All race reports for Barney Plummer
Event: Lent Bumps 2013 - Tuesday
Posted as: Barney
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By no means our best race ever. The start took us all somewhat by surprise, and it felt a lot more wobbly than our practises.
We settled into the race fairly quickly, and by the motorway bridge Kings II had bumped Girton II behind us. We'd steadily pulled away from Girton, but it was nice not to have to worry about them - although it might've pushed us to go faster!
We remained a length and a half behind Catz until Grassy, when they started to pull away, and not far up the Reach they bumped Churchill II.
The race didn't feel particularly good, and I feel like we could improve a good deal - which is a good sign, given that the race didn't go particularly disastrously.
Event: Lent Bumps 2013 - Friday
Posted as: Barney
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A bit disappointing. They came at us hard, and we didn't respond quickly enough. We'd hoped that we would be able to bump Magdalene before they caught us, and we were close.. but not close enough. We were less than half a length off when we were bumped on First Post Corner. They were the faster crew though, and probably deserved to get the bump after our slightly cheeky bump on Wednesday!
Despite the disappointment, we had a very good start, and the row down was one of the best we've had yet. We've definitely progressed over the week, and it's a bit of a shame that we haven't really proved our speed yet. The race as a whole felt pretty good - we just weren't quite fast enough.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2013 - 3rd division
Posted as: Barney
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Easily is putting it lightly. The race was over after about 30 seconds.
3 strokes in, we caught a crab. They pulled away slightly.
Within 5 strokes, we were back ahead.
A few strokes later, their 3-man caught an ejector crab and they held it up to try and help.
We wound it down fairly fast and paddled the rest of the way to the finish.
Event: May Bumps 2014 - Saturday
Posted as: Barney
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Shiiiiit. I wasn't expecting that.
There was a reasonably strong tailwind down the course, and I think we dealt with it better than Pembroke, so off our start we immediately began to move. We were planning on having a similar race to yesterday, so it was a surprise when we got two whistles in the gut and a bumps push was called.
Apparently we came closest to them around Grassy - a few feet off - and then sat there until the finish, moving slightly. It's a bit disappointing that we didn't manage to hit them, but it shows how much we've improved over the last week. On Wednesday, they were within a canvas at Grassy. On Saturday, it was the other way around.
Event: May Bumps 2014 - Friday
Posted as: Barney
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Pretty much perfectly executed our race plan. We went fairly hard off the start, pushing Queens' away. Plough reach was better than yesterday, but still scrappy, and a solid Ditton is where we started to move. We settled into a big rhythm coming out of Ditton, and soon we were walking up on them. There was a bit of confusion with the whistles, but constant "MOVING" calls from Rob, with no "HOLDING" calls heard, made me more confident that we had it. Coming under the Railway bridge, the rowing became very sloppy, but it turned out that this was just because they were right ahead of us. A few strokes after the railway bridge, we hit them.
What happened after the bump is probably as interesting as the race - we mounted them fairly hard, and took a good 5 minutes getting the boats separated. At least we kept the spectators walking home entertained! I was a bit worried about some ominous crunching noises as the boats were separating, but thankfully both boats seemed fine...
This was my first bump on a crew who knew where they had to row to... at last I see why people actually enjoy bumps! Hopefully there will be less "First and Turd" from the messageboards too....
Event: May Bumps 2014 - Wednesday
Posted as: Barney
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Not our best rowing. Went off fairly hard, they moved hard in the gut and were a canvas or so off round Grassy. We took big pushes and held them off - they had overlap around Ditton, and we held till about half way up the Reach. We moved on St Catz past the Plough and around Ditton, but it wasn't enough. They hit us around half way up the Reach.
Event: May Bumps 2014 - Thursday
Posted as: Barney
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row row row row paiiiiin row row oww row row ow fuck pembroke are in the way row row row aaaaaaah row row aaaaah wheres the line row row row my legs ow row ugggggh
Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2013 - Men's Plate
Posted as: Barney
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Sadly, 3 people couldn't make their quarter final race. We had subs to find for the quarter final race already, and so there was no way that they could carry on. I was disappointed about that.
