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." 

A good result for the 2nd VIII, competing mainly against 1st VIIIs and beating 9 of them. Everyone gave it their all, and that sort of determination will pay off later in the season. The individual times were enough to be in most colleges' 1st VIIIs. A shame not to make the final, but maybe aiming for that would've been slightly over-optimistic! (BJ)

The 4ths showed how successful they can be this year, beating two 2nd VIIIs and five 3rd VIIIs with a very strong performance. It was nice to see that there are no slackers at any level in this squad - I could see everyone was fully committed to the cause! It was also good to see the whole squad under the 1:50 mark, quite an achievement with 32 rowers entering. (BJ)

Well, there obviously should've been a stewards' enquiry, and we should've qualified for the final! Unfortunately our erg was only set up for a single 500m race, so after a 30-45s delay (and a second standing start) we set off with the other 7 rowers, but still beat Girton to the finish. The women really put in a gutsy row, but had their concentration disrupted slightly by the technical problems. So it was slightly frustrating to finish only one place outside the qualifiers for the final, but a determined performance nevertheless! (BJ)