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All race reports for Jo Sampson

Event: Lent Bumps 2003 - Thursday
Posted as: jo
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Another day, another row over behind Girton with no-one in pursuit except a distant Selwyn, this time because Sidney Sussex somehow managed to be lifejacketless, earning them a nice fine and Catz an automatic bump. While it was a relief having little threat of being bumped, we may have made more ground on Girton with Sidney snapping at our heels. As it was we kept on station for a fair amount of the course but began to lose them on plough reach and never got it back. Not as good as yesterday, but not bad. Another crack at Girton tomorrow then...

Event: Lent Bumps 2003 - Saturday
Posted as: wench #7
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We knew today was not going to be another row over. Sidney had caught Catz pretty quickly on both wednesday and friday, and looked likely to close on us, while we had a length on Girton when they bumped New Hall on friday. So we set out for a race to first post. Our start was an improvement on the previous two days, and we closed fairly quickly on NH. The threat from behind was perhaps not as great as was feared, since despite my fine display of muppetry under the motorway bridge Sidney "we'd've taken any amount of fine to have a shot at 1st&3rd (and got them by grassy, no doubt)" Sussex didnt creep up much. NH put up a good fight, and held us at half a length for what seemed like forever, but we got them just in time to give our mass of supporters at the plough something to smile about. And ourselves of course- a fantastic first bump for many of us, and a row that showed our determination and committment. Andrews wenches done good :-)

Event: Lent Bumps 2003 - Wednesday
Posted as: jo
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A fantastic start saw us pull away from Catz, who never stood a chance of catching us and were swiftly caught by Sidney Sussex, leaving us to concentrate on chasing Girton. We caught them slightly early on, but they managed to pull it back and we rowed over, never under any threat from Selwyn, doomed to be sandwich boat for another day. A good row from all of us

Event: Lent Bumps 2004 - Saturday
Posted as: jo
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We rowed the same as yesterday. We hit Queen's just past the Motorway bridge. Job done.

Event: May Bumps 2004 - Saturday
Posted as: jo
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We had a bit of a dash and die race plan for this one, but didn't have quite enough left in us to make the dash bit quick enough. Darwin dissapeared and went after Selwyn (who have had 3 stonking row-overs this week) and that was that.

Event: May Bumps 2004 - Saturday
Posted as: jo
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This wasn't the calmest row we've ever done. It started reasonably well, but we didn't lose queens as quickly as we had hoped we would and we worked a bit harder than we needed to as a result. It did the job though.

Event: May Bumps 2004 - Thursday
Posted as: jo
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A good start, an over enthusiastic stride (38-39), a second over enthusiastic stride (37-38), a whistle, two, three, continuous..., hold it up. job done.

Event: May Bumps 2004 - Wednesday
Posted as: jo
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Our start surpassed both of our practices, and we moved up to 1 length from Darwin quite quickly. Unfortunately, they moved up to overlap on Peterhouse very quickly, and had them by grassy.
By plough reach, what little threat there had been from behind disappeared, and we dragged our way down the reach in complete isolation. Cox-box death after the first 10 strokes contributed to the boat being pretty unresponsive, making the rowover a bit of a chore and a bore, but we got there eventually, to a cry of 'Don't rate Too high Trinity!' from the bank.

Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2004 - 1st division
Posted as: jo
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Not a bad row, but not a great one either. They pulled away quite early on and we never seemed to get it together enough to push back at them.

Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2004 - 1st division
Posted as: jo
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On paper this result doesn't bode that well for day 1 of bumps. In reality it was actually very promising. Our start was good and we pulled away from them right from the beginning. We managed to build up a fairly convincing lead- I'm sure there was more to it than simply the towpath-side advantage. Then one of our gates had a disagreement with its blade and expelled it spectacularly. Fortunately we didnt lose the blade and Honey kept us out of the bank while it got sorted as Darwin came back at us, somewhat slower than i would have imagined.
We had a good push when we got back up to all 8 and pulled back up on them. Unfortunately it wasn't quite enough, but we were all pleased with our performance and comparitive speed.

Event: Concept 2 Sprint Relay 2004 - Women's Other Mays
Posted as: jo
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This was quite a comedy event for the FaT women. We decided not to let having 13 rowers (including Fish who turned up pretty much as the start gun went!) to fill two crews get in our way and Amelia Jenna and Pia did rowed for both crews, with almost no break in between.
Everyone did a great stint, but despite having practiced the changover routine we were just not quick (or big!) enough to catch Darwin. A convincing second place though.

