The Club's Results

We had them right from the start. There was loads of power and little finesse but we got to the line first and that's all that matters in the end. :) (Amelia)

Decent start, plenty of power, but a bit frantic. The stride managed to improve the rythym but also increase the rating somehow. It seemed more or less half a length all the way from the start.

I imagine Tit Hall 2 will be at least a division above us in bumps, so pretty good result. (Neil)

Pretty poor start, so us give them a length head start. We spent the rest of the race gaining on them but ran out of river. Had a close encouter with the bank near the end.

Hopefully some outings with the same crew order and some start practice and we'll be ready to tear up the fourth division! (Neil)

I'm sure the course favours the crew on the common side, and we were unlucky to be drawn on the boathouse station. Jesus M4 took it hard off the start while we took a little while to get going and they opened out a lead of over a length. Over the course we steadily came back at them, but their superior start and the fact that they steered right over onto our side meant that they just pipped us to the finishing post. Another 50m of course and I'm confident we'd have been in the final.

Once the crew has had some more outings together and some practice at starts we'll be flying! (Amelia)

Many thanks to the numerous subs who turned up for us (Dan J, Yung-Chin and Martin Y). We spent most of our slightly ropey row down, getting used to the shiny new boat and blades. The 5th VIII were using what, up to now, had been what we were using in our outings.

Once marshalled, it started raining, so someone had the bright idea of singing 'We're Singing in the Rain' on the start line. After a couple of practices, boats marshalling near us were left in no doubt as to our singing ability. And probably more bemused by the follow-up whistling of the chorus (bow 4 can't whislte...) There was also a round of guess Amelia's weight. Still, we duly sang on the start line and were rewarded with champagne. Ironically, it was no longer raining by the time we started...

Pretty good and aggresive off the start. Unfortunately once got around Ditton, it slightly degenerated into a bit of a standard lower boats spack up the reach, not helped by myself missing (what I assume were) 'up 1 down 1s' as the cox box wasn't working. I think the last half minute was a bit more solid.

Still, it was all good practice at something approaching race rating, and at least we won *something*. Plenty of room for improvement, and hopefully we might eventually end up faster than W1... Right, best get back to the weights, else bow and three will *never* get the boat round Grassy come bumps. And I've been in boats that didn't turn round that corner... (Andy)

Just not quite together at any point - I think the standard of the singing set the tone for the entirety of the race! :) Due to various crew commitments we were pretty sub heavy, and the rowing gods had conspired against us not only with the weather but also in the fact that we had to row in Richard Church. Fortunately the only significant corner was a stroke side one (we wouldn't have had a hope at getting around Grassy).

A very mediocre row, the crew is capable of an awful lot better than this result. At least we beat the fifth men though... ;-) (Amelia)

A crew a division and a half above us and we held them more or less on station until someone lost a seat, but I think we gave up once they were out of sight.

We weren't very satisfied with this row and our practice starts were a disaster.

We were not very together and we have enough power to go much faster. (Neil)

De fault, the two sweetest words in the english language. (Neil)

Did feel like a better row in periods, but still pretty shoddy. The row back wasn't great either.

Had a three subs and someone swapping sides again, hopefully that explains not rowing together! Time to focus for the last few weeks and hopefully get a consistent crew.

Again Peterhouse were a division above us, shame we didn't have a race with a crew around us at bumps. Having said that we should be beating third division crews!!

Neil (Neil)

Neil means the "motorway bridge". (Smiley Mark)

Good luck boys! Hit 'em with blinding brilliance :) (Tudor)

ETANIMOD is an anagram of NEMATOID, which means 'parasitic worm-like'. Hope this helps. (Neil T)

Kings faltered as they saw the bright golden glow of the gradVIII storming towards them. We bumped by the motorway bridge, I think we just about fitted in the stride. Tomorrow things seem to have been messed up by this double overbump! I guess it's up to us to get revenge on Corpus for the Vth's.

And why did Jesus have ETANIMOD written on their backs? (Neil)

WOW! (jo)

Absolutely amazing row. From the 6 seat I couldn't tell how far we were off Sidney, and initially thought we were simply being encouraged. Rounding Ditton into the reach we were more than 8 lengths distant, but closing with each stroke.

As the calls got more emphatic and louder ("No, REALLY, you're going to get them!!!"), and random people on the bank starting joining in, I started to believe we might actually do it.

According to the bank party, Sidney's bow had already crossed the finish line when we smacked into them, cutting it a little fine with barely a stroke left in the race. (Tom)

Have it!! (Smiley Mark)

Just wrote a huge report then lost it, oh well, here I go again.

Great result! Worse start than yesterday and Corpus bumped out very quickly, they were soon followed by Selwyn, meaning we were chasing at least a double overbump, but we kept plugging away. Grassy didn't go to well, and I had to draw my blade in to avoid the bank but we had a good drive down plough reach and a good Ditton which meant we were at least within sight of them.

When you're told that you're gaining you wonder if that still means the other crew is just a speck. We had a massive lift in the reach and when we heard a four length call we knew it was a possibility. This was accompanied by someone jumping around maniacally on the bank, a sure sign it was on.