NM3: Undefeated
Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2013 - Men's Plate
Posted as: Barney
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A very good race. Magdalene started to pull away slowly throughout the race, but I was fairly confident that we could come back. They were very messy, and the noises coming from their 6-man suggested that they were gunning it off the start and hoping to hang on. We were rowing pretty neatly, and just before the railway bridge we started to move on them. We went from over a length down to under half a length quickly, and then their 2-man (I think) caught an overhead crab. This signaled the end of their race, with NM3 pulling away to win.
Very proud of how they did - they beat an NM2 despite being over a length down, and never gave up.
Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2013 - Men's Plate
Posted as: Barney
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Gutting.
It was a good race, with both crews holding level off the start. We slowly started to move away after a couple of hundred metres, but they hung on to us. We had a big push out of the railway bridge, with Felix deciding that a power ten wasn't enough and calling his own super power ten, and pulled out half a length.
With about 15 strokes to go, I thought they had it in the bag. Then a pretty massive crab appeared, and Maggie came back... and just about edged it over the line. Definitely less than a canvas - neither us nor Maggie knew who'd won it until we asked the marshals.
A very promising race, with a disappointing end. However, it's looking very promising for Fairbairns - I think that NM2 have a good shot at being the fastest NM2 on the river.
Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2013 - Men's Plate
Posted as: Barney
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Gave NM2 a lie in on Saturday morning. Thanks Pembroke!
Event: Emma Sprints 2013 - Division 1
Posted as: Barney
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Jesus slowly moved away over the first few hundred metres, and then we started having some serious timing issues. These cost us about a length, moving them to about a length and a half up and then their 7-man (I think) caught an overhead crab. Sadly, he was faster at recovering than Tit Hall were, and despite gaining significantly in the last few metres of the race, we lost by a bit under a length.
Event: Emma Sprints 2013 - Division 1
Posted as: Barney
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Against Tit Hall NM1: Pretty level off the start; as we started to move away Tit Hall went for a tactical blade clash. They came off worst with their 2-man catching an overhead crab. Recovering from this took them about half of the race, by which point we were about 2 or 3 lengths ahead. They came back a bit towards the end but NM1 still won by at least 1 and a half lengths.
Event: Emma Sprints 2013 - Division 1
Posted as: Barney
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Won against Emma NM1 - I only caught the last 30 seconds or so of the race, but it looked decent. They were ahead by half a length or so with 7 rowers since 4-man's seat broke off half way through!
Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2013 - Men's Plate
Posted as: Barney
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Had a nice paddle down on Friday afternoon to find that we didn't have any opponents. We took the opportunity to do a race piece, which was looking pretty nice - until we had to stop for Homerton NW2, who decided to point their boat into the bank.
Event: Cardinal's Regatta 2015 - 8+
Posted as: Barney
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Sadly, while watching the other eight race beforehand, my leash fell off. Devastating. I was getting rather cold at this point, and somewhat regretting my choice of costume, so was glad when we eventually got rowing.
Both crews' excessive bow-pair tapping on at the start seemed to annoy the umpire for some reason, but we eventually started the race. With some prudent "DEEPER" and "HARDER" calls, we rowed through the Emma crew to win.
Event: May Bumps 2015 - Saturday
Posted as: Barney
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We were all pretty fired up for this race, sitting down near the lock after some of the best rowing we've done this term on the warmup. We knew we had a good race pace, and were eager to give Downing their spoons.
A solid start was followed by a good transition to race pace, and we coped better than the previous few days with the wash under the bridge. Coming under the motorway bridge, I heard a call from the bank that we were just inside station, and began to prepare for a long race. Within 10 strokes, however, we had our first whistle, then the next few whistles came quickly.
The final few strokes before the bump was one of the best experiences in my bumps career so far - coming round First Post, we hit a wall of noise from the bank, at the same time as getting three whistles. Liv was screaming over this mayhem, calling a power 10, and three strokes in we had overlap. The bump followed quickly.
Event: May Bumps 2015 - Friday
Posted as: Barney
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Boom. Sharp start, sat on a strong 36 and moved from the start. We walked our way through them, and the last few whistles came very fast before we hit them at the entrance to First Post.
Event: May Bumps 2015 - Thursday
Posted as: Barney
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Not our best row, but it got the job done.
Queens' never got particularly close, and bumped out on Ditton, leaving us with a quiet row across the line.
Christ's II up tomorrow. Let's go.
Event: May Bumps 2015 - Wednesday
Posted as: Barney
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Wolfson were quite fast.
