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All race reports for Chris Ingram

Event: Lent Bumps 1996 -
Posted as: Ingers
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This was all of the crew's first set of bumps. We spacked away merrily and got to half a length off Churchill before the lack of fitness caught up with us and we rowed over.

Event: Lent Bumps 1996 -
Posted as: Ingers
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Downing IV comically managed to write off their boat on the way down to the start so Churchill had to row just 2.5 lengths to bump. We were no way good enough for any overbumps so another row over occurred.

Event: May Bumps 1996 - Saturday
Posted as: Ingers
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Most of the crew went to Downing event and were in various states of hungover / coming down-ness. Despite one nameless crew member offering to distribute a line of speed to any crew member who wanted it (seriously!) we rowed badly and failed to close the deal from half a length. Emma, the cox, was really angry with those guys.

Event: Lent Bumps 1996 -
Posted as: Ingers
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Downing IV had still not repaired their boat so we now got the free bump. Oh, how fun it was to row in a division so bad it no longer exists!

Event: Lent Bumps 1996 -
Posted as: Ingers
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Queens IV were terrible and had fallen every day. We were faster than them and got them fairly easily.

Event: Lent Bumps 1996 -
Posted as: Ingers
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This crew was excellent and deserved blades. However, just as they were making up ground on the crew in front, Dan Wilde managed to break his seat and whilst trying to fix it the crew fell apart and got overbumped by Corpus II. How embarrassing!

Event: Lent Bumps 1996 -
Posted as: Ingers
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I beleive the bump that started our 9 consecutive bumps up to Head occurred by Two Tees Boathouse. A typically nails result from this era.

Event: May Bumps 1997 - Wednesday
Posted as: Ingram
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Clare were simply dreadful. They had barely spun by the 1 minute gun and their bank party had to throw the bung out to the crew. They started not pointing straight and had to call a corner to avoid the bank. However, we hit them before they could even do this. The race had lasted maybe 15 strokes and we had not even reached New corner. The speed differential on impact forced them into the bank and we were right behind them. Downing IV (behind us) were unable to avoid the carnage and ploughed into us prompting a rare outburst of obscenities from Emma. The crew in front of Clare were also dreadful and, bizarrely, [and against all standard procedure] Downing were awarded a technical overbump.

Event: Lent Bumps 1997 -
Posted as: Ingers
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We made the regular bumps mistake of knowing that we were faster than Robinson and so setting out to "row them down over the course". As is always the case, this tactic failed and we only put them under pressure late in the race. Despite getting to zero distance, they had enough fight to make it over the line. We were gutted. Blades should have been there for the taking.

Event: Lent Bumps 1997 -
Posted as: Ingers
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Our failure the previous day was now magnified by the fact that a fast(!) Homerton crew were now chasing us for their blades.

There was a fair bit of talk from the Hommers in the boathouse beforehand and it was clear that they expected to hit us.

However, gee'd up by a stirring talk from John Were we came off the gun as hard as we could and had overlap by Ditton. So did Homerton. We cornered increasingly as part of a sandwich but aided by a fine bit of coxing from Melissa (she couldn't steer for the bump or we'd have pushed our stern into the Hommers) we got the bump before a genuinely surprised Homerton. It was very satisfying but we were left thinking about what might have been if we had gone hard from the start on Day 3.

Event: Lent Bumps 1997 -
Posted as: Ingers
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This was Maggie's fellows VIII. We quickly got them to a canvas before Fisher in the 3 seat caught an overhead. I shall never forget the panicked expression on his face as he turned round and screamed at me "Help!". Luckily, we knew what to do [his only previous crab having come in the practise start we had done in our final outing!] and so I was able to recover it after just 3 or 4 strokes.

We then got Maggie nice and easily. AS we were rowing home past them, we showed off our square blades paddling which prompted one of the fellow to tell us to "F*** off".

Event: May Bumps 1997 - Saturday
Posted as: Ingram
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We were sufficiently confident that 3 of the crew (Ingram, Blaukopf, Spencer) actually raced wearing a T-shirt proclaiming our blades and listing Disney as the final crew!

Possibly as a result of the pressure this arrogance had put upon us, we were very nervous (especially me!) and made a slightly below par start. However, we found our rhythm fairly soon and closed to hit them on First Post corner. This was probably our hardest race, although like all the non-overbumps did not even involve a single corner!!!

