The Club's Results

An odd mix, this crew, but fun to row with. We were struggling at 'high' rates, although by some minor miracle we didn't pull off the full epileptic spider impression we'd perfected the day before.

Start was a pretty relaxed 32 (ahem... being a little unfit I remained relaxed for the entire course) and some blades occasionally went in at the front end. Pembroke had set off in front, and coupled with a blustery wind it was quite choppy on first post. We must have struggled valiantly to sit the boat for a good four or five strokes before giving up. Okay, okay! It wasn't too bad, and I still have all my fingers.

An excellent gentlemen's agreement for the corners saw Leadbetter take some great lines, and we launched into an exuberant plough reach push after Grassy. We were surprisingly disciplined and made the most of the calmer water, even when Maggie stormed round Grassy. They were clearly closing, but the heads didn't go down.

In fact, we had a bit of luck on the reach and Madge never made the most of their aggressive start - certainly we'd discussed beforehand the possibility of having to concede an overtake. Pembroke's composites had struggled a bit, and I couldn't stop myself shouting out (almost too joyfully) that we could push to overtake. This led to some much more committed rowing in the boat and we finally pushed clear just after Morley's Holt, leaving the reds behind as well. With quads a-burning we wound for the finish.

Which was a shame as the race was not to the P&E as the instructions said, it was to top finish. And so we had to keep pushing for an extra fifty. Perhaps if this happens in the future we could call the extra bit a 'Spartan 300'?

The result itself was pretty pleasing. A lot of 'untapped potential' (our slide control and catches are embarrassing in their absence) and yet we're on a par or faster than the crews around us in the bumps. Apart from Fitz. Who are two below us. Fingers crossed for a bit of luck and a bumping grid! (Dan)

Spaktastic in the sun! Catches a bit limp on the first run and just plain slow in the second, but good commitment and some excellent tanning. Seemed to go pretty fast and the wind for the second finish actually saw us touching 36. (Dan)

First leg was a bit tense but the second felt more relaxed and as a consequence we achieved a higher rate in conjunction with a longer stroke.

Pleased with this result, good to see us more than competitive in the first division. As Dan says the rowing still isn't pretty but its starting to come together and there were patches (especially in the second leg) where we were moving very nicely. This crew has already made big improvements and i think we're all confident there's more to come. Cheers lads. (Emma)

Fairly pleasing row and result (despite the dodgy wheezing coming from the engine for most of the first piece). But there's still more to come if we're to achieve what I think should be our goals for the term:

1. Become one of the ~5 fastest crews around.
2. Absolutely, without a doubt, guarantee that next year's 2nd May VIII get spoons.

I know, I know... we've been saying number 2 for years now ;-) (Albert)

I'm starting to believe it is actually going to happen.

Thats a solid result, but it won't be enough come bumps. Theres more to be found in all parts of the stroke and we'll get there. And its going to be fast. (Will L)

Not a bad race all in all. Two subs into the five and six seats is never ideal, but in the end we dealt with it very well. (Cheers for helping out lads!)

Some nice confident paddling on the way down and the starts were looking less disastrous than Friday's attempts. In the race the start was ok, rating a little higher than planned (what do we expect with Mr Canada in the stroke seat). About as tidy as could have been expected. We dealt with the corner well, emerging at rate 37 with catches intact.

The reach was hit and miss. Kept the rating on target til around 2 minutes where we sagged briefly - some committed pushes resurrected the rate and a 'bow-four catches' call worked wonders to pick us up under the railway bridge.

The last minute was a hard slog, bringing the rating up to 38 by virtue of a lot of grunting and wheezing. The stroke side lean grew progressively as technique began to fall apart...

Although it wasn't exactly a comfortable race, I'm pleased with this result. Its good to find out our limits. We're in a good position to move things on again technically in outings this week. Good job lads. (Emma)

An excellent result, considering we were missing the experience and aerodynamism of the Doctor. But I don't know what Jesus did to beat us to most impressive start; maybe we didn't shout loud enough. (Tom C)

This was a nice race, we were confident we could catch Robinson, and we went out there and did exactly that. We went off hard and fast and reeled them in. I'm sorry I had to abandon the crew for the rest of the week, there'll always be some doubt about how things might have gone, but there is certainly no shame in going down to Fitz and I dont think having me would have made any difference. From the sound of things the final day's race was the highlight of the week, a truly gutsy row-over by all accounts.

Despite some low points (I think 99s regatta was probably the lowest) I have really enjoyed training with this crew all term, the banter has been superb. (Will L)

So 2005 wasn't enough? Now I'm seeking revenge against Clare for disqualifying us at their regatta in 2002. (Tom C)

No nerves on the way down, especially after some blistering practice starts. The friendly support from many different colleges was well received - good to see I haven't totally wasted my eight years here!

Felt so, so good pulling up and not having the one minute gun go off: most of the crew have experienced this, and it's a right bugger. Plenty of time to go to the loo, have a chat, go to the loo, wonder if our coach had survived falling off his bike, go to the loo, and go to the loo. Coker started planning Henley as well - good to see his mind was on the job.

First couple of strokes were good and we really took it up to rate. Having listened to Seb's race plan ("let's go really hard. No, REALLY hard") I was happily spanking it along under the motorway bridge - we dealt with the wash well, but the push out of the outflow was immense. By this point we'd left Christs for dead: thought of poor old Karthik toiling away for BCG in some office somewhere.

