The Club's Results

Initially I was gutted. Coming round Ditton corner I thought we were still a length of Robinson and I had seen Queens closing fast all the way down Plough Reach and contact was made just on the exit of the corner. But then I turned around and I saw Robinson in front. It turned out we had the been awarded the bump. Last year I thought the bump back on Queens was the most rewarding bump ever - but Im beginning to think every one counts about the same! Its funny though, I know exactly how Queens must feel after we were in their situation in the Robinson - Maggie - Us sandwich on the saturday last year. (Dan)

Pretty spacktacular most of the way, but we got it done in the end.

The start was decent, as we held Queens roughly on station down 1st Post Reach. The Gut was mediocre as we didn't seem to make our planned pushes all together. Then Grassy seemed to cost us at least half a length on Queens in a matter of seconds. We were beginning to get worried.

I couldn't hear a thing from Rachel coming down Plough Reach (even at 7), and so I had no idea we were so close to Robinson. I could, of course, see just how rapidly Queens were making up the gap behind us. Around most of Ditton corner, I was cutting my stroke short so that my spoon wouldn't smack directly into their bow ball. After several strokes of that, I heard the umpires shouting for a concession, and then someone gave a hold-it-up call from the bank. I did, and immediately got the loom of my blade stuck under the Queens bow. I was on the verge of needing some serious acrobatics to avoid the handle smacking me in the chin, but luckily Queens held it up almost immediately, averting catastrophe.

I initially assumed we'd been bumped, as Queens were celebrating like mad. Then I looked around and saw Robinson pulling in as well. So I turned to the umpire who'd been watching the gap behind us and asked, very loudly, what the decision was. He replied without hesitation that we had gotten the bump before Queens had. Cue jubilation. Queens seemed quite sour about the decision, but who can blame them? Today, at least, they were the fastest of the three crews, only coming up a foot short.

P.S. From station 7, that cannon is LOUD! (James)

I like to think I helped in some tiny way towards this result. Dyson (my pairs partner) was subbing into the Robinson crew as their captain had a family emergency. Knowing this to be the case, we went out in the morning and did a double run with two head courses, thus tiring him out a bit. Seems like it was just about enough! (Rose the Twat)

Houdini would've been scared by this. We were closer to Robinson than Queens until grassy, but then Queens really went for it. We didn't respond well because no-one could hear Rachel, and they hit us while exiting Ditton. Quite happy when told we got Robinson first, but we'll have to improve to hold off Queens later in the week.

With any luck we'll get a shot at Downing tomorrow, can't wait! (Tom C)

Lady Margaret went off in front of us looking marvellously hench, and rapidly pulled away out of sight.

We had an average row. (Rachel)

LMBC were on station till about grassy. And what does hench mean anyway, you filthy little woman?

We were 3 lengths from Catz after LMBC bumped out, but unable to make any more progress in the headwind with tired legs. Tomorrow we're gonna hit Downing so hard that their last head crew will feel it. (Tom C)

Same as Wednesday, except we did it better. Don't quite understand why we didn't get the bump this time. The trouble is that the last few feet were much easier for Queens than us because Downing had clear water. Unhappy indeed. (Tom C)

Playing for the overbump on Catz, we finished about 2 lengths behind. Perhaps they were a bit fitter than us, but not so gelled as a crew, so they were able to keep us at bay in the second half despite early losses. We had a pretty good row, pushed it hard to the end with some good misunderestimation of the distance remaining from Rachel, so no disappointment today.

So we finished level for the week, but it could easily have been up 3. Indeed, if LMBC had been given a (clearly deserved) re-row on the first day we would've had a shot at Hall today for blades! Awesome for a crew with 4 novices. Quite annoying that we're still behind Downing and Catz, and I'm not convinced that Queens would've got us if we'd had clean water.

Next year, Downing will be destroyed.

