The Club's Results

Beaten only by LMBC I,Pembroke I and LMBC I again (??)Not a bad day's work I reckon... Do we get prizes? (S.L. Stoneman)

Prizes? For losing to LMBC twice?! (Neil T)

Hehehe get in :D. Good job guys! Not bad for a first race on stroke side ;). (Jeffrey)

Well, I thought the pre-race warmth conservation huddle was good... but it turns out the race was even better. Quite how we managed to beat 10 M1 crews is beyond me. Hilarious.

Edit: I said we were 4th but I suppose we were actually the 3rd quickest crew if LMBC1 rowed twice. (Albert)

Considering we were a scratch crew who had never had an outing before and we had an imposter in the 7 seat, this wasn't a bad row. Things went a bit astray at the bottom of the Reach when we all realised how far there was left, but we didn't give up and kept it going to the end. We were 35s faster than Peterhouse M2 (1 ahead of us in Bumps) today. In two weeks we will be 1 minute faster. (S.C. Mertes)

having watched this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1eSydrpr4Y
I think selwyn are justified to feel that their lines cost them this race
obviously this only shows one viewpoint of what was happening, so it's hard to tell what the margins were coming around first post.

Clearly our line is awesome though - thanks Magnus (Sam Lings)

I've been in crews where the row down has been nervous and spacky, but we'd always pull it together for the race. Today was the opposite, never before has a crew showed such promise on the way up, to then descend into such absolute farce at the start-line. I'm just glad it ended (well). (Will L)

Please ignore my reckless and outlandishly exaggerated boasts in my previous (now deleted) race report. Obviously if we hadn't had ten outings I wouldn't go shouting it from the website.

Just to clear things up, we have had eleven proper outings with the crew. We only had one last-minute sub in the race today, due to illness. We're a competent bunch and are both safe and responsible when rowing and racing.

The remainder of my race report still stands and can be found below for reference:

"Spack-o-meter: 10/10

"The key to success in the third men's division is to row badly, but not so badly that you have to go past the Plough. Job done."

I apologise for misleading my loyal readership and would respectfully remind them that my comments are lighthearted in nature. (Albert)

They thought it was a fight. They didn't know it was a show. (Magnus)

Like Selwyn, Queens' made us fight for it. Gutsy row all around. (B.M. Richardson)

A lot more chilled out start, as a result of everybody being ready for the gun, and taking draw strokes in the appropriate manner. Perhaps a little too chilled out, as we didn't get the rate particularly high.

We gained fairly quickly on Queens, getting a canvas called before the exit of grassy, but it took us a while to finally get them, they conceded about 20/30 strokes out of Ditton.

good to see that we can actually sustain that level of work for that length of time, (Sam Lings)

Our start was lacklustre, but even so we closed quickly and consistently. Our faster base speed, strong pushes and tighter corners meant the outcome was never in doubt. Coming down the Plough Reach, we were getting overlap, and with us on the towpath side there was nowhere for Queens' to go around Ditton. Still, they stayed psyched up and held it together until we steered into them.

We rowed considerably better today than yesterday, but so did Queens'. Tomorrow's Queens'-Selwyn showdown at the top of M3 should be a race worth watching. (Magnus)

After yesterday Queens must have known we were quicker. Big respect to them for putting up such a strong fight today. (Albert)

I have never seen a bump take so long! Quite gentlemanly. (Dami)

These guys didn't give up. They'll do well in the 2nd half of the week.

According to Selwyn BC's site, the boat "contains 6 ex FAT I oarsmen, at least one of whom rocked up today in blues stash". I'm all for cultivating a fearsome reputation, but having more (rowing) blues than M1 would be going a little far... (Will L)

Did Flo race in his tennis blazer again? What a show off.... (Phil)

Dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty water.

Like a washing machine, but faster. And dirtier.

Luckily we were quicker than CCAT so only had to put up with the wash for a couple of minutes.

Tomorrow we face the unappetising prospect of attempting to bump Homerton within 30 strokes. The alternative being an extremely long row-over from Lock to Finish... (Albert)

Well, every pair of crews in front us bumped out...

Nonetheless, thanks to Ming for coming along. (Sebastian Pancratz)

Our 99.5% impossible race plan to triple overbump Corpus I turned out to be 100% impossible when the entire division bumped out ahead of us. We kept it together with only short bouts of spackage all the way to Ditton, with an especially strong ~60s commitment on Plough Reach.

Once we rounded Ditton, the ominous silence from our bank party told us all we needed to know, and the rate and power dipped, but CCAT were never remotely a threat.

Thanks Ming for the coaching and the last minute clams. (Albert)

We Turned up to marshall to discover that the second women's division hadn't rowed down, and that in fact, the third mens division hadn't started

so we pulled over at the P&E and sat inside to stay warm, saw CCAT finish a gutsy row over to stay head of the third division (and to row as sandwich boat)

when they pulled in, we discovered that they are all giants - even the Cox was bigger than anyone in our boat.

We knew that Homerton in front would bump out, that Pembroke 2 in front of them would bump out, and that Downing 2 in front of them were likely to bump out as well, so our race plan was to go for the triple overbump (perhaps a little ambitious - but at least it gave us something to aim at)

The Draw strokes weren't great, but we got it together on the wind and we rowed pretty well to Ditton, pushing out of corners. After Ditton, we knew that all the crews in front of us had bumped out, so we had nothing to aim for. CCAT were ~5 lengths behind, so nothing to worry about, so the reach wasn't as committed as it could have been, but we rowed over quite a few lengths clear.

CCAT for the division overbump on Maggie 2 tomorrow! (Sam Lings)

I totally crippled my back throwing Magnus in the river. Owwww :-( (Albert)