Don't worry, it's all part of the masterplan... (Flying)

So, a captaincy candidate getting in training? (Rose the Twat)

There's a first time for everything... ;-) (Dubya)

From the 'mobile reporting' message board thread:
by Martin - Wed 26th Feb 2003, 5:01pm
1st men row over after disaster.
by dw - Wed 26th Feb 2003, 5:45pm
Tantalising...
Any further info anyone?
by Mike - Wed 26th Feb 2003, 5:49pm
dw said: Any further info anyone?
Quarter of a length off Maggie coming into Ditton when crab at four effectively ended the race. They had a go at getting back at Maggie but the distance was too great. Emma closed to within a length but never looked like getting any closer. Roll on tomorrow. (Martin)

Good work guys, good luck tomorrow, no doubt you'll be telling us the masterplan soon? [I know it's not really a report, but hey] (Matt)

A bit lacklustre. And a bit of a foregone conclusion. Perhaps tomorrow will be more exciting. (Dubya)

Worse than yesterday before Ditton, better thereafter. We bumped just before the railings. (Flying)

We could tell you, but we'd have to kill you. (Flying)

We were pissed off with yesterday, geared up, psyched up and went for it. Didn't quite make it (1/4 length at Ditton, and it was bumpy), but had a damn good go. (Dubya)

A completely commited row demonstrating once again the Lent VIII is the fastest college boat this term. Not quite fast enough to get the bump but still the fastest. (Simon)

This is not strictly spaeaking a race report - more of a message for M1.

I know you will all be very disappointed. I know that this will be of no immediate consolation, but the whole club was very impressed by your effort today. You are indeed the fastest Lent VIII, and your performance today was worthy of the top boat of the best club on the Cam. (Andrew)

A fantastic start saw us pull away from Catz, who never stood a chance of catching us and were swiftly caught by Sidney Sussex, leaving us to concentrate on chasing Girton. We caught them slightly early on, but they managed to pull it back and we rowed over, never under any threat from Selwyn, doomed to be sandwich boat for another day. A good row from all of us (jo)

A rather less good start, but still considerably better than Disney (whose cox managed to forget her lifejacket.....). With no boat within miles of our stern, we held a solid girton at station until the plough, but never really committed 100% to catching them and lacked yesterday's impressive determination. The reach at technical half pressure however, will set us up nicely for a storming row tomorrow. Bring it on.... (Abbie)

Another day, another row over behind Girton with no-one in pursuit except a distant Selwyn, this time because Sidney Sussex somehow managed to be lifejacketless, earning them a nice fine and Catz an automatic bump. While it was a relief having little threat of being bumped, we may have made more ground on Girton with Sidney snapping at our heels. As it was we kept on station for a fair amount of the course but began to lose them on plough reach and never got it back. Not as good as yesterday, but not bad. Another crack at Girton tomorrow then... (jo)

We knew that today would be a short race.

We had Girton ahead of us who have kept us at bay for the last two days. Today they were chasing New Hall who have been bumped every day so far. Behind us, Sidney were chasing Catz (again...) This race was going to be all over by Ditton.

We got a pretty good start, and closed Girton down to about a length, but to no avail: Girton hit New Hall pretty swiftly. Sidney made fairly short work of Catz again.

Selwyn were never much of a threat as sandwich boat, and the overbump was never within our reach.

Another row-over, but tomorrow we are chasing New Hall. Bring it on! (Andrew Fisher)

We knew today was not going to be another row over. Sidney had caught Catz pretty quickly on both wednesday and friday, and looked likely to close on us, while we had a length on Girton when they bumped New Hall on friday. So we set out for a race to first post. Our start was an improvement on the previous two days, and we closed fairly quickly on NH. The threat from behind was perhaps not as great as was feared, since despite my fine display of muppetry under the motorway bridge Sidney "we'd've taken any amount of fine to have a shot at 1st&3rd (and got them by grassy, no doubt)" Sussex didnt creep up much. NH put up a good fight, and held us at half a length for what seemed like forever, but we got them just in time to give our mass of supporters at the plough something to smile about. And ourselves of course- a fantastic first bump for many of us, and a row that showed our determination and committment. Andrews wenches done good :-) (wench #7)

Andrew got us psyched up before the race and put some kind of killer instinct in us. That strategy worked, we wanted it and we went and got it. Ra Ra 1st and 3rd. (Becca)

Pesky first VIIIs ... Grrrrrrr.
A storming row saw us take half a length out of Maggie off the start, but they quickly closed on Downing ahead and bumped out on first post, leaving us going for the overbump on Magdalene.
Peterhouse were about on station at this point, but due to carnage avoidance and a slight spack, closed to a quarter of a length coming out of Grassy. They pushed to overlap coming past The Plough but we held firm and pushed them away round Ditton. They came right back at us coming out of Ditton corner onto the Long Reach and eventually managed to convert at The Railings.
Kings behind were absolutely nowhere to be seen, and it was heartening to hear that we had been closing on Magdalene ahead. On to day 2 ... (Matt)

