The Club's Results

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)