The Club's Results

The first race of the regatta saw LMBC coxes racing FaT. LMBC were drawn on the Wren station, with the FaT 2nd May VIII Punters crew on the Paddocks station. It was neck-and-neck most of the way down the Trinity Reach, but there was a large amount of blade clashing in the Gut due to the necessity of First and Third having to avoid a puntload of tourists, achieved by steering hard to the Wren side of the river. A shoving match took place, ending with both boats pointing at the bank, with First and Third nearer the turning point. A swift disentanglement was followed by a sprint to the Bridge of Sighs, and a quick spin by both crews. The race back to Trinity was reasonably uneventful, save for the Maggie tactic of having supporters on the bank grab ahold of their punt and drag it along. In spite of this, FaT M2 managed to win by the merest fraction of a length, sailing gracefully under the bridge to applause from the partisan crowd. (Matt)

The "Semi-final" (as in "the first half of the final") saw Graham pit his wits against the best of the LMBC Punting Brigade. Despite us being drawn on the favourable Wren station, LMBC surged into a lead of about a length early on in the race, and despite a good push through the Gut and along LMBC reach, LMBC opened the gap to about a length and a half by the Bridge of Sighs ... (Matt)

... whereupon the Red ones overshot the spinning point slightly as both crews changed punters. With Matt on the deck, First and Third executed a near-textbook spinning manoeuvre (via the northern wall) a couple of lengths upstream of the LMBC punt and now we had the lead. Despite a repeat of the running along the bank antics from the Maggie team, First and Third managed to win comfortably by a length. (Matt)