Note: apparently "hench" refers to the appearance preferred by young male homosexuals. (Tom C)

This race went pretty much as we expected, apart from the very stiff head wind in the reach. A fairly controlled race to Ditton, followed by a massive spack to Peter's posts, complete with air strokes, timing issues and multiple ratio calls. Luckily we were quite a few lengths ahead at this point, and we took it down after the bridge, to paddle across the line at half pressure well clear of Queens'. (Erica)

Well done girls another very good start but Lillie, haven't you got another 16 places to go? (Dan)

Row over painful
Div 1: Darwin died quickly
Back where we belong (Lilie)

Very very frustrating. We went out hard, we closed to half a length, we did our best and unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough.

My (less good) haiku offering:

Mighty Cat and Buns;
So fast! Alas Wheel were slow
Selwyn Bump first. Arse. (Amelia)

Bumps is so cruel, they
Broke our unbeaten record
Catz will feel our pain.
-----------------------------------
Quote from Selwyn BC: "It was all change at the start line after yesterday's bumps in front of and behind us. First and Third were an exceptionally strong crew behind, so the situation was one of bumping quickly or getting a whipping..." (Lilie)

I want to take Catz W1, dig out their spleen with a wooden spoon and eat it.

Not a haiku, but true. Let's go for the kill off the gun. (Pia)

Never in question
Draw, wind and stride; Hold it up!
Long slow paddle home (Lilie)

Just fifty five strokes
Revenge for yesterday sweet
Bump bumpety bump (Amelia)

Not smart enough to write Haiku
So a limerick will have to do.
Revenge for Thursday,
(Selwyn were in our way)
Fifty strokes and we downed that Catz crew. (Mika)

Not mugh of a fight-
Two lengths clear of the bridge, we
Award New Hall spoons

disclaimer: New hall didn't get spoons. But it's the morning after BCD and it fits. (Lilie)

Armed only with our mandatory ten outings, and a dodgy cox box, we approached the start line with, perhaps, less optimism than ideal. We had been told on one of our outings that there were three things to make a boat go fast: length, power and rate. We had the first two and, well, 30 was probably the highest we'd done a head course at. As it was, we stayed away from Fitz and gained steadily on Caius. About ten strokes from the finish, I watched 2's blade catch about two-three feet from their stern. Sadly, it was not to be, gutted. But will approach tomorrow, more confident of being able to bump Caius II or Peterhouse. (Andy)

A surprising result indeed. A little more confidence in ourselves should pay dividends tomorrow. (Dubya)

An encouraging start to the bumps. The first division beckons... just a little more calm at the start, a bit more aggression in the last 400, and maybe a bit less rock and roll at Grassy, and we'll be flying. (Albert)

things to learn, but a pretty decent performance. we closed steadily on caius throughout the whole race and got to overlap at the finish. fitz were nowhere. more of the same tomorrow, just a bit more organised. (Graham)

Yesterday's row was a bit disappointing - we got so close but failed to convert, although it gave us clear indication of the "state of play" between the top 3 crews of M2. Today, we set out to make amends for missing Caius yesterday.

We altered our race plan slightly, delaying the rhythym (a.k.a. stride) call until we were into the Gut. The higher rating until that point saw us get our first whitsle. We settled onto our rhythm in the gut on a slightly higher rating than yesterday (yesterday's rate 30 round grassy was a bit too pedestrian!). Our push out of grassy saw us getting to about half a length, and we gained up Plough Reach, achieving 3 whistles at the Plough. As we closed, the boat started to pitch around in the wash, but we continued to push hard, and by Ditton we started forcing overlap. My blade caught the Caius stern as we were about half-way round the corner. Incredible - head 2nd VIII - and sandwich boat for M1! (Richard)

Peterhouse managed to row over in front of Caius II last night in M1, so we were once again chasing Caius. We dispensed with the stride and even managed to row around the corners decently. A dizzying rate of 32 led to a bump coming out of Ditton. length + power + rate = speed. Happier, but job not yet done. (Andy)

We saw Caius II rowing back home just as we were about to push off for M1, so we knew our guys had bumped them and were now the sandwich boat. Big high fives all around -- I think some of us were more excited to marshal at Chesterton and find out the details than we were about our own race! (James)

The 2nd VIII are legends. Obviously much better than Caius! (BJ)

HEAD 2ND BOAT!!! Ditton. Fantastic. (Martin)

