M2, arrived. After a further delay due to an errant novice boat on the course, we finally set off.
I think the race start was better than the practice one and for a while we actually seemed to be vaguely fast and balanced. However, I think we were only rating in the mid 20s and composure came and went during the race. During our worse periods Maggie (who were chasing us, and who I suspect may have been doing slightly more training as a IV than us) advanced a lot. I think we just about prevented them from getting their bows in front of ours (though they certainly overlapped a lot) and were holding them at the end, which suggests that we have a good mentality ready for Bumps but is not so relevant during a time trial.
Event: Lent Bumps 2018 - Thursday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Event: Lent Bumps 2018 - Thursday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Event: Lent Bumps 2018 - Thursday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Event: Lent Bumps 2018 - Wednesday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Event: Lent Bumps 2018 - Wednesday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Event: Lent Bumps 2018 - Wednesday
Posted as: Chris E.
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Event: Lent Bumps 2023 - Friday
Posted as: Chris E.
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