The Club's Results

May Term 2003

2nd men's VIII

Head of the Cam (College VIIIs)

14th of 25 College VIIIs
Time: 10:21
Our third outing as a crew (we'd only been together for a day); but most of the crew had rowed together in the 2nd Lent VIII last term. We had a good go at it and posted a time consistent with those recorded last term in the Head-2-Head and the Winter League series. (Matt)
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Cam Sprints (2nd division)

Semi finals
Won by 2 lengths (Corpus I)
We assembled at the boathouse with Esther, our guest coxswain for the day.
We went to collect our racing number.
One of the organisers gave Esther '69'. Twice.
Mark got a '69' from Esther.
We boated a division early in order to get one over on the opposition and sneak in a warm-up and some starts practice.
Corpus 1st VIII arrived at the start after a whole 100m warm up and did a quick spack-turn.
After a bit of difficulty we attached ourselves to the stakeboat.
A good start saw us move away from the Corpus VIII on the outside station.
The first half of the race was good as we extended our lead, but we got a little tired towards the end of the long, arduous course.
We managed to hold Corpus off with some decidedly unspectacular rowing, but our spacking speed was superior to theirs.
And we won our first race of the day. (Matt)
Good start, only minor spacking
Second half: the splashing machine rolled into action as we lost sight of a weak Corpus

Verdict? Good, but the spacking was only at National Level (i.e. my mother could row better than you) (Esther)
Final
Won Easily (Trinity Hall II)
We re-convened a little later in the afternoon and tried to boat for our division.
The organisers told us that
(a) They were running about a division late,
(b) That we were too late to be boating what was by now a division early.
So we turned the boat around and rowed off past the finish for our warm-up and practise start exercises.
Rowed up to the start and watched the oppo spack past and spin.
Lined up on the outside of the bend again, with a lot more skill and precision from Esther.
The start was OK, but we seemed to be a little tired from the previous race.
Our bladework wasn't the best, but we managed to row away from Trinity Hall II and win comfortably.
Esther said it was the worst "rowing" that she'd ever seen us perform.

Yay - We Won Pots !!! (Matt)
First half: humm, we lost Tit Hall very quickly
Second half: after a shocking attempt at Spacking in the first round we finished off the day with Spacking at an International level (i.e my grandmother could row better than that)


Verdict? Who cares. POTS POTS POTS!!! (Esther)
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Cambridge 99's Regatta (2nd division)

Quarter finals
Lost (DQ) vs. Peterhouse I (Meadow Side)
A solid start and chunky powerful row saw us take a length off Peterhouse I on the outside of the bend by about the pink house. Thereafter, the Peterhouse crew responded by coming back at us through the railway bridge. A slight misjudgement by Rachel saw a blade clash between our 7-man and their 2-man. We were sufficiently unsettled by this to let them gain a little more ground and finished about 1/2 a length to the good.
Peterhouse rather unsportingly appealed in unison as they crossed the line, and the umpire upheld the DQ.
On to the plate ... (Matt)
Plate final
Won (3 feet) vs. Corpus I (Meadow Side)
A worse start and first half than in the previous round against Peterhouse gave us about 3/4 of a length on the outside again. Coming through the railway bridge once again we sagged slightly as Corpus pushed, but we unleashed our last reserves of strength upon Rachel's command and held them off for a rather surprisingly close official verdict of 3 feet. (Matt)
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May Bumps

Wednesday
Bumped by Peterhouse
A strong, relaxed, powerful start took us to within a Canvas of Emma II coming around First Post Corner. With the bank party shouting and whistling for all they were worth, we couldn't hear Rachel shout 'Kill' and anyway, surely Emma weren't that useless. Anyway, as it slowly dawned on us that we were really close to them, we tried to row right through them, but every time we got towards overlap, a spacky stroke re-opened the gap again. Emma somehow held us at under half a length all the way to the Houses, with Peterhouse comfortably outside distance until this point.
Around about the Pink House, Peterhouse started to push up on us, coming inside distance for the first time in the race. We got a bit scared, since we still hadn't bumped Emma, and we fell apart slightly. At the same time, Peterhouse put in a big push off the bridge, and we were bumped about halfway between the bridge and Morley's Holt, still half a length or so off Emma.
Absolutely gutting. (Matt)
Thursday
Rowed over
from the Cambridge Evening News (Friday 13th)
"Lower down in the men's second division, 1st & 3rd Trinity II looked likely to be toppled by Wolfson when the latter overlapped them by 10ft at the Railway Bridge and steadily came across the river. However, they failed to get close enough for contact and the crew behind, Lady Margaret II who had closed to within half a length, seized their chance. In a dramatic minute, they caught Wolfson at Peter's Post just as 1st & 3rd scrambled clear." [by the webmaster]
A slightly worse start than yesterday saw us close a bit on Peterhouse off the start, but they managed to bump Emmanuel in the Plough Reach and were soon removed from our path. Wolfson behind were maybe a little inside distance coming around Grassy, but nothing to really worry about (yet!)
Avoiding the bump ahead cost us some line around Ditton corner, handing Wolfson a further half length or so in advantage. A series of pushes from the Wolfson crew gradually brought them closer to us all the way up the Long Reach; our answering pushes weren't quite as effective at keeping them away. This continued until they were getting dangerously close to our stern around the Pink House. With a wonderful bit of steering, we crossed very early under the Railway Bridge and hugged the meadow as Wolfson pushed their bowball past our stroke man, but on the other side of the river ! At about this point, it was noticed that Lady Margaret were slightly inside distance on Wolfson, and the sight of our old foe gave us renewed strength to push the infidels away. We slowly pulled the overlap back to a matter of inches as the Wolfson bows drifted, all too slowly, across the river towards our stern. With our seven man shortening up slightly to ensure no contact was made to his blade (although there was no real danger of this) Wolfson sagged for a couple of strokes. But we all seemed to have forgotten about the third crew in the race ...
In a flash it was all over. Lady Margaret had closed the final gap between the crews and as the Wolfson hand was raised in surrender, we wound it down and rowed from Morley's Holt to Top Finish at what felt like a rather light 34.

