All race reports for Martin Yarr
Event: Robinson Head 2006 - Lower VIIIs
Posted as: M. Yarr
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Interesting row though, not quite to race plan, good wind to 32, settling into a solid 33??? but we managed to sustain it all the way, but d'oh no bank party so no good photos (thats what bank parties are for really), apart from those beautiful images of paul making strange faces.
Well done guys.
Event: Queens' Novice Ergo Competition 2005 - 2nd division
Posted as: M. Yarr
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well done guys
Event: 2nd Trinity Challenge Sculls 2006 - Shell
Posted as: Martin Y
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Event: Lent Bumps 2006 - Saturday
Posted as: Martin Y
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Good rowing paid off everyday, and even though in total we probably only rowed as far as grassy we earned our blades with many many (early) outings this term. Just need to thank all our coaches Neil, Albert, Andrew H, Andy Pickard, Dan Darley and to Iain, and to all those who helped carry me home from the lents dinner last night.
Mays here we come.
Event: Lent Bumps 2006 - Friday
Posted as: Martin Y
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Our start was consistent with our mood I think, confident and not too aggressive but our wind to 38 brought us the speed with needed and we even got to stride, yay!!
Damn good bump into 1st post completely smashed up our bows, now we have three pretty colours on our bows purple, green and blue!!!
It'll be claret coloured streaks tomorrow. (who in their right mind has claret coloured blades?)
Event: Lent Bumps 2006 - Wednesday
Posted as: Martin Y
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30 strokes hardly feels like a row though, but our long piece on the way home felt pretty tasty so even if we actually have to do some rowing, Peterhouse II are going to get their arses kicked!!
Event: Lent Bumps 2006 - Tuesday
Posted as: Martin Y
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Queen's tomorrow!
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2006 - Lower division
Posted as: Martin Y
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Also this supposed Jesus 3rd eight, was pretty much their second eight (Jesus only ended up entering boats into M1 and Mlower divisions) and contained pretty much all their second eight rowers.
But for a days rowing this was very very good and puts us in good stead for bumps.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2006 - Lower division
Posted as: Martin Y
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Just as we were about to draw up for the start of our race a loose horse comes at a good gallop around Ditton tearing up the towpath with everyone
scattering for their lives, so much for and uneventful race.
Well we started, drew strongly into a good half a length lead, then into a length lead, then a good push took us more than two lengths clear then everyone on the bank started screaming and we easied just before the railway bridge a long way up from the Eddie's boat.
Some git had decided that this would be a good time to bring a pair of barges down the river and we would have to rerow.
After an age waiting for boats to sort themselves out as we sat in the middle of the river 100 yards past the railway bridge the marshals finally decided to get us back up the reach albeit amidst a couple of 1st boats doing a semi-final and various other eights, the crews racing in front of us in our division also had to spin and come back from much much closer to the finish line much to one of their annoyances and following them one the row back up the reach was the pretty good Jesus 1st boat that went on to lose in the final to our 1st men, with a very tidy (good looking) cox who at once told all eights near her that she would be going through the middle of them so they all scuttered out of her way and we eventually made it down for our rerow.
Now starting afresh we went of fairly good, not as aggressive as last time but still very good pressure and drew up to a length and a halfs lead over Eddie's then pretty much just held it with various pushes and drives finishing a good 2/3 lengths up, having easied a fair bit before the line.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2006 - Lower division
Posted as: Martin Y
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A strong start left us in good stead and we drew almost to the railway bridge just about neck and neck only 1/2 seats down, then came our best push of the day; with the first stroke the boat lifted and we took 2 seats out of selywn, our bank party (the one legged rower will) noted our drive even from his position, then through steadfast coxing and intrepid stearing Rich took us on an aggressive line and shouted his row through the bladeclash call, Rob had some good strokes clashing with the 2 seat of their boat not allowing him to enter the water square and we took our advantage pushing all the way to the line.
