First and Third Trinity Boat Club
Log In

The Club's Results

Lowe Double Sculls, May Term 2014

Held over the 2km course from Little Bridge to the posts downstream of the railway bridge. Part of the small boats regatta. Open to mens, womens and mixed crews.
Tue 22nd April

At the bottom of this page there is a link to Cambridge weather. Club members, please go here to add (or correct) results, crews or race reports.


Double sculls, Mixed 2x

Final
Beat Lucas-Temple (Catz) by about 80m
Having lost two events the day before, and conscious of all the time and effort that had gone into training me up as a sculler, I was almost as nervous about this race as I was about Bumps. When I attempted to convey this to Fordy at the start, as a kind of pre-emptive excuse for any screw-ups later in the race, he responded with: "Well, if we don't win, it means I can only win this race with Ro in the boat." A comparison to a GB sculler was not the consolation I was hoping for.

Rowing off top station this time, we no longer had the luxury of watching our opposition and were effectively going into a head race. Sean was bank partying and promised to give us distances. Our start was fairly clean, and of the format 'Julia will wind until Fordy gets concerned that he won't be able to follow and then we'll stride'. This had worked well in past outings. Our First Post reach was fast and sharp, and Sean gave us some encouraging calls, though it was at this point that we realized we had forgotten to agree a format for these calls. It wasn't quite at the level of Matt shouting 'Yes' and 'No' for whether Fordy was bringing his arms in too quickly, and 'Good' and 'Bad/Less Good' for whether my catches were going in, but it was approaching. Not everyone has Matt's digital brain.

Our rudder had garnered much attention at the start (and questions afterwards about the legality of it - yes it's legal) and some remarks about Fordy's desire, or lack thereof, to pressure steer the corners, but as we swept through First Post and Grassy I was very grateful for it. On Plough Reach we took a customary push, and it was at this point, after some vaguely conflicting reports from the bank, that I began to wonder if Fordy, Sean and I all had different ideas about the relative position of the other boat. I seem to remember thinking here that we were losing ground, that the opposition had taken a length, whereas in actual fact Sean was trying to communicate that we had taken the length out of them. I believe Fordy had a better idea of what was going on, as he was calling for looseness and shape at the back, which I took as code for 'take the rate down!' since if he was worried about shape and looseness we couldn't be in a do or die push.

Rounding Ditton I still believed that Lucas and Temple were moving away from us, so I initiated a final sprint. About this time I maintain (though everyone else reports to the contrary) that someone on a bike going the other way shouted something along the lines of 'Yeah Fordy, you've got this one!' and I suddenly realized that we might be ahead. I started to look for some rhythm and we crossed the finish line at a decent rate and speed. I took a few gasps, and then asked if we had won. Fordy turned around, saw that Catz were still racing and reported back. Pretty exhausted, but mostly relieved, I collapsed back onto Fordy's feet and accused Sean of misleading us, but forgave him for doing it for a good cause. Fordy thinks we peaked at about 40. Still though, I'm not sure I'd have done it any differently.
(Julia A.)
^ top

Cambridge weather: text or graph

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.