The Club's Results

Unlike our oppositon, John and I had actually been out in a double a couple of times in the past, but seeing as the outings usually ended in arguments, I'm not sure if they can be counted as effective training and thus cheating for this regatta.

Our burst at 'race pace' on the way to the start soon made it apparent that we were likely to go faster rating 16 with me actually doing something, rather than rating 22 with me spacking for Britain (and possibly the States too) and John doing all the boat moving. He wasn't convinced, so we settled at a semi-highish rate off the start and soon pulled away, though the rowing was far better when we had settled back to a lower one.

On the way back to the boathouse I actually figured out how to scull (not over-reaching works wonders) and we finally had it going pretty nicely. John has even suggested we try going for a few more outings, but minus the arguments this time. Hopefully. (Sarah)

Well, if we were going straight, I'd say we would have been reasonably matched. However, given that they crabbed and crashed at least twice before first post we opened out a lead which saw us finish pretty much before they reached the top of the reach. "Won by the bow girl's steering" as commented on the finish line.
Ohh, exhausted- with Graham "motivational guru" Sills bank partying, for some reason I didn't slack off at all, and as a result almost died. Pretty good row I think, difficult to tell really cos of all the adrenaline. (Lilie)

'Bow girl steering' certainly couldn't have done it without stroke girl's sculling :)
As we disappeared round grassy, we saw them entering 1st first, before (as they told us later) they parked in the bank soon after. We never saw them again, but there was no chance I was willing to slack off with Graham driving us on from the bank.
Apparently I was spotted as "isn't that your cox?" though. I hope it's not illegal to enter with this kind of natural steering advantage, I claim it's balanced by the power disadvantage! (Little Jenners)

Lost to the eventual winners, so no disgrace really. Pity we're (particularly little me) not built for such a huge headwind. Need to bulk up those arms... (Little Jenners)

Report from the banksteerer:
This result is a bit misleading, the FaT girls were ahead pretty much all the way (Churchill having crashed just after the motorway bridge and working hard to make up a good amount but not by any means all of the lost ground by Ditton), and were only thwarted by a huge headwind in the reach which clearly favoured the much heavier opposition, who beasted it down after them to win by a few lengths. (Erica)

Slightly slow start, but it was controlled and we took a straight course down first post reach. It was clear, however, that they were gaining and by grassy they had closed perhaps 5 or 6 seconds. We had taken a good line round first post and grassy, whereas they then went very wide on grassy and had to almost stop when their blades went into the bank. this put them back to just outside station again.

Bow then began to shout encouraging calls of 'destroy them now' etc and in fact got so worked up about this that he forgot about ditton and as a result took it rather wide - (muppet). We were holding them in terms of speed at the moment, though and their ditton wasn't perfect either. Had a good lift out of diton and pushed all the way down the reach. They were about on station for this time and we realised it was going to be close. Stroke was complaining about his lack of fitness afterwards and i think we were both fairly glad when they decided to have another small meeting with the bank shortly before the finish, ensuring the result.

I think it was clear they would have been faster over a straight course and the bloke in their bow seat had dominated the colquhouns (sp?) that morning, so they were a bit unlucky. Just shows that in a race on the cam, you have to be able to cope with the corners.

bring on the final (Graham)

chasing this time, so no idea what was going on for most of the race, but we had dan jane on the bank giving us vague ideas.

We started a bit more solidly than yesterday and had decent pushes down to first post. i think we probably took most of the distance out of them on the corners, as they tended to go a little wide. somewhere in the gut dan shouted something that might have been 'they're going wide' so we took that as a cue for a push and began to reel them in. We were a few lengths down as we rounded ditton and heard tom call 19s as the amount we were up on them at that point. we were right in their wake and they had a bit of a push, which gained them a little back, but we began to catch up again soon enough. we never quite caught them, but the result was clear.

another two CUBC trialists dealt with. back home for pints and medals. (Graham)

Didn't see the corners but the boys were making ground down the reach despite being in dirty water. Was particularly amused by Graham's enthusiastic up 2 call going into the last 400 and Andrew's equally "enthusiastic" response. (Tom C)