The most notable call of the day was Rich's, "We're going to f**k them out of this corner", bold aggression and we loved it. Thoroughly good row guys, kept it together throughout the entire race.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2006 - Lower division
Posted as: Martin Y
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Event: Pembroke Regatta 2006 - towpath division
Posted as: Martin Y
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Event: Lent Bumps 2007 - Saturday
Posted as: Martin 'Fantastic Catches' Yarr
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Event: Lent Bumps 2007 - Saturday
Posted as: Martin 'Fantastic Catches' Yarr
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Event: Radegund Mile Head Race 2007 - College VIIIs
Posted as: Martin Y
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Event: Head of the Cam 2007 - 1st division
Posted as: Martin Y
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On the plus side Caius did shite.
Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2007 - 1st division
Posted as: Martin Y
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Event: City Sprints 2007 - CRA Nv 4+
Posted as: Martin Y
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As Lingo said, ''I feel bad beating technically better crews''.
Event: City Sprints 2007 - CRA Nv 4+
Posted as: Martin Y
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Event: Champion of the Thames Eights Head 2007 - Men's 1st Div. Mays
Posted as: Martin Y
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We will get faster, and we are finally putting some good distance between our rowing and the shoddy squad rowing we were ingrained with.
Much better than 7 days ago, 7 days from now we will have improved by as much again.
Event: May Bumps 2007 - Wednesday
Posted as: Martin Y
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Event: May Bumps 2007 - Thursday
Posted as: Martin Y
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Tomorrow, we're going out for it, Do or Die
Event: May Bumps 2007 - Friday
Posted as: Martin Y
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Nailed it, proper sprint bump. Same again tomorrow.
Event: May Bumps 2007 - Saturday
Posted as: Martin Y
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When I first saw you paddle i thought you had an interesting 'style', but not a bad result for you.
Event: May Bumps 2007 - Saturday
Posted as: Martin Y
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An absolutely fantastic and obviously well worked result. To quote JPD, "I have no idea how you go so fast", and neither do I :P.
Even worth falling in the river in the Gut afterwards. :D
What a race, what a term. Starting this term I swore to myself that I wouldn't row, no matter how fun and satisfyingly fast our 2nd VIII had been in Lents. That didn't last.
It soon became apparent that I wasn't the only one having 2nd thoughts about the 'big question' with half of last terms crew not sure which way to jump and only really wanting to stay on if we knew we could do well.
The quality at the start of term was absolutely dire though, let down with no quality coaching and a squad system that included rowers from last terms lower viii's it felt like we were getting spat on. The 2nd viii had a first division mays place, but were by no means even approaching the standard you'd expect for a crap college 2nd viii. But we stuck it out. We tried not to think too far ahead, and bumps (and exams :S) were still far away.
But then it reached breaking point outings with no plan, no coach, and a general attitude from the higher echelons that ''we should all have a good idea of what a quality rowing stroke is'', it all started to become a farce, spoons were a certainty .
Crew selection was a joke and it was clear that it wasn't going to work. We had outings scheduled for a week, with no plan or coach so I subbed out for an outing and bank partied along with Seb who agreed to come have a look (although he only agreed to come down for the last two outings of the week as a personal favour) what we saw was a shambles I could not believe it, our 2nd Lent VIII was not only fast, but it was dynamic we had viii pairs of legs going down and viii backs swinging through stroke after stroke and it showed in our utter domination in the bumps. What had happened?
Well 3-4 weeks of no coaching and rowing with shit people had happened, a captain forcing crew changes with no idea of what he was doing was happening, a crew that had no idea left of what quality was.
It wasn't good enough, the crew had to change, the heart of the crew from Lents was reunited, after some pleading Seb agreed to come along 2-3 times a week and coach (this soon became 5-6). We sat down and produced a training plan with what we needed to work on and achieve for the 3 weeks we had till most of the crew had exams and all I can say is thank god we had our absolutely wonderful cox Lilie and the equally amazing Seb. Things were still not promising though we had a lot to do, I still have the videos I took from bank partying that time(I haven't even shown them to the crew as they were so bad).
Lilie and Seb got JPD to come along and have a look, and with some careful persuasion he agreed to help coach us. His initial appraisal was not good, he said we were no where near the quality we needed to even think of calling ourselves FaT's 2nd May VIII. The crew stepped up though, and I just want to thank everyone for sticking with it.
