The Club's Results

An encouraging start to the bumps. The first division beckons... just a little more calm at the start, a bit more aggression in the last 400, and maybe a bit less rock and roll at Grassy, and we'll be flying. (Albert)

A surprising result indeed. A little more confidence in ourselves should pay dividends tomorrow. (Dubya)

Armed only with our mandatory ten outings, and a dodgy cox box, we approached the start line with, perhaps, less optimism than ideal. We had been told on one of our outings that there were three things to make a boat go fast: length, power and rate. We had the first two and, well, 30 was probably the highest we'd done a head course at. As it was, we stayed away from Fitz and gained steadily on Caius. About ten strokes from the finish, I watched 2's blade catch about two-three feet from their stern. Sadly, it was not to be, gutted. But will approach tomorrow, more confident of being able to bump Caius II or Peterhouse. (Andy)

things to learn, but a pretty decent performance. we closed steadily on caius throughout the whole race and got to overlap at the finish. fitz were nowhere. more of the same tomorrow, just a bit more organised. (Graham)

HEAD 2ND BOAT!!! Ditton. Fantastic. (Martin)

The 2nd VIII are legends. Obviously much better than Caius! (BJ)

Peterhouse managed to row over in front of Caius II last night in M1, so we were once again chasing Caius. We dispensed with the stride and even managed to row around the corners decently. A dizzying rate of 32 led to a bump coming out of Ditton. length + power + rate = speed. Happier, but job not yet done. (Andy)

We saw Caius II rowing back home just as we were about to push off for M1, so we knew our guys had bumped them and were now the sandwich boat. Big high fives all around -- I think some of us were more excited to marshal at Chesterton and find out the details than we were about our own race! (James)

Yesterday's row was a bit disappointing - we got so close but failed to convert, although it gave us clear indication of the "state of play" between the top 3 crews of M2. Today, we set out to make amends for missing Caius yesterday.

We altered our race plan slightly, delaying the rhythym (a.k.a. stride) call until we were into the Gut. The higher rating until that point saw us get our first whitsle. We settled onto our rhythm in the gut on a slightly higher rating than yesterday (yesterday's rate 30 round grassy was a bit too pedestrian!). Our push out of grassy saw us getting to about half a length, and we gained up Plough Reach, achieving 3 whistles at the Plough. As we closed, the boat started to pitch around in the wash, but we continued to push hard, and by Ditton we started forcing overlap. My blade caught the Caius stern as we were about half-way round the corner. Incredible - head 2nd VIII - and sandwich boat for M1! (Richard)

For me this is the bump (X2) of the week so far. You guys rock. I don't care if the 2nd VIII song is Electric Six or even Magic Numbers at the dinner, i'll still think it's fantastic. (Dan Newton)

We gained slightly off the start, but then had to hold it up, as up ahead, Jesus had caught an ejector crab. On the speedily retaken rerow, we made a better job of the start, and made ground on Peterhouse, especially around the corners. A good push saw us make the bump just shy of the Plough. Pleasing day's work, Selwyn is the next target. Peterhouse were gracious enough to offer their congratulations on foot, after we had arrived back at the boathouse. (Andy)

Starting from station 18 gave us a bit of a new outlook to the race plan - but we had loads of time to fine-tune a few details as we waited at Peter's Posts. Peterhouse were an unknown quantity to us, but we just had to row our own race and see how it went.

Our start was reasonable enough and we gained a few feet on Peterhouse. We had to hold it up at the Little Bridge (along with 7 or 8 other crews) because of a Jesus eject-a-crab several boats ahead of us.