Event: May Bumps 1997 - Friday
Posted as: Ingram
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We were substantially better than Kings II and closed from the start of the race until the end which occurred on First Post Reach.

Event: May Bumps 1997 - Thursday
Posted as: Ingram
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We made a solid start and moved up on Downing IV. When we were at about half a length they bumped leaving us to chase for the overbump. We moved up rapidly on Catz III gaining a huge amount with a vastly superior cornering performance round First Post and Grassy. We got the Hooters down Plough Reach and hit them by Ditton putting us back ahead of Downing.

Event: Lent Bumps 1997 -
Posted as: Ingers
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Corpus II were shit and revenge for thier flukey bump the year before was swift and sweet.

Event: Fairbairn Cup 1997 - Lower VIIIs
Posted as: Ingram
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This was a fantastic row with Clive setting an excellent rhythm and everyone working really hard behind. We had nothing like the experience of the 1st VIII and only Beary (who had noviced that term yet lied his way into the senior squad!) was remotely powerful. However, we finished within a minute of their winning time and beat many 1st VIIIs as well as all the 2nd VIIIs and every Oxford college bar Oriel.

One of my most satisfying race results

Event: Henley Royal Regatta 1998 - Temple Cup
Posted as: Ingram
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We had seen the draw and knew we had no chance. However, this did not stop Marnold assuring us that we could still do it as we rowed down.

However, Brad was thinking like us and was only interested in having fun. Referring to the blade clash in the Goldie-Isis race that had cost Goldie their 6-man and the race, he turned the cox box up to max and declared "We know the only way Isis can beat Cambridge crews is to blade clash so everyone hold onto their blades tight".

This obviously angered Isis and thanks to both coxes a blade clash nearly happened again with Brad gleefully declaring "They're doing it again!". Alas, they were now intent on winning by as much as possible and soon disappeared ahead of us. Possibly as a result of our goading they never wound it down and hence thrashed us by 5 lengths!

Event: Henley Royal Regatta 1998 - Temple Cup
Posted as: Ingram
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What a draw this was!

We had been fired up since the draw was announced. Both crews were made up from their 1st and 2nd May VIIIs who had been successful so we knew it would be close. Stokes, our coach, devised a plan to race steadily and make our killer move at the halfway mark with a 60 second push.

We set off a little scrappily and were level with Maggie after the start. The next 4 or so announcements by the commentator were that the crews were level - it was an astonishingly close race. At the halfway mark and with there never having been more than a metre or so between the crews we lifted it up and after the minute were half a length ahead. Unfortunately, the anticipated demise of the Maggie confidence never came and they continued to close back on us for the rest of the course, which was unpleasant. Luckily the finishing line arrived as they were really starting to gain but we were still a few metres in front.

It was not a pretty race but we had beaten the Maggie scum so that was all that counted. Apparently it was the first close race of that year's regatta.

Event: May Bumps 1998 - Wednesday
Posted as: Ingram
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We were miles better than Girton and had them at half a length at Grassy after a good start. We closed down Plough Reach and had overlap at Ditton. Raf called a push for the bump rather then the corner but we somehow missed them. A handbrake turn round the outside of Ditton was required leaving us a langth down and with Queens II now close behind. We were knackered from having driven ourselves down Plough reach and Girton could not believe their luck (the smae thing hapened to them the next day, apparently!).

However, a series of pushes down the reach saw us finally bump just before the railway bridge. It was one of the most knackeriong races I've been in and 3 members of the crew were throwing up!

Event: May Bumps 1998 - Saturday
Posted as: Ingram
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It was absolutely pelting it down throughout the row down. There were several inches of water in the bottom of all the boats. Downing thought they'd be clever and all jumped out to toss the boat with a few minutes to go. However, they must have knocked the rudder as they put it back in, in their haste. We rowed steadily but made no impact on them as they closed on Maggie in front. However, they suddenly hit the bank as there rudder failed in the late Reach and we rowed past them to bump.

We were deliberately muted in celebrations as it was pure luck that we had bumped. However, that did not stop Downing and their coach, Rhiannon, being particularly abusive and rude to us as they rowed past. I shall never forget that.

Event: May Bumps 1998 - Friday
Posted as: Ingram
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A really textbook bump saw us continue to close throughout the corners. Overlap was reached by the railings. Shortly after, I was clasping the Selwyn stern.

Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 1998 - 2nd division
Posted as: Ingram
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We knew we were the best 2nd VIII but had had trouble with Churchill II in the past. Again, they proved too strong for us despite a solid row but our honour was restored on discovering that Churchill II could beat Churchill I comfortably.

Event: University IVs 1997 - Light IVs
Posted as: Ingram
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3 crews entered. We were drawn against Maggie in the only semi. Maggie didn't turn up. The powers that be took pity on them and somewhat unbelievably re-arranged the entire format of Uni IV's into a Head race 2 days later to suit the scum.

To be fair, they contained a couple of people from Goldie and were a lot better than us [we were the FaT 3rd crew] and so won the Head race convincingly although it was pleasing for us that we still beat Jesus' first boat.

Compare the attitude of the powers that be here to 2001...

Event: Nottingham City Regatta 1998 - Novice VIIIs
Posted as: Ingram
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There was a massive headwind and we took on a huge amount of water in our practice start in the rough conditions. Raf, unfazed, proceeded to bale out using his shoe as we lined up. I was at stroke and was rather too nervous. We started very panicky, trying to rate too high and could not find a decent rhythm in the rough conditions. Raf again came to the rescue by merely stating that the crew next to us 'had had a flier but all the others were out of it'. In fact the time to 500m showed we were 6th!

However, we lengthened out to a much stronger rhythm thereafter and we had recovered to 2nd by 1,000m. A storming row down past Durham in the 3rd quarter took us into the lead and, now settled, we held off a late charge with ease. The pots we got were cool.

Event: Foster Fairbairn Pairs 1998 -
Posted as: Ingram
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Arrogantly assuming we'd beat a pair from the 3rd VIII, we went and got absolutely plastered the night before and didn't take the race very seriously.

We were moving well together and had the pair better sat than any of the others. However, we rated about 25, didn't go very fast and were deservedly beaten by a pair in a heavier boat.

Event: BUSA Regatta 1999 - 2nd VIIIs
Posted as: Ingram
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With 4 survivors from the successful 2nd VIII assault on Nottingham in 1998, omens were good. Again the wind was strong but this time it was a tailwind. CULRC had taken Cambridge I's slot and we were rowing as Cambridge II against all the other _university_ 2nd VIIIs.

Again our start was dire with us totally failing to cope with the conditions. It was proving very tough to get a good connection in the breeze and I remember looking at the coxbox after 2 minutes to see us still rating 40. Oxford Brookes II had stormed off into the distance and would win in a time that would have come 2nd in the 1st VIII category. We were in our customary 6th at 500m but the odd semblence of rhythm took us to 4th at 1,000m.

A sudden discovery of cohesion occurred at about 1,200m and we surged past Nottingham II into 3rd convincingly. We carried on attacking and closed right up on Durham II but their finishing burst took them back ahead to finish a couple of seconds ahead.

It had been a highly scrappy row but we'd covered 2k in about 6:12 I seem to recall so were clearly doing something right. I believe this to be probably my best ever finish in rowin, given the opposition.

Event: Head of the River Race 1999 - Senior4 VIIIs
Posted as: Ingram
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Rich has done justice to the immediate preparation but forgets the week leading up to the race.
He had had to return home and left me as de facto captain and in charge of training. Big mistake.

We were all totally knackered from our overtraining all term (6 land, 7 water seesions / week!) and a bit down after the Headship-loss. I therefore decided that it was more important to restore morale. Ably assisted at first by Glass, Fisher and Goodson and later by most of the club, a daily routine of afternoon football followed by Maypole drinks followed by Beer, Pizza, Beer, Pringles, Beer, Colin McRae and Beer was begun. Typical finishing times were 5am. By the end of the week we had achieved two of the club's finest achievements: The Beeramid; and modifying OddBinss stocking policy for Heineken.

However, we weren't getting much better at rowing and I think it is fair to say that even without all the other disasters would not have broken 100th.

Event: Head of the Nene 1999 - Senior4 VIIIs
Posted as: Ingram
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Buoyed immensely by the return of the pwerful Al Fisher from trialling we set about this race with real purpose.

Caius started behind us and clearly closed over the first few minutes. However, our race strategy of dividing the evet into 90 second intervals worked wonders and we banged down a great rhythm into the breeze to clearly move away.

