All race reports for Ben Jarman
Event: Newnham Short Course 2015 - 2nd VIIIs
Posted as: Ben
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An eventful day for sure. After troubles with the speaker system in the boat the previous day, Liv was audible for around one minute before it cut out again. RTT gave her a megaphone to attempt to cox with, but this was limited in its effectiveness, leading to most of the race calls coming from the bank. Marshalling in the snow for 20 minutes was an interesting experience, but we had the pleasure of Maggie M2 blasting some tunes from Frozen through their coxbox.
The race itself was 'reasonable'- we were able to sustain around 32 whilst being fairly together, the sit was good, and we were all quite tired by the end. Some lifts out of Grassy, Ditton and for the finish had mixed effectiveness, but the lift towards the end was very strong (indicating we probably could have pushed harder for the rest of the race). We certainly have the potential to be the fastest M2- with a working coxbox we would definitely have made up the 3 seconds between us and Maggie M2.
Event: Robinson Head 2015 - Men's 2nd
Posted as: Ben
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What an amazing race. Felt fantastic for the duration, rating an extremely solid 33/34, connecting well at the front and applying power in uniform, we really flew down the course. Even Declan said it was "ok", a huge compliment from him.
We were surprised to discover Neil in the gut, who had ran all the way up there and then ran all the way along the course with us- we couldn't have achieved this result without Neil, so it was great that he made it.
Let's keep this progress up and push for the win next weekend at Pembroke (though it will be an exciting race if we come up against Maggie M2 there, as they were just +1s on us here...).
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2015 - 2nd division
Posted as: Ben
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We were all very excited for this race- the real chance to determine who the fastest M2 on the river was. The first 3/4 did not disappoint; we were side by side the whole way, the gap varying by only one or two seats. They took a marginal gain on their corner, perhaps moving to 1/3 of a length, but the last corner was ours. Neil and Liv drove us on, I heard "Do or die, boys!" from the bank and I knew this was it, our moment- then they hit us.
Liv took a great line into the corner to maximise our advantage there, and they steered into us with nowhere for us to go. There were a few loud bangs behind me, but we kept going- but then they were physically blocking our path, so we had to pause briefly, and of course they pulled away.
Immediately after the race, I was angry, not at them (everyone makes mistakes sometimes) but at the fact that we lost the opportunity to prove ourselves. We all knew it would be a DSQ, the red scum were equally uncertain about the result, but somehow it didn't happen. After browsing the regatta rules, I found the only rule regarding steering was that should a marshal whistle twice and warn a crew of their line, they must move or face punishment. I never heard any whistles...
Event: Lent Bumps 2015 - Wednesday
Posted as: Ben
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Despite all the banter about overbumping Homerton, today went pretty much as expected. We held station on Wolfson, they caught Queen's II very quickly (which bodes well for us tomorrow), and we moved steadily away from Sidney.
As we passed over the finishing line I vowed never to row over again (except, perhaps, as head) as it was a thoroughly uninteresting and tiring experience. The solitary moment of interest was seeing Corpus miss the bump on Sidney on First Post corner, and them then failing to take the corner- subsequently being bumped by Darwin.
Tomorrow will be a much more productive day, I feel.
Event: Lent Bumps 2015 - Thursday
Posted as: Ben
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we need to step up our game for tomorrow
Event: May Bumps 2015 - Saturday
Posted as: Ben
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So, this term has been a difficult term for M3. I'll only write something for this day as each race was very similar- we were bumped clinically before first post each day, though there were certainly improvements in the rowing over the course of the week. The first day was full of nerves, and the crew's inexperience showed, but as the week went on the rowing became confident, strong, and we put up our best fight every day.
Having only finally gotten a full crew together 2 weeks ago it was always going to be a struggle to be competitive in bumps. In a term that started so well with half of the crew trialling and competing in seat races for the upper boats, it quickly fell apart with only a couple of 4's and 1 8 outing in the first half of term. I'd like to thank Chris Black for intervening at this point and ensuring that we got the 10 outings we needed to compete in bumps, taking on us along with the myriad of other tasks he's had this term was admirable.
A huge thank you must also go to the long list of subs that have come to help us this term- I'm afraid there have been so many that I can't remember all of them, but particular thanks must go to those we called from the boathouse with only a few minutes notice; you saved us.
A big thanks to Chris Howarth, David and Prab, who all joined the crew despite not having planned to row/cox this term- again, without you the crew couldn't have made it.
Thanks to Iain, Alex, Duncan, Will, Sean, Neil for bank partying us, and thank you to everyone else on the bank who was there to cheer us on- sorry we never made it to Grassy.
