The Club's Results

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)

On paper this result doesn't bode that well for day 1 of bumps. In reality it was actually very promising. Our start was good and we pulled away from them right from the beginning. We managed to build up a fairly convincing lead- I'm sure there was more to it than simply the towpath-side advantage. Then one of our gates had a disagreement with its blade and expelled it spectacularly. Fortunately we didnt lose the blade and Honey kept us out of the bank while it got sorted as Darwin came back at us, somewhat slower than i would have imagined.
We had a good push when we got back up to all 8 and pulled back up on them. Unfortunately it wasn't quite enough, but we were all pleased with our performance and comparitive speed. (jo)

Not a bad row, but not a great one either. They pulled away quite early on and we never seemed to get it together enough to push back at them. (jo)

Spacked up the start a bit, and Girton took about 1/3 length lead with the corner in their favour. We managed to hold it together up to the railway bridge, where the technique suddenly all clicked together and we moved past the tiring Girtonians to finish almost 1/2 a length up. (Matt)

Wound to 43, and strode it down to about 37 for the whole course. CCAT, meanwhile, wound it up into the 50's, and just disappeared off down the river rating about 40 (Matt)

A good start saw us pull away from Girton - gaining about 1/3 of a length by the end of the wind strokes. We probably hit our highest rating of the term during this start. We attempted to stride - and the rating came down to about 36. About half way down the reach - we were almost a length up - and we attempted a 2nd stride. At first it was ok - but then the rowing really fell apart. Girton closed fast - as we rounded the railway bridge - there was less than 1/3 of a length in it. A last-minute frantic push saw us cross the line 3 feet infront - with neither crew certain of who had won. Overall a good start - but after that it wasn't great (Richard)

We knew that we would have our work cut out to beat a strong Darwin crew. Our start wasn't as good as in the first race - but despite them hitting a much higher rating - we were within a couple of feet of them. After the stride - the rowing became pretty awful - and Darwin began to pull away. It felt like we'd given up well before the railway bridge - and we were apparently about 3 lengths clear water down at the finish. Overall - much improvement needed in the last week and a bit before bumps - but our starts seem to be coming together. (Richard)