They moved pretty hard off the start, and once they got two whistles we called our bumps push. This was mildly successful, and held them for 20 strokes or so. Coming into first post, hard steering around Darwin ahead cut our canvas lead until we got bumped on the entrance to first post.
Keen for tomorrow.
Event: Cardinal's Regatta 2015 - 8+
Posted as: Barney
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We were bad at spinning.
Event: Cardinal's Regatta 2015 - 8+
Posted as: Barney
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Caius and Churchill both had better things to do than sit around in fancy dress, it turns out, and so we won this round by default. In the process, we made friends with a lovely drunk man on the towpath who showed us his knife and taught us how to strengthen our forearms.
Event: Cardinal's Regatta 2015 - 8+
Posted as: Barney
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Arriving at the start line, I promptly dekitted and was told by the start marshal that I would be disqualified if they had to see that again. Sorry, Catz.
We were started about half a length down, and rowed through the King's crew to win by about a length. Certainly better rowing than our paddle down.
Event: Cambridge Winter Head 2014 - Student Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Barney
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Thankfully we spent a little less time marshaling this time round. We had another good row down to the start, if not quite as good as the first races. We set off at a slightly higher rate, but kept it strong, reaching the 1k post in the same time as the first race. We settled down into a good rhythm on the Reach, but the first race had definitely taken its toll on the 6 of us rowing for a second time. This race, thankfully, was incident-free, and so we wound for the finish and crossed the line, it turns out, 2s slower than the first time round. Good consistency at least...
Event: Cambridge Winter Head 2014 - Student Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Barney
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We had a lot of fun marshaling for this - or at least I did. I think that I found my jokes funnier than anybody else.... After sitting in queues most of the way down to the start, about half an hour late, we were racing. A fairly good start, hitting about 36 off the wind and settling down to a solid 33 or so, and moving through the corners we were moving on the crew in front. We were about a length down through Ditton, and we slowly moved on them up the Reach. We were about half a length up and pushing hard off them just past the Railway Bridge when there was a slight "incident" between the boats. Once I got back on my seat and recovered my blade we started moving again, but never really got back into our rhythm - I don't think it helped that my toes were in the heel cups and my heels were in the footwell. Thankfully there were only 500m or so left, and we spacked across to the finish. I'm pretty happy with the result - being 25s behind the fastest college crew, in a scratch 8 and given the circumstances, I think isn't the worst place to be.
Event: Lent Bumps 2016 - Thursday
Posted as: Barney
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Stressful to watch. Not sure how it would have been inside the boat... there were echoes of the Thursday of M1 Mays 2014, where something similar happened.
After a bit of carnage in the Gut the first time around, M2 had to spin and row back to head station for the rerow - once they'd dislodged their bows from Corpus's stern. For the second time round, the start was a fair bit smoother, but Queens' slowly moved up on M2, till they were a canvas off at the railings, and overlap not long after. M2 took a big push, and got a couple of feet clear water. Around the railway bridge, another move by Queens' gave them overlap once again, and I was convinced that the bump was going to come soon.
Queens' didn't move any more, though, and the overlap fluctuated between 3 feet and 6 inches, till around Morley's Holt where we regained clear water. We pushed this out to a couple of metres at the P+E, where it became clear that Queens' had either given up, forgotten where top finish was or forgotten how to row.
Event: May Bumps 2016 - Friday
Posted as: Barney
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We got got.
With Clare M1 behind, who were probably the fastest crew on the river, and Jesus M1 ahead, whom we'd come close to hitting the day before after some crabbage on their part, we were expecting a short race. Having geared up, we pushed off with a plan to race to the Plough, in the less popular variant of Downing's notorious "head or dead" strategy, "fourth or dead". We had a fast start, lengthening out into a good rhythm, and got our first whistle on Jesus going around First Post corner. We continued gained on them more slowly through the Gut, and through Grassy. Out of Grassy, we took our bumps push as planned, and reeled Jesus in, until we were about 10 feet away on the entrance to Ditton. We continued to gain, and took another bumps push on the exit of Ditton, coming closest with a foot or two of overlap on Jesus. Throughout this, Clare had gained on us. We took more pushes, this time away from Clare, eventually getting hit around the railings.
It was a good race, with some of the best rhythm we've found. Shame we weren't a few feet quicker, but we executed our race plan perfectly. Just need bigger legs.