For me this is the bump (X2) of the week so far. You guys rock. I don't care if the 2nd VIII song is Electric Six or even Magic Numbers at the dinner, i'll still think it's fantastic. (Dan Newton)

We gained slightly off the start, but then had to hold it up, as up ahead, Jesus had caught an ejector crab. On the speedily retaken rerow, we made a better job of the start, and made ground on Peterhouse, especially around the corners. A good push saw us make the bump just shy of the Plough. Pleasing day's work, Selwyn is the next target. Peterhouse were gracious enough to offer their congratulations on foot, after we had arrived back at the boathouse. (Andy)

Starting from station 18 gave us a bit of a new outlook to the race plan - but we had loads of time to fine-tune a few details as we waited at Peter's Posts. Peterhouse were an unknown quantity to us, but we just had to row our own race and see how it went.

Our start was reasonable enough and we gained a few feet on Peterhouse. We had to hold it up at the Little Bridge (along with 7 or 8 other crews) because of a Jesus eject-a-crab several boats ahead of us.

We paddled back to the start to await a 2nd set of cannons for the re-row. Our start was probably a bit better than the previous race, and we did gain a bit. Our push of the Motorway Bridge took us to a length, and Peterhouse held us well at a length up most of the rest of First Post Reach. Our corners had been very scrappy yesterday, but we actually had a surprisingly good First Post corner and Grassy Corner. By the exit of Grassy, we were only about half a length off them - and still gaining. A decent push at Grassy saw us close further - and a few strokes later, we got our third whistle. We'd taken this as our signal to push for the bump. The bumps push was really quite incredible and the boat speed shot up. We closed from 1/4 of a length to bumping them in what seemed like a blink of an eye. We made contact a few strokes shy of the Plough pub! The 2nd VIII finally make it back into M1 for only the 2nd time since the late 1950s (the previous being in 1999) - but tomorrow we need to get Selwyn to cement our division 1 status! (Richard)

Bumped out of Grassy. A really excellent row. (Martin)

I love the 2nd VIII. Please don't bump before Ditton next time - I want to see it. (BJ)

Fantastic guys, absolutely fantastic! Am very jealous you've achieved what no other Trinity 2nd boat has achieved since 1999 and could do even better tomorrow... (Dan)

a very good row down to the race.
we rated 27 down the reach and failed to gain on selwin, whilst cauis II (chasing us)were no where to be seen.
one final push tomorrow. (H.S. Colvin)

Having seen that it was Caius II as sandwich boat, and that they'd gone for a sprint to get Peterhouse, we'd assumed that they'd try the same stunt with us as sandwich boat. We'd been roughly on station with Selwyn when we'd bumped Peterhouse the previous day.

Off went the gun, and we took a bit of distance out of Caius, and not much out of Selwyn ahead. Caius got some of the distance back as we settled, but we held them on distance to the motorway bridge and moved away from them thereafter. Selwyn started to open up the gap up first post reach. At Grassy, Selwyn had virtually doubled the starting distance, whilst we had opened up a considerable lead over Caius. As we passed the Plough, we were clocking a steady rate 30. Selwyn had pissed off into the distance - some 4 or 5 or so lengths ahead, hotly persuing Christ's (which they came within a few feet of bumping). Caius behind were pushed further and further back, being about 5 lengths down on us by the Plough. Between Ditton and the Railings, Caius II either blew up or wound down - I couldn't quite tell. As we crossed the finish at Morley's Holt, Caius were still out of sight and hadn't even come past the Railway Bridge. Selwyn had slowed (and Christ's escaped), but we were still a long way from them.

Maybe if we take the rating back up like we did on Thursday, we might be able to stay in touch with Selwyn, and hopefully profit from any mistakes that they make. (Richard)

Quality row, our best by far though still under-rating a bit. No worries behind, didn't put much pressure on Selwyn in front, but still we're head 2nd viii! And our song is WICKED. (Dubya)

Caius yesterday had tried a sprint to Ditton, but failed to get inside distance at any point, so we didn't know exactly what they'd try today. After yesterday, we were pretty confident that we could hold them off.

