First and Third Trinity Boat Club
Log In

The Club's Results

May Bumps 2010

4th men's VIII

Coxed by: Rachel Overington

Wednesday
Rowed over
As per usual, bumps brings mishaps aplenty before the racing even begins. M5 rowed past us at the King's boathouse cheering, at which point we reminded them (in not a particularly kind way I admit...) that they were supposed to leave their boat at the P&E for us to take. Honestly... :P Then by the lock, a Clare rower managed to find a way to break his blade - rather unsuprisingly they then got bumped.

Ah yes, the race. We set off well; a nice solid and quick start before settling on rate 34 with a fairly decent ratio. Anglia Ruskin II were crabbing somewhere in the distance, so we knew this was going to be between us and Tit Hall III. Despite a solid race with us rowing "at least twice as well as them" - Miles Galloway - We couldn't seem to get under half a length of them. Oh and there was our rather spectacular line around grassy which saw bow side blades eviscerating a king's crew, but we can ignore that (yes its my fault for not getting catches in...).

Lets get them tomorrow guys. YEAH BUDDY! (A. Barrell)
Rowing over is tough for a cox, but 50 times worse for a rower I've learnt.

We had a good start, it was chunky and sharp, and as we approached the Ditch we got one whistle, two as we approached First Post corner. Behind us, ARU II were crabbing several times, once during their wind, but didn't seem to make up any ground lost when they got it back together again.

Unfortunately we just didn't quite have the coordination to execute a finish manoeuvre on Tit Hall III and along the entire course we moved towards and away from them between one length and half a length. We had a really good push on the Reach but it was too late by that stage. I congratulate Tit Hall on being committed as we closed and having the nerve to keep going despite us closing at several points in the race.

Tomorrow we will be sharper and more fluid than today - it was a good row today but there is more. We'll be taking the fight right back to them again. (Mark)
With a strong push off an emphatic start, I think the general attitude in the boat was one of complacency - I know I certainly expected a bump before too long. Tit Hall III showed an impressive amount of dedication, though, and proved us wrong, drawing out a painful row over, with our bow fluctuating between one to half a length off their stern.

The quality of the rowing felt solid and committed - especially once we realised the bump wouldn't be as fast as anticipated and, if nothing else, today can be viewed as testament to the vast improvements we have made as a team over the course of the term.

With ARU II a safe distance behind us for the entire race, tomorrow we can truly focus on one thing and one thing only: finishing what we didn't quite manage today. (Alec)
Possibly our best piece of rowing to date, however we really lacked aggression, both in rate and pressure. Tomorrow, we need to find that extra gear to pull out the killer move and really finish them off.

And a final note on the 'incident' on grassy. Apologies to the king's crew we crashed into, but Richard Church is pretty famous for not turning left, it really is a tricky boat to steer. Our tendency to lose control and catches at the front end doesn't hep either. Lots to improve on tomorrow, and hopefully we will, because Morley's Holt is a long assed way... (Swords)
Thursday
Bumped Trinity Hall III
Finished off what we failed to do yesterday. There were a few things which were really useful about this race though. Firstly, we had ARU close very quickly on us, so much so that I thought that we were in serious problems. However a massively commited if a bit spacky bumps push gave us another 10 odd strokes, which gave them enough time to blow up. Secondly, although we didn't have a functioning cox box (massive credit to Rachel for managing to cox that race without one), I'm pretty sure that the rate was a bit higher than yesterday, and although we spacked more, it was definitely faster.

A good race, and particularly gratifying as a large percentage of this crew spooned in Lents, so this was thier first bump. Congratulations to them :) (Swords)
Now that's more like it. This result is a day late, but still most welcome.

We set out with the mind that we would attack the course harder and bump Tit Hall III before the Reach. We expected few problems from ARU II behind us; instead the only issue we thought we'd have was with Clare III ahead of Tit Hall who were potentially catchable for them.

Out start felt good, solid, committed and sharp. Thanks to Iain and Rachel's initial line we powered up towards the motorway bridge. Luckily, one of the few things I heard from Rachel (due to a faulty coxbox) was the stride, which we settled into really well. We approached the motorway bridge and encountered our first problem: ARU II had closed and was closing rapidly. At one point I was worried we were going to be bumped as they closed to within one length whilst we still hadn't got a whistle. The crew did impeccably though; we gritted out teeth and pushed hard at the same rate and held them with about 1/3 of a length between us just as we closed on Tit Hall to one length. That one whistle kept us going and at that point I had the confidence in the crew to hang on in there.

