The Club's Results

We managed to stick fairly well to the race plan with a good 'second start'. Steering was an issue though, due to little rudder effect, resulting in a number of, towards the end high-pitched, calls from Dan that stroke side should pull harder :o) We could probably have taken 5-10s of the time if we had rowed in our own IV- (we borrowed one from Robs because Tobias managed to rip one of the footplate sliders off by pulling to hard :o) )

Overall a good first race with good pushes and lots of determination. It bodes well for the Uni IV. (Pedro)

We could make lots of excuses; tired legs from the eights race, we'd only previously done half an outing in this combination, the riggers were too high, the rudder didn't work, the wind picked up, Dan was ill, etc, etc.

But the reality is that, despite pulling hard and rowing pretty well, we lost heavily to some losers in red. In only one week, we shall return, stronger than they can possibly imagine.

The good news is that the fastest town 4- only managed 10:09, and allowing 20 seconds for a cox we were well clear of all the other college boats. (Tom C)

Can't remember a Trin light IV beating LMBC. Congrats! (Dubya)

Awesome - I only saw the very end of the race, thanks to my completely superfluous DUing role [/"impartial" cheerleader], but the guys held it together much better than Maggie, and looked well in control right to the finish line. Brilliant, & much to look forward to in Lents. ("Light weight" Lilie)

It was a bit windy, but no more so than when we did our long practise pieces. Good rhythm down first post gave us 3s, which we increased to 6s by the Plough after a couple of pushes and superior cornering. At this point they started to worry and went for it, so we only gained another 2s in the second half.

We rowed well and steered well, but hope to be even better for the final. Obviously very pleasing to gain 20s on them in 10 days, and even better this completed a clean sweep of 4 red crews knocked out by 1&3 this week. (Tom C)

Found a very comfortable rhythm off the start and it was very encouraging to hear Iain shouting pleased comments! The pushes all worked well - possibly losing our catches a bit in the windy reach - culminating in an audacious number of 'up 2's after the railway bridge.

Big thanks to a very large and supportive bank party. It made such a difference on the reach as the light four understandably goes a bit quiet when the work comes on. Final is against Jesus, Friday at 1530h: Come on down! (Dan)

I was jogging along with the crew from the railings, and so I could see both boats take Ditton. It was hard to tell who was up at this point, but it quickly became obvious: Dan's line was nice, the Jesus line was terrible, and the separation reflected that. Our guys continued to open up an enormous lead in a tough headwind on the Reach, no doubt spurred on by a Mexican yell or two, and from there took it all the way home for a comfortable victory. (James)

More windy than Wednesday, and enough to make things hard. We'd been working on pressing the finishes out a bit more, and this improved the rhythm down first post. Steering was better too, but we were only 2s up after they took grassy wide. Pushed well down plough reach, and gained another 2s on the corner.

With more urgency than against lmbc, we nailed it down the reach. Focusing on the catches before the 30 stroke push helped a lot. Don't know what happened to them, maybe they started too hard, but we took a lot of distance out of them here. We finished it off with a committed sequence of up 1's after the bridge, stretching it out to a massive 14s.

I believe this is the club's first win in this event since 1988, so well done us! (Tom C)

Paddle down a bit nervous, Jesus looked pretty good. Incredibly, the sun kept coming out which meant I couldn't see a thing whenever I looked over my shoulder - I sensibly didn't mention this until after the race.

And what a race! An absolute pleasure to have been in this boat - as Tom said, we really nailed the reach this time, despite the head wind. Everything came together.

I had a few goes at crashing (strokeside only just managing to thwart my attempt at the Grey Barge on plough reach) but somehow we once again followed a good line most of the time; Iain once again a very welcome addition to the bank party. As Tobias said - 'I've never been so pleased to hear a Scottish accent'!

The supporters deserve a big mention: It was so good to come round Ditton to a massive cheer, and receive an even louder roar of approval as we hammered under the Railway Bridge. Thanks guys! (Dan)

I think we were pretty pleased this, really flew down first post reach. Had some trouble overtaking a KCL women's eight, Dan was busy eyeing them up rather than the barge we crashed into. We also had to go pretty wide round Ditton so this must've cost us at least 5 seconds. Can't really remember the rest except that I had difficulty making calls.

So we lost 49 seconds on the eight, which seems like a lot, but I suppose it wasn't quite as balls out and we haven't been rowing for 2 weeks. The fastest college 4+ was Kings with 9:30, so we may need a couple of outings before Fairbairns. (Tom C)

Crew felt powerful, found a rhythm easily and responded well to calls (admittedly these were usually 'STROKESIDE! STROKESIDE!' - must adjust the rudder.)

In my defence we didn't have a bank steerer, or even any bank party at all, which was a bit disappointing. Get keen, guys! With me steering you know its going to be exciting - the inch to spare under the railway bridge got Tobias' adrenaline going anyway.

In detail: Coming into the gut I knew we were in trouble - the women's VIII in front of us were beautiful but oh-so slow. Being good girls (with a rather fiesty, if male, cox) they meekly obeyed my commands to go wide around grassy and we went even tighter than normal. However, I tried to nip in front of them about two strokes too soon, had to swerve away and over steered. At this point I have to admit I was more preoccupied by a firm pressure rammage of a barge rather than the girl at 7. We smashed into it with 50% of strokesides looms, careered on past at quite a nip (luckily I hadn't called it down or anything) and we lost less than 5 seconds. Fortunately the big grey barge was busy annoying marshalling crews otherwise it could have a bit messy as we hurtled through the foliage which usually obscures it.

Fun for all the family - I don't think I swore too much.

If any KCL people read this, we're truly sorry and would love to meet you xxx (Dan)