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All race reports for Jake Rowe

Event: Lent Bumps 2015 - Thursday
Posted as: J. Rowe
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We bumped Queens' II. It was at grassy. We were much faster than them. It stopped raining prior to this. This was good.

Event: Cardinal's Regatta 2015 - 2++
Posted as: Jake Rowe
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Having planned this double-coxed tub crew whilst quite inebriated after BCD, we all knew that this was going to be a laugh. The chosen theme was Vikings, with all four of us donning painfully small viking helmets with large horns (these turned out to be susceptible to falling off in the wind), our coxes were armed with a cardboard spear, and our warship adorned with the blue and gold shields bade by Imogen and Chloe the night before. As we put the boat on the water, we caught sight of the Catz tub next door, which had a massive sail and the rowers had capes. We immediately realised that we stood no chance in the running for the costume competition.

We had a pleasant row down to the Plough, during which I began to understand why we race in sensible boats like VIIIs, rather than double-coxed tubs. Chloe and Zoe between them established that having two coxes is not very effective for going in a straight line. 8 new blisters later, we arrived on the start line against Darwin. Under (partial) direction of the umpires we were given half a length advantage because a) our costumes were better than theirs, b)both Darwin rowers we men (in drag, of course), c)they had a much lighter boat, and only one cox, so were carrying as much as 100kg less weight than us, and d)we felt like rowing a slightly shorter race. After faffing around for what seemed like forever, we then raced down half the reach, ending in a dead heat, and a re-row.

Unfortunately the re-row started with no advantage, and we didn't quite have the muscle to move our much heavier boat past theirs, ending in a loss by about 1/4 of a (tub) length. The cardboard spear was then promptly thrown at the opposition, though the prevailing wind meant that it didn't go anywhere near hitting them. On the row home we kept a lookout for the viking helmet that had been removed from Zoe's head by the wind during the re-row. Though we were not victorious, we had lots of fun, and enjoyed taking the now very soggy cardboard shields off the tub at the end of the day.

Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2015 - Cup
Posted as: Jake Rowe
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A strong start for NM1 in Clare Novices regatta. Although the rowing wasn't as clean as later in the day, we moved on clare pretty quickly. After striding it out several times in the second half of the race we won by 2 lengths

Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2015 - Cup
Posted as: Jake Rowe
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Absolutely awesome, best race of the day in my opinion. Both crews had good starts, with Catz pulling away slightly in the first 100m. But we remained faithful to our strong rythmn, and rowed long into the headwind. Slowly eating away at the Catz lead, we came back to terms and began to move through them. Catz stern three lost their timing, and we rapidly moved up to a length, moving out to two lengths pretty soon after. A solid win, and a great race.

Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2015 - Cup
Posted as: Jake Rowe
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After the big change we made for the last race, we were looking forward to getting onto a strong rythmn early in the race. Wolfson were not as strong as Catz had been, so we moved throught them very quickly. Stride stride stride; win.

Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2015 - Cup
Posted as: Jake Rowe
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Another great race where we settled onto a strong rythmn. Unfortunately, Fitz had been rowing in their crew for 3 more weeks than us so had more speed than us, although I would say the rowing in our boat was technically cleaner. Both crews got off to a strong start, but Fitz slowly built up a margin on us. Despite several big pushes, they held us, the moved up to 3/4 length lead by the railway bridge. We kept pushing right to the line, but at the end of a long day of racing, we didn't have the legs to take back the distance. Another solid row and a fantastic result - lots more speed to come in the week before Fairbairns.

Event: Lent Bumps 2016 - Thursday
Posted as: Jake Rowe
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After the disappointment of yesterday's bump by Maggie, confidence in a rowover was high. The cannon didn't even seem that loud, despite its proximity. A good start saw us move on LMBC getting inside 1 1/4 lengths. However, we were correct in predicting that the four crews ahead of us would bump out fairly early and that we would be subject to a short intense period of spectularly choppy water going into grassy. Luckily they cleared much quicker than yesteday and we were able to row onto clean water pretty soon. We executed our plan to sprint to Ditton before settling onto a solid 34. Actually it wasn't that solid. It was a bit scrappy and instead of opening up the gap between us and Peterhouse and finishing the race nice and early we slightly minced down the course doing 85% pushes and maintained 2-4 boat lengths all the way to top finish. Did the job though.

Comedy whistle from Peterhouse's bank party as they ran out of towpath at the P&E to try and urge their crew to not give in to the gaining Robinson.

Overall not the prettiest race, but did the job it needed to. Excited for a shorter race tomorrow.

Event: Lent Bumps 2016 - Wednesday
Posted as: Jake Rowe
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Nerves ran high. For more than half the boat it was the first set of bumps in M1. Our pre-paddle yesterday evening was gorgeous - beautiful sunset over glassy water and very relaxed rowing. Today, as on any day of bumps, we faced a challenge. Ahead: Pembroke , Queens, Jesus. Behind: LMBC. We reckoned that we could get Pembroke over the course, but the chances of them catching the less than impressive Queens were depressingly high. If we rowed over behind a Pembroke-on-Queens bump we would be able to get Queens tomorrow. Overall a very good chance of going up 3 over the four days.

