All race reports for Aaron Lewis
Event: Novice Fairbairn Cup 2016 - 1st division
Posted as: A.J.O. Lewis
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We have enjoyed our share of glory these past few days, and though songs may yet be written of our great battle-paddles, against the dainty men of Jesus or our dearest bete noire Caius, my report shall be prospective. I step for a moment from the rushing stream of our campaign and in the stillness note a churning, a premonition not unlike that known to Margaret of France, when she met her own Black Prince in victory:
... I know well the Fates
Are neither kind nor careless; without pity
They carry out immutable designs,
And sacrifice the bravest and the best
To shape the world according to their whim.
'Tis well I know it; then, when first I saw you,
As you did paddle to the Boathouse that day,
Splendid and modest in your darkling shell,
Socked with gold laurels, on a sprightly slide,
While trumpets sounded and the L.B.C's spake,
And jewelled banners fluttered in the wind
A beaten Maggie behind you, and the glory
Of conquest all about you like a cloud
Then, when the shout of FAIRBAIRNS rent the air,
And you, in Black Prince, to that swaying crowd
Eclipsed the glory of King Charlemagne
And all his knights, and seemed a new Achilles,
Most chivalrous, most princely among men:
Then when I brought you garlands, then, when love,
Like instant lightning flashed from you to me,
I did foresee the inevitable end.
EDWARD: Nay, cease talk not of that.
MARGARET: I did foresee
The inevitable end. I knew that summer
Might stay awhile with pomp of bees and roses
And harvest moons ; but there must come a time
When petals fall, when the green woodland dies,
And nothing but bare boughs remain. I fear
No sudden storm, no unexpected whirlwind;
But the pale progress of decay, the blight
Of Autumn; Summer dying, leaf by leaf,
And rose by rose; the red moon, like a wizard
Luring chill vapours from the leafless woods.
I fear no unforeseen catastrophe,
But the slow dawning of indifference;
The gradual ebb and listless march of autumn
That surely will invade thy soul the season
When the fierce passion of thy heart shall wane
As wanes the living fire of summer days
To the pale mockery of winter suns.
The Black Prince, M. Baring (1903, with minor revisions....)
It is my hope, then, and sincerely held (moreso than purpled prose may here show), that though our moment's end is nigh, the coming winter yet shall find us rededicated to our craft.
Event: Lent Bumps 2017 - Tuesday
Posted as: A.J.O. Lewis
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There once was a bumps crew from Darwin
Whose fitness from afar seemed quite Spartan
But on closer inspection
This proved mere deception -
That inestimable bumps crew from Darwin
Rough though we were at the startin'
Our lads quickly ground down the margin
And by first post corner
The Black Prince had torn 'er
And into their stern we were carvin'
Our first bump having been bought on bargain,
For our next one we're already starvin'
Into Corpus Christi
We hope to fly swiftly
Though not without first some good sparrin'
Event: Lent Bumps 2017 - Thursday
Posted as: A.J.O. Lewis
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Hard and fast though we'd pushed toward Corpus,
our holy communion was abruptly denied.
Even though our pushes had been ****ing enormous.
Perhaps we were still just a tad too cautious
Despite knowing Selwyn would get crucified -
Hard and fast though we'd pushed toward Corpus.
And what a surprise when then Darwin plowed toward us,
As we rounded the Plough and started to stride -
Even though our pushes had been ****ing enormous!
So what if our rowing til then wasn't gorgeous;
We held it together when softer crews might have died,
Hard and fast though we'd pushed toward Corpus.
And when the cheers rose from that marshalling chorus,
We found grace in agony, and swanned through with pride.
Even though our pushes had been ****ing enormous.
One almost might ask if we're mere men, or horses -
So long in enduring! So thick in the hide!
Hard and fast though we'd pushed toward Corpus,
Even though our pushes had been ****ing enormous.
Event: Lent Bumps 2017 - Friday
Posted as: A.J.O. Lewis
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Caught all but half-squared at the last cannon blast,
We jumped, keeled over, sliced the air and halted
Briefly on the slide - a momentary terror, passed
As quickly as started, by a crew still undaunted.
Rhythm we built then by the meter, swinging
Through at the finish with newfound thrust; with a lift
Off the catch our blades went in cleaner, springing
Back off our footplates, our backs to the gust. So swift
Into Selwyn we flew from two whistles! We jacked up the rate
And went full bump-or-bust: sending puddle-tsunamis
On back toward Downing, a missile we whizzed down the strait -
Gaining overlap, canvas, til their cox cried for Mommy
When our two man was slapping their stern with his blade. Bless
Them for holding so long anyway; we'd be hardly so proud were it less.