Amelia was telling us that she had faith in us, and after we got a 2 length call before the bridge I had faith too. After passing the railway bridge there was a half lenth call and some improvised signals on a bike bell. When you're that far away and running out of river you just have to go for it don't you? We wound it up on the slide spacktastically but obviously better than Sidney managed. Overlap... Amelia steered for the bump... and Mark got them with his blade just before the line... ecstacy!

That make up for missing out in similar circumstance 3 years ago!

We had to pull in at the P&E to change boats, so it made sense to get a libation to celebrate, thanks Erica! Also big thanks to our bank party, Julia, Mike, Christoph and anyone else who joined in.

We know we can improve some things for tomorrow, but a good row up today set us up well. Hopefully we can get a crack at Maggie IV and the IVth VIII headship before the week is out.

Cashback! (Neil)

I definitely had the best seat for this one - amazing stuff!

The paddle up was really good today, nice and focussed with a pretty good, if a little overenthusiastic, practice start at the Plough. We knew Corpus were likely to go hard off the start so the plan was to try and catch anything that was still rowing ahead of us...

At the start, we weren't ideally positioned with the bungline going taut and the bows swinging around slightly. The first stroke wasn't great and it took a little while to properly get going.

Corpus bumped out early as expected, and fortunately we had enough time to get around them on the outside (not sure Pete Convey would have been best pleased if we'd tried to wangle a technical double-overbump...). Around first post I checked and saw that King's behind us definitely wouldn't be a threat, and so we gritted our teeth and settled in for a long hard slog. Passing yet more bumped out crews down the gut I thought there might not be anything left to chase, but as we came around/into Grassy (oops, the less said about it, the better!) I saw the speck of a crew ahead just going around Ditton. That's a whole lotta lengths but there's always a chance, so we stepped it up a gear and went into our grind push down Plough Reach, bringing the boat speed up nicely.

A tight line around Ditton (thanks Pete and Charles) and a great lift out of the corner saw a further increase in boat speed and at this point I began to wonder whether we might actually be able to get them. They were maybe 8 lengths off at the bottom of the reach, meaning we'd closed 3.5 so far, not bad considering our trip into the bank.

We had a series of power calls and lifts which saw us simply reel them in, we were gaining visibly on every stroke, such that by the time we were half way down the reach we'd closed to around four lengths and I finally could see who we were chasing (Sidney 2). By now we were really motoring and I told the guys the bump was on if they kept their heads and kept at it. The increase in power and sheer determination was superb, we went up another gear and soon closed to about 2 lengths. As the railway bride cast its shadow ahead I knew we had less than three minutes to finish them, but also knew for definite that we could actually get them. We pushed hard off the bridge to within station and kept inching further towards them. By now the golden grads had given it absolutely everything and more, but under the lycra they found just a little extra and the whistles came in quick succession. I saw Mark's blade tantalisingly close to their stern as Morley's Holt, apparently at warp-speed, loomed ever nearer. Finally we made physical contact and held it up, with less than five strokes of the course left. What an amazing feeling, I still can't really believe it happened! Cue wild celebrations in the boat, and some very gentlemanly applause from Sidney (thanks guys!); the only sensible thing to do seemed to be to pull in and grab a quick pint at the P&E before swapping boats with M3 and paddling home in sixes.

WOW!

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Also I forgot to say particular congratulations to Andy Wong on his 50th bumps race today - a double-overbump seems a very fitting way to bring up his half-century! (Amelia)

Gutted.

Good start, not our best stride, but it wasn't too long before we had the first whistle on queens. Got to First post corner and Selwyn still seemed on station. They gained a bit on the corner and our usual big lift in the gut failed to materialise. By this time we'd forgotten about Queens and never heard a second whistle but apparently we got within half a length.

They had much better line round grassy and a HUGE push which we weren't able to co-ordinate one to counter.

Very disappointing as we could definitely got queens before they got Maggie, especially if we weren't worrying about Selwyn. Better corners, communication and more co-ordinated pushes and we'd have been fine, and we know we're capable of all these. I'm sure we're all having our post-mortems, but I'm keen to get out there and demonstrate that we should be the head IVth VIII and that we didn't bump up out of our depth. Would be good to have the whole course to have a go back at Selwyn, but I'm sure they'll have their eyes on a quick bump on Maggie. (Neil)

A much better race today than yesterday. However, Corpus II (already up 8 and rowing for their blades) were simply faster, and caught us on Grassy. Ahead, Selwyn III (also rowing for their blades) had pulled away off the start and eventually bumped LMBC IV (don't know where though).

Thanks to Thursday's stunning rowing, we're still up 4! (Tom)

Oh well. If we'd been offered up 4 on Wednesday we'd have grabbed it, but that doesn't stop the result seeming somehow disappointing. The key day was yesterday where a not too a bit more and we could have got queens before Selwyn got us leaving us an easy bump today. Instead we were between two fast blading crews. Practise of pushing away from/in to crews would be good for next years crew.

Today we got hit in the gut, so we didn't get the chance to blame Richard Church and Grassy. We still didn't make it round grassy on the row back though!

Good coxing from mark on the way home, but it's never a good idea to let a cox row, it messed up our style completely.

Should day that we're obviously camera shy and coun't perform in front of the french doculmentary crew that have been on our tail the last two days! (Neil)