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All race reports for Xander Povey

Event: Fairbairn Cup 2021 - Senior VIIIs
Posted as: Xander Povey
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With two subs on the day of the race arranged the day before this was a bit of a scratch crew. It also felt like a scratch crew with the boat struggling to maintain acceptable speed past the railway bridge. Fun was had, honour and glory not so much.

Event: Bedford Head 2022 - College VIIIs
Posted as: Xander Povey
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In the first race we pushed of hard from the start, rating at 37 and settled into a smooth 33/34. We managed to drop the rate towards the middle section of and never really managed to bring it back up. This wasn't helped by Thomas "digging" Frith who insisted on catching a few crabs for good measure in the final 200m.

Between races Frith ate a whole mango with the skin on. Then we set of with M2 to cheer on W1 from one of the bridges. We also misidentified a few college clubs also racing in division 3. This culminated with us shouting "Yeah King's" at the passing Downing M1, who throught their cocky behaviour on the Cam and Rowbridge, deserved to be taken down a few pegs. Well we all got taken down a few pegs that day by being beaten by the remarkibly powerful Bedford School J16 VIII.

After giving some loud words of encouragement to W1 on their race we belined for the pub where we made refuge from the miserable weather that had begun to take over the town. Most enjoyed meals upwards of 1300kcal and some in M2 even dared to have a pint (or two).

In the second race we rowed much better: staying a lot more in time, keeping the rate high and not catching any crabs. Unfortunately we lost a few seconds overall. Was it fatigue, the pub grub, wind? Who knows but we came back in agreeing that we rowed much better than just earlier that day.

Division 2 06:39

Division 6 06:43

Event: Lent Bumps 2022 - Wednesday
Posted as: Xander Povey
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No-one expected us to do even remotely well today. Looking at BumpIT, most people believed that we wouldn get bumped. Our previous captain Savannah thought we'd be getting spoons. Nonetheless, we went to the start optimistic and excited, for many of us to our first time racing in bumps. For Csongi, his first time racing in M1 at all.

On the third cannon we gave two big squeezes and a quick build to get us to out rate. We kept within distance to Caius for the first minute before letting them off the hook. As we got to grassy, Downing began to creep up on us. We were "quite hotly pursued by Downing" as Will Connolley put it. As nerves began to build in the boat, Daniel took a great line around the corner to try and throw them off. The pressure was on; they were three quarters of a length away and we still had just under 2k to go.

Together, we all felt the anxiety of Downing’s proximity which only grew as we heard the continuous whistling from their coach and could start to see their bow rocking back and forth as they tried to get the bump on the reach. This didn’t deter us though. Quite the opposite, we dug in and held them off by about half a foot for a further 1km to just past railway bridge. We knew where we were and so did they. The exhaustion and frustration of not catching us had gotten to them and it appeared that they had almost given up. In the final stretch to top finish we kept pushing hard and even managed to gain a bit of distance ending the race with between half and a full length between us.

The next day will prove a challenge as we expect them to push harder now they’ve had a taste for the whistle. Unfortunately for Downing, we will also be pushing hard to chase Pembroke and keep them away.

Event: Lent Bumps 2022 - Thursday
Posted as: Xander Povey
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Race two of Bumps: the beginning of the end… for Downing. After a brutal and traumatic Wednesday of near misses and watching Downing slide around the river like a sine wave, we walked to boathouse ready to row better than ever before. After a few quick 20 minute pep talks from Bomber, we decided we weren’t going to let Downing get anywhere near as close as yesterday. After a decent start and a not so decent grassy, it looked like we were ready to accomplish our goal. However as we were paddling down the reach with Xander keeping it technical, Tit Hall gave Downing a very inconvenient burst of motivation which threw a slight spanner in the works. What we hoped would be a comfortable row over was starting to feel like déjà vu. With Downing’s bow now looking forward for the first time this bumps campaign, they were quickly gaining as we passed under the railway bridge. With three short bursts of a whistle in quick succession, Thomas kindly decided he would not catch any more crabs for the rest of the race. We did hold them off in the end, but not before giving the crowd another excellent spectacle.

Same time tomorrow, Downing?