Event: Lent Bumps 2017 - Saturday
Posted as: A.J.O. Lewis
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Believe in our stroke, boys
I can see them - push!
Event: May Bumps 2017 - Friday
Posted as: A.J.O. Lewis
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In lieu of an original composition, I will reproduce an appropriate excerpt from scripture, while taking care to be entirely faithful to the original text:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to novice, and a time to leave;
a time to wind, and a time to rhythm; a time to bulk, and a time to cut;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to disband crews, and a time to gather crews together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to chase, and a time to fly; a time to bump, and a time to go down;
a time to time to hold, and a time to push; a time to keep silence, and a time to shout;
a time to catch, and a time to release; a time to race, and a time to rest.
What do rowers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden that FaT has laid upon them; none can fathom what FaT has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and row well; that each of them may eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil -- this is the gift of FaT. I know that everything FaT does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. That which is, has already been; that which is to be, already is.
(Ecclesiastes 3, more or less)
Event: Bedford Head 2018 - Open Eights (Band 4)
Posted as: A.J.O. Lewis
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Event: Pembroke Regatta 2018 - 2nd division
Posted as: A.J.O. Lewis
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| 1 | Magdalene |
| 2 | Emmanuel |
| 3 | Wolfson |
| 4 | Caius II |
| 5 | Lady Margaret II |
| 6 | Jesus II |
| 7 | Corpus Christi |
| 8 | Homerton |
| 9 | First and Third II |
| 10 | Selwyn |
| 11 | Downing II |
An "M2 headship" is theoretically within reach, although to reach it in four bumps might require Corpus to go up by three as well. Perhaps more importantly, it would require us to be quite quick.
Just how quick is an interesting question. For two boats stationed 1 1/2 lengths apart (30 m) to meet by the end of the course (2.2 to 2.6 km), the chasing crew would have to average a speed at least ~1.15% greater than that of the crew ahead; ~1.36% greater if covering the full 2.6 km, as we would from 9th position. That's a difference of 1-2 seconds per 500 m split. The chasing crew will also be rowing in wash, requiring some additional amount of effort to make speed.
By comparison our side-by-side results with Jesus and Caius were 1/2 and 3/4 of a length over a 1100 m course, whereas a bumping crew would on average have closed about 2/3 of a length (1.1/~2.4 * 1.5 lengths) over that distance (and in wash). It's hard to say what bumping odds those margins indicate, given how different a regatta is from bumps, and how variable a crew's performance can be. But we've got a shot at this.
On the topic of variable crew performance, it is perhaps worthwhile to note that some amount of variability day-to-day might actually make it easier for the faster crews to bump up. Bumps is unusual among races in that it has a non-zero threshold for success, and certain pathological possibilities arise from that fact: one might, for example, imagine a division in which each crew was slightly faster than the crew above, though not quite enough to bump, and thus the headship crew could be 20 or so splits slower than the sandwich boat. In a world where crew performance was perfectly consistent, such pathological rankings would in fact be stable over the week. But in reality, where crew performance is stochastic, that very stochasticity helps to ensure that smallish differences in speed rise to the threshold needed for a bump.
It may be counter-intuitive that a random element can help to give more accurate rankings. Certainly it doesn't help when the random element is very large; in the lower divisions for example the rather high frequency of reciprocal bumps might suggest an excess of randomness. But where we are, in the upper half of Div II, reciprocal bumps are quite rare, while bumps in general are more frequent than in the divisions above, and row-overs more rare. Insofar as one expects day-to-day consistency to increase with skill in the higher positions, one wonders if we are near the "sweet spot", a position where a moderate amount of consistency allows bumps to most efficiently sort crews by speed. Analytically one would expect this to be true when the random element alone would induce bumps at about the same rate as would the non-random element, as is generally the case for systems in so-called "stochastic resonance." But that would take some effort to measure. It is however nonetheless encouraging to think that, in a very real sense, we might have luck on our side.
Event: Lent Bumps 2018 - Saturday
Posted as: A.J.O. Lewis
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I was surprised when I was told
That this Lent Bumps was rather cold;
I suppose I might have seen some ice
Had gathered somewhere, once or twice.
But mostly I recall a burning--
A terribly dire sort of yearning--
And were there one thing I'll remember,
It will be this emblazoned ember:
The smouldering fire of a denied desire,
Our work to inspire as we drive higher.
Event: Head of the River Race 2018 - Academic
Posted as: A.J.O. Lewis
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