"There are no Wolfson chasing us. I will show you. IN ONE HOUR !"
"Our initial assessment is that they will all die" - and so it proved. (Matt)
An amazing race... The second boat were being chased by a strong Wolfson I who managed about 8 feet overlap around Morley's Holt, but failed to make the bump, blowing up a few moments later and being bumped themselves as our boat pulled away to comfortably row over. (Sam)
Friday
Bumped Emmanuel II
We were once again starting by the outflow. As the count passed through "3," the bungline went taut in Rachel's hands and the bows swung round slightly to strokeside. Despite Tim's best efforts, we were still pointing across the river a bit at the gun, and Rachel's call of "Harder Strokeside !!" caused a bit of spacking, including the 6-man bombing the slide to get to stroke 2 of the race.
After sucessfully avoiding the bank, we started to take distance off the Emmanuel crew ahead of us, in a similar fashion to Wednesday. Due to our significantly poorer start, we were in the region of a length off at First Post, but behind us the "Lady Margaret '1B' crew" were obviously going for a "burn and die" race plan. With scenes reminiscent of the Queens' II affair from the year before, Maggie closed to within a canvas by Grassy, and as their cox steered slightly wide, a lovely curve from Rachel saw their bows pass from the inside to the outside of our stern. Maybe the infidel cox of the Maggie boat was trying to give her 2-man the chance of making the bump (According to Rachel this would have been the worst possible humiliation for her), maybe she just steered for the bump, or maybe she, being a Maggie-girl, was just plain incompetent, but we'd just been given the half-length hooter on Emmanuel in front, and as Maggie put the 'die' part of their plan into action, we pushed away from them and towards Emma for the bump.
Maggie tried to hang on to our wash for as long as possible, but after about 15 strokes at under a canvas, a delightful shudder ran through the boat as we managed to convert our pressure into a result this time around. The action occurred just before Ditton corner, and we needed to clear the river swiftly before Lady Margaret ploughed through the wreckage. With only a couple of minutes to spare, we cleared to the outside and found a nice weeping willow to adorn ourselves with, before cheering on Wolfson as they chased Maggie down the Reach.
As the euphoria of bumping settled upon us, an even sweeter feeling was felt as the realisation that we had denied Lady Margaret their blades slowly dawned on the crew.
Ahead of us, Peterhouse overbumped Disney at the same place they bumped us on Wednesday, so we'll be chasing the Mickey Mouse crew of the division tomorrow, and they're chasing Pembroke who got bumped by Downing just on Ditton corner. (Matt)
We have a bad start
Lady Margret are closing;
we spring on Emma (Anything to do with being short)
Disney are going down tomorrow. Well done boys! (Dubya)
Second men spack hard
and Bump Emma at the plough;
No Blades for Maggie. (Parky)
Members of LMBC are advised to check the photo gallery. [by the webmaster]
Saturday
Bumped Sidney Sussex
After a slightly shaky warm up, we settled in to wait for the guns. After a couple of slightly dodgy draw strokes, we wound it up nicely off the start and settled into a nice relaxed racing rhythm. With Disney moving slightly on Pembroke off the start, we surged after them, and soon the encouraging shouts of "You're closing" from the bank lifted our spirits. As we rounded First Post Corner, the crowd noise hit us like a wall, and the shouts from the towpath blended into the background cheer and gasps of "Oooh !" and "Aaaah !" were heard from the crowd, evidence enough for the bumps veterans in the crew to show that there were two (or three?) boats in quite close proximity. As if on cue, the length hooter sounded as we came off the corner and this was quickly followed by the half-length just before Grassy. With Mark's Dad just arrived on the towpath at Grassy about 5 seconds before we came by, the treble blast on the horn sounded, signifying a canvas or less separated our bows from their stern. We dutifully took the rate up 2 (four) and were rewarded immediately with the continuous "overlap" hooter and about a stroke later with the whistles for us to hold it up as we bumped before the exit of Grassy Corner.
We collected the usual array of twigs and brambles and rowed home in celebratory fashion, with six twirling his blade every so often in his inimitable style. Passing Pembroke boathouse, we got a resounding cheer for saving them from their Spoons.
All in all, this was our best row of the week by a country mile, and I'd like to thank the rest of the crew for a great term's rowing. (Matt)
Fantastic! Just a pity it took three days of practice to row like this.
Also nice to see a good amount of clear water between emma and maggie down plough reach, ie we were quicker than the infidel scum. (TomC)

1. Rowing Home with Gre...
2. Bow six & greenery
3. Bow pair
[more...]

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