The Club's Results

Not a bad way to start a novice season! I don't remember much about the heat, but the final was First and Third ahead all the way from Jacob's first mighty stroke to Llewellyn's technically dubious but equally mighty last one. I most enjoyed the commentator's change in style from 'It's First and Third with the early lead.', through 'Is anyone going to catch First and Third?', to 'Can someone please catch First and Third?'! Special mention of course must go to the two fastest rowers in the whole competition, Jacob with 1:26.2 (from a standing start!) and Llewellyn with what is surely a competition record of 1:21.7, but we were first to every changeover and this was a display of raw strength and power throughout the team. (BJ)

From Andy Yu's blog:

"Tonight is one of the greatest nights I have had in Cambridge

I was rowing for the Trinity Boat club Mens' First Crew (The Trinity College boat club is called the First and Third Boat Club due to historical reasons which I do not fully comprehend) in the Queen's Ergs Competition against all the other colleges. We won overall in the heats and we got into the finals.

Before the finals the 8 of us were so nervous as Selwyn(another college) were only 5 seconds behind us in the heats and if we do lose in the finals, we will be so gutted.

So we went in, still feeling slightly deprived of energy from our heats. The atmosphere was static, the supporters cheered, Trinity scarves flew and swayed~ And the race started........Throughout the race we were not overtaken by any other teams, but it was really close, Selwyn and Churchill and Maggie (St. John's boat club called Lady Margarat's Boat Club, aka scum kaka we are customary rivals =P) were hot on our heels.

And the last few seconds, we were like Oy My God, we are gonna win......and we jumped and jumped and hugged, nearly collapsing onto the floor out of exhaustion and joy.......................

Anyway, got a shiny silvery beer mug thing with 'Queen's Ergs 2004 Fastest Crew', so happy ar......cos of all the pain and teamwork paid off and the team spirit was gripping." 

For those of you wondering why there was a re-row...

This race was much tougher than the first, but it still started well, with FaT taking about half a length off Jesus in the first half of the course (their corner). However, Jesus put in a huge push, starting just before the railway bridge, and steered onto our side of the river, causing a blade clash and their winning by about 1/4 of a length. Unfortunately the umpires decided to call a re-row rather than disqualifying Jesus.

However, our crew thought they'd lost and were already halfway home. This meant they rowed straight back and started as soon as they reached the start (in the opposite direction). Jesus were all fired up for the re-row, whereas our boys clearly wanted to be back home! Despite similar disgraceful steering from their cox, as in the first race, the margin of victory was sufficiently large for the umpires not to call another re-row.

I was glad to see our boat behaved very well throughout, despite verbal abuse from the Jesus boat, and also that they managed to put in a good bit of paddling after the race!

Bring on Fairbairns, when Jesus are going down! (BJ)

To a man, we agreed that we'd done our best sustained rowing of the term -- our 33 rating off the start felt slower and more composed than previous outings at 26, and never once did we drop below 30. Yet to lose by seven seconds to LMBC over a ten-minute course left us all with the sinking feeling that we might, after all, have had that extra 1% in the tank. A disappointment, to be sure, but also a strong result to build on.

On a brighter note, bow Aldous Bertram provided pure comedy by coxing the row home. He relentlessly berated other boats for their blades of "foul off-strawberry" or "vulgar lilac." He also cleverly navigated us into the Fen Ditton Parish Ditch with well-timed demands for "secret pressure." And I'm certain none of the crews within earshot will ever forget his stirring rendition of Silent Night, delivered with his cox box at full volume and his voice box at full falsetto.

P.S. I think we showed a certain navigationally challenged cox at a college-to-remain-nameless who the real rowers are. (James)

A video of the start can be found here. (BJ)

This race held two highlights for me:

1) equaling our time over the Novice course from yesterday (10:05), despite saving plenty of juice for the additional 1.6k of the Senior course, and . . .

2) making our titanic push to overtake Hughes Hall just past Grassy Corner. Coming out of the Long Reach, the separation stood at three lengths. That's when cox Magnus Jones earned us at least half a length in mere seconds with his tight steering job around Ditton Corner. (All thoughts of yesterday's "secret pressure" at the same location were cast aside.) Then the distance melted away rapidly as the Hughes crew began to flag. The overtaking soon became a foregone conclusion, and the frantic cries of one of the Hughes bank party said it all: "That's the First and Third SECOND eight, and they're novices!"

Special kudos to substitutes Matthew Sargeant and Sebastian Pancratz, normally stern pair for the second novice VIII, who filled in admirably as bow pair.

Sixteen minutes of pain notwithstanding, this was my favourite outing of the term. (James)

The guys set off really well, initially rating 33 and moving like a train! I was getting a little worried that they'd gone off very hard, and that they'd not survive 4km of this pace, but they soon settled into a nice controlled rhythm rating about 30 or 31. A couple of weeks ago, a similar rating looked a little frantic at times, but it just goes to show how much they've improved by how good the rowing was.
It became clear by Chesterton that we were closing slightly on X-press and quite a lot on Hughes Hall (2 in front of us). X-press overtook Hughes at around this point. By the time we reached the railway bridge, Hughes were about 5 lengths clear of us and we were closing fairly fast. As we crossed the novice finish line, I clocked them as 10:06 since the start - only 1 second slower than yesterday - despite the fact that the race was more than 60% longer!
As we approached the end of the reach, the pace did seem to stall a little, and Hughes ahead held us at around 3 lengths for a while. Ditton corner was the point at which we'd agreed we'd start going for home. A great lift around the corner saw us go from 3 lengths off Hughes at Ditton to around 1/2 a length at Grassy - and the boys finally made the overtake at First post corner, spurred on by several Black Prince rowers who had come up from the finish to support.
The guys then lifted for the finish, crossing the line in 16:24, several lengths clear of Hughes Hall.

Overall, I was extremely pleased with how they all rowed. The rhythm was great throughout, and despite the fact that they'd only been rowing for 1 term, they were only 34 seconds off winning the fastest 2nd VIII prize, and managed to beat nearly 1/4 of the field of senior VIIIs. Black Prince III were also only 6 seconds infront, composed of 6 1st VIII colours, and 2 2nd VIII colours.

Great row guys, hope everyone comes back to row in the Lents!! (Richard)