The Club's Results

This was a race of three halves. The start was terrible (lots of power being applied, but all at different times and probably in different directions) and Putney soon made up the distance we had because of the staggered start and some more besides. The middle third of the race had some semblance of decent rowing and we rowed through them to gain a several seat lead. But through some amazing spacking we contrived to lose this lead in the final third and only just pipped them at the line with a finish that was far more power than finesse. It hurt. A lot. And it was only 600m. Clearly shows I shouldn't be doing this rowing lark. (Mike)

A good thing we had a practice outing in the morning, or else we'd have been all over the place ... (Matt)

'Wet' was probably the best way of describing this race. A (marginally) better start than before, combined with the grossly unfair stagger, saw us move up a couple of seats and maintain that lead with what we in the bows thought was much better rowing than in the first race. It was looking like another close race until, with about 100m to go, Weybridge clipped a buoy and suddenly dropped back, leaving us to cruise home a length in front. The rowing must have been more efficient than the first race, as it didn't hurt nearly as much, but we didn't half shift a lot of water into the boat.

Still, there's no points for style in this game...

Addendum to report: maybe it was just me that thought the rowing was better in the second one then - I was mainly basing it on the fact that it hurt less... (Mike)

Not sure I totally agree with Mike about it being a better row (and at bow, I am surely someone in the bows?) but again the triumph of power over finesse saw off a crew which clearly must have had neither. But we rated a pip higher than before so we were clearly having more fun.

The race is perhaps best summed up with the observation on the bank that "this must be the final of the novice viiis". However, a pot's a pot and surely we deserve recognition for actually having an (approx. 30 min) outing before racing. (Ingram)

A much better row than the first race; my lungs didn't feel anywhere near as bad after this one. Shame about the right knee and shoulder though ... (Matt)