The Club's Results

There was not a single member of this crew who did not whinge that they did not want to race before the start. We'd all done Fairbairns at least once already today and were quite keen to go home and get ready for the dinner. Oh well. It got to our allocated time to push off and there didn't seem to be any excuse worthy of not racing. Arse.

We had an unbalanced and spacky start, but eventually settled into a half decent rhythm by Emma footbridge, where Magnus called for our rhythm push. This saw us go through Elizabeth Way rating a consistent 31, and we more or less maintained this rate through the entire race.

On the Reach the cross-headwind further contributed to our shocking balance, but we nevertheless kept it powerful through the water and various 'rip the riggers off' type calls ensured committment from all four throughout.

Coming round Ditton I was sure that death by exhaustion was only strokes away, but we managed to lift it for the last straight impressively, to take it home in style.

Winning was a slightly surprisingly, if very gratifying result - the plaque will look very nice in the boathouse. (Magnus Jones)

Hmm. I think the pictures say it all really :o/

Having all already raced the full course at least once, we were pretty knackered coming into this one. But, it was the Last Race of Term. So we decided that actually, it would be quite worth really killing ourselves for a good time, even if there wasn't much chance of winning. We duly emptied the tanks, collapsed on the finish line (didn't see many other crews who weren't able to row on prettily after their races), and won, despite the row not being very technical. I think that result says something about the absolute commitment in this boat. Really really worth it, even after the rest of the day.

Coming third in the VIII was a very sweet icing on the cake after we heard about this result. A good day all round! (Erica)

I actually felt pretty honoured to have supported this race. I think it ranks as the most committed row I have seen - a very well earned result. (Martin)