Alas, it was not to be. An ok start saw us stay on station with Pembroke, who bumped Queens much later than they should have done (Queens practically went backwards, but the Pembroke cox took awful lines). Poor clearing saw my blade hitting something (a blade?) hard as but we came round grassy, but we came out of it fine. Good thing that the 'soft hands' we have been working on all term weren't too soft. Our race plan - go hard, with pushes out of all the corners up to Ditton was excecuted well. At Ditton, we were on station with Maggie and I thought that we had a reasonable chance of rowing over ahead of them. We gained a solid rythmn at 36-7 and it felt good. At the kink Maggie suddenly started to move and Ed called for a "Gut push". 10 legs, 5 finishes, 10 backs. We held them off for a while, but they began to move again and we called for another push. Going under the railway bridge they had closed to half a length. The handbrake came off, the rate came up and we held them for a while longer. But not long enough - they simply had another gear that we did not have, and our race finished just before Peter's posts, in exactly the same place that we bumped them on the last day last year.

Although the result was not the one we wanted, I didn't personally feel down for too long - we had been bumped fair and square by a faster crew. I think members of the crew who were in last year's Lent VIII were hurting more. Perhaps we would have been able to hold them off for a few more lengths, but not for the 90 seconds required to row over. We rowed very well and I think to the best of our ability. If we row the same way that we did today, I will be very pleased and we will do well.

Event: Lent Bumps 2016 - Saturday
Posted as: Jake Rowe
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Awesome row up to the start. "Cool and clinical", as planned.

The cannon master turned up the reverb today, as I regained hearing we seemed to be in the middle of a fairly good start and soon had gained half a length on Queens' and a whistle to show for it.

This was the end of anything resembling good rowing, and we stayed at 1 whistle until we reached the gut. A low-flying drone and pack of very yappy dogs momentarily took my attention before we started to turn into Grassy. The exit of grassy saw two whistles and a large FaT contingent on the bank cheering us on. It also saw us encounter a monstrous amount of wash. The quality of the rowing did not really improve (not hugely surprising given that there were waves crashing over the riggers), butwe were able to close the distance on Queens' before catching them with two massive strokes.

Although we bumped up, the general mood was that we could have rowed far better. So ready to go large tomorrow for the chase on Jesus.

Event: May Bumps 2016 - Wednesday
Posted as: Jake Rowe
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Although no one said so, the nerves ran high. For almost half the crew it was our first race in the top division, but nevertheless we had confidence that we would be able to catch Downing over the course.

The row up was not our best, and the bursts were slightly scrappy and we didn't really find the nice rhythm that we had previously found.

Arriving at the start, we were delayed by a re-row which gave us more time than expected. In this time, I relaxed quite a lot, but when we got back in the boat after the first cannon I found myself a little tense.

We remained present during the first three minutes of the race, but the rowing was choppy, the corners were not very good. Despite this, we got our first whistle on Downing going past the Plough. This brought us together and as we swung round the corner on the reach we stepped up to the plate (although the rowing didn't really improve) and started to grind them down. Two whistles happened, and we "Took it to the plough". Three whistles happened as we passed the railings, and there weren't enough strokes between this and the bump for continuous whistling to even be considered.

Amid cries of "Hold it up!" from the bank, Hugo looked across to RTT to see that his hand was up (to confirm the bump), ahead to the Downing cox, who's hand was indeed up, then sat back in his seat with a grin on his face and passed on the instruction to us to hold it up. No doubt about it.

Onwards and upwards!

Event: May Bumps 2016 - Friday
Posted as: Jake Rowe
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So close. So so close.

The race plan was "We get, or we get got". We got got.

We geared up and prepared for a fast and furious sprint to the Plough, where Clare had got Downing the previous day. The row up was awesome.

A fast and clean start, followed by a solid first minute saw us coming into the gut with our first whistle on Jesus, where we executed our first push. Coming round Grassy, we powered on, achieving two whistles as we entered plough reach. We "took it to the Plough", quite literally, beginning to flag a little as we passed the crowds on the bank. Hearing shouts of "10 feet" from the bank, we were buoyed on and executed another push round Ditton corner and onto the reach. Having closed to six feet, with Clare still 3/4 of a length off our stern, I really started to feel the effects of the heavier gearing, but was surprised that Clare weren't closer. We pushed on, closing to two feet and overlap, before I noticed Clare looking much closer than they had before. Now at the railings, we fell apart, absolutely finished. Clare munched us up and Jesus moved away. So, so close.

We didn't get the result we wanted but this was by far and away the best row in the crew and I felt extremely proud to have been able to take part in this race.

We shall take it to the Plough once more.