The gun went, and we had a pretty good start and settled to about 32-ish after we rounded the first corner. Through the motorway bridge, we had moved up slightly on Selwyn ahead, and had already moved away by 1 length on Caius. At first post corner, Selwyn had opened out the gap a bit on us, and we'd taken another couple of lengths on Caius. By the time we were straight on the exit of Grassy, I couldn't see the Caius boat at all. At Ditton, we were around 6 or 7 lengths ahead of Caius II, but we wanted to take as much distance as possible by the finish. Down the Long Reach, Selwyn ahead opened up to around 4 or so lengths ahead of us, whilst we pushed away from Caius to a double-figure number of lengths by Morley's Holt (Caius were again about at the Railway Bridge by the time we were passing the finish), finishing about a minute before them to hold onto the 2nd VIII headship in style!

Today was probably one of the best rows we'd had all term, but Selwyn ahead showed that they had a higher cruise speed.

Overall, it's been a good week for the 2nd VIII. At the start of term, with us rowing as a IV - trying to find 4 others to make up an VIII, I'd never of dreamed of bumping Caius for the 2nd boat headship and bumping Peterhouse to get into the 1st division!

After rowing home, due to the fact that we finished in the 1st division, we didn't have long before the dinner to warm up our vocal chords for the 2nd May VIII song, but it seemed to be well received! (Richard)

We were worried when we saw 'red mist' and no 'golden glow' at the horizon as we were marshalled an moving up towards our second race of the day...

Gloriously we had an excellent view on the great start the guys had in their rerow. Emma III did look strong, but were ultimately found wanting!

The 1st women wish their sparring buddies the best of luck in today's racing!! (Pia)

The lower half of the division was caught up in some monster carnage, apparently caused by Magdalene II bumping Downing III and totally failing to clear. By the time we ploughed into the gridlock, just past the motorway bridge, we held Emma III at what we believe was just outside a length. However, they cheekily asked for a rerow - and in an umpire decision that was as controversial as this week's Michael Jackson jury verdict, their request was granted.

For the rerow we started from the top station, just ahead of W2. Despite a much better start, this time Emma really *did* close to within a length at Grassy, to within half a length past the Plough, and to within a few feet by Ditton corner. Just like Icarus was drawn towards the sun, the bright golden glow of our crew shirts seemed to exert an irresistible pull on their oarsmen. And just like the legendary adventurer of the Greek myth ended up having his wings melted and clipped, Emma equally couldn't cope with the heat: Their bow man's blade got stuck in Fergus' maelstrom-like wash, he caught a massive overhead crab (have a look at Martin's pictures!), and Emma's challenge was effectively over.

Down the reach we pushed them into the distance with surprising ease - perhaps they still had equipment issues, or their burn-and-die race plan had reached the second phase. Today Emma III will start right behind us again, but we hope for a quick bump on Trinity Hall III to put us out of Emma's reach for the foreseeable future. (Christoph)

Yeah! What was Julia saying about the sweet feeling of rowing away from your opposition during a row over........? She was right- sweet indeed!

Well rowed guys! (Aileen)

Sorry for the mistake on the rerow result. Had just seen you row over... just had a bit of a short curcuit :-( (Martin)

When a blacksmith forges a steel tool, he must successively anneal, harden and temper it. It needs to be both hard and tough. Too much tempering and the tool will blunt like butter; too little and it will shatter like glass. There is one easy but potentially terminal way to test it: the hammer test. Hit it hard with a hammer and see if it breaks.

The grads have been annealed, hardened and tempered in training this term. Today was their hammer test. Today they showed they are both hard and tough. Today they proved they are a crew of true mettle. (Smiley Mark)

By "nearly had us" we mean a foot away. A race of Golden legends :) Now we must get Tit Hall tomorrow. (Tudor)

Three years ago I was bumped by Emma III, rowing in the 4th VIII.

Two years ago I was bumped in a one on one re-row.

Ghosts put to rest. (Keith)

Hmmm I've changed the result, but the bumps chart hasnt altered.

