The Club's Results

This was so much fun. The costumes were a strong effort, especially on Hugh's part, and two coaches asked me if NM1 had a girl subbing in, so it clearly worked!

The race instantly fell into a heavy clash, with a Clare novice getting smacked in the face with a blade. The Clare cox shouted hold it up, and both boats did so, but with both coaches shouting to row on. First and Third rowed on well lengthening their lead all the way. Amar was so keen to win they kept rowing all the way to Ditton before realising the race was over. As they spun, they gently brushed Emma, plopping the bowball right off. Again. Sigh. (Tom)

Won against Emma NM1 - I only caught the last 30 seconds or so of the race, but it looked decent. They were ahead by half a length or so with 7 rowers since 4-man's seat broke off half way through! (Barney)

Against Tit Hall NM1: Pretty level off the start; as we started to move away Tit Hall went for a tactical blade clash. They came off worst with their 2-man catching an overhead crab. Recovering from this took them about half of the race, by which point we were about 2 or 3 lengths ahead. They came back a bit towards the end but NM1 still won by at least 1 and a half lengths. (Barney)

Jesus slowly moved away over the first few hundred metres, and then we started having some serious timing issues. These cost us about a length, moving them to about a length and a half up and then their 7-man (I think) caught an overhead crab. Sadly, he was faster at recovering than Tit Hall were, and despite gaining significantly in the last few metres of the race, we lost by a bit under a length. (Barney)

A really lighthearted paddle down dressed in wonderful cheap and tacky pirate costumes was followed by a tense start. First and Third held the lead by a canvas for 30 strokes, before slowly pulling away. Shortly afterwards Robinson caught a crab and NM2 cruised over the finish line in fine form. After winning Felix held up some tissues yelling "I've got these to give to the next crew!" What a lad. (Tom)

As NM2 spun, they collided with the bank, breaking off the bowball. Accepting the inevitability, I stripped off my upper layers, and lowered myself as far as I could into the river to fumble it off the riverbed. Just before I was about to topple in, I snatched it with amazing dexterity. We taped it on as best we could.

The start was good and clean, and while Churchill really could not keep time, their power soon showed out, pink shirts notwithstanding. The race was full of crabs and seat falls on both sides, and while First and Third made huge gains on at least two occasions, Churchill crossed the finish line by over a length. (Tom)

I did at least get to shake Santa's hand before Rudolpha and co. blitzed us down the course, winning by a significant fraction of the Reach. With a scratch crew versus a first novice boat, it was always going to be tough. However, the crew seemed to enjoy it, and actually, there was a remarkable level of timing. Sadly, this didn't translate into usable power, and boat speed, but we'll be back for Clare Novices. (Sam)

This race came as a surprise to me, but it was much closer than the first race. Off the start, Sara (with the extraordinarily long legs) strategically pulled us round into Selwyn, thereby slowing their advance on us. I think we were within a length for at least half of the reach, but by that point, the crew looked a bit tired, and we faded away to the sweet serenade of Sun's singing. Unfortunately, it wasn't Stravinsky, so the alliteration ends there.

Overall, we learnt:

1. Sara doesn't fit into Peter Brandt at anywhere other than bow (well, maybe 7, not sure). I am still in awe of this.

2. Alexa makes awesome minion costumes, and definitely has a better eye for colour than whoever made the Wolfson minion crew a fluorescent yellow/green colour.

3. That losing races doesn't have to be grim. Well, I learnt this. I've never seen anybody so pleased just to have raced as Pandora. Kudos. (Sam)