No time for that though! One whistle came by top station, although we'd definitely worked for it. After that we thrashed it along in a rather unco-ordinated bumps push (surely we can't be bumping before the Plough?) and drifted to completely the wrong side of the river in an effort to avoid bumping Robinson before first post. Alas, they'd given up and it was game over.

Yay! Revenge for 2001 at last! (Dan)

Clinical. First Post Corner. Now it gets interesting... (Albert)

Bit colder outside today, which was always a bad sign.

Fair enough we rowed like muppets, but Clare looked much better than earlier in term. Bloody other colleges learning to row! We were never in distance despite a good start, but the catches went completely after a minute and we spacked along significantly slower than usual.

Was fun watching Binson get hammered by Fitz behind us though! Nice, long race tomorrow - we should be fine over the course. (Dan)

Clare seem to have done a good job pulling it together since the last time we raced. We were never a threat to them, and with Binson nailed before the motorway bridge, there was nothing for it but to put the quiche on halfway down the Reach.

Looks like being a boring set of Bumps for Clare, sorry guys. (Albert)

History in the making. Not since 2000 has the club gone a whole day without making a bump, and we sealed the deal by rowing really badly. It was very similar to how we raced in Lents, the difference is that now we have someone chasing us. (Tom C)

We knew what we had to do today. We went out there, and in short order found out that there was no way we were going to do it. We had a fast start, a decent bit of fast, sustained rowing, and a quick, painless end at First Post.

Rowing in front of Fitz is a bit like having front row seats at cirque du soleil. "Oooooh. They're really good. Impressive. I wish we could do that..." Game over.

To paraphrase a race report from last term:
We thought it was a race. We didn't know it was a show.

ADDENDUM: We just finished writing the song. It would be a mistake to miss the dinner this year... (Albert)

Training plan called for technical pairs work. (Emma)

(cheers leadbetter!) Still cold today, still a bad sign. Nevertheless the practice starts and rate bursts were springy and hungry despite some poor rowing. That said, the poor rowing just fired Seb up even more, which can't be a bad thing. You know; I think he pulled really REALLY hard today...

Our start was probably the best yet, pretty clean in and finishing roughly together. Rate jacked up to a pb, and we didn't bother with the whole settling rubbish, instead using the backs call to being the rate down to something controllable but not close to sustainable.

We went a good length faster than yesterday down first post reach, but alas so did Clare and we were only on station by the time Fitz bumped us... On the plus side we held some very good splits all the way until the last 10 seconds of rowing, but on the downside we were totally, utterly, completely outclassed.

Well rowed Fitz! Good luck with blades tomorrow! PS What did you think our cox was thinking about? Other than small puppies and other girly things? (Dan)

With a crazily quick Fitz ahead of us we knew that the last race was going to go all the way to the line. The plan: hard off the start, then think about nothing but getting the catches in for the next six minutes or so. Pushes into the corners ("Not you, Hannes") and our big lift on hand for whenever we needed it.

From the first stroke it was clear that Christ's meant business. Our start was strong and clean, rating up to 47 and sitting at a chunky 39 for the first minute and a half. Christ's were on station for most of first post reach but just started to close as we came into the first corner. There was no trace of panic in the crew however, and we held the rate high through the gut, passing a bumped out Emmanuel (with a moment's sympathy for Fitz). A wobbly grassy corner saw Christ's move up on us but our handy Sit Up push saw an amazing lift and they remained at just above a length to Ditton. This was where we knew we would have to make things happen, and we really did. A gutsy push off the corner stalled their advance, we kept our heads, and started to move away again.

Halfway down the reach it was crunch time again: Tom panted "one length" and Phil's calls from the bank were getting more frequent and less optimistic! With forty strokes to the line we took the rate up to row over about 1 1/2 lengths clear, securing the Michell Cup in the process.

This was Tom, Dan, Seb and Albert's last race and i don't think we could have asked for a better one. We held off everything that Christ's could throw at us and put in some of the best individual performances of the term. We proved that we deserve our place in the first division, and that a mish-mash crew of shorties, fatties, oldies and novices can get together to move a boat fast.

I've had a great term with you guys. Thanks to Gonzalo, David, Tom and JPD for coaching ("Nudge and open it out..."), and Phil for his support this week. Thanks to Gregor for stepping into the Hannes-shaped breach when we thought we'd lost him to injury. And thanks to Laff and Hannes for always putting the crew first.

And at least we don't row in a yellow submarine. (Emma)

And to think I first quit rowing 7 years ago...

At the tender age of 16, I had decided (1) that rowing was no longer fun and (2) never to row seriously again. I feel I've comfortably delivered on the latter. But how could I have been so wrong on the former?

Emma's race report pretty much says it all. I had serious doubts when Christ's held us around the first two corners and came inside distance at the Plough. Surely we're going to blow?!?! I don't remember that much more of the race (tunnel vision, etc). But the enduring memories from my hardest and last bumps race will be:

1. Emma's calls at the Plough, and halfway down the Reach. Absolutely no recollection of what you said, but it was good :-)

2. Coker's 3rd day chat: "The moment you decide you don't want to catch as fast as you possibly can is the moment you've decided you don't want to take the next stroke. That's when you lose the race." Or something along those lines, running through my head.

3. Hannes actually rowing well for the whole race. WTF mate. Nice job.

4. Coker being an absolute animal during the eternity between the Railings and the bend in the Reach.

I leave here having joined the ranks of the veterans of the 2nd May VIII (take a bow Tom Andrews and Seb Pancratz). Over the last four years, I've been grateful to have found a fun way to row again. Cheers. (Albert)