3rd Men's VIII were a kick-arse crew in '97 (at least we thought so, having netted the most womens crews during the season). Famous for our ridiculously tight "Beat Me" Tshirts...
Didnt get off to a good start on day 1, and rowed over. :-( (Christian)

Took off at a cracking pace and caught Jesus III with ease (Christian)

Another good start, a tougher race but still bumped Selwyn II hard enough to need repairs that night. (Christian)

Toughest race of the Bumps, pushed out hard and ground down Magdalene II with a well-steered race from our sexy Cox. If only we'd gone out harder on the 1st day, there might've been Blades.... (Christian)

Clare were simply dreadful. They had barely spun by the 1 minute gun and their bank party had to throw the bung out to the crew. They started not pointing straight and had to call a corner to avoid the bank. However, we hit them before they could even do this. The race had lasted maybe 15 strokes and we had not even reached New corner. The speed differential on impact forced them into the bank and we were right behind them. Downing IV (behind us) were unable to avoid the carnage and ploughed into us prompting a rare outburst of obscenities from Emma. The crew in front of Clare were also dreadful and, bizarrely, [and against all standard procedure] Downing were awarded a technical overbump. (Ingram)

I may be misremembering this after all the intervening years, but was it not the case that Downing were awarded the technical overbump because the crew two in front of us either weren't there or weren't spun by the one minute gun? Unless I am wrong (which happens frequently), Clare only had to pass the station in front to get their bump, but we managed to get them before they did so; this was partly due to our superior speed, but mainly due to their inept start. I can't think of any other valid reason to award a technical overbump to Downing. Anyway, it certainly was over very quickly, and 15 strokes may even be an overestimate. (Mike)

We made a solid start and moved up on Downing IV. When we were at about half a length they bumped leaving us to chase for the overbump. We moved up rapidly on Catz III gaining a huge amount with a vastly superior cornering performance round First Post and Grassy. We got the Hooters down Plough Reach and hit them by Ditton putting us back ahead of Downing. (Ingram)

We were substantially better than Kings II and closed from the start of the race until the end which occurred on First Post Reach. (Ingram)

We were sufficiently confident that 3 of the crew (Ingram, Blaukopf, Spencer) actually raced wearing a T-shirt proclaiming our blades and listing Disney as the final crew!

Possibly as a result of the pressure this arrogance had put upon us, we were very nervous (especially me!) and made a slightly below par start. However, we found our rhythm fairly soon and closed to hit them on First Post corner. This was probably our hardest race, although like all the non-overbumps did not even involve a single corner!!! (Ingram)