We had been following an outrageously tough training programme but this proved that our fitness had come on immensely since the the Fairbairns as we we clearly beat crews that had been 40 and 20 seconds ahead of us then.

Event: Fairbairn Cup 1998 - Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Ingram
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This was a very inexperienced crew with several members having never even been 2nd VIII before. Fisher, had been selected for the 7-seat with a 7:25 ergo which rather summed up our lack of power.

However, things had picked up in the last week of training and we were going reasonably well. We set off hard and never let the rate fall below 34. We were not really covering enough to justify this but everyone worked bloody hard to keep it up and we were entirely satisfied with our efforts losing only to a stacked Emma crew that broke the record, a composite crew of triallists and strong Downing and Caius VIIIs.

Event: Cam Sprints 2001 - Novice IV+
Posted as: Ingram
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Despite one fifth of the crew being appropriate to the general standard of the novice category (and certainly the heaviest within it), the four actually doing the useful bit were somewhat better than their opposition. I think we were taken to a margin of only 4 lengths in one of the rounds.

Event: FaT vs BPBC Cricket Challenge 2002 -
Posted as: Ingram
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As a contrast to the splendid Champagne moment, I believe we should also have a 'Blue Nun moment' for the worst part of the match and for early contenders I nominate:

1) Me (Ingram) incorrectly giving myself out whilst batting.

2) Goodson bowling an over with at least 5 wides in it having previously caused havoc at the top of the order.

3) Fisher's 2-ball innings where he first managed to take a 3 foot jump to leg and stick out a horizontal bat, amazingly hitting the ball, followed by an attempt at a forward defensive to a slow full toss which hit the bottom of the stumps.

4) Any one of Neil's special nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-ya-YEEEEEESSSSSS calls for a quick single.

Event: Cambridge Autumn Regatta 2003 - Senior3 VIII
Posted as: Ingram
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Not sure I totally agree with Mike about it being a better row (and at bow, I am surely someone in the bows?) but again the triumph of power over finesse saw off a crew which clearly must have had neither. But we rated a pip higher than before so we were clearly having more fun.

The race is perhaps best summed up with the observation on the bank that "this must be the final of the novice viiis". However, a pot's a pot and surely we deserve recognition for actually having an (approx. 30 min) outing before racing.

Event: Molesey Amateur Regatta 2003 - Senior2 IV+
Posted as: Ingram
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Having now had some firm pressure experience we hoped this race would be a little tidier. However, we were now in S2 so were likely to be totally outclassed.

Our start was a vast improvement in that the boat remained with 10 degrees of the horizontal and we even held the crew for the first 30 seconds or so as we wound to 42ish and strode to 37. The rate settled down to 35 as dictated by unfitness but we managed to find something approaching a rhythm as the opposition slowly rowed away from us.

We had agreed that if they were clearly better than us then we would just treat it as a piece and so we did, surprisingly managing to maintian the rate at 35 if not the cover.

We had some minor shipwrecks in the middle of the race on some mildly choppy water and our attempt to push the end a bit left the rowing very scrappy as we crossed the line.

However, we reckon we were about 2 lenghts quicker than in the first race so hopefully we can continue to improve and become non-embarrassingly bad by Peterborough.

Event: Molesey Amateur Regatta 2003 - Senior3 IV+
Posted as: Ingram
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Expectations were not exactly high after previous dire performances. Dom was rowing for the first time in 16 months and I was racing for the first time in 12. The race was obscenely early and owing to the usual faffing we didn;t even manage more than 10 min of practice rowing before the race.

The guy doing the start took about 15 seconds to go from attention to go during which we drifted a little off the straight. To make matters worse our start was simply dreadful as the strokeside riggers became submarine.

We were about a length down after 20 seconds but the rowing began to improve and during the middle third of the race it was clear that our cruising speed was higher than theirs as we pushed back to about a third of a length deficit. I really thought we were going to win at this point but then we had another spectacular shipwreck as we tried to lift the rating at the end. Our fitness then totally ran out and they pulled clear to win fairly comfortably.

I would estimate that we covered the middle third of the course at least 5 seconds faster than the first or last thirds.

Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2004 - 1st division
Posted as: Ingers
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We didn't row nearly as well as we can, but Churchill are good and won deservedly.

Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2004 - Men's Novice 2x
Posted as: Ingers
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9:50 down; 12:17 up

The river was in quite high flood ensuring a strong stream. After hours backing it down to maintain place marshalling we set off at a fairly rushed pace. I was having a bit of a mare steering in the downstream conditions and we did a scenic tour of both banks prior to the Reach. It was also quite bumpy here which seemd to badly affect our less than perfect stability! The rate stayed a little high and we were perhaps not quite getting enough out of our legs but a reasonable push out of Ditton picked it up. First Post Reach was OK and we finished strongly.

In the break we realised we needed to work with the legs a little more in the second leg and set off at a slightly less frantic but probably faster speed upstream. I had a slightly better time of it with the steering and a nice push in the choopy water by the P&E saw us pip past a birds pair on the finish. We felt the 2nd leg had been better and this was confirmed in the results as our time gap was smaller than all similarly paced crews.

Alas, we didn't quite achieve our No. 1 objective being slower than the FaT women by 11s and 3s on the 2 legs but I feel it was a solid result and we beat 4 men's viiis and 8 women's viiis.

Event: Head of the Nene 2004 - Senior3 VIIIs
Posted as: Ingers
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A really solid start and great rhythm and power over most of the course. Rating was rather quichey but the control was nice.

When we do this at 35 we are going to fly.

I really enjoyed this race as I always do, but it is a pity I have now lost my unbeaten in category record. 1.1 seconds. Grrrrr. Good luck for the rest of term

Event: Concept 2 Sprint Relay 2004 - Men's 1st Mays
Posted as: Ingers
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Coming into this on the back of a double Head course and a 9k AT piece the day before, we weren't totally confident. However, Rob kicked us off with a storming 1:24 and a 1 length lead. Gregor and Matt consolidated and it remained close between us Caius and the Maggie-scum. Ciptin Din then pulled a storming erg (complete with awesome changeover) that left us with a significant lead before Andrew stepped up and pulled a much better 500m than he had led us to believe he would. It was still close but Graham put in a great 500m to open out a lead and then The Mycroft Monster took over. Other crews had kept their best to last but our cunning strategy paid off with Chris leaving the erg with a 50m lead. Unfortunately a botched changeover (Chris' leg got stuck in the holder causing me to row without legs for the first part) immediately reduced it to 40m and their monster last man (1:22!!!) started closing. However, I did a bit of maths and realised that a 1:29 or so split would get us home so I paced [quiched] myself down to 1:29 and held that to the end knowing that I probably could have lifted it a little if absolutely necessary. Anyway, it wasn't necessary and we won by a healthy 3.1 sec.

Hurrah! Now if we can just learn to row...

Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2004 - 1st division
Posted as: Ingers
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A much better row from us was enough to win the Plate final fairly comfortably. This level of rowing would have given Churchill a better race.

Event: May Bumps 2004 - Wednesday
Posted as: Ingers
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Not our best row of the term.

Event: May Bumps 2004 - Thursday
Posted as: Ingers
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We rowed better then yesterday to Ditton and closed on Maggie. We had also moved a little away from Queens at first then held distance. Queens moved up down the Reach and hit us whilst rating higher and rowing better.

Event: May Bumps 2004 - Friday
Posted as: Ingers
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JPD is pleasingly powerful

Event: May Bumps 2004 - Saturday
Posted as: Ingers
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We were rowing nicely down the Reach closing in on Maggie to overlap by the white house. Unfortunately Maggie had overlap on Binson and bumped them there with us a couple of strokes too late.

We were left with nowhere to go and were given a technical row over. Alas, the real pity was that Downing (who were the slowest of the 4 of us) were only 2 or so lengths in front of us and, as we had planned, the overbump was a real possibility.

Event: FaT vs BPBC Cricket Challenge 2004 -
Posted as: Ingers
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Full report to follow soon

Event: RTT Regatta 2004 - Open 1x
Posted as: Ingers
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Glass had knackered his shoulder so withdrew from the final. I did my start (as ever, it was much better than the one in the prior race) but then paddled light over the course watching in amusement as RTT and Gaypers tried to take out a New Hall VIII.

Event: RTT Regatta 2004 - Open 1x
Posted as: Ingers
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I made a spacked but not disastrous start and was surprised to see myself hold or even move a little away from the Twat. This continued for a minute or so before my technique began to suffer at the moderately high rating I at which I was. At about the same time, Rampant Rose pushed and my counter-push saw my boat speed plummet. I turned round to see an imminent bank-collision and a distant Dwad so decided to wind down and we both paddled light up to the line.

