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The Club's Results

Lent Bumps 2005

3rd men's VIII

Coxed by: Honey Duan
Coached by: Simon Blackburn

Tuesday
Bumped Downing III
Been there, done that. (in 1998)- and they were only slightly more competitive then.. (Dubya)
Yeah, we didnt know what to expect from Downing today. Turns out we had nothing to worry about. Had overlap by the motorway bridge. I'm sure they put up a better fight back in '98... (Fergus)
Been there, done that. (in 2002. and Mays 2003)

Bumped easily probably closer to the motorway bridge than first post corner. Downing were slow off the start, and didn't improve much thereafter. Solid row.

Dunno about '98, but in '02, they were similarly slow. (Andy)
Been there, done that (in 2003).

Andy, you also did it in 2003, as well as 2002. (Richard)
My god we're good.

We pushed out (Thanks Willum T) with great aplomb. Drew for a few. Wound it a little (only with 6 rowers - no sense in overdoing things - phil, fix your seat next time...). Then we strode...

And that was about it. They could at least have made it a bit more entertaining.

HOLD IT UP! Went the call. 2 AND 4! (to get us towards the bank). But what's this - Peterhouse are coming along too tight to the bank from behind - we haven't time to get across... PANIC!) Okay, ALL 8 FROM BACKSTOPS. And off we went again. Held off Peterhouse for long enough to get into the bank. They started a station behind, they were even slower than Downing!

One down, three to go. Minimum. (Dan Newton)
Been there, done that ('98, in exactly the same boat).

Downing have a "unique" method of pushing off, meaning that the bank party were left with the rather curious moral quandry (spelling?) of whether to call "1 length" before the starting cannon....

They were slightly less awful in '98 (only just - probably took us 10/15 strokes further) but were a lot more vocally rude. (Anything to do with being short)
They were rude because we bumped when they crashed on the exit of Grassy, didn't they? Other differences include it being a lovely warm sunny day in 1998! (Martin)
Wednesday
Bumped Jesus III
When you think that yesterday we rowed mostly with 6 men and all the excitement came in the clearing then it seems logical that today we row with mainly 7 men and the excitement comes in the marshalling. Maybe...

Rowing down, feeling good, what should happen but Rob's rigger sheers through due to his brute force and constant 110% application. I'll explain it technically and if it doesn't make sense to those who don't know the rowing terms then you may need a rowing dictionary:

Of the three bar things on the metal thing that holds the oar in, the middle (thickest) bar broke in two.

Bummer!

Luckily Iain the super boatman was on hand and he bound the rigger together using nothing but his bare hands, a make-shift splint (from an iron rod he just happened to be carrying), and a lot of gaffer tape.

Rob was to row ghost pressure, and 6 a bit too to balance the pressures. We're sorted. Pushed off. BUT NO....

Pushed off too hard, Honey drops the bung, we drift back into the bank. At the gun Mark's first move is to push off the bank, then draw. Needless to say it's not the best start.

We found out later this was also because Rob 'the rigger breaker' Patterson had not tied his feet in. DOH!

Once he got them back in (about a minute in) and we had 8 rowers the bump was a doddle.

Hopefully friday we can move up to 8 rowers and have the excitement IN the race. As Phil said, we've had all our bad luck and good luck in two days so we're on our own from now on. Surely nothing else can go wrong. Can it?

p.s Rob - private land training between now and fridays race - sit on an erg and practise feet in, feet out, feet in, feet out, feet IN. And repeat... (Dan Newton)
...And as for the Jesus 3 man who thinks he's in the fastest M3 VIII on the river... Well they ain't as fast as the fastest M3 VI/VII on the river, and one of these days we're gonna row all VIII. Then they'll be sorry. (Albert)
Friday
Rowed over
Race plan: All 8, feet in.

The beauty was in the simplicity.

We did a good start and moved up on Clare II. They bumped a crappy Catz II crew though. Their stroke man gestured forcefully at us as we rowed by. Most unsporting. This means that (a) they were petrified of us and (b) he has a small willy.

***CORRECTION - my sources tell me Clare stroke was actually cheering us on. Very sorry dude. I was too quick to anger and need glasses. I'm sure your willy is fine.***

Overbump was a maybe but we couldnt make four and a half lengths on them before they made one and half on the people they were chasing and bumped out.

A triple overbump, even for us, was not gonna happen.

In the end we realised that blades are just pretentious. If you get blades in the 3rd boat you're labelled a 'ringer'. We're too modest for that and so decided that up 3 is a much better result...... (touch wood) (Dan Newton)
This was a disappointing race in that we were quicker than Clare II, and would have almost definitely bumped them by Grassy. Unfortunately Catz II are woeful, so Clare hit them at First Post corner when we were around half a length off.

The row itself was fairly good, and the row over was solid and committed. It's a shame that the crews ended up in this order, but hey, this is bumps and it's days like today that make it so exciting. (Phil)
The row to first post was a bit 'agricultural'. We only closed on Clare II at one third of the rate they closed on Catz II. Further ahead LMBC II failed to take Grassy corner and so upset the form guide which led us to expect to be chasing them for a mammoth triple overbump. We chased Homerton down the reach in unremarkable fashion. Well done Clare II. (Rob)
Saturday
Bumped St. Catharine's II
This was our revenge for Catz denying us blades yesterday (although our poor technique on first post reach played a part too). It was all over very quickly. Shame there's no "day 5" where we'd get another chance at Clare II. (Fergus)
Our rowing was solid but un-spectacular today. We didn't make a massive impression on Catz to start with, but they were clearly rowing at their limit, which meant they caught a crab and lost a seat half way down First Post Reach. We however could have continued to row out the course as we were, and so hit them just over halfway down First Post Reach.

Up 3 is a good result, not quite the one we were hoping for, but never mind. Maggie 3 got spoons today, so we're in with a good shot of taking 3rd VIII headship next year! (Phil)

1. So, do you .. errr.....
2. The long row takes i...
3. Catches in at the Pl...
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