As the second whistle came, ARU II started to die, their burst had failed to finish us and they dropped away in the Ditch. We then got three whistles and Rachel called for the Bumps push - the second and only other call I heard in that race - which was also relayed via the bankparty. We took the rate up, squeezed extremely hard and rapidly closed on Tit Hall to bump them as we entered the Gut.

An excellent row in my opinion, and well done to both Tit Hall for closing to about 2/3 length off Clare III in front of them, and of course to ARU II for their do-or-painful-row-over push in the first section of the race which was a surprise.

And here's a video of it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu8z5eHBMI0 (Mark)
What a row. Following yesterday's painful row over for the boats either side of us, it seemed we all set off today with exactly the same tactic: do or die.

Today we traded some of the technicality we had yesterday for pure power and it paid off. ARU II, who had been harmless yesterday, suddenly posed a massive threat today, pushing hard for us off the start. I'm glad to say we kept our heads and kept the pressure on and let them burn out.

Tit Hall III ahead of us had similarly run out of steam and a second bumps push saw us bumping them before too long.

Special thanks to Rachel, who coped marvellously without a cox box and hopefully hasn't shouted her voice hoarse for another bump tomorrow. (Alec)
POWER! Awesome row guys, ARU II gave us a bit of a fright, but we didn't panic and put in a great bumps push to secure victory. More of the same tomorrow please! (Alex)
Friday
Bumped Clare III
A good day of racing. Not much to be said here except that we weren't sure what Catz III were like so we had to go off hard and hit Clare III as fast as possible.

The start was a little bit wobbly, I just managed to put my blade back in in time after a tap as the gun went off, but we soon got into a really good rhythm and powered through the motorway bridge. We got our first whistle approaching the Ditch, and as soon as we got our 2nd whistle we rapidly closed down on Clare to bump them before First Post. Hopefully more of the same tomorrow!

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgVTiVEVVoo (Mark)
This is how bumps races ought to go. The race was over before we even started our bumps push.

Bring on bump number 3 tomorrow! (Alec)
Another good effort guys, once we closed to within a length we put some work down and finished em off well. The actual bumps push was maybe a bit wobbly, but we had built up enough speed that it didn't really matter too much.

Hopefully tomorrow we can build on our start, with some legs and power calls during the wind and once again get a quick bump. According to Sam Jackson "Catz are a bunch of pussies". What a witty guy... (Alex)
A great row. I was ready for a fight but we didn't even get that far. As soon as we started pushing, I think we gained both a speed and a psychological advantage - Clare collapsed and the bump came very quickly.

Let's go for another up one tomorrow to finish off bumps nicely! (G.S.D. Gordon)
Same as day 2, but maybe with slightly better execution. Bumps push was pretty special, but it was at least powerful, in M4 terms. We'll have to set off hard to hit Catz III on the last day though (Swords)
Saturday
Bumped St. Catharine's III
A touch disappointing really. We had been droppped a bit, but then seemed to gain around first post. We were perhaps on one whistle entering Grassy when a crew badly cleared on the inside forced us and Catz wide. Catz then stacked the corner, and we rowed into them. A pity we weren't able to make the bump in the traditional way, as I believe we would have, but hey. Also a pity we didn't go up on day 1, as looking at the charts that may have allowed us a shot at blades, but then that's bumps, these things happen. (Swords)
A bump is a bump is a bump. Although it was quite an anti-climatic bump.

St. Catz had blasted off the start to open up the gap between the motorway bridge and the Ditch. We had to dig deep since we were concerned Downing III ahead of them could be quite slow.

However, Downing held them off and as we approached First Post we started to claw back ground on Catz; we were inside station entering the Gut and closing to nearly 1 length as Catz started the corner.

Because a boat was on the inside of Grassy both the Catz cox and Rachel had to take a wide line, the Catz boat not making it and parking on the bank. Massive calls for bowside pressure and strokeside lightening up saw us bring it round and we would've made the corner had Catz not been unfortunate enough to be stuck there in front of us.

A disappointing bump; we would've liked to have bumped properly and I suspect the battle would have gone to the Reach which would've been exciting if not exhausting.

Nevertheless, up 3 was the 2nd best result of Fat this term; I have been very pleased with M4 and throughly enjoyed the time together. Thanks to all members and coaches for making it such a fun and successful crew. Good luck to next year's M4!

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1JhpA858M0 (Mark)

1. Passing First Post
2. Approaching First Po...
3. FaT M4 chasing Catz
[more...]


Facebook Instagram Youtube LinkedIn
If you have any comments or suggestions please email the webmaster. Click here to switch between designs. If you log in as a First and Third member, you can set a preference for a color scheme on your profile.