Event: Lowe Double Sculls 2004 -
Posted as: Ingers
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I could blame the fact that this race was my first ever outing in a double. Or that Andrew and I had not sculled together ever. Or that I had spent most of the previous 24hr on a series of delayed flights from the States and had had negligible sleep.

But I won't. They were a lot better than us.

Event: Lent Bumps 2004 - Saturday
Posted as: Ingers
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I was informed at 10:00 that I would be racing today owing to illness with Tom Coker. After spending much of the morning worrying about possible lack of race fitness and that I hadn't done any proper high rating racing in years, I felt somewhat calmer once we had boated.

I think I managed to fit somewhere into the rhythm on the row down and (rare for me) actually felt quite confident at the start.

The start was a bit spacky and first 3 minutes of the race were not good at all although the power was there. Downing were nowhere and we settled into a nice rhythm down the Reach and dropped them even further. This continued to the line. Overall it was a satisfactory row and we have preserved 2nd place for a good bash at it next year. Well done to all and I hope Tom feels better soon.

Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2004 - Novice 1x
Posted as: Ingers
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Race downstream went well. I hit a nice rhythm at a not too aerobic rating owing to the quad-geared blades. I had a small altercation overtaking one guy down the reach but otherwise it went to plan and I got another bloke at Ditton to finish in 10:57 - ahead of my highest expectations and faster than several of the women's VIIIs and all but 2 of the singles!

The second leg began even better and I closed again on the guy in front despite having left a large gap. I caught him at Grassy and tucked into the inside to get past. Alas, I got a bit too keen with a tight line and was unable to hear my bank-steerer's increasingly worried warnings as I plouged into a barge at full pressure. The blade quickly crabbed and when the strokeside rigger too began to disappear under said barge whilst water came over the side, I resigned myself to a quick dip. However, I was somehow able to summon up a little more strength and levered myself back up with the blade under the barge.

It took 20 - 30 seconds to extricate myself from this [sculls don't do sideways very well] and I attempted to restart. Alas, I am not as tough as I used to be and my spirit was rather depleted. A series of getting stuck in on strokeside did nothing to help and a couple of full overheads appeared on the reach as I made hard work of re-catching the bloke I was annihilating before. I realise now that the whole levering thing had knocked the pitch off which was a little unfortunate.

As a result my second leg of 14:05 was one of the slowest recorded by anyone all day and faintly embarassing but at least I got one out of three in the intra-FaT challenge!

Event: Fairbairn Cup 2003 - Lower VIIIs
Posted as: Ingers
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Having had precisely zero outings as a crew we opted for a fairly gentlemanly row. We didn't really rate above 30 and no one pulled very hard so we went rather slowly. However, we achieved our main aim which was to win the 2nd VIIIs category.

Hopefully, most of this crew will be back in serious training in the Mays crews, where we should build on these highly successful results.

Chris

Event: University IVs 2003 - Light IVs
Posted as: Ingram
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We rowed pretty well for the first 2 minutes and moved up, then picked up a tree on the rudder. I am not lying to say that we lost absolutely all steering from the rudder from First Post to the end. I thought we'd still be OK. I was very, very wrong and for that I apologise. Serious credit is due to the crew for restricting it to just 2 crashes thereon (try doing this yourself with no input from the rudder).

Sometimes your luck's in, sometimes it's out. As long as we continue to capitalise when it's in then I won't complain too much. However, it would have been nice to have at least been knocked out when I was able to row at more than half pressure for the latter half of the race. [I couldn't, otherwise we'd have hit the bank again]

The conclusion: Never pick me or Thorne for the IV's - I think we are cursed and handing the steering to the 2 of us was clearly suicidal. If you want to win it, row for Maggie, but frankly, I 'd rather row for Oxford...

Event: Head of the River IVs 2003 - Senior2 IV-
Posted as: Ingram
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By all choosing to bring enormous quantities of kit down to London we activated Sod's Law and gauranteed glorious weather.