... and so it came about that we were chasing the Peterhouse crew that bumped us yesterday. A strong, powerful start saw us moving away from King's and slightly towards Peterhouse.
A slightly scrappy row around First Post presented Rachel with the only concern of the race: a Downing II crew resembling little more than a log drifting with the current. Downing had been bumped by Peterhouse, but were still in the middle of the river coming into Grassy. The Downing cox tried to pull in on the inside of the bend forcing us out wide. As the Downing stern drifted out, it was clear that whilst our nimble craft was up to the task of taking a sharpened corner, the King's' empacher, with the turning radius of a supertanker, came within a hair's breadth of the LMBC crew who were parked on the outside of grassy after bumping Magdalene.
The crew then proceeded to row over comfortably, well clear of Kings, to a round of applause from the Ladies at the finish. Day 3 tomorrow ... (Matt)

We may have stood more chance of bumping Downing II had we actually started the race! A disappointing day for us all, although stroke's attempts to lighten the mood at the boathouse leave much to be desired!! (the girl with the broken lip)

... and we were chasing Downing II and being chased again by King's. 5 seconds from the gun, everything was running smoothly ...

... four seconds later a large gust of wind hit the bows. With no time to straighten properly, we started as best we could, but a combination of factors saw us parked on the bank before we could even think about winding it up. The wind blew us against the bank, thwarting all attempts to push back off and King's rowed past for the bump.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. It's not even Friday the 13th today, no-one walked under a ladder on the way to the boathouse, and I haven't seen a black cat in weeks. It surely can't get any worse tomorrow (touch wood) ... (Matt)

... and we did manage to push off and stay straight today. Unfortunately with Downing II bumping out ahead, going down to King's and two bumps occurring just behind us, the best we could manage was a storming row-over, despite having an injured cox after yesterday's antics. Some quality rowing appeared during the course of the race, matched only by that performed by our new stroke girl (!) on the row home. We know we're at least the second best 2nd VIII around at the moment.

Roll on the Mays !!! (Matt)

Clearly Selwyn have been practising since the Robinson Head - they held us off very well at about 1/2 length until we crashed. It looked like we were in for row over, despite Andy's suggestion that we still had the reach to catch them... I thought the 1/2 a length call when we going round ditton was a lie to make us go faster.
A superb piece of determination from the whole crew, but it has to be said we were quite lucky - Selwyn would have almost certainly caught Girton if Clare hadn't crashed. (TomC)

This was the most exciting bumps race I've been in. It went as a bit of a blur-not because it was quick, but because so much happened!

We closed about half a length off our start, but some panicked rowing saw us loosing boat speed once past the motorway bridge, and selwyn were able to hold us. We slowly clawed into their lead, however, and were getting two whistles by the exit of 1st post. This is where it got really messy-a number of bumps meant that boats were all over the place, and although I could hear Iain screaming for us to go wide around grassy, Andy couldnt, steering a mean tight line. He got the idea in the end, but by this time the only way we could avoid the boats ahead was by shooting straight across the corner. We weren't able to bring the boat around properly in the space left, but fortunately there was no sickening crunch of the bows hitting the bank. Then again, we weren't in Peter Brandt...

We did, however, find Catz II with our blades, and some nasty clashes saw us grind to a halt. Once we pushed off I thought Selwyn II would be miles ahead. Our rowing became a lot more relaxed, but it turned out to be very effective. We rapidly cut into Selwyn's lead, and hit them just after ditton.

A hard row, but very enjoyable.

Tomorrow we chase Girton II, who went past Clare II (who crashed) but were awarded a technical row over due to carnage. (keef)

This was a much better race. We made a start and stride at similar ratings to yesterday, but today we acted as a confident and together crew. Girton lost stern pair for a couple of strokes, but that was enough for us to bump them.

The real racing starts on Friday! (Michael)

We knew we would need a lot of luck to get a bump today. The Clare II boat infront of us (probably the fastest boat in our division) was after driftwood. We could have caught them if they'd started like the did on Wednesday, but they didnt, holding us at station and then pulling away. They bumped just before grassy, at about the same time the other two boats we could have overbumped or double overbumped.

We had pulled away from Girton from the start, who were being reeled in by Selwyn, but sadly our entertainment was cut short by Clare II. Possibly the best boat at spannering in our division (although binson II got the awards in the first few days) they pulled in on the inside of grassy. Or at least, they stopped on the inside of grassy and then drifted out to block the entire river. We scraped through, but they closed the small gap that was left before anyone else could take advantage of it. We were left to row out the course with no-one ahead of us, and without a single sighting of a boat behind. A rather eerie experience... (keef)

A very strange day. Having already considered the carnage generating potential of Clare II we already had warning calls, so when they did indeed start their (record breaking fined) post bump random motions a quick call of "Easy, Strokeside Blades In, Blades Out, Go!" was quickly followed leaving our boatman watching in disbelief that BP3 was still a single entity and the only boat left racing. We tried racing the rest of the course, but once we realised we had at least a long reaches distance on the next boat we moved to half-pressure.