We paddled back to the start to await a 2nd set of cannons for the re-row. Our start was probably a bit better than the previous race, and we did gain a bit. Our push of the Motorway Bridge took us to a length, and Peterhouse held us well at a length up most of the rest of First Post Reach. Our corners had been very scrappy yesterday, but we actually had a surprisingly good First Post corner and Grassy Corner. By the exit of Grassy, we were only about half a length off them - and still gaining. A decent push at Grassy saw us close further - and a few strokes later, we got our third whistle. We'd taken this as our signal to push for the bump. The bumps push was really quite incredible and the boat speed shot up. We closed from 1/4 of a length to bumping them in what seemed like a blink of an eye. We made contact a few strokes shy of the Plough pub! The 2nd VIII finally make it back into M1 for only the 2nd time since the late 1950s (the previous being in 1999) - but tomorrow we need to get Selwyn to cement our division 1 status! (Richard)

Fantastic guys, absolutely fantastic! Am very jealous you've achieved what no other Trinity 2nd boat has achieved since 1999 and could do even better tomorrow... (Dan)

I love the 2nd VIII. Please don't bump before Ditton next time - I want to see it. (BJ)

Bumped out of Grassy. A really excellent row. (Martin)

a very good row down to the race.
we rated 27 down the reach and failed to gain on selwin, whilst cauis II (chasing us)were no where to be seen.
one final push tomorrow. (H.S. Colvin)

Having seen that it was Caius II as sandwich boat, and that they'd gone for a sprint to get Peterhouse, we'd assumed that they'd try the same stunt with us as sandwich boat. We'd been roughly on station with Selwyn when we'd bumped Peterhouse the previous day.

Off went the gun, and we took a bit of distance out of Caius, and not much out of Selwyn ahead. Caius got some of the distance back as we settled, but we held them on distance to the motorway bridge and moved away from them thereafter. Selwyn started to open up the gap up first post reach. At Grassy, Selwyn had virtually doubled the starting distance, whilst we had opened up a considerable lead over Caius. As we passed the Plough, we were clocking a steady rate 30. Selwyn had pissed off into the distance - some 4 or 5 or so lengths ahead, hotly persuing Christ's (which they came within a few feet of bumping). Caius behind were pushed further and further back, being about 5 lengths down on us by the Plough. Between Ditton and the Railings, Caius II either blew up or wound down - I couldn't quite tell. As we crossed the finish at Morley's Holt, Caius were still out of sight and hadn't even come past the Railway Bridge. Selwyn had slowed (and Christ's escaped), but we were still a long way from them.

Maybe if we take the rating back up like we did on Thursday, we might be able to stay in touch with Selwyn, and hopefully profit from any mistakes that they make. (Richard)

Quality row, our best by far though still under-rating a bit. No worries behind, didn't put much pressure on Selwyn in front, but still we're head 2nd viii! And our song is WICKED. (Dubya)

Caius yesterday had tried a sprint to Ditton, but failed to get inside distance at any point, so we didn't know exactly what they'd try today. After yesterday, we were pretty confident that we could hold them off.

The gun went, and we had a pretty good start and settled to about 32-ish after we rounded the first corner. Through the motorway bridge, we had moved up slightly on Selwyn ahead, and had already moved away by 1 length on Caius. At first post corner, Selwyn had opened out the gap a bit on us, and we'd taken another couple of lengths on Caius. By the time we were straight on the exit of Grassy, I couldn't see the Caius boat at all. At Ditton, we were around 6 or 7 lengths ahead of Caius II, but we wanted to take as much distance as possible by the finish. Down the Long Reach, Selwyn ahead opened up to around 4 or so lengths ahead of us, whilst we pushed away from Caius to a double-figure number of lengths by Morley's Holt (Caius were again about at the Railway Bridge by the time we were passing the finish), finishing about a minute before them to hold onto the 2nd VIII headship in style!

Today was probably one of the best rows we'd had all term, but Selwyn ahead showed that they had a higher cruise speed.

Overall, it's been a good week for the 2nd VIII. At the start of term, with us rowing as a IV - trying to find 4 others to make up an VIII, I'd never of dreamed of bumping Caius for the 2nd boat headship and bumping Peterhouse to get into the 1st division!

After rowing home, due to the fact that we finished in the 1st division, we didn't have long before the dinner to warm up our vocal chords for the 2nd May VIII song, but it seemed to be well received! (Richard)