The Club's Results

Before the race, Jenny informed us that we were going to treat this as a bumps race, as that's when we do our best rowing. I didn't realise at the time how seriously she meant it...
The first half was solid and uneventful. Clare closed on us a little initially, but we found a good rhythm and pulled away convincingly on the reach. Caius managed to edge away from us gradually. At the lock, we decided we shouldn't let them do that in the second half.
Clare gave us a bit of a fright by deciding to start as close to us as they could manage but as soon as Jenny told us we were gaining on Caius, we forgot all about Clare, who were sliding away out of view.
On the reach we suddenly found ourselves alongside Caius who were in the process of doing a standing start, after some boat-stopping disaster. They did a good job of it, and seemed to be getting away, but soon we were bouncing around in their wake in bumps-tastic fashion, and were right on top of them when we crossed the line.
Certainly the most enjoyable head-2-head I've ever taken part in! (jo)

Highlights of this race were:

- seeing Clare fading into the distance on the second leg
- rounding Ditton to find Caius closer than expected
- being able to sit the boat quite decently between single strokes
- having Jenners back where she belongs!

It's also very pleasing to see that after ourselves and Caius the nearest opposition was over 40 seconds slower. Not sure what happened to Caius - on getting round Ditton we discovered them going slowly and having some trouble with something in the boat. We made it level with them, before they performed a very creditable restart and just about got away from us again. In the end we came out on top, by 6 seconds. However, this is a pretty small margin and it's probably fair to say that Caius were the faster boat when they actually had their blades in the water. On the other hand, this was our first outing in this crew, and we certainly have a lot of possible improvement before Bumps. Looking forward to opportunities for us to prove we can beat Caius without giving them any excuses.

A very good start to the term! (Erica)

Today I heard Jenners say one of the best things a cox can say - "We're going to overtake Caius" - pity it was partly due to their "ex-novice catching a boatstopper".

I also loved our last 10 strokes - I have yet to feel a more purposeful release of the black pearl... (Jane)

I looked at the full results - we beat crews from men's Lents 4, men's Lents 3, men's Lents 2 (!) and men's Lents 1 (!!!). :)

I was very impressed with the way Caius got it back together after their incident, and agree that they were probably the faster crew. However, as we all know, Bumps shows no mercy to those who crab. So as Erica said, we're looking forward to some decent racing later in term, free of crustacean company! (Amelia)

Amazing, or to put it in Jenny's words, 'purposeful' row and a very encouraging start to this important term. I'll leave it to the others to rave about how we comprehensively dropped second seded Clare and our battle with an ultimately disappointing Caius W1...

Let's keep our fingers crossed for the results...! (Pia)

A pretty solid row. We coped reasonably well with the rocky conditions in the middle third and finished strongly with several enthusiastic 'last 10's. It was a bit miserable rowing over the course in almost complete isolation, with enormous gaps between crews at either end, thus nothing really to push off/into. Hopefully we can take the better bits from today and build on them in the coming weeks. (Amelia)

Not at all bad, and pleasing to be solidly at the top of the college leaderboard. We would probably have shaved a few seconds off had there been any competition within 750m of us. A good sustainable rhythm took us all the way with very little to remark on. (Erica)

1st row: a bit rushed, plenty of aggression but it didn't quite go as far as it might have done because the rhythm was a bit lacking.

2nd row: much better technically, but we lost the killer edge and didn't take advantage of the better rhythm as much as we could have.

So, the worst of both worlds in some sense. But disregarding the "race" aspect of the day, I think there are a lot of positives, in particular that we do have both the rhythm and the power and just need to have them more consistently on at the same time!