Event: Women's Head of the River Race 2004 - Senior3 VIIIs
Posted as: jo
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Due to illness, the crew that entered WeHORR had not rowed together before boating from Sons of the Thames today. Given this, and the inexperience of the crew (all but one of us were tideway virgins), I was very pleased with the first half of the race. After a slightly inexpert stride we managd to hit a pretty nice rhythm and were overtaking crews in no time. We had a exciting double overtaking manoeuvre under [the 2nd lamp-post of] Hammersmith bridge as we squeezed between Emma B (cambs) and I'm not sure who, which Honey handled superbly.
After that things went a little bit soggy, perhaps as it dawned on us that we were only half way through. A reasonable result though, although personally I am gutted to have been beaten by Tit Hall, and especially Pembroke, by such small margins. Sigh...

PS Sorry- not meaning to sounds so negative- in Jo language reasonable means good, and im not gutted in a 'we didnt do well' way... more in a 'we did great... but look how close we were... again!' way!

Event: Lent Bumps 2004 - Friday
Posted as: jo
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I think that today really drove home the disappointment of yesterday. We had a reasonable start, and did close on Pembroke, but not fast enough. They hit Queens pretty swiftly, meaning we had to easy briefly, then pick it up again for the long and lonely slog home. Not a spectacular row, but we would have needed much more speed to have stood a chance of hitting them on time.

Event: Robinson Head 2004 -
Posted as: jo
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This was actually W2. I didnt see them race, but their result was pretty smart- 4th fastest lower boat, and 15th over all- despite having ludicrously linited water time recently due to the yellow flag. Well done ladies.

Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2003 - Cup
Posted as: jo
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It was clear for the duration of this race that our girls were simply not going to let themselves be beaten by Maggie. They were tired and cold, but gritted their teeth and pushed off them all the way from start to finish. Maybe not the prettiest of races, but man was it good!

Event: University IVs 2003 - 1st division
Posted as: wench #7
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We had a storming start and pulled away convincingly through the stride and power ten. Despite the ludicrous wind we held on well for most of the reach, but they determinedly ploughed back at us. Unfortunately we seemed to lack the fighting spirit that we would have required to hold them off and they snuck ahead. We picked up the power enough to give them a run for their money despite seeming to come to a standstill in the wind after the railway bridge, but it was a little too late. A pity, because I think we had it in us to give Caius a bit of a shock...

Event: Queens' Novice Ergo Competition 2003 - 1st division
Posted as: jo
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Tonight's performance was simply mind blowing. Every one of the girls excelled. From the start they began to ease ahead of the opposition, then left them utterly behind- topping the finalists list, a comfortable 40-odd seconds ahead of queens.
The final was harder, but the girls handled the immense pressure brilliantly, and calmly got on with the job in hand, again winning by a ludicrous margin. Absolutely brilliant!

Event: Queens' Novice Ergo Competition 2003 - 2nd division
Posted as: jo
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The girls put in a sterling performance. Abi gave us a flying start and had the cheek to make it look easy, Sanjeet recovered brilliantly from coming off her seat, and Anna powered us up through the ranks. Munro took Maggie from behind with style, and Lydia calmly closed the gap to downing (whose first two rowers had ~1:43 splits!). Anastasia closed the gap further, and supersub Louise brought us to within 150m of Downing. We'd come right back from behind, but 150m is quite a lot to make up over 500m...
Well try telling that to Fish, who brought us in 1st in our heat, pipping downing to the post.
Overall we finished 2nd, 5s behind Homerton C... who beat Homerton A by the same margin and Homerton B by 1minute. As far as I'm concerned, today's result was a win, and a well deserved one.

Event: Cambridge Winter Head 2003 - Novice VIIIs
Posted as: jo
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A beauty of a row. The girls took it up well off the start- Lauren doing a beautiful job of keeping the ratio. They oh-so-nearly made it round grassy, and recovered incredibly well from a gentle encounter with the bank, only to blade clash with the Maggie 1st novice boys,who foolishly attempted overtaking on the outside of ditton. Both crews seemed to come to a stand still... and then the girls took off, embarassing the boys; who took an eternity to get past and never pulled away convincingly.
The row from the railway bridge was full of guts, and the finish was great. Very very nice result!
Many thanks to TomC-inspirational coxing!

Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2003 -
Posted as: jo
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This was a difficult one as the conditions on the reach were shocking. The first start was great, Daniel holding a brilliant line despite their proximity to the bank, and the crew pulling away smartly from 'Binson. Unfortunately Binsons start drove them straight into us, and a restart was ordered. The crew were taken somewhat by suprise by the second start, but edged away despite not rowing their usual calm best. By the railway bridge Binson looked like they might take it back, but a determined push for the finish and a Binson crab secured us the win.

Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2003 -
Posted as: jo
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There isn't much to say. The girls rowed well, and were able to row over half the course at sub race speed as New Hall C (who deserve credit for getting into the semi's) never really got away from the bank. They were able to cross the line comfortably with no-one rowing...

Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2003 -
Posted as: jo
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A very convincing row, against a very good Clare crew. The crew combined the calmness of the semi final with the grit of the quarter, and refused to let Clare take back the length that they had taken over the course of the reach. This win was well deserved and well earnt. Well done!

Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2003 - Cup
Posted as: jo
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The girls won by a significant margin even though it was a row none of them were especially pleased with. I think the nerves and tension probably showed themselves, but then so did the ability and determination, and Fitz never really stood a chance.

Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2003 - Cup
Posted as: jo
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This was a close race, and a satisfying one. Jesus were probably one of the best crews in the competition, and the strong cross wind made it very hard work. The FaT girls always had the upper hand though, and while it was closely fought in the early stages, the Jesus bank-party's cry of 'they're dying!' as they passed under the railway bridge was clearly wishful thinking.

Event: Newnham Short Course 2004 - 1st division
Posted as: jo
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Having not rowed in that particular crew order before, and having struggled even to get the boat house in the wind, few of us expected great things from today, but were pleasantly suprised. We had a pretty powerful start, and pushed up a little into Catz. Things went down hill a little form there, and the wind on the reach was nearly the end of us, but the power and determination was there for the duration.

Event: Robinson Head 2005 - Lower VIIIs
Posted as: jo
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This was an eventful race, to say the least. The guys recovered well from a series of crabs and footplate/ seat incidents, but inevitably their time was effected by the minimal time spent with all VIII rowing.
There were some very good pushes, especially towards the end, and consistently good effort from everyone from start to finish. Looking promising for bumps.

Event: May Bumps 2005 - Friday
Posted as: jo
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We arrived at the station as the 4 minute gun went, which meant we had so little faffing time that we almost forgot to do our good luck handshake. That could have been disasterous!

We hadn't been rowing long at all when Iain told us that HH had bumped Vet School, forcing us to go wide round the corner- but Honey took a bravely tight line, and we started getting whistles.

After the first one we gained quickly and got them just before grassy. Hurrah!

Event: May Bumps 2005 - Thursday
Posted as: jo
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We suspected that this would be a quick one, and indeed it was. Little Jenners counted 28 strokes to the bump, and that's about all there is to say about it.

Event: May Bumps 2005 - Wednesday
Posted as: jo
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After a sublime outing on Monday night everyone was feeling very confident. However, as the hour approached, and we remembered *quite how frightening* bumps could be, we all got A Little Nervous. As we sat in the boat bays awaiting the return of our trusty vessel Margot, we all got A Little More Nervous.

We caned it to chesterton where we discovered that the crews in our division were only just heading off, and then got given a scolding by the marshal nonetheless. Little did he realise that by attempting to strike us down, he was making us more powerful than he could possibly imagine...

On the row up, we decided that we did not like the wind, and did not want to row far, but pre-gun mutterings included the words 'so if we have to go for the overbump...' several times. The glory of overbumping sounded quite exciting, but the prospect of a nice quick hit on Eddies appealed rather more.

The gun was loud.

The wind was bad.

We've rowed better.

Our kit was spangly and new, and we rowed well enough.

tomorrow should be fun :-)

Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2005 - Women's Lower Division
Posted as: jo
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They were quicker than us off the start and quite quickly took about 7 seats off us. Although the distance shouted after the race was 1 1/4 lengths, I'm fairly sure we didn't lose any further distance to them for the rest of the race. Sat at 2 I could see them out of the corner of my eye at all times (and my peripheral vision is not spectacular!)

It was a shame not to win nice glasses, but it was a good row, and I think the side-by-side racing will have done us good!

Thanks to Jaime, Ameeelia and Cath for subbing

Event: Cambridge 99's Regatta 2005 - Women's Lower Division
Posted as: jo
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We started a tad frantically but pulled away a bit, then they caught a painful looking crab, and we were told there was going to have to be a restart because this had occurred within the first 100 m. Baffling...

We were then told that since no contact had actually occurred, this was a mistake and we had actually won, unless we wanted to race anyway... which we did, seeing as we were going to have to get to the other end of the course somehow.

They stuck with us for a little while off the (re)start, perhaps a bit wound up by our insistence that we didn't want a headstart, but before long we had pulled away and won comfortably.

