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All race reports for James Edgeley

Event: Lent Bumps 2016 - Saturday
Posted as: Jedge
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Ugly, but effective. The start was decent, and we moved quickly to a length on Queens' with gears left in the tank. Pushing into 1st post corner, we hit some wash and lost our cool a bit. Despite having neither style nor substance, we continued to move on them through the Gut. At this point we all sensed that the bump was inevitable and we got two whistles going round Grassy and were held for a few strokes. Down Plough reach we slowly ate them up until we got overlap. Two massive strokes were enough to complete the bump, although we all agreed it should have happened sooner.

The gain train rolls on to Saturday.

Event: Drumps 2016 - Monday
Posted as: Jedge
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Sitting in the start room we were hearing tales of other crews being late to marshalling and having prior alcoholic consumption and were therefore fairly confident. Our Drumps warmup had been excellent: a large Peroni each in Pizza Express we thought would prepare us well for anything the other crews could throw at us. Furthermore we had a last minute addition to the crew in the form of the future Mrs Williams. We anxiously awaited the firing of the gun, ready to take the first chug.

Room 1: Fosters'

We had elected to use a cheap Australian lager, which in hindsight was probably not such a 'good call'. The beer was incredibly gassy and an impromptu belching contest occurred with no clear winner. Ed demolished a can in record time, while the rest of us took a slightly more conservative approach. With a few grizzled veterans on the crew this room was not too much trouble; although the girls were not particularly keen on beer they did manage to hold it down, unlike some people...

Room 2: Prosecco

Emboldened from what we thought was a pacy start, we began our push into the corners. However, we soon realised that Ed had disappeared - he had gone for a tactical in the Angel Court toilets. Nevertheless he quickly rejoined us for what was probably the easiest room of the night: a glass of prosecco each. Slightly distracted by the room owner's homemade incest chart, we took the rate up, necked it and moved on.

Room 3: Sainsbury's basic lager + Shots

Emily and Hannah hoyed back the shots before I even had a chance to see what they were, however it was the lager that caused us the first real trouble of the night. Having accidentally ingested some Tideway water last year, I can honestly say that it still made for a better drink than Sainsbury's basics lager. At this point we we under pressure from a thirsty Grad boat, who had us at overlap and were swigging like nobody's business. By moving together as a crew we managed to hold them off and moved on to the next room in Wolfson.

Room 4: Sherry

This was a slog. I'm not sure which of the other crews contained an 80 year old woman - or maybe freshers drink sherry now? While Emily was recovering from the efforts of the previous push we passed around the glass. This was a real team effort - the Drumps equivalent of a long reach push. Most of us had hit the red line by this point and the previous drinks were not sitting well. Somehow we managed to put some clear water between us and our pursuers and we moved on to Blue Boar for the push off the proverbial railway bridge.

Room 5: I don't even know what that was supposed to be

For a man on crutches Shearme moved surprisingly quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid being locked out. No matter though because the rest of us got lost and had to go back for him anyway. In the final room we were presented with something that can only be described as an afterbirth in a cup. Someone had tried to make something appetising and instead made something appalling. A particularly heroic effort from Jon to see off the last glass of this foul swill meant we were done and ready for the final sprint to the finish.

Hannah led the way to Great Gate, but tripped on a step and fell. I found this so amusing that I stopped looking where I was going and tripped on the same step. We made it back to rejoin the other crews and while the others discussed the race I introduced myself to a friendly postbox.

Event: University IVs 2016 - 1st division
Posted as: Jedge
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We had entered Uni IVs more out of custom than any expectation of doing well - all our training to date had been in the VIII. This showed in the row up, which was lacking somewhat in finesse.

We started from the upstream station, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that we moved away from Queens' off the start. First Post Reach was the only part of the race where we really attacked.

Through the Gut we were rather messy, but our aggressive start had payed off since we made it further than expected down Plough Reach before I saw our opposition come around Grassy.

Out of Ditton we took a rather frantic rate wind, but had extended our lead sufficiently by this point that it made no difference.

Winning with such a slow time was surprising. I hadn't expected to make it through so some last minute organisation was required for the next race. Thanks to Forbes for stepping up.

Event: Fairbairn Cup 2016 - Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Jedge
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Not a bad row, but we were lacking in power compared to other colleges. Must train harder next term to make up for it. We showed we can execute a race plan while remaining technical though so things are promising.

Event: Fairbairn Cup 2017 - Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Jedge
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A slow time, but it seems like everyone was about 30s off the pace of a 'normal' year so we can put that down to wind and stream.