After marshalling for what seemed like ages in a scene that rapidly began to resemble the M25 on a bad Friday evening we had about 100m of rowing to reach the start line and suddenly before we could really realise what was happening we were off. WE got up to 34 and then settled at 33 whicvh became 32 after a minute or so as we had planned. Goldie IV had clearly been motivated by our web poll and elected to _start_ with overalp on our stern. They were clearly faster than us but had clearly spent too much time at Ely and seemed blissfully unaware that the river Thames actually has some bends in it. As Will took an immacculate line around the first gentle corner to Barnes Bridge, they vanished off on the straight towards the marshalling crews. By the time they had returned to a sensible place on the river they had made up approximately 0m on us. Alas, their bowman then worked out what his wobbly footplate actually did and they nudged into the lead by the bridge and then took clear water by the bandstand and charged off downstream.

We settled into a fairly solid 32 that felt OK but were slowly overhauled by Imperial and UL who had started behind us which was a little demoralising. However, we managed a small victory when (correctly) holding our line and thus irritating the IC crew who told us to "move over, you c****". Charming.

The rate remained at 31 - 32 until after Hammersmith when the technique started to fade. At around Craven Cottage this 'fade' became a downright implosion and a series of shipwrecks brought the boatspeed right down. An ill-judged request from me to lift it up 2 at the Black Buoy bought an improvement for about 3 strokes before the wheels completely fell off and the last 2 minutes would have embarrassed a Novice third boat as we spacked home at a pathetic 28. This was rather annoying as it wasn't that we had gone too hard - we just weren't relaxed enough to get it back after a couple of rogue strokes. Sometimes I do think coxes have a role...

The overall time was a little disappointing but if you add on the estimated 25 - 30 seconds that a coxed IV takes then we were still pretty much the fastest Cambridge College boat (though some way behind a few Filth colleges). We probably need to go faster on Tuesday. We will.

Event: Cambridge Autumn Head 2003 - Upper College IV+
Posted as: Ingram
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This was a bizarre race. Will was away so we poached Andrew Lea-Cox from the coxed IV and put him in at stroke. As Will is our steerer we also changed from coxless to coxed and Jenny jumped in the back.

On the row down it became clear that the change had seriously upset the rhythm of the boat and that perhaps our assumption that we could race having never rowed together before was optimistic.

The start was delayed for about an hour by the twat in the grey barge and we all got very cold.

Once we began we settled at a very low rating of about 30 with the bowside blades dragging on the water on every joke, sorry, stroke. (I am not exaggerating here - my forearms are now killing me from the effort of pushing the blade over Dan's puddle every stroke). Luckily, whilst the bit when the blades are (supposed to be) off the water was terrible, we seemed to be doing it approximately right when the blades were under the water and though it felt absolutely dreadful, we quickly dropped the Jesus IV- behind us. An unconventional overtaking around the outside of Ditton set us up for the Reach where I must confess to making a unilateral decision to up the rating and did a personal up 2 from the 3 seat. However, this did seem to lift us a bit and we splashed on down the Reach in very choppy water. At the railway bridge it became clear that this was becasue we had caught up and were sitting about 1 length behind a Caius/Christs composite that we had assumed would be quite good.

They refused to move out of our way and we were forced to try to go round them coming past the P&E. Tucked into that side they gave us no room as we came through and smashed into us taking a large chunk out of the bows. Disgracefully and inexcusably they did not stop and tried to carry on rowing causing substantial additional damage to the bows before both crews ground to a tangled halt.

I have to confess to losing my temper in a rather undignified manner but I was furious as they were 100% in the wrong and not showing the slightest inclination of acknowledging this.

After about 15 seconds stationary, we manged to separate ourselves, get away from the bank and restart. There was only about 200m to go but we dropped them and made it to the line.

Ignoring the crash, it was still a shite row at far too low a rating so we were rather surprised to find that we were only 6 seconds from overall victory in the college boats. I would estimate that we are capable of going 30 - 40 seconds faster, so there was some upside to the day's fiascos.

Caius are now rapidly displacing Downing in my most hated colleges list. I will not be upset if the damage proves expensive to repair as they will have to pay for it!

Event: Cambridge Small Boats Head 2003 - Novice 1x
Posted as: Ingram
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Thankfully, the gods were smiling on me and we were blessed with perfect conditions. Negligible stream or wind, lots of sunshine and cool temperatures. This was most pleasing as I had had an uncomfortable encounter with a headwind during my previous outing.