Erica (Pedro)

Update: we won, and we came second as well(!) A pleasant if unexpected surprise! (Erica)

This was a committed piece with plenty of aggression and power going down, but it lacked some finesse and felt a bit rushed. (Amelia)

A very solid 'double run'. Combining the determination of the first run with the control of the second should get us to the racing form we want for Pembroke Regatta, the Bumps and the WeHorr. (Pia)

Following Iain's advice, we lowered the rate a little on this piece and concentrated more on the rhythm. I thought it felt a little quichey which was disappointing given the aggression of the first race, but unsurprising given that we were knackered! It was still enough to seal our second first place of the day however, which was pleasing. (Amelia)

This was a bit disastrous really! Confusion over subs, and sides of said subs, and coxing, followed by a rubbish paddle to the start didn't set us up very well for a good race. It was duly awful, and Churchill capitalised on our spackiness to hold on to a pretty close finish. The row back was a lot better as subs, and those who had moved seat or changed side, got settled into the boat! (Erica)

The nerves showed in this race. We were a bit spacky until about the railway bridge, at which point we gained some confidence and some length, which made the latter half bearable.

Thanks to Katie and Jude for subbing, and well done Ameeelia for survivng bowside!

From the bowseat I had Absolutely no idea of distances, so can someone add them? (jo)

I was almost in favour of scratching before this race, given the previous one and Newnham's generally good form for the rest of term. However, we seemed to realise that we needed to pull ourselves together a bit and did so, taking more water from Newnham than expected and rowing to a convincing victory. (Erica)

This was a much better row! We had rhythm and length from the start, and it felt pretty sustainable.

Thanks to Fran for subbing (and to Jude for continuing to sub all day!) (jo)

Spurred on by the knowledge that M1 had beaten Caius :-D we had an amazing practice start. The real thing was a little less amazing, but we had a good row. Kings gave us a really good fight, which made it fun!

Thanks to Sarah for subbing in the semi and the final. (jo)

A really good race! We were level with Kings for a good way along the Reach, but started to pull away coming into the Railway Bridge. The corner in our favour lengthened out our lead, which we then held to the finish. (Erica)

The race started well, but unfortunately we had a blade-out-of-gate incident. We recovered very well the first time, and pleasingly demonstrated that we can do killer pushes if we need to. The second time was enough to seal it for Caius.

I had lots of fun today, and am very much looking forward to bumps :-) (jo)

Fined for "megaphone abuse"?? I love it! ("Light weight" Lilie)

Apparently Iain blew at full power into his whistle into his megaphone into an umpire's ear. (Martin)

As has already been said, not the best row, but it did the job and got the nerves out of the way. Looking forward to something a bit more solid tomorrow.

J (Jane)

I don't know, I don't know... LMBC W1's calls for "Jeeeesus, Jeeeeesus!!" while beating their tree this morning sounded more like a plea to a Higher Power than their 'power in the water'...
unfortunately neither Jesus W1 nor Divine Providence yielded and we hit them coming into Grassy.

Favourite call: "Draw One-Finish here-quick catches- Oh, Maggie have taken a d... awefull line off the start!"

Favourite opposition comment: Jesus stroke to crew "We're going to get bumped tomorrow!"

A good start and all the sweeter because W2 had come back at Newnham with a vengeance!!!! (Pia)

This wasn't our best ever row but we did what we needed to do and did it reasonably quickly. I think first-day-of-bumps nerves got to us a little bit and so the start and subsequent stride(s) were slightly rushed and not as well together as we have been in training. Fortunately Maggie took a rather erratic line both off the start and around Grassy, making for a relatively quick bump. Tomorrow we know far more what to expect from the crews around us and should hopefully be able to find the rhythm we will need to take us through the rest of the week.

All in all, a satisfactory race, and the result we were hoping for. Job done. (Amelia)

Good race girls! I really enjoyed bank partying you today, it was Very exciting, YAY! Good luck bumping Emma tomorrow :) (Clair)

From station 6 in the outflow our first few strokes were in dirty water but nevertheless our start was reasonably controlled and powerful and we settled into a strong rhythm after a couple of strides and some gentle encouragement from Jenny. Around first post Jesus, who had caned it off the start to go slightly outside distance, got to within half a length on Emma, but Iain loudly assured us from the bank that they'd gone off too hard and would be dying soon.

