The Club's Results

Coming into this on the back of a double Head course and a 9k AT piece the day before, we weren't totally confident. However, Rob kicked us off with a storming 1:24 and a 1 length lead. Gregor and Matt consolidated and it remained close between us Caius and the Maggie-scum. Ciptin Din then pulled a storming erg (complete with awesome changeover) that left us with a significant lead before Andrew stepped up and pulled a much better 500m than he had led us to believe he would. It was still close but Graham put in a great 500m to open out a lead and then The Mycroft Monster took over. Other crews had kept their best to last but our cunning strategy paid off with Chris leaving the erg with a 50m lead. Unfortunately a botched changeover (Chris' leg got stuck in the holder causing me to row without legs for the first part) immediately reduced it to 40m and their monster last man (1:22!!!) started closing. However, I did a bit of maths and realised that a 1:29 or so split would get us home so I paced [quiched] myself down to 1:29 and held that to the end knowing that I probably could have lifted it a little if absolutely necessary. Anyway, it wasn't necessary and we won by a healthy 3.1 sec.

Hurrah! Now if we can just learn to row... (Ingers)

We didn't row nearly as well as we can, but Churchill are good and won deservedly. (Ingers)

A much better row from us was enough to win the Plate final fairly comfortably. This level of rowing would have given Churchill a better race. (Ingers)

Not our best row of the term. (Ingers)

The crew were very disappointed to make little impression on LMBC. They held station until around Ditton and thereafter the scum moved away by about a length. (Martin)

I only started watching from Ditton, but Queens' seemed a little way off then. They pushed up the reach but at about a third of a length it looked like FaT could hold them. They started closing again at the top of the reach and bumped around where Morley's Holt might be. (I'm never really sure.) (BJ)

We rowed better then yesterday to Ditton and closed on Maggie. We had also moved a little away from Queens at first then held distance. Queens moved up down the Reach and hit us whilst rating higher and rowing better. (Ingers)

This was one of the most gutting races I have done. Partly because it was the first time I have been bumped, but mainly because I feel like we should have held them off. However they were simply a faster crew. (Dan)

This was probably my most enjoyable and certainly most memorable race for First and Third. The boat felt good on the way to the start, displaying plenty of confidence which was pleasing as they'd been bumped the previous day.

It was obvious that bow six were going to lay down plenty of power, so I told Chris that stern pair were going to work at 90% and concentrate on setting a good rhythm until we needed a boost. This point came on the exit of Ditton, and the extra power from the stern combined with the response from the rest of the crew resulted in by far the most effective push I've ever experienced, taking us from half a length down to alongside the (admittedly ailing) Queens' in about 15 strokes. An awesome bump - thanks guys! (JPD)

JPD is pleasingly powerful (Ingers)

An amazing row from the crew today. The extra power of Jon was noticeable, but to turn around a bump in such emphatic style is very impressive and requires a full crew effort. I was a bit concerned when Rachel called for our bumps push when we had only just got the half length call about 3 strokes earlier but it turned out to be the right one. I guess the unexpected nature of our lift out of Ditton really shocked Queens and they capitulated somewhat. I am sure that Maggie will not do the same but time will tell. (Dan)

We were rowing nicely down the Reach closing in on Maggie to overlap by the white house. Unfortunately Maggie had overlap on Binson and bumped them there with us a couple of strokes too late.

We were left with nowhere to go and were given a technical row over. Alas, the real pity was that Downing (who were the slowest of the 4 of us) were only 2 or so lengths in front of us and, as we had planned, the overbump was a real possibility. (Ingers)

We* had been cruising along nicely; we* knew we would catch Maggie somewhere in the reach, and we* planned on doing another killer push as we had done on Queens' yesterday. This was all fine except that Maggie bumped Robinson at the White House just as we got overlap.

Unfortunately we* weren't aware of the proximity of Maggie's bow to 'Binson's stern, and would have started our push 10 strokes earlier if we had - which I'm pretty confident would have nailed Maggie before they hit Binson. Never mind, at least we* went up one for the week.

* or was that just me? (JPD)