The start went OK and after a bit of nervous spacking I found a reasonable rhythm at what I guess was about 28 - 30 spm. My worries about being overtaken by the Vet E bloke behind me proved unfounded as he steadily dropped back. My steering was proving better than normal and I achieved far and away my best line round First Post and Grassy without even having to quiche the inside arm too much. I made a nice push down Plough Reach, taking at least 5 seconds out of the bloke in front of me.

Ditton was a "perhaps sub-optimal" line but as I was now into the longest piece I've ever done at firm pressure, any avoidance of the bank would have been acceptable. I breathed a sigh of relief at the negligible headwind and was able to find a really nice rhythm all the way down the reach to the Railway Bridge where to my amazement I overtook someone, although he turned out to be a J16. I was definitely closing on the chap in front but he made my life much easier by opting to collide with the bank after the railway bridge. I tried to push on here but discovered that my technique is not yet able to hold up to firm pressure after about 10 minutes and I could feel my shoulders starting to tense and the bladework deteriorate.

Thankfully the finish seemed to arrive sooner than it normally does so there wasn't too much spacking. Overall I was delighted with the row, although the excess of muscle pain over aerobic pain indicated that I was perhaps not rating high enough. However, more technical work ahead is needed before I can think about higher ratings.

I was quite surprised by my finishing position and, pleasingly, was not beaten by any birds. We shall see if I can take a few seconds off at the next event. Anyone want to coach me?

Event: Drumps 2005 - Monday
Posted as: Ingers
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Chundering should certainly result in disqualification as it defeats the point of it and is frankly both an easy way out and disgusting. I think that was a rule in the original Drumps in 1997, in which I participated, which also had the full _8_ stations of different drinks. I particularly remember that we had to finish on the pint of lager station which was not easy!

I suggest people who want a tougher drinking challenge join Matt, myself and others in the Pre-Boat Race Pub Crawl. If the Drumps are a sprint then this is the Iron Man...

Event: FaT vs BPBC Cricket Challenge 2005 -
Posted as: Ingers
Event Link

Report to follow

Event: FaT v BPBC Football Challenge 2007 - Football XI
Posted as: Ingers
Event Link

Presumably we can now surmise that 35% of you believe that 'doing an Ingers' means scoring a glorious equaliser in the last minute only to be cruelly denied.

Having never scored a goal in a real match in my entire life, a 90th minute equaliser from a left foot volley would have been something of a dream start! Was I offside? I honestly have no idea, but surely friendly matches should end in draws and unnecessary penalty shootouts...

Event: Fairbairn Cup 2008 - Invitation VIIIs
Posted as: Ingers
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Tradition dictates that BPBC don't practice so whilst we had had a couple of outings in IVs and even a cheeky 30 min yesterday in a VI, the crew had not rowed as an VIII until the actual start stroke. In fact I believe that stroke was the first I had even taken in the same boat as at least 1 crew member.

With RTT in the stroke seat the start was always going to be a sedate affair and we duly wound to 26 before a "get on with it" from the 6 seat took us up to a distinctly ungentlemanly 34 as we then settled into a surprisingly OK rhythm at 32ish. The row to Chesterton went quite well and as planned with reasonable length and acceleration but perhaps at an unsustainable physical cost. We managed to keep things going fairly well until the railway bridge where we had caught up a fair bit on the Hommers (17s according to the halfway times).
Giddy thoughts of a glorious overtake entered out minds but soon the pain re-took over and the wheels began to come a little loose. We managed to maintain the rating but with increasingly (and predictably) scrappy cohesion as lack of fitness and recent rowing experience began to show. The calls from Andy about gaining on the Hommers disappeared and it became more about making it to the finish OK (well, at least for me it did). The corners seemed to go quite well with a good line from Andy [no doubt helped a bit by a Bevan-memorial gentleman's agreement between me and Din - both of whom were still suffering from viruses] but that bit down First Post Reach and through the bridge seems to get longer with age - or maybe we were just going too slowly by then!
Anyway, results showed that after taking 17s off the Hommers to halfway we did manage another 6s in the second half so we obviously didn't blow up quite as much as it felt.
Only 5 real colleges (plus a Filth one) beat us so we were within our 1st target but sadly with a 33.78s (a tribute to Jesus' 100th of a second precision system) gap to FaT I we missed our other target of being within 30s. There didn't appear to be much alumni opposition so hopefully we've scared them off. Apparently this has actually been confirmed as the reason for Boars Head's absence. This is pleasing.