And yeah, that was really satisfying - I can now see why so many people voted for "being the one that got away" in the poll. (Fergus)

Hey! We were NOT bumped by Emma III. In a rerow of just us and them chasing us, they nearly had us at Ditton corner, but then we pulled away all up the reach. A fantastic row! (Monster Munch)

Nicely done just after the motorway bridge. Strangely less exciting than yesterday's row over away from Emma but probably because it was rather easy. The most satisfying thing was that Emma were nowhere to be seen. Mwahahaha (Aileen)

The golden lycra-clad grads tore into the Trinity Hall all-blacks like a bright bolt of lightning into the heart of darkness...

Ok, I'll stop the metaphors here and now. Anyway, the bump leaves us right in the middle of a cluster of five crews all vying for the 3rd boat headship. A good result so far, and certainly a very solid row today. (Christoph)

Closing on LMBC III, but, as expected, they bumped the much slower Downing III before we really had a chance. Tit Hall III and Emma III bumped out behind leaving us a relatively relaxed row over. (Monster Munch)

Quick bump as expected, just after the motorway bridge. Unfortunately wedged Downing into the bank a little. A good week of bumps, earned by our row-over on day one.

Having gained off the start on Maggie before they hit slow crews on days 1 and 3 we'd have liked to have had a go at them over the whole course for the third boat headship, though they did well to bump today.

A few more days and
we might have got the red scum.
Who said bumps was fair? (Neil)

... the shame! But hey, we rowed quite well, so we can take some pride in that. Maybe if we'd done half as many weights' sessions as Magnus has done this term it would have been different. (Dami)

Bumped in the same place for the second day running, after a nearly identical race... It's time we break this bad habit of ours.

Our trouble began at the start line when our cox-box (the pace-coach), which had been working perfectly for both the practice starts, died literally forty-five seconds before the gun. I had no choice but to shout my way through the race - something that was to have dire consequences for our push ability later on... We were quick off the start, gaining on Maggie just as we'd pulled away from them yesterday. But just as yesterday we soon started to lose our edge and slip behind. The girls row well, they move together and get good cover on the strokes. When we push, we push away from the boat behind. But in between pushes there is a slump in effort that has allowed the chasing crews to inch up on us. They simply seem to have a higher base speed than we do - or rather, they simply work slightly harder than we do. This is what got us bumped today. After they'd got close enough, our rowing fell apart, with huge loss of cover for some strokes. The cox-box situation didn't help either, as I was unable to synchronise the last pushes or to correct the technique of the rowers in the bow. We did a desperate push round first post corner, hoping they'd overshoot us, but they shredly stayed on our inside and claimed the bump. At least today they only brushed our side rather than bowballing me in the kidney. (Magnus Jones)

To slightly adapt an expression of Tom C's: we threw the kitchen sink at them, but unfortunately the faucet flew off mid-flight... Apologies to the whole crew for missing the photo tomorrow morning, but I'll be back in time for another great start, hard race and - hopefully - that seriously desired bump! (Hen)

The equipment gods were not with us today. We did our usual good start. Corpus gained a bit but were starting to sag. Then a seat failure. Rowed as well as we could with six rowers, and Corpus seemed to find it surprisingly hard to close. But there was ultimately no hope, and they caught us just at the end of First post Reach - making this our shortest race to date. But our rowing today was a step above what we've seen so far, so who knows what tomorrow may hold? (Magnus Jones)

Another flawless defeat by "the Seatbreakers". Today 's rowing was not our best, but the double seat failure after thirty strokes didn't exactly help. That brings it up to four seat failures in bumps races this term. Oh well, better luck next year I guess... now all that's left is to see about getting some spoons... (Magnus Jones)

After a bit of anxiety about obtaining a shell and oars and being 15-20 min late to marshal, we had a pretty decent start considering the massive headwind and a quick and hard race! Our new and improved race plan seemed to work as we ended up rowing quite long and decently high, solidly bumping St. Eddie's before the first post corner. Some good steering by Honey kept us well out of any potential carnage, and we caught St. Eddie's despite being on the outside of the turn - meaning I (2 seat) tried to put a catch in on their stern deck before they conceded! Well done GraduVIII! (Emily)

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 :-) (jo)

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. (jo)

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! (jo)

17 strokes apparently. well done girls! (Graham)

Neither the marshal nor the Jesus women appreciated our rendition of You've Lost That Loving Feeling. Lessons to be learnt for tomorrow... (BJ)

A very eventful first half, and overall a very gutsy row-over.

