The Club's Results

Lost by only a second, but happy with our mental approach. This was our second race of the day, and we didn't make the same mistake twice. This time we attacked the third quarter (i.e. the Reach) relentlessly, meaning we'd pretty much gassed ourselves by the rail bridge. The boat felt very, very, very heavy. We had a variety of theories, with the two most likely being 1) tiredness from the earlier race in the VIII and 2) and the presence of a rudder obstruction which fouled the steering and could have added some nontrivial drag. Not sure how much of a difference that made, but we still had a committed row and that's what counts at this early stage. (James)

The race result was a little disappointing, but also unfortunate in terms of the close defeat. I do not think, though, that we lost the race in the re-row, we actually lost it in the first regular race where we should have beaten Jesus.
The start was feeling very good, the rate was coming up and the hands were going out quickly. It is hard to estimate, but I would definitely say that we took some time out of Jesus. After 20 or 30 burst strokes we settled down and tried to find our own rhythm. Around Ditton it was feeling a little heavy, not as fluid as before.
Coming onto the reach we did our second start and went off really well despite the headwind which was kicking in. I cannot say much about the last part of the race on the reach.
From my point of view we have to really work more on our catches (felt a little indecisive from time to time).
Every now and then there have been strokes where the whole pace of the boat completely died because we tripped over to one side after heaving squared up our blades again. We maybe need to keep our bodies even calmer. (Floto)

After some excellent pieces in practice, and Rachel's 'you can win blades: not just any blade, one with my name on it,' we were keen for this. Lashings of grunt and a fluid high rating saw us fly away from Jesus. Good corners, a determined drive down plough reach, and yet another out of ditton left us slightly ahead. Down the Reach we put down huge power, but technique began to flag: we lost the zing. Jesus closed a fraction, and we finished dead level. grrr. Eventually both crews opted for rerowing just the Reach - Jesus relying on their size; us relying on another blistering start. Despite hundreds of huge pushes, the chasing gap never changed. Except it did slightly, and we lost by a canvas. grrr again. (Jacob)

Having resisted the allure of blue and gold until the last division of the last race of term, I turned up for what can only be described as a somewhat less than stellar performance. There was no lack of effort going down, but everyone was just too knackered after the preceding VIIIs race. (Andy)