The Club's Results

Ooh my first pennant :)

A really good, solid row - felt confident and in control to the finish. No shame to come third to stacked Jesus and Caius boats. After all, we are way down at the head of the Lents 2nd division - bring on bumps! (Lilie)

Pretty solid row, pleasingly tidy and powerful for a first outing of term in an viii. We caught up lots on the red scum and Girton, and rapidly dropped the chasing Nines crew. It'll be interesting to see the results; fingers crossed for a repeat of last year's WOM win! :)

...

Whooo pennants! We came 3rd of the college viiis, behind Jesus and Caius, and beat Darwin (ahead of us in bumps) by a whopping 56 seconds! (Amelia)

Wasn't the best of races we have done and the end of a week of sometimes very rocky outings... The second half of the second leg was considerably more enjoyable and powerful.

We seemed to finally find our rhythm on the Reach and had a prolonged wind/w*** for the fininsh as we overtook Newnham II (12 lengths in total...) in an effort reminiscent to our more glamourous racing moments last term.

6th isn't great, but certainly not a bad result. Needless to say the crews ahead are nowhere near us in Bumps, so I am beating myself up a bit needlessly here ;) The power is still there, we just need to find our grace... xxx (Pia)

Started off looking to be a close race, but once we were clearly gaining some ground they flagged a lot and despite some extreme spackiness we made it to the finish line well before Darwin (whom we are chasing in Mays......). Not very good rowing really but a perfectly acceptable result! (Erica)

Oh sweet anticipation... xxx (Pia)

We were late to marshall as five of us had only just got back from winning the other division, so Girton were waiting on the start (having also had to wait through another division for us because of our doubling-up issues).

Black clouds looked ominous on the row down, and as the marshall shouted Attention, Go! the heavens opened to the point that I couldn't tell whether I was being splashed by Pia, a massive gust of wind, or the plop of hailstones (approximately the size of apricot stones) in the water (usually this is very obvious :oP). Anyway, Girton put up a very good fight and we were level with them for most of the course, just managing to push slightly harder to the finish after a minor blade clash. I am very impressed that Jenny could see anything to steer by in that weather!

Again, not the prettiest rowing ever, but the start was well together and the last push to the finish was very satisfying. (Erica)

This race was not from this world. There was no visibility, the pain was mainly due to the hail, which started just before the GO and finished as we crossed the finish line. Girton are certainly not in the form we like to remember *:)* and gave us a very good race. Great fun!! (Pia)

You're right Erica, I could hardly see a thing!
Girton had moved over slightly onto our station, so I was aware there was some blade clashing occurring on strokeside at the same time as Cath's blade was about an inch away from the hard on bowside. But we squeezed through and won anyway :)
(No call for "I can see the finish" because I couldn't at any point in the race)
The bombardment by huge hailstones was not nice. (Little Jenners)

Wasn't bad at all; the practice starts were better than the real one but as usual our main strength was ...er... strength! Could have been a lot tidier, but on the other hand we were only about 10s slower than Jesus W1 (who have hundreds of Blues etc) so this is something to work on but not worry about. Will be interesting to see times for the other W1 crews; of those so far posted I think we are second (to Jesus).

Update: We got pots, and apparently also a goblet for Jenny's fantastic coxing! Second overall college W1 boat, and by a pretty small margin at that. (Erica)

And better still, Jenny won a best-line-around-Ditton goblet and bottle of champagne! (Mika)

And Caius W1 were... 3rd? (Pia)

The strong tail wind that dominated the lake all day might have been the only reason we got to the other end of the course, because it certainly wasn't good technique, timing or general rowing that did. (Lack of a cox box didn't help either.) Luckily, none of our other races were quite as horrendous as this first one, and we were considerably calmer and more controlled for the rest of the day. Surprisingly, our spack managed to set a new course record, and our time was the fastest of all 3 heats. (Mika)

Much more solid and committed than the heats. Still spacky and finishes weren't great, but there was definitely a solid rhythm at times. The other crews were close for most of the race, but when they died around 750m, we didn't (quite so much) and managed to gain some distance into the finish.

Another course record, and the only crew without matching kit. Mwa ha ha... (Mika)

A marked improvement over our first race (in S4)! The start was actually decent, there was rhythm, we weren't rating 157 throughout... We remained ahead throughout (I think) but Lea was right on our tail the whole time. Good solid row, and what I thought was the best of the day. (Mika)

This was probably our best row of the day - we were pushed hard all the way, but wanted it enough, and pushed right through to the finish. It took a lot out of us though, and probably contributed to our loss in the final.
Worth mentioning that after the heats, we were the fastest women's crew there, including S2 for the time we posted in this race :D (Lilie)

Well, some of us were a bit knackered by the time we got to the start of race... We remained more or less with the other crews until the last 250, when they took a push, and we mentally took one. Unfortunately, pushing with the mind alone is not a very effective way of increasing boat speed. Perhaps in full-form we could have given them a better run for their money.

Thanks to Iain for his surprise visit (especially after spending an unanticipated morning at the boat house with the police) and to Lilie's dad for towing us, our many disasters and half of Sainsbury's out to Peterborough and back! (Mika)

This race went pretty much as we expected, apart from the very stiff head wind in the reach. A fairly controlled race to Ditton, followed by a massive spack to Peter's posts, complete with air strokes, timing issues and multiple ratio calls. Luckily we were quite a few lengths ahead at this point, and we took it down after the bridge, to paddle across the line at half pressure well clear of Queens'. (Erica)

Row over painful
Div 1: Darwin died quickly
Back where we belong (Lilie)

Well done girls another very good start but Lillie, haven't you got another 16 places to go? (Dan)

I want to take Catz W1, dig out their spleen with a wooden spoon and eat it.

Not a haiku, but true. Let's go for the kill off the gun. (Pia)

Bumps is so cruel, they
Broke our unbeaten record
Catz will feel our pain.
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Quote from Selwyn BC: "It was all change at the start line after yesterday's bumps in front of and behind us. First and Third were an exceptionally strong crew behind, so the situation was one of bumping quickly or getting a whipping..." (Lilie)

Very very frustrating. We went out hard, we closed to half a length, we did our best and unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough.

My (less good) haiku offering:

Mighty Cat and Buns;
So fast! Alas Wheel were slow
Selwyn Bump first. Arse. (Amelia)

Never in question
Draw, wind and stride; Hold it up!
Long slow paddle home (Lilie)

Just fifty five strokes
Revenge for yesterday sweet
Bump bumpety bump (Amelia)

Not smart enough to write Haiku
So a limerick will have to do.
Revenge for Thursday,
(Selwyn were in our way)
Fifty strokes and we downed that Catz crew. (Mika)

Not mugh of a fight-
Two lengths clear of the bridge, we
Award New Hall spoons

disclaimer: New hall didn't get spoons. But it's the morning after BCD and it fits. (Lilie)