First and Third Trinity Boat Club
Log In

The Club's Results

May Bumps 2003

3rd men's VIII

Coxed by: Andy Wong

Wednesday
Rowed over
A good start saw us close to a length off Selwyn before they pulled away. Ahead of them, Girton bumped Downing III, Selwyn achieving an overbump on Maggie III scum ahead at Ditton.

A strong push from Fitz II towards the end for the overbump saw us scramble over the finish line with not a little relief.

So tomorrow, a weak Maggie III in front of us. Scum. (Andy)
Friday
Bumped by Magdalene II
This was a tough re-row, Magdalene II chasing us all the way to bottom finish at Morley's Holt, with nothing for us to chase. The crew went a bit hard off the start and actually managed to open up the gap to Magdalene initially, although this quickly became a length and a quarter. Magdalene only really started to close inside a length after first post corner, but the guys had not really worked out how to respond, so were hit by the Plough. (Dubya)
We set off with the aim of catching LMBC III and quickly started hearing whistles, unfortunately, LMBC were closing quickly on Downing III ahead. Around first post corner, we got to a canvas off LMBC, but Maggie bumped Downing before we could bump. We were so close that we had to hold it up to avoid carnage. Magdalene II asked the umpires for a re-row which they were given.

It was always going to be a tough re-row with Magdalene being a fast crew and their knowledge that they could go very hard off the start with nobody behind. Magdalene gained much quicker than in the original race finally hitting us just before the Plough pub. Later on we have to avoid Fitz II and maybe look for the overbump on Maggie III. (Richard)
Friday
Rowed over
This was simply stunning and quite possibly the best row I have ever had. Fitz M2 almost overbumped us on the first day, while Magdalene in front were substantially faster than us. We started off holding station with Magd. while Fitz started to creep up on us. Magd had bumped out by first post corner (to a simply shocking Downing III) while the boats behind them did the same. It was simply us or them. Fitz continued pushing hard and we were finding it hard to hold them back and by grassy they had overlap. Their horn was blowing continously, but there was no fat lady singing.

With Joan Osborn (and other FaT supporters at the plough) screaming support for us on the bank, it was obvious to everyone that we would only survive with amazing coxing, top notch rowing and a powerful response to every push they made. If one man in our crew believed that we were going to be bumped, that would have been it. But we are a bit more bloody minded than that. The push out of Grassy gave us 1/4 of a length of clear water, a better corner at Ditton meant that they were too far from us to make the bump physically on the reach. Much of the reach was spent with overlap, but we knew when we were going to really give it some. Our unsustainable push out of the Railway Bridge gave us clear water again and now, with Fitz directly behind us, it was the push for home. They got close to overlap again, but we were having none of it.

The call to easy was superb. Fitz behind us could not bring themselves to speak, our bank party were near hysterical, and this only left the afternoon to explain to all my friends on the bank that Fitz will be chasing us again tomorrow (but briefly, because we are going to hit Downing so hard and fast they won't believe it).

Todays row showed what its all about... what a team. (Michael)
Copycats. :-) (Matt)
These guys really pulled it together to row away from Fitz, who were right on their tail all the way from Ditton (where we were very nearly bumped). (Dubya)
We knew today would be tough, after being bumped by Magdalene II in the re-row, we knew that they would catch Downing III pretty quickly and so we would be left chasing the overbump on Maggie III whilst trying to avoid Fitz II who came a bit too close for comfort for the overbump on day 1. We did pull away from Fitz II initially, but Fitz soon approached fast - faster than Magdalene II did in the re-row. They had overlap round grassy (although I didn't realise at first - judging distances is difficult from the 2 seat) and we managed to push them away. They pushed again, gaining overlap at Ditton, but their cox steered for the bump and missed sending Fitz wide whilst we held the racing line and we once again had clear water. Again Fitz pushed and gained a significant amount of overlap, but we responded well and held them at bay. We passed under the railway bridge and they still hadn't converted so we pushed hard and gained a small amount of clear water which we held to the finish line. Awesome race. (Richard)
Saturday
Bumped Downing III
We were out to do what we did yesterday, since at some point Downing would get in the way.

Fitz II were out sprint into us, before we could hit downing.

Fortunately Fitz dont know how to sprint, and despite our rowing being rather messy they were rapidly well outside distance.

Downing got in our way after about 2 minutes, and at long last... greenery. (keef)
After our epic race yesterday, most of the crew were on a bit of a high and were very keen to make it all worthwile by bumping a slow Downing III today who were on for spoons. On Thursday, we'd closed nearly 3 lengths on Downing by First post corner when Maggie III had bumped them, so we knew today had the potential to be a short race. Despite this, our race plan was simply to stay ahead of Fitz and eventually by doing so, we'd hit Downing. We had expected Fitz to go very hard off the start to try and catch us quickly in revenge for yesterday, however after the gun, we pulled away from them surprisingly quickly - maybe they'd given up on the idea of hitting us and were keen to save energy to ensure that they could stay ahead of Peterhouse II who were on for blades. We quickly started hearing whistles from our bank party and after seemingly no time at all, we had overlap, I felt the boat suddenly move to bowside and heard the call to hold it up - we'd bumped - and before top station. After the rest of the division had passed, we pulled into the other bank to collect our greenery, congratulations from our coaches and the rest of our bank party, and a bottle of champagne which the 3rd ladies' hadn't managed to finish off. We rowed back with applause and cheers from the bank and switched to rolling sixes to finish off the rest of the champagne.

After getting bumped on the re-row, it would have been very easy to have fallen on every subsequent day, however a brilliant last two days for us have seen us return to where we started with only Maggie III between us and the 3rd boat headship. (Richard)

1. Day 2 rerow - Magdal...
2. Splashing outside th...
3. Practice start at th...
[more...]


Facebook Instagram Youtube LinkedIn
If you have any comments or suggestions please email the webmaster. Click here to switch between designs. If you log in as a First and Third member, you can set a preference for a color scheme on your profile.