The Club's Results

The Great Day out started at a reasonable hour with Jacob and I cycling to the Leys boathouse to get the bus.

When we arrived it was sunny with a light but building head wind. We would soon learn all about it, but marshalling in the lee of the shore we lay back and enjoyed the sun and discussed the finer points of tideway tactics.

We went off close to the crew in front, closer than intended but some wayward steering after Barnes didn't stop us from charging past. As we left the stream Wolfson Oxford slipped past to 2nd in S3.

As we glided to the eyot we had good rhythm and and a dynamic backs call lifted us past another crew. We went to take it up for the finish as we hit the headwind at Hammersmith. Choppy water and lack of experience meant that we struggled a bit but solid work carried us through to victory over FaT 1.

I agree with Tom that a bit of Tideway practice would have helped. It is really annoying to have lost 95% of the time on the winners by shoddy steering.

A challenge has been issued from FaT/ Pem to FaT 1 for a side by side race down the reach for the glory of a couple of pints. Tom and Dan have been training.

On a slightly more serious note, thanks for all those at FaT who made me so welcome and also to Ian the boatman for helping us to sort the boat etc etc.

C (Colin)

An excellent day out, easily the most enjoyable trip I've made to the tideway. Marshalling was more like sunbathing, none of the usual freezing cold and needing to piss so badly it hurts.

Less enjoyable was a powerful headwind in the first third of the course. We rowed ok in it, but I think it was blowing us away from the stream a bit, also it was really knackering. Crew 184, two places behind, were looking like overtaking soon after Barnes Bridge, and they went on to win S3.

We must've had a decent second half, losing only two lengths to them, but it didn't feel so great. The arms and backs were feeling very tired, and the rate was flagging a bit. The water was very choppy in the last couple of minutes, so we had a couple of shipwrecks before a decent push for the line.

The final reckoning? We were 30 seconds off the S3 winner, and an irritating 6 seconds behind Jacob and Colin. If Dan hadn't been on holiday in France the week before the race, and we'd ever practised on the tideway, I reckon we could've been quite competitive. Perhaps we can have a good run in the IVs... (Tom C)

There was a thick fog over Cambridge when we set off that morning and I have to admit I was expecting the worst. Instead it was almost tropical (almost, as in 'not at all') and we had a relaxed marshalling sat in the sun, watching a novice VIII caught in the stream taking out a few of the pairs below us.

The start was good, but it was difficult to hold a line in the stream with the wind - the lack of knowledge about where the stream was didn't help either.

Thanks to Simon Blackburn, the training we'd done a week earlier set us up fairly well and the rhythm came easily. The lack of other training on top of a rather scary wind made the forearms burn coming into the second third: We didn't make the most of the calm conditions here as the final push was again blown all over the place.

It was actually pretty fun - watch this space for more FaT/ composite sparring at the next one. (Dan)