Anyway Jesus didn't die quite as soon as I'd hoped and although we closed to a length in Plough reach they pushed away again. Coming around Ditton we encountered a small headwind, and Jenny's instructions to sit up enabled us to finally find the crew rhythm we'd been trying to get. Before too long we were closing on Jesus fairly rapidly, and the confidence of bumping I'd had before Ditton became a feeling of certainty. We soon pushed to half a length and then quickly to a canvas and Jenny told me this one was for me. One killer push from the crew and three smashes of my blade into their stern later saw us eventually get the much desired bump, just before the railway bridge.

In summary, a good hard row against some determined and strong opposition. Tomorrow we're hoping to catch Emma before they get Downing, who are currently on for spoons. I can't wait! (Amelia)

Thoroughly pleasing and purposeful rowing from boating to deboating. We did all we could but with all due credit to our speed, a bump on Emma on First Post was never going to happen!

On the bright side... the one way we could have avoided today's unfortunate starting constellation would have been the Headship for Caius... ahem... you have to admit there are worse trade-offs! ;)

Also very happy to see that all crews but the 1st VIIIs bumped today!!!!

Tomorrow W2 and W1 will strive to become the 3rd and 4th FaT crews to bump Downing this week. (Pia)

Today we rowed as we had intended to (and ultimately failed to) row all week, rather than battering up and down the slide and getting nowhere fast. Unfortunately even our best efforts, strong rhythm, desire to bump (and no doubt Downing's attempts to avoid spoons) were not enough to get a bump on Emma. We had a good start and pushed Jesus away, but even before First Post Emma had whistles on Downing and bumped them shortly after exiting the corner. Jenny managed to steer us through the bumped out crews and we refocussed on trying to make up ground on Caius, but unfortunately today it was just not meant to be.

It's gutting to be denied our blades, but it's happened to many crews before us and will happen to many again in the future. I guess that's just Bumps. We'll be fired up for chasing Downing tomorrow and hopefully can find the same easy rhythm we got today. From 14th to 5th in seven days of racing is certainly not a bad result! :D

PS Well done to Emma for a very quick bump. Yes, you were outside distance on us. I'll look forward to some good racing at the top of W1 next Lents! :) (Amelia)

I'm sure giving Downing spoons will be more satisfying than winning your own oars... (Tom C)

For the first time this week, we actually nailed the start, which helped us move up on Downing pretty quickly. After that, we did as instructed from the bank, and rowed clinically. Then we got to 1/2 a length and reverted to overenthusiastic spacking for a while - which meant we didn't finish the job quite as quickly as we should have done.
We got them round grassy, but they took an age to concede (a recurring theme), risking serious damage to yet another of their boats.

It's been a really fun week. I'm delighted to have been part of FaT women's journey up the first division, and I can't wait to watch the crew take the headship next year.
jo (I know it says graham, but its not!) (Graham)

Today we had a much better start and reeled Downing in pretty much as we had intended. Towards the end when we were at a canvas/overlap it was incredibly rocky and as Jo says, we spacked around a bit, but fortunately it didn't matter too much. They eventually followed Jenny's eloquent instructions to concede as we exited Grassy, and became the fourth Downing crew of the week to succumb to a FaT crew.

Up 3 for the week, well done everyone! Training for Lents 2007 begins now.... :) (Amelia)

Earlier in term, we put in some sub-standard performances which were good enough to win races. At the WeHORR we put in a sub-standard performance that didn't do the job. It was by no means the worst row we've ever done but we coped poorly with the headwind from Barnes to Hammersmith and that is a large enough chunk of the course for it to really matter. The row improved considerably in the second half, but as we all know, anyone can push hard from Hammersmith!

Hopefully next year's crew can take advantage of starting >100 places higher and do great things, off the back of an amazing set of lent bumps, of course... (jo)