The Club's Results

After a lacklustre paddle down (having to stop after 3 strokes because of marshalling did not help) we were determined to prove ourselves during the race. We hit around 38 off the start, and then settled to a relaxed but a very committed 34/35 which we kept for the rest of the race. The boat speed sagged slightly around Ditton but we brought it back up coming into the Reach, and took consecutive pushes from there to come into the finish absolutely spent. I was slightly scared that the UCL A crew behind us were going to apply us some pressure but instead they chose to rapidly disappear into the background, and we ended up beating them by ~40 seconds.

Overall a very solid row with the best result in Winter Head since we held headship, but looking at the footage of us rowing (thanks Forbes), there is still obvious room for improvement and we'll be looking to beat the colleges who beat us today at Fairbairns. 

  

We blasted off the start going over rate 40, and "settled" to a powerful 37 coming under Elizabethan bridge. Bomber described the first few minutes of this race as "really quite good", which is some compliment for those of us who know him. I think the rate fell to (still quite a powerful) 35 by the time we were under the white bridge. Technically, I think we started losing some patience around the front end which meant we were not connecting as well - something to work on for next term. 

To be honest I can't say I remember much of the rest of the race, (not that I remember the first part very well) but I think we had very good lifts under the railway bridge and coming into the plough. Jedge started winding it up in the gut for the finish, and the entire crew threw everything we had into it for a fantastic (albeit slightly frantic) sprint for the finish.  

Winning seems to have been an ambitious goal looking at the margin by which Downing beat us, but we were really not far off a 3rd place finish and miles ahead of many other colleges, some of which are quite close to us in bumps. There are also still many obvious technical changes that could be made, which suggests that there is a lot of easy speed to be found next term. While a slightly disappointing result, I had a fantastic time rowing with great people in a great crew. Every time Kerem called for a lift, I knew that I would have 7 other people to back me up - thanks for the great term guys.