The Club's Results

Lashing rain and howling winds creating large waves made us very cold and very wet on the way down to the start, and filled the boat with a huge amount of water before even reaching the start. Conditions calmed down a lot by the race and we went off with a reasonable tail wind. First half went alright, dropped Churchill (in the next lane) fast and led the pack from the start. The water got a lot more choppy in the second half making the rowing a little messey and we quiched it through with 750m to go as it was clear we were going to qualify. Favourite coxing call; "Don't worry", as Tom informs Emma she's drifted into Churchill's lane and she hits the rudder hard to get back over. She probably just got bored with the straight line racing and decided to invent a Grassy corner halfway down the course. (Phil)

What about favourite comeback to a coxing call? Emma calls 'Last 500m, we're going to empty the tank', to which Tom replies 'NO WE'RE NOT'. (BJ)

I reckon if we'd kept straight and pulled in the last third we could've gone 5 seconds faster. I only say this because 6:09 would've been competitive in S3, which I think is where we should be aiming. School 2nd eights and Cambridge colleges? Too easy. (Tom C)

I thought the race was over when we had clear water at halfway. Surprisingly, it was Emmanuel College who rose from the ashes, clawing back half a length it the third 500. But they weren't able to wind for the finish, affording us a substantial winning margin.

Unfortunately conditions were too variable to allow any useful comparison with LMBC. For now I'll assume that we're faster. (Tom C)

A big head/cross wind made the rowing tricky and gave us a very slow time. The rowing wasn't terrible given the conditions, but we lost some length and didn't rate very high. I'm sure that with a bit more training, and a stroke man who hasn't spent the previous 36 hours celebrating his birthday, we'll achieve suitably high rates. (Phil)

Job done: now we can enter HoR4s without necessarily having Fletcher in the crew, although we'd probably still take him just to guarantee the win. (BJ)

Cant quite believe how much alcohol we won, thank god its a rest day! (Will L)

Well we took the "course record" (its only in its fourth year, so I'm not sure that it really counts), and certainly enjoyed the multiple pints of beer/bottles of "champs" fizzy stuff we were given, Bryn and Tom especially, (2 bottles each, one for fastest college crew, another for "most impressive start"), but we know that we can go faster, and now know exactly where we can find it.

Disappointing that both LMBC and Caius failed to turn up despite entering, but I suppose we'll get our chance to race them in bumps. (Phil)

Moved up steadily, took a while to finish it, bumped just past the Plough. (Martin P)

Bumps is a like a penalty shoot-out; you can't really prepare for it. So it's lucky that the first race wasn't too demanding. We suffered from a lack of focus, and struggled in rough water round the corners, but attacked like we needed to. We'll learn from this and get stronger every day.

Credit is due to Queens, they were a lot better than some people expected, and I don't reckon they'll go down much further.

[Of course, you can prepare, it's just that no-one really knows how] (Tom C)

2nd VIII headship
3rd VIII headship
4th VIII headship
5th VIII headship

One more to go... (Lorry)

6th VIII headship?

I blame the MLBCs. (BJ)

Awesome sprint for the bump, took Catz down swiftly, bumped in the Gut. (Martin P)

Before the race, Martin said he'd never seen a bump before grassy in the top 4. So this was one for the spectators. We went hard into the corner, the photos tell the rest of the story. (Tom C)

Superb result. That's the highest I've ever seen FaT, and all the sweeter because Maggie were the victim. Well done, good luck tomorrow, and I can't wait to see you in action at Henley! (RTT)

'Come by Maggie?' is what Emma should have said.... Still, I think Tom's Ron Coleman impressions did more than enough to piss them off.

Quite possibly one of the best races we've done as a crew, and certainly the best bumps race I've ever been a part of. The boat sat up beautifully through the rough water down Plough Reach, clean water made the Reach easy and we probably rated about 37 throughout (although we were assisted by a strong stream). It felt good to bump Maggie's brand new Fillipi a day before it was to be officially named. Get in! (Phil)

'Quite possibly one of the best races we've done as a crew'

Well it was certainly better than Wednesday and slightly better than Thursday, so yes, this was the best race we did as a crew! (BJ)

This was the race which would define our crew as good or bad. At the beginning of term Ming said we'd need to be much more than the sum of our parts to be competitive. Early results were good, but after an indecisive period through exams and trips abroad we lost it a bit. In the week before bumps we had some desperately poor sparring matches, losing heavily to Jesus and failing to achieve positive results against Emma and Pembroke. We clearly had some boat speed, but could we find it when it really mattered?

Resoundingly, yes. The best thing about this group is that we've always performed on the day. As soon as we were inside distance the race was over; we knew it was our day, and let our legs carry us through. (Tom C)

Not our best row, but even at our best we'd have struggled to keep up and certainly couldn't have put in a performance today that would have seen us bumping Caius. Very disappointing not to threaten them, but it shows how far we've come this year that we're disappointed to finish three lengths down to a crew rowing from head station whose stern IV was from CUBC. Once again, looking at the crew list we have to be honest and say we over-performed.

Only Phil is leaving (hopefully - it depends on how results go for me on Thursday!), there are some strong guys who chose not to row this term and the mainly novice 2nd VIII is frighteningly quick, so if we train as hard and improve at the rate we did this year we'll be able to provide a better challenge next time round. We don't want to get stuck in second place for three and a half years...

Credit is also due to Maggie: they put in a much better row today and, having fallen behind up to Ditton, stormed up the Reach and were probably only a length off under the railway bridge until we sorted it out and opened up again towards top finish. Good effort and good sportsmanship all round from the top three.

In the back of our minds we'll already be training for the first day of the Mays next year, but for now we're looking forward to Henley, and maybe even winning a round or two... (BJ)

Not quite the fairytale end to my FaT rowing career, but perhaps bumping a crew so stacked with University talent was a bit too much to hope for. We were all pretty nervous about this one, and it showed in the race as we failed to find the same easy, relaxed rhythm of the previous day. Maggie were clearly fired up and really went for us, and were within distance for a minute or two down the reach before fading away. I think we just weren't sure what to do when we hadn't closed on Caius by the Railings, and although maximum effort was applied all the way, the speed never properly came. Its quite a tough mental adjustment to suddenly find yourself in 2nd place when I at least hadn't even thought about the possibility till Friday night.

It's been an incredible year for the club at all levels, and its been amazing to be involved with it. All the best to the boys for next year, there's no reason whatsoever that this boat can't be faster and really push for the Headship. I've been looking forward to the end of bumps all week, but only a day after I already miss it.... (Phil)

From a veteran of 40 years ago. I am so proud of your achievements this year. You had so called 'students' from Caius against you. You were outstanding. Good luck in the Temple Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. Please win. I shall be there... (Fitz)

A light tailwind and almost perfectly flat lake allowed us to put in a relatively clean row to win our heat by a fraction of a length. 2 other crews held pace for most of the race, trading not more than a few seats until Nereus fell back, leaving Cardiff Uni and us fighting it out to the line. A late, but effective wind to the finish saw us get our bows just in front. (Will L)

The conditions had changed to a nasty crosswind for our semi, the lake was getting pretty choppy and a number of waves came over the bows onto me.

Although we didn't qualify for the final in what turned out to be a relatively strong semi we came from behind with a really powerful second half to close to a matter of feet by the line. Gutted to miss out on the final, however we've learnt some valuable lessons for Henley. (Will L)