Lilie once said something that comes to mind at this point, along the lines of it was obvious that the ex-novices hadn't learnt to row with Seb, this was almost funny as the Lent and May crew's both had 4 of nm1 (which is a fantastic achievement of both them and Seb), and 6 of the Lent crew made the May crew. What happened at the start of this term is a lesson for future captains especially Ming for next year.
The campaign up to bumps was looking more promising every outing but by no means safe for even a row over. JPD made us row much more together and we started to shape our rhythm with 3 days of back to back full head pieces increasing the rate and eating away time at every opportunity. Rowing over 100km for a good few weeks never slacking off in our steady state and working hard to get some time around both ends we started to look the part. A week of iv's for exams though was a minor disaster, anyone who saw as at city sprints will no we are pretty dire in iv's. But back in the viii again we really found what we needed, Seb subbed on the Friday and for some of us at least we celebrated finishing our exams with a heavy outing, the next day though we came crashing down to Earth. Monday though rested and relaxed we found what we needed, we found the magic we needed to get us to bumps, as Lilie said, ''see, you can row when you try''.
Bumps was fantastic, 1st division rowing is like nothing else, the quality makes no bumps easy and we worked damn hard and were happy beyond words when we bumped Caius II back, Jenners was fantastic in that race and we were so together and fast.
The 2nd day though we went off slightly shit, struggling in the conditions and rowing over behind Magdalene. A new plan emerged though, with a fast Fitz crew looking for blades we went out hard and fast and dropped them to 2 lengths bumping in about 800m. The most amazing celebrations then ensued on the bank we were so happy.
The last day though we had a lot to work for, up 2 was good, but up 3 was what we wanted, we went out even harder and every single one of us pushed harder than we ever had before to get Christs around First Post corner. I could even stand as I struggled onto the bank and we were all so gone.
Accidently falling into the river in the Gut though was almost worth it, as Lilie went in as well.
Blades were never really on the cards, but 14th in Div 1 is amazing, if that was my last bumps race then I am so proud of this crew. Next years 2nd May VIII have a lot to live up to (and you damn well better not spoon :D:D:D).
Event: Lent Bumps 2007 - Friday
Posted as: Martin 'Fantastic Catches' Yarr
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Bring on Cats (Who are now down 12 places in their past 11 rows)
Event: Lent Bumps 2007 - Thursday
Posted as: Martin 'Fantastic Catches' Yarr
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Bring on Girton
Event: Lent Bumps 2007 - Tuesday
Posted as: Martin 'Fantastic Catches' Yarr
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Bring on Disney
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2007 - 2nd division
Posted as: Martin's First and Thirdiness
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Favourite quote of the day:
"Another Length!!" every 10 strokes from dear Seb.
Event: Pembroke Regatta 2007 - 2nd division
Posted as: Martin's First and Thirdiness
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Event: Pembroke Regatta 2007 - 2nd division
Posted as: Martin's First and Thirdiness
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Event: Pembroke Regatta 2007 - 2nd division
Posted as: Martin's First and Thirdiness
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Event: Robinson Head 2007 - Lower VIIIs
Posted as: Martin Y
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Look forward to eating crews alive in bumps.
Event: Head of the Nene 2007 - Novice VIIIs
Posted as: Martin Y
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But apart from that small technical point, was a pretty fun race, apart from being told there was 150m to go when we still had about another 4 minutes left.
Definitely going to catch Peterhouse come bumps, we rowed like crap and still were only 3s slower.
Event: Cambridge Head-2-Head 2007 - 2nd division
Posted as: Martin Y
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Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2006 - Cup
Posted as: Martin Y
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Well rowed guys!!!
Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2006 - Plate
Posted as: Martin Y
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Off the start we gave them exactly that, a strong pulse kept us ahead until moments before the line when a double crab gifted LMBC the victory which was so close to being ours.
Guys through all the races you were fantastic and I'm sorry it ended so close, but you fought so hard and come fairbairns we will prove your worth!!!!
Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2006 - Plate
Posted as: Martin Y
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Event: Clare Novice Regatta 2006 - Plate
Posted as: Martin Y
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