The Club's Results

Nice job, still the biggest dogs on the cam! Good luck tomorrow (John)

Decent start, settled a bit short though. We then proceeded to get into a race rhythm, and entered grassy. At this point behind us, Pembroke started sprinting, so we took it up. I failed pretty hard at Grassy, fortunately the crew were easily capable of bailing me out, and we rowed off happily, Pembroke got bumped about 5-10 strokes out of Grassy, and we battle paddled to the line, as 3 sets of bumps happened behind us. (Swords)

We had a more energetic start, aiming to settle onto a racier rhythm, aware of Caius' ability to sprint. This we did pretty well, and looked pretty decent. We shortened up a touch coming into Ditton, and this cost us badly. They closed to around a canvas near the exit of Ditton, at which point we hit the headwind, had a couple of scrappy strokes, and with a crew as good as Caius behind us, a couple of scrappy strokes was all it took to end this defence of the Mays headship.

Gutted. (Swords)

Well done nevertheless, guys! I watched you from Grassy and you put up a GOOD FIGHT!!! :-) (Ulrike)

Again, gutted. Raced pretty well, however Downing sprinted better.

Bumped at the entrance to Ditton (Swords)

St Catz have a hell of a lot of horsepower, we sprinted, they sprinted faster, it was all over by the plough.

This set of bumps has been intensely disappointing, I've spent a great deal of time and energy getting myself to a standard of coxing such that I am in the 1st VIII, and unfortunately, on some levels, I have arrived a year too late. Losing headships is pretty awful really, however the manner in which this one was lost does give significant room for hope of a rapid return to form. This VIII was not 'bad', it may have been slower, but it was by no means technically bad. It is encouraging that without the huge amount of experience of previous years, without many weeks of JPD and other bufties, we still produced an VIII which was (in my perhaps dubious opinion) technically good enough to row over head. This shows to me that the system now in place with Lianne will, physiology allowing, produce eights of the required speed to put this club back where it belongs. It is now up to Jacob and the MLBCs to find these physiologically gifted people, and current members to train until they are pulling the required times, such that in a few years time, it's FaT, not Caius, who rock up to bumps with eight massive ergos, and a technically excellent crew. (Swords)