I think we hit about 38 off the start, with lots of energy - a good improvement over previous outings where it had felt a bit uncomfortable. The rhythm felt under control for the first 2k; perhaps we could have been bolder, but we had not yet practised any longer pieces. Into the middle section of the race we grew more confident and it felt like we were maintaining length well. An excellent push off the railway bridge gave us a pretty solid Reach. Going through the corners did not go as well - we weren't as well drilled on corners as is usual so the instability and increasing fatigue threw us off a bit. Successive rate winds on First Post Reach didn't particularly increase our speed, but as I said afterwards: if you cross the line faster than your average speed then you've paced it badly. Some confusion about where the finish was may have cost us a second or two but not much. Looking back at photos of us rowing it's clear we have a long way to go technically - on the flipside this means we are nowhere near our maximum potential speed. With the number of senior men going on training camp we have a great opportunity to work on this.

Interestingly we came in the same position (20th) as last year. Last year we were rowing in a fixed crew since early November with around 4 outings a week, including several practice pieces over longer distances. So to manage the same result in what was our third outing is quite promising. We are certainly a much fitter squad than last year and with a large number of people returning next term we will be in a stronger position. The attitude towards training in the top of the squad has been one of the best I've seen. There are a lot of people in contention for M1 next term - probably almost two boats' worth. This has already brought up a very competitive atmosphere and I'm looking forward to see what people bring out the bag in a month's time for 2ks and seat racing.

Event: Lent Bumps 2018 - Tuesday
Posted as: Jedge
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*fewer

Event: May Bumps 2018 - Thursday
Posted as: Jedge
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John 11:35

Event: Lent Bumps 2019 - Wednesday
Posted as: Jedge
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We pushed off with plenty of slack in the chain, so were slightly closer to Catz than I would have liked - however in the end it made no difference. Our start was not the best we've done but the rate came up to around 41 even in the wind, and we quickly moved away from Catz and soon onto a length off Clare. The crew did well not to panic with the whistles and held our speed along FP reach. Clare had tried and failed to catch Peterhouse and very quickly came back to us on the corner. In the end we didn't need to call a push as our cruising speed was sufficient - later in the week this won't be the case. My feeling is we have a lot more tricks up our sleeve should we need to pull them out against faster crews.

Event: Lent Bumps 2019 - Thursday
Posted as: Jedge
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We were definitely very fortunate in this race - that said FaT M1 haven't had the best luck in the last few years so perhaps it was about time for some to come our way. As my 50th bumps race with the club I'm happy it was an eventful and memorable one.

Our start was slightly better than yesterday's and we put some distance between ourselves and Clare, as they went off askew and came close to the far bank. This came in handy as we caught a crab at the outflow. It was recovered quickly and Clare only got to about a length. Meanwhile, ahead of us Peterhouse had taken advantage to move out from 1 length to about 3, hot on the heels of Christ's. We quickly got back to 1 length off with a solid rate 37 rhythm and moved to half around First Post corner. Meanwhile they had overlap on Christ's. Our second stroke of luck took out their bow pair just in time, and they crashed into the bank allowing us to bump, and the rest of the division to get jammed up in the Gut.

Normally 'carnage' is reserved for lower divisions, so it was nice to be involved in some for a change.

Event: Lent Bumps 2019 - Friday
Posted as: Jedge
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We knew we could turn over Christ's pretty easily - they actually put up more of a fight than I expected but the result was pretty inevitable. Tomorrow should be more challenging - we should be prepared for a bit of pain and iron out some of the sloppy bladework that's preventing us from moving really fast

Event: Lent Bumps 2019 - Saturday
Posted as: Jedge
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The row up was very good - there was a definite energy and intent behind the practice start and the paddling had a very nice flow. We knew this would have to be our best row of the week and that we wouldn't be able to bump quickly like the first three days.

The start was the best we've done and we started to move steadily on Robinson getting to around a length off. Meanwhile they were really going for Jesus - we were not anticipating this based on their rowing over on Thursday and Friday. The rhythm was good around the corners - bladework somewhat unpolished but the boat was moving well nevertheless. Onto Plough Reach we had planned a push - it didn't execute quite as well as we would have liked - a combination of not having practiced it much and not being quite as fit as we could be. I think we got to just over half a length off, however we pushed Robinson even more onto Jesus. The Jesus resistance folded once they were on the Reach and Robinson caught them, having had a lot of overlap for a while. Since it was the last day and we had nothing to worry about behind we chased Pembroke for the overbump - I'm told we did move up to maybe 3 or 4 lengths off them, but it was never really on and by this point the crew was pretty gassed. On the positive side I can now write a longer race report.

So we end the week up 3, my best ever bumps campaign! It's disappointing not to get blades but we were still pretty buoyant back at the boathouse since we knew it wasn't in our control. We later found out that Robinson had a sub from CUBC which may explain how they were able to catch Jesus where they couldn't before.

I'm very happy with how we've improved this term and indeed over the week - it's been great to see the new members enjoying bumps and hopefully our success will inspire them even further. Several things have me very excited about what we can achieve next term and even next year.

Event: Fairbairn Cup 2019 - Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Jedge
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Unlike the Royal Mail, the boys always deliver

Event: Lent Bumps 2020 - Thursday
Posted as: Jedge
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My lack of any serious training since Mays means I was glad that race was over quickly