The Club's Results

As Joe was in London, we had a brand new stroke man in the considerable shape of Tom Rose. Fortunately he managed to take his eyes off Steph for long enough to get us going, and we had clear water after 200m. We continued to move away from Sidney and won by the amusingly large margin of three lengths. (Flying)

Finding any sort of rhythm basically went out the window as we rowed through their blades. Think I hit each one only once or twice though, as they were pretty slow. Not sure how much the crew appreciated it when after one of these encounters I came very close to 'doing a Swainson'. (Rose the Twat)

Despite a weak first three or four strokes, the start became strong and we moved from a couple of seats down to a couple up on Fitz. Bradford rapidly dropped back, and we moved a little on Fitz with a surprisingly solid first third. We didn't capitalise on the dropping rate with a more relaxed rhythm (although many would argue that over 500m it's overrated anyway), and the pushes which Steph called for were not translated into anything cohesive. Fitz did a couple of good pushes, but we crossed the line a few seats in front. (JPD)

Henry was too ill to row. We were not allowed a non-Trinity sub, or to row with 7 oarsmen (with a burger in Henry's place!), so we were left with no choice. (JPD)

We found we had only 7 oarsmen present as we boated - Henry was nowhere to be seen. Just as we were about to push off (with Joe moved to 7 and the 3 seat empty), Henry was seen running towards us. He had fallen asleep and did not look in great shape. The standard of the row down to the start was low - we were pushed for time and tense due to the boating drama. We had to spin straight on to our stakeboat with only 500m warm up.

The start was better than the one from our S3 heat, and built up to an encouragingly strong peak. We again failed to capitalise on this, and the rowing deteriorated somewhat allowing both opposing crews to move ahead. Downing won with a time of 1:25. (JPD)

Over the last week and a half we have improved beyond measure; this showed in our paddle down to the start (despite a dodgy moment in our practice start).

The start of the race was quite tense, with some ripping which we had virtually eliminated in practice. However, St. Catharines had been pushed out angled toward the opposite bank, and this allowed us to close to 1/3 of a length by First Post Corner. Although there was no audible indication of this from the bank, the rocking and swaying sensation of being close to another boat was quite noticable at the kink in First Post Reach. St. Catharines then put their experience to work and began to open up the gap.

Meanwhile, Clare made very little impression behind (we had moved perhaps 1/4 length away off the start, they got it back by Grassy, and then they disappeared behind us increasingly rapidly). When it became obvious that we weren't going to bump Catz or be hit by Clare, Mark Hall (our finishing coach) called for us to save ourselves for the next day.

In front of Catz, Robinson hit Jesus a little before the Railway Bridge. Catz also decided to save themselves, but as we started our "practice" wind for the finish, Steph realised that they were well within distance, and seemingly hadn't noticed us moving up. Eventually they moved as well, and we were about 3/4 length off at the finish.

Let's see what drama day 2 can bring. (JPD)

Rowing pretty much the same as yesterday, but without any real drama; paddle down good, not a bad start (apart from an air-stroke from Ed) and then slowly moving away from Clare (who were just short of 3 lengths down when bumped by Queens') with Catz moving away slightly (who hit Jesus). We again wound it down in the reach, but apart from watching Churchill on a mission to nothing behind us, little else interesting happened. (JPD)

Stonking. Grassy. (Dubya)

Another good paddle down, with very comfortable bursts at 37, and a lift to a smooth 39 in one. The practice start wasn't our best, but was by no means terrible. The real start was very strong, and we moved about 1/3 length in the right direction on the crews in front (Jesus) and behind (Queens'). Coming out of First Post corner, it got very rocky, causing the boat to crash over to stroke side for one or two strokes. We recovered quickly, and within a few strokes we had our single hooter for 1/2 length. As planned, initially we didn't change much, but a few strokes later Steph called "Go Now", and we went. We hit them on the entrance to Grassy. With Queens' only a couple of lengths behind we had to move quickly to the outside of the corner, removing the bowball of our boat on the bank in the process. Oops - sorry Iain. (JPD)

Occurred at the railings. Had a canvas at grassy, but took a while to finish it. (Dubya)