The Club's Results

Bugger me, it was a tough week leading up to this one! As I sat marshalling I really had no idea how it would go: How fit are we (ahem, am I) really? Will we be able to concentrate for more than a two minute push? When the pain kicks in from racing the VIII two divisions before, will we have what it takes?

And, when we get right down to it, can I rate over my age?

Apart from a rather professional first minute, it was a messy, gutsy, unsat individual push to individual push affair. Overtaking Emma under the Railway Bridge was fun (wtf were they rating!?), although their (failed) push back highlighted how much work there is left to do.

Even without the times it was a fantastic mental boost for the next stage of training. That said, I would be remiss not to point out that on Downing's second attempt at the head piece - during the same division as us and tired as hell like us - we thrashed them. (Dan)

Solid result guys, first day nerves out of the way. (Will L)

Scrappy start and uncertain first post reach. Bit more control around the corner though, and a late but aggressive push down the gut really lifted us.

Grassy was well taken, and we relished the big attacks on the plough. At this point we left Tit hall for dead, and were about 12 seconds up at the Plough. An uncharacteristic call for 'patience' by Ming made a big difference, and will give us a lot more today.

Wonderful conditions meant the reach was a delight (about 20 seconds up at the bottom) and it was a very comfortable row more than anything. The plan is to row like this from the settle against Peterhouse.

Catches need to come together to give us an extra two pips when we need them, and ye gads is there a lot left in the tank. (Dan)

The start was pretty well together but we failed to settle onto anything like a race rhythm before hitting first post corner. Luckily this wasnt critical as we were already pulling away. A fifteen stroke push in the gut got things moving and again the pushes down the Plough were agressive if not terribly tidy. Things really picked up on the reach - suddenly we found the power in the middle of the drive that we have been looking for all term and pushed out our lead to around 20 seconds. A satisfying start to the week. (Emma)

Job done. The crew really came together nicely today. The rate felt unforced and the row home was better then our usual paddling. Lot still to do though, and the first big test is tomorrow. Lets do it. (C.S.Dunleavy)

Some excellent practice starts saw us cruising around rate 40 with lots of length and control, which helped the nerves quite a bit (for some reason I was shaking yesterday at the boathouse... against Peterhouse...?! fine today though).

Good strong start, again going off in front and again careering through a strong outflow after the Motorway bridge. Downing really wanted it, and jacked the rate right up. Luckily we'd decided to do this too and the settle call was basically a power up. That said - eyes always in the boat, of course - one couldn't help but notice how close they looked as we slowed up for First Post!

Same pattern of pushes as before, but with Ming helpfully screaming at us to drive the legs down and accelerate in the second half it was feeling pretty beefy. And knackering - luckily Coker joined us on the reach and shouted incoherently which gave us the boost we needed.

They held on until the plough, but had front loaded the race and quickly died off after an appalling Ditton by their cox.

If anyone from LMBC read this, please don't pull very hard tomorrow as we're looking to taper before IVs head. Cheers and good luck! (Dan)

Well done guys. Another solid win and the times look promising. Looking forward to watching your final tomorrow (assuming I can make it to Cambridge in time). (Erica)

LMBC didn't allow us to taper, basically - see IVs Head results. I could have sworn the official result was 'easily' though. (Dan)

We haven't raced this badly for a while, probably not since the Head to Head. I think we learnt a few things, otherwise it would have been a complete waste of time. (BJ)

An opportunity wasted. The pennant was winnable, and Strawson's CUBC 5 was clearly beatable. The first half was pretty good, making steady progress on the boats behind and in front. In retrospect, that we were only striking 32 should have warned us that something was wrong.

We made a mistake with the gearing. By halfway my lats and arms were burning, and soon became useless. The big turning point was when we hit a women's 4- who were unable to tell left from right when trying to get out of our way. In contrast to the day before, we restarted so sluggishly that they came back at us. From there on the boat felt so heavy that some of us were wondering if Strawson had sacked his race to try and waterski off our stern.

If we'd come down on Friday for a paddle I think we could've been 30 seconds quicker, no trouble. On the bright side, oh -- nothing. (Tom C)

Was always going to be a hard race: mentally we knew we were 5secs off the average 2k of the other four. In the pieces on the way down we were struggling for length and time, and I was having my doubts.

We decided on a very relaxed start to concentrate on initiating a rhythm. This worked well, but only got us to rate 30. We took it up in the gut (mainly to avoid being overtaken by the other four) and our rowing jumped from 'knackered' to 'okay'.

We had a good push down plough reach, helped by a Clare IV+ apparently pulled in and cheering us on, and a fairly reasonable Ditton corner.

We were about to take it up but unfortunately the training plan called for technical pairs work. This is what really cost us.

I don't understand why I find this so funny. (Dan)

Comparing this result with the Fours Head, it seems I lost my seat race with Pedro quite comfortably. (BJ)

As usual, fate had a few cards up her sleeve. Bryn was ill and we jumped into a scratch IV with one and only one mission - win Fairbairns Ivs.

We started hard; very hard. The catches and finishes were good for the first 500m and I had none of the Novice Death Grip worries that had plagued me in the VIII. We had plenty of length, power and control and I knew we would row at the absolute max: max power, max technique, max length and max speed.

Fantastic corners, coxing and coaching made this race. Together with Jesus we were miles ahead of the opposition, and the guys I was rowing with never let the pace go for a second.

Legends. (Dan)

Scratch crew or not, this four was always going to be quick. Still, i was pretty surprised at how well we started off, nice sharp catches and the rate came very easily. Initially we had a few balance issues but got over them without too much incident ("Rich! Tap down. Tap down, Rich! Tap DOWN! Tap down... Tap down!.. Tap down pleeeease!")and settled onto a very happy 34. We flew through the first half of the race to Chesterton, and luckily the strong tail wind that we'd suffered with a little in the eight had pretty much vanished as we came onto the reach. Really gutsy rowing from stern pair kept the rate dead on, and the wind from the railings was awesome. Fantastic race boys, thanks! (Emma)

More stressful than last year. Jesus had been training a strong and fresh-legged crew for over a week. We were a tired and long-haired hotchpotch, and didn't even have time to check the gate heights. The finish timing was never perfect, and it took half the race to vaguely remember how to row in a four. I think the only reason we won was Emma's insistence that we strike 34, which I abided by despite it being entirely contrary to my ambitions.

This completes a term of winning every College race. Yipee-ki-yay motherf**ker.

(I think that is in line with website policy) (Tom C)

We didn't practise, and the finish timing reflected this. The most fun part was when we wound it to 36 at cutter ferry bridge, then went for an extra pip and completely lost it. Insufficient opposition denied us a prize, but the time translates to about 7.25 for the uni 4s course which isn't bad. (Tom C)