Day 1 saw the Arrows sitting at position 13, chasing Pembroke III and ahead of Kings II. After an excellent practice start for the spectators in the Plough Reach, the real start was perhaps not up to snuff -- from the bank, it looked very rushed and with poor timing. After 20 strokes or so, Kings (prematurely) had their first hooter, and Pembroke II were only just outside station.

The guys took awhile to sort out their timing issues, and by the time the three crews had rowed under the motorway bridge, Kings were legitimately inside 1 length. Things got a bit worse down First Post Reach, with Pembroke rapidly closing on a three-boat pile-up near the entrance to the Gut. Apparently Queens III had bumped Christs III with Caius III rapidly closing. Neither Caius nor Pembroke could do anything more than hold it up and pull into the bank (looking at the charts, it appears both must have been given technical rowovers, but not sure on that).

By the time Fat IV reached the end of First Post Reach, the carnage had cleared a bit, enabling Tamir to artfully dodge traffic and head into the Gut. Kings had closed to within 5 feet or so, but inexplicably held it up behind us despite plenty of clear water. We initially thought they'd been bumped, and the crew seemed to flag a bit around Grassy in response to the pressure from behind disappearing. A crab from 4 halfway down Plough Reach didn't help either, but with help from 3 the crew rapidly sorted themselves out and fell into a decent rhythm.

Things became more complicated when Kings made a surprise reappearance, coming around Grassy about 5 lengths off and clearly trying to row us down. I called for a couple of pushes from the bank to ensure we held them there, one around Ditton and another halfway down the Long Reach. The crew responded admirably, digging deep to find their best rowing of the afternoon. After one last push into the Railway Bridge, it was clear that Kings had given up. The guys rowed past Bottom Finish with at least 100 meters of clear water.

Now looking at the charts, it appears that Kings were indeed bumped by Selwyn III, which makes their attempt to row us down seem pretty bizarre in retrospect. I'm eager to hear an explanation as to what exactly happened both in front of and behind us. (James)

I spoke to a member of the Kings crew, and he said that a member of their bank party told them to hold it up as he thought they wouldn't be able to get through the carnage ahead. I can't really comment on what was going on ahead of us, but since we made it through no problems at all I'm guessing they could have. And the umpires clearly thought the same, hence the technical bump.

All in all, the first half of the race felt pretty poor from within the boat. After a stunning practise start it was a shame that the real one was so panicked, but I suppose that's what you expect when the majority of the crew have never done bumps before. When we relaxed and took the rating right down it felt quite good and the boat speed picked up, and the pushes in the reach were excellent given our level of exhaustion by that stage (and all the more amazing considering some members of the boat were all for pulling in for a pint at the Plough if we were still racing by then). Tomorrow should be a very exciting day. (Phil)

Everything was going so well until, on the start line, 'We lost that loving feeling....' (Dan Newton)

Today's Highlights
Not rowing very far
The inevitability that tomorrow will be a better day...
The lack of equipment damage
Watching the Homerton women stretching when we got back to the boathouse

Today's Low Point
We only took about 10 strokes before we hit the bank... (BJ)

We had dedicated this race to Andy Fordham. In hindsight this was probably a bad idea. (Phil)

Gutted. We got over the nerves of the first two days (for many of the crew bumps was their first race of any kind) and rowed beautifully, sustainably, at the same speed and about 6 pips below all the boats around, proving that we are better than the boats near us.

Everyone was on station though the over-rating crews around us were beginning to flag whereas our relaxed and powerful rowing could have continued forever. It was at this point, just as Kings began to drop, the carnage happened.

With everyone pretty much on station we all assumed a technical row-over or at worst a re-row there and then. Instead we were all told to return with M1 for a re-row. WTF?!?!?!