Event: Champion of the Thames Eights Head 2005 - Women's Lower Div. Mays
Posted as: jo
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Looking at this as a piece in our first ever outing as a crew, it was rather nice. Our start was a bit flustered and spacky into the wind- or at least seemed it in comparison to our beautiful practice on the row up- and we took a little while to find our rhythm, but we got there eventually, and had a good push for the finish.
.. and despite it all being a bit unpleasant due to lack of fitness on my part, it was quite good fun!

Many thanks to Erica and Amy for subbing :-)

Event: City Sprints 2005 - CRA S4 4+
Posted as: jo
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Before this race started we managed to row about 50 strokes together. Unfortunately, more of these were backing down than rowing on, and most of them occurred while we performed some sort of dressage/ spinning exercise in order to move an item of clothing from one stakeboat to another.
As a result, our attempt to use power and togetherness during the actual race was not particularly successful. With hindsight, we should have just rated like lunatics. Lesson learnt.

Event: City of Oxford Rowing Club Bumps Races 2005 - Saturday
Posted as: jo
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we came, we saw, we conquered.

Fortunately for middle pair, this result won't count towards their bumps record. A measly up 6 in 5 would have nudged their average down a tad.

Nonetheless, I think everyone was pretty pleased to win a mini-blade to add to/ start their collection.

Event: City of Oxford Rowing Club Bumps Races 2005 - Saturday
Posted as: jo
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I'll do this all properly in the morning, for the mean time I will sum up the day with 4 comedy facts:
1.We left Great Gate for Oxford at 5 in the morning, and survived the journey with 4 of us squished in the backseat of Honeys car.
2.Our vessel for the day (very kindly lent by ChristChurch) had gone so long without use that most club members had forgotten it existed, and it was dusty and full of spiders.
3.Aforementioned vessel was bow rigged. The vessel in which we had trained was not.
4.We went up 6 and ended up in the 1st division. Pretty comedy.

The crews we bumped were (in some order) Hughs II (a ghost crew), Wolfson, Abingdon, someone else, Oxilp, Linacre.

Event: Lent Bumps 2005 - Saturday
Posted as: jo
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Another very good row, another rowover. As expected, the crews ahead bumped out. Slightly unexpectedly, three of them went at once, merrily blocking the river as they did so. Fortunately they managed to just about clear in time, and some careful coxing by Richard got us through the gap, the girls did a good push to pick up speed again, and completed the row to ditton.

Well done girls, I hope to see you all in the Mays, getting some well deserved bumps :-)

Event: Lent Bumps 2005 - Wednesday
Posted as: jo
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The girls had a great start, and were closing on jesus very convincingly when Clare caught their spectucular overhead. Despite the fact that Clare appeared to be moving backwards, Jesus took a while to get them and by that time we FaT were too close to steer round and go for the overbump.

Bumps: They just aint fair.

Event: Pembroke Regatta 2005 - 1st division
Posted as: jo
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We were a tad late to the start line, leading to a certain amount of derision from the marshals, and smugness from Emma. Shortlived smugness: we pulled away from them and they never looked like coming back at us. We were far from late to the finish line.
Impressed!

Event: City Sprints 2005 - CRA S3 VIII
Posted as: jo
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The omens were not good. We boated during heavy rain, pushed off in increasingly aggressive hail, and Lizzie's call for 2 and 4 to take a stroke was accompanied by forked lightning and an almighty rumble above our heads.

City issued instructions to all crews on the water to get the hell off it, which we did (with a particularly fine display of backing it down). About 2 minutes later we had glorious sunshine and had another attempt.
We had a pretty good row despite the fact that some of us (ahem) were beginning to feel the effects of lack of regular training, but the fairly stacked champs crew managed to pull away.

Event: May Bumps 2006 - Friday
Posted as: jo
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We knew what had to be done today and did it pretty effectively. We had them at first post. This was also where Churchill hit Magdelene, so clearing the river turned out to be the most compicated part of the procedure.

Event: May Bumps 2006 - Thursday
Posted as: jo
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WOW!

Event: City of Oxford Rowing Club Bumps Races 2006 - Saturday
Posted as: jo
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Hummm. A bit shameful this. We were a bit sluggish, and didn't really start rowing well until after they'd bumped us (wierd torpids rules). I don't think we could have got the boat up to speed much quicker than we did (a bad workman... ahem) but we should have been able to hold them off. On the other hand, they must have been rowing a damn sight better than in previous rounds. We thought they were a different crew to the one we'd bumped (an illusion aided by the fact that they had a new cox for this round).