And of course, the biggest thank you of all must go to Daphne for coaching us this term. Having someone with such a wealth of knowledge of the sport was so invaluable, she took us so far in such a small number of outings, and saved our bumps campaign from being a complete disaster. She gave up so much of her time for us, and we truly appreciate her generosity.
Next year, I, along with the other MLBCs, will endeavour to bring together a crew that will restore the damage that has been done to M3's position this year. Under new management, we will reach new heights.
Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2015 - 2nd Mays
Posted as: Ben
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Despite a rushed start due to being held up on the way to marshalling, we settled into a strong rhythm quickly and held it for the duration of the first leg. An overtake of Christ's M2 brought some excitement, but we held our composure well. We took the rate up a couple of pips for the second leg, and after a rocky start it became very solid- leading to another overtake, this time of Queen's M2. After only rowing together for a couple of weeks, to be the joint fastest M2 (with Caius) is very exciting.
Event: Lent Bumps 2016 - Thursday
Posted as: Ben
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boom
crash
spin
spin
boom
ouch
ouch
ouch
YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH
Event: Novice Fairbairn Cup 2015 - 1st division
Posted as: Ben
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I was on the train home from London when I called Tom to ask how NM2's race had gone. At this point I had seen the provisional results for the first two divisions, to my dismay Fitz had beaten NM1 by a narrow margin, but Tom had not. Thus when he told me they had timed around 10:10, I was far more shocked than he was... We refused to believe it until the results were released.
A new record, boys. That really is something else, and has made all of this term's work very much worth it.
Event: University IVs 2015 - 2nd division
Posted as: Ben
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Pretty good race. After our 'interesting' practice starts, the real one went quite well, despite just a solitary whistle indicating we had to start rowing. A smooth stride led to a strong rhythm which was held throughout the race. Focusing on the hips led to some excellent pushes and the boat speed was nice.
Sadly we were not able to overcome the 2nd IV, but it was definitely worth racing.
Event: Head of the Nene 2017 - IM3 VIIIs
Posted as: Ben
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Crews were set off with barely any gap. As a result we spent most of our time in pretty awful water. This was good preparation for all of the bumps we are going to be making. There was a tremendous feeling that there is a lot more to come from the crew. Let's bring it all together.
Crew Nandos generated a lot of positive energy. Time to smash it.
Event: Lent Bumps 2017 - Friday
Posted as: Ben
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My collar broke. Bummer. Despite at least 30 crabs it still took Peterhouse till the exit of Ditton to hit us.
Event: May Bumps 2017 - Saturday
Posted as: Ben
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Backed up the chat. Cheers Clare for helping us out with the tactical bump on Friday.
Event: Head of the Cam 2018 - 1st Mays
Posted as: Ben
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Bow: Julian Sprossman
Decent race, lacked a bit of attack at the start but maintained a pretty strong rhythm throughout and felt pretty burnt out at the end. The fours work done in the first two weeks of term has certainly at least highlighted, if not corrected, problems in our rowing as individuals and a squad; I look forward to working on this in the VIII and building a solid, rapid base.
Event: Head of the Cam 2018 - 1st Mays
Posted as: Ben
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Nifty race, attacked the start much more effectively than in the IV in the morning. Had a Jesus M1/2 composite chasing us, and spending most of the race pushing hard off of them made it go by quite quickly. After doing a 2k erg and two 2.6k races within 20 hours I was very happy to go home and collapse afterwards... (not before stretching of course, Jacqui!)
Event: May Bumps 2018 - Wednesday
Posted as: Ben
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Bit boring, hopefully some excitement tomorrow.
Event: May Bumps 2018 - Thursday
Posted as: Ben
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The whole crew had been visualising this bump for the previous 24 hours, at least, and that internal preparation showed tremendously from the moment we arrived at the boathouse. Confidence, but not arrogance, brought out a far better warmup than Day 1, and marshalling at the P&E was a calm, relaxed affair. The start was a little more energetic than yesterday, though still a little tense and some water was caught - however, we were nonetheless able to find a long, effective rhythm at 40 and the whistles came thick and fast.
At 2 whistles Liv called a bumps push, and it felt like we stuck there a while, but this is perhaps only because we were waiting after each stroke to hear the relief of her calling to hold it up (though MC's patience ran out a little earlier than everyone else's..). The bump was inevitable and it thusly came fast, a few strokes into First Post corner - same again tomorrow, chaps.
Event: May Bumps 2018 - Friday
Posted as: Ben
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Best row of my life really