Assuming that all the crews were all free for that time or could find legal subs I cannot understand how making everyone return to boathouses and then row all the way down again later on was the most effective or time-saving choice. It makes no sense.

On returning to the boathouse we discovered that four of our number had commitments they could not cancel and there was no way to find subs.

The feeling of being cheated by a poor re-row decision is tempered by the satifaction of having rowed our best piece so far and knowing that tomorrow we are capable of going out and bumping anything they put in front of us. (Dan Newton)

The women rowing down to the start of W3 were treated to two hearty renditions of You've Lost That Loving Feeling but we saved our best effort for Homerton 1st Ladies (our "Charlies" - watch the film...) as we sent them off from the balcony. They even gave us a round of applause.

The following conversation may or may not have occurred between the Arrows and the Homerton Ladies following the song:

Homers: Do you often use this approach?
Arrows: No, actually we've only done this twice.
Homers: Oh? How'd you do?
Arrows: Crashed and burned on the first one. It wasn't pretty.
Homers: The second?
Arrows: We don't know, we'll tell you tomorrow. But it's lookin' good so far.

So maybe tomorrow we'll ask them to formal. Anyway, we also got bumped in something called a rerow (this is apparently something a bit like a pre-bumps coxing talk - 1/3 of crews don't make it and the remaining 2/3 send entirely different crews as their representatives) but who cares. CUCBC suck. (BJ)

I want to be an arrow. The King's boys are pussies and wouldn't let us sub.. :( (Lilie)

So we didn't quite get Kings back for yesterday's fiasco, but never mind, that's bumps. Our steady state paddling race plan has definitely proved to be a success in comparison with our manic one (and those of the boats around us for that matter) and it's a shame we've never managed to bump. If only we'd rowed properly on the first two days...

In other news, Homerton women agreed to a formal, so the song worked. To the fathers of Rachel and Jenny: thank you for appreciating our website and sorry for ogling your daughters. (BJ)

The third 'technical' result of the week! Half a length off Kings at Grassy where the river was obstructed. Though Kings got round, we were awarded a technical row over. (Martin)

Well, we found out today that the quickest things around in this part of M5 seem to be Jesus IV (ahead) and us. Downing IV (behind) are not.

The three boats ahead of us got involved in one of those great bumps concertinas, unfortunately without Jesus bumping. We had to hold it up, at which stage we had about 4-5 lengths of clear water separating us from Downing. They came back to about 3 lengths before we started paddling through the carnage, but we then had to hold it up again. They saw the opportunity for the bump and, to their credit, were quick enough to bump our stationary crew. Dilini got a bit of a blade in the head and they got a fine. Fortunately, the good ship Titan seems to be good to go tomorrow. I hope Iain's nerves are.

Anyway, a great performance today, but more significantly still with room for improvement. If Jesus have a bit of a bad one we can get them, otherwise I guess it'll have to be the overbump... (BJ)

Hands up anyone who's a bit peed off with Corpus... As predicted, Jesus had already bumped by first post corner and we had made up multiple lengths on both the Corpus crews. It was a case of a 'straightforward' overbump. Unfortunately someone at Corpus doesn't have an eye for picking boats and their '3rds' bumped their '2nds'. An overbump on either of them would hardly have pushed us to the limit.

Never mind, from here on in it should be up 2 (touch wood)... Girton tomorrow then Corpus 'II' on Saturday. Now Jesus are out of the way let's hope they do their job... (BJ)

After being unlucky on the first two days, the Pirates should take matters into their own hands and finish up 2 on Saturday!

Easily the fittest and tidiest crew in the division!!

Thanks for lending Homerton M2 commandeer your ship today. (Pia)

Eight people lost their bumps virginity today. Dilini is now only down 7. Regulation bump, dealt with professionally by first post corner. Bring on some revenge bumping on Corpus tomorrow! (BJ)

No problems, job done. That brings most of the guys back up to a zero bumps aggregate, so well done! We'll just have to get Dilini in an up 6 crew next year... (BJ)

They should be on for the bump on Jesus V tomorrow, all things being equal! Goodluck (Dami)

Awesome, a well deserved bump, wish i'd seen it, well done!! (Lilie)