The Club's Results

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)