The Club's Results

This was a fairly good row, with plenty of commitment, but we still have a lot of technical gremlins to work out before we are ready for Mays.

Caius M2 were 14s faster than us today. We need to - and will - raise our game and start to row with confidence and precision, to retain our position on the river. (Albert)

Pretty feisty row, they did kind of cruise away after the start, but we kept in touch all the way down the course even apparently coming back a little round the corner under the railway bridge.
Given the fact they were full of blues and we were in a bath tub I reckon we can be proud of this one. (Will)

It looked for a fair while like this was a contest, but maybe we were a bit tired and our stride wasnt so rythmic as before so they got the better of us in the second half, but I think we put up a decent fight.
Good to see they had to resort to heckling Albert to win! (Will)

Today's races were far better rows than we've had in recent outings, and definitely something positive to take home. We'll see how things pan out once we get our hands on TR2 again.

At the time I wasn't sure if it was Will or myself being heckled, but to be honest, there's no better motivator to row well than some foolish opposition cox telling you that you might be about to blow up. Underhand tactics will get you nowhere. (Albert)

I reckon these would've been good races if we'd had a proper racing boat. I'm pretty sure we were up on Hall after 20 strokes, then they were gonna stride at exactly the same time as us so I kind of ignored the call (sorry boys). But once you get to cruising speed, the fat hull is a handicap too far. (Tom C)

This was a much easier race than we expected. Caius II failed to close on us and we had the pleasant surprise of getting the first whistle somewhere around first post (my recollection is not terribly clear). We completed the bump after an extremely tight line around grassy. (Rob)

Over the last few weeks, we had been steeling ourselves for a VERY tough series of rowovers, having been outpaced by Caius II by some 15 seconds at Champs Head. But in the last week or two something in the boat has clicked together.

This was probably one of the best pieces we've done. Watching Caius fade away was satisfaction enough, but hearing one, two and three whistles in the space of a minute was simply beyond the realms of what we had planned for. And to bump Selwyn just out of Grassy - sweet. (Albert)

The start was good, moved up very marginally on Selwyn and a good advantage over Caius. First post reach was very even - inching up on Selwyn so slowly that you could barely see it - so that it wasn't until 1st post corner that David finally gave the length signal. Selwyn had a little bit of a wobble through the corner and the guys took 1/4 of a length. And then they were flying - nothing obviously wrong in the Selwyn boat, just going way too slowly. So good. (Martin P)

Unfbelievable!
After that classy practice start outside the Plough, i think we all felt we were in that good zone- that zone of beast aggression and zen concentration. We'd reached that stage where it didn't matter who were behind or infront of us anymore. We were just going to race our own race and follow our own plan.

Our actual start wasn't quite as good as the practice start (my finishes were a bit shit, sorry!) but we settled into a sweet rhythm with excellent focus: when an imperfection in a stroke occurred it got fixed quickly and got forgotten quickly.

But just as i'd buried the urge to chunder under the motorway bridge, and steeled myself for the long ballbusting row-over, there went the whistle!

wtf?! JfC! Huh?

Within a minute it was all over red rover!

Unfbelievable.
I tell you, I haven't felt that elated for a long while. I wanted to jump in the river

Thanks guys!
And Jenny, cheers for that impeccable line!

Take that, all you hataz!

(and thanks to the selwyn cox too!) (Henrik)

From the bank, it looked like a very solid row. Good stuff! Never in any danger from Selwyn behind, who escaped from being overlapped by Caius II coming into the railway bridge. (Andy)

The best long piece I've ever done, the boat had rhythm all the way to the finish and we were controlled and together on the pushes, but still powerful, particularly the "60s commitment" really made a difference. It was a long row, but I really enjoyed it. (Will)

A fairly average row compared to the last couple of days, but nevertheless a powerful one. We closed on Clare a little, but were not able to put them under much pressure.

It was nice to see Selwyn and Caius disappear off our stern, and by the time we crossed the line they looked about half a Reach away from us. (Albert)

Absolutely gutted.

Well rowed, Caius. (Albert)

Well, to be fair,
i don't think we rowed much worse than previous days. We just couldn't match Caius' pushes, especially on the reach when they really barnied. We had a good plan, but we weren't reactive enough. Also, possibly, just a little bit of complacency had set in.

But hey! Considering everything, we did good. It's been an insane rollercoaster. And I wouldn't exchange it!

thanks guys. (Henrik)