The plan now is surely to hold Pembroke ahead until Clare II decide which bank/corner/barge they want to hit, let Pembroke bump them out and then go for the overbump on Catz ;-) (Michael)

As usual Clare II were determined to muck up the division and did their usual hold up everyone behind them tactic after bumping. Unfortunately for them we came alongside Pembroke II (who we were chasing) and pulled them and us in, so they only caused a minor distruption. This being the last day we were refused the rerow which we deserved and got a technical row over. Needless to say, this is far from the way we wanted to end the bumps week... (Michael)

Despite a somewhat shaky start with bow side having an encounter with the bank, we managed to get it back together nicely and pulled away from King's II who never had a chance after that. Especially as Peterhouse II were coming up on them. It was one of those lovely rowovers at head where we got to see, somewhere in the distance, the crew chasing us (well, behind us at least) get bumped. Good view from the stroke seat, anyway. (Dan B)

Having stroked the 4th last year as well and been disappointed of a place in the third division because of a Hughes Hall rugby boat, it was quite pleasing to see them marshalled opposite the P&E: a lot smaller than last year. And a lot slower as it turned out. Despite the lack of a pole at station 18, we caught up on them quickly off the start, and soon went from half a length, to a quarter, canvass, and then the glorious overlap. A nice, easy first bump for most of the crew (and well deserved). I was just left wondering why we couldn't have done that last year. Something to ponder on as we rowed back with ivy wreathes (my Aeneid lecturer's obsessed with them), as well as the fact that finally, after several years of trying, FaT 4 was finally in the third division. For the next day now, though, to consolidate and strengthen that position. (Dan B)

From the moment our cox, Honey, and I saw the daft flamingo sitting on Corpus II's bows, we were determined they were going down. However, there was some concern about the new sandwich boat, Peterhouse II. Despite clearly being slower than us on the first day when they bumped King's, they were doing some bizarre psyching-up routines down at the lock as the minute gun fired. This mental preparation seemed, however, only to last for their draw strokes as we came smoothly away from them on our wind. Very quickly we could forget about them and concentrate on Corpus, as we now had half a length on them. A few pushes later and this was translated into overlap. They could have conceded a lot earlier; apparently 'overlap' was something of an understatement. Anyway, we got them officially just under the motorway bridge. Another smooth bump. However, we soon had reason to fear Peterhouse again as the echo under the bridge and the traffic in general made pulling in difficult, especially as Peterhouse decided they could bump us still and so came in on the side we were pulling in. When their cheers died down after I told their bowman (now sitting beside me) that they hadn't bumped and in fact still had to row over, all that was left was a crunch as their bow made misplaced contact with our 7 man's rigger, and their 2 man's blade with Honey's back. Just a small hole in their boat (sorry about that), but we were fine ;-p There's nothing like a bit of drama on the river. (Dan B)

Firstly, I feel I need to make a public apology to both Corpus II and Peterhouse II for the comments in my last race report. They in no way represent the views either of FaT 4 or of FaT as a whole, and I am very sorry for confusing the pelican for a flamingo and questioning the value of unconventional psychological motivation exercises. To the contrary, both crews should be commended for these exemplary displays (and for some pretty gutsy rowing too, it must be said).

Anyway, having offended most of the third division as it would seem, I'll keep this short (like our race, in fact). Today was Clare Hall, who managed to break a rigger off their practice start. Having fixed it just in time for the guns, we had them before the motorway bridge. This time we actually managed to clear the river and could watch the exciting race between Corpus and Peterhouse. Well rowed, both of you (am I forgiven yet?). I still can't believe anyone actually reads my reports anyway... (Dan B)

Like all the best things in life (Homeric ring composition, the Great Court Run, etc etc), we finished where we started. This was not a good day, all things considered. We had a bad start, and never really found a decent rhythm, the boat being heavy beneath us. With Clare Hall and Peterhouse II bumped out behind us, a very strong Caius III were going for the overbump. Even as we were slowly edging closer to Sidney II, they were coming up on us. Who can tell how the Fates might have spun this particular thread? But coming into Grassy, one of the three sisters took her shining scissors and cut that thread. In other words: there was a boat in the way, we couldn't get round, and crashed into the bank. We never managed to get it back together again after pushing off, and Caius took the overbump just on the corner of the Plough. Let it be remembered, however, that we are still the highest fourth boat on the river (though there's only so many times you can say that and be taken seriously). Looks like FaT 4 will be seeing that flamingo/pelican hybrid again next year. As Horace once said, Quid sit futurum cras, fuge quaerere, et/quem Fors dierum cumque dabit, lucro/adpone [Odes 1.9 13-14]. Silly old fool. (Dan B)