The Club's Results

Churchill M1 didn't even turn up to race they were that sure we would beat them (R.J.C. Stroud)

Magdalene are stroked by the Goldie stroke, and their 5 man was the mighty Helge (blue boat), so it was always going to be a long shot. We held them off the start for the first 30 strokes or so, which was really satisfying, but once we strode down onto pace they started to walk away from us. Not sure exactly what the margin was, but it was a fun (read: painful) race! (R.J.C. Stroud)

Off the start line we kept with Magdalene, losing at most one seat in the starting sequence. However once we moved on to the stride they started moving away from us, and although we couldn't keep with them it was valuable racing experience against a formidable crew. Overall it was an enjoyable and hard-fought race on our part, and one that (hopefully!) bodes well for bumps! (Strange)

While our practice start was distinctly octopean this did not translate into the beginning of the actual race, where for the first time (and with bumps 2 days away, let us pray not the last) everything felt clean, together and really very fast. It turned out that this was actually fast enough to put a seat up on Magdalene, giving me the exhilarating feeling of watching us pull ahead of a boat with an intimidatingly Helge shaped height spike in the middle. Sadly, it was not to last and when we strode the boat fell down and we lost our speed and more importantly whatever rhythm had been working hitherto. From here we could only push on and watch in dismay as Magdalene moved up on us after which we lost sight of them, never to regain. The row felt decent but not special, and even when Neil pointed out that they could always crash our pushes had a minimal effect on boatspeed. And they didn't. This had  one further unfortunate consequence in ruining Jason's perfect 99's Regatta results record. Sorry Jason... (John)