It was still a brilliant day. More FaT crews should enter this. Its fun. Clearly this one needs to be added to the headship haul next year.

Event: City of Oxford Rowing Club Bumps Races 2006 - Saturday
Posted as: jo
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This was a little more like it. Lunch took up most of the time until this round, so we didnt have time to aquire any more innapropriate equipment and we had to settle for double clamming the blades.

We did a start, and rowed together, and for some reason this meant we bumped quite quickly. Goodness.

Event: City of Oxford Rowing Club Bumps Races 2006 - Saturday
Posted as: jo
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We decided that we had now rowed together as a crew for almost long enough for it to count as cheating, so we spent the time between rounds searching out a complete change of equipment. CORC very kindly lent us 'Well Oiled'. This was splendid, as it was stroke rigged and thus prevented any consistency at all. We also used the other set of Ch Ch mens blades, in the vain hope that they might be geared a little less drastically.

We rowed _really badly_ and let St. Hughes get far closer than they should have done, until we decided to try the revolutionary tactic of putting our blades in the water from time to time. Sometimes, we even pushed a bit.

Event: City of Oxford Rowing Club Bumps Races 2006 - Saturday
Posted as: jo
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When arrived at City of Oxford Boat House we were greeted with a slightly alarming discovery. Due to a lack of repeated entries, we were not to be starting 12th, as we had finished last year, but from the lofty heights of 7th. Imagine our dismay: we were to be racing against some people who could row...

All was not lost though, for we were to be granted a fine vessel worthy of our newly elevated position: a light womens shell.

Then the Ch Ch 2nd men crashed the fine vessel while bumping, in the race before ours and we raced in the 1st mens bow-rigged IV. This was also a fine vessel. Fine, that is, for 85k men with thinner hips than us.

Thus round one was a bit of a struggle, but we bumped nonetheless. Ra.

Event: Women's Head of the River Race 2006 - Senior3 VIIIs
Posted as: jo
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Earlier in term, we put in some sub-standard performances which were good enough to win races. At the WeHORR we put in a sub-standard performance that didn't do the job. It was by no means the worst row we've ever done but we coped poorly with the headwind from Barnes to Hammersmith and that is a large enough chunk of the course for it to really matter. The row improved considerably in the second half, but as we all know, anyone can push hard from Hammersmith!

Hopefully next year's crew can take advantage of starting >100 places higher and do great things, off the back of an amazing set of lent bumps, of course...

Event: Pembroke Regatta 2006 - 1st division
Posted as: jo
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The race started well, but unfortunately we had a blade-out-of-gate incident. We recovered very well the first time, and pleasingly demonstrated that we can do killer pushes if we need to. The second time was enough to seal it for Caius.

I had lots of fun today, and am very much looking forward to bumps :-)

Event: Pembroke Regatta 2006 - 1st division
Posted as: jo
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Spurred on by the knowledge that M1 had beaten Caius :-D we had an amazing practice start. The real thing was a little less amazing, but we had a good row. Kings gave us a really good fight, which made it fun!

Thanks to Sarah for subbing in the semi and the final.

Event: Pembroke Regatta 2006 - 1st division
Posted as: jo
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This was a much better row! We had rhythm and length from the start, and it felt pretty sustainable.

Thanks to Fran for subbing (and to Jude for continuing to sub all day!)

Event: Pembroke Regatta 2006 - 1st division
Posted as: jo
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The nerves showed in this race. We were a bit spacky until about the railway bridge, at which point we gained some confidence and some length, which made the latter half bearable.

Thanks to Katie and Jude for subbing, and well done Ameeelia for survivng bowside!

From the bowseat I had Absolutely no idea of distances, so can someone add them?

Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2006 - Women's Lents 1
Posted as: jo
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Before the race, Jenny informed us that we were going to treat this as a bumps race, as that's when we do our best rowing. I didn't realise at the time how seriously she meant it...
The first half was solid and uneventful. Clare closed on us a little initially, but we found a good rhythm and pulled away convincingly on the reach. Caius managed to edge away from us gradually. At the lock, we decided we shouldn't let them do that in the second half.
Clare gave us a bit of a fright by deciding to start as close to us as they could manage but as soon as Jenny told us we were gaining on Caius, we forgot all about Clare, who were sliding away out of view.
On the reach we suddenly found ourselves alongside Caius who were in the process of doing a standing start, after some boat-stopping disaster. They did a good job of it, and seemed to be getting away, but soon we were bouncing around in their wake in bumps-tastic fashion, and were right on top of them when we crossed the line.
Certainly the most enjoyable head-2-head I've ever taken part in!