The Club's Results

In what should have been recognised as an omen for Hambleden's second race of the day, it took only until first post corner for the steering to pack up. Armed only with wild variations in pressure we managed to meander our way through the corners, clearly causing some distress to Emma as we pushed the limit of how wide its actually possible to go around grassy. Thankfully the Selwyn guys were doing their fair share of meandering too, I think they might have even scraped the bank once or twice.

However, the end result was good, we never really stormed away, but I think we just steadily edged further and further ahead. Good to have one race behind us going into Wednesday.

This race gave us the honour of being the only FaT pair to beat another college this week, Coker having also won a round of Fairbairn Junior Sculls to uphold the club's name. (Will L)

It was looking good, our row down had been some of the best rowing we'd ever put together - our burst on the reach was powerful, our practise start was clean and rapid, I was even lined up almost straight at the start. The, dare I say it, class continued down first post reach, the start wasn't too shabby and nor was my line.

However, rounding first post corner we threw away anything resembling timing, rhythm or balance and instead did our best to spank the boat along with complete disregard for technique. This second style of racing perservered for the remainder of the course and explains why this was one of the most physically demanding races I've ever done. This was a shame because that level of exertion probably wouldn't have been necessary had we rowed to our technical potential, and left us in pretty bad shape for the next round, not that it turned out to matter.

A good race from Christs, from all accounts they were much slicker than on Monday and certainly gave us a decent race.

This race took out the last remaining non-FaT entry into Foster-Fairbairns and assured us the Michell Cup points. (Will L)

They row better than us, they have more power than us and just to put the icing on the cake, they have working leg muscles.

They were faster and would most likely win any ordinary race against us. In fact they were in the process of doing just that quite convincingly when my hamstring started to go. So we stopped, and lost. We then subbed me out for Bryn (who is inelligable for this event) and thus probably lost again. They were kind enough to allow this new crew a fresh race from the plough, which we promptly lost. All in all, I think we have to concede that they deserved to win.

We weren't in tip top shape after our semi, but that wasn't going to change the result, however I would have liked to make it look a bit more competitive, which I'd like to think on fresh (working) legs it could've been. (Will L)

My cunning plan of staying on the far side of first post reach to nail the racing line and avoid the outflow backfired. Someone put a tree stump in the way. We crabbed. On the plus side, we didn't fall in... We got going again, then my footplate fell apart. Nothing like the ominous noise of nuts rolling about in the shell.

Unfortunately the Christs' pair didn't feel like completing the comedy quartet and spanked us all over the place. (Tom)

Positives to take away from this race:
1. Stroke's rigger didn't fall apart.
2. We didn't fall in.
3. We don't need to change our crew name.

It took us an eternity to extract ourselves from the bank after our tree-induced boat-stopper, but after that the rowing was actually reasonably un-comic.

A rudder, however, would have been nice.

Negatives:
1. I think we could have had them. (Albert)

With nothing better to do at the moment, I noticed nothing at the time inspired either of us to write a race report, which seems a pity given the comical nature of the race.
The first kilometre seems to have mostly faded from my brain, which means it must have been quite uneventful; a good start was followed by a shock as turning round grassy was enacted in about 3 strokes. Somewhere along plough reach I was somewhat discouraged by the gentle tinkling noise of the footplate nuts falling off, and then a rather epic Ditton corner began. Sadly John chose the moment at which I no longer had a rudder (or in fact a way to push off my left foot) to mildly blow up and lose all power at the catch. In spite of Ming's crazed shouting, we nearly managed to land on the outside of the corner. Following the eventual straightening up onto the reach, we vaguely spannered our way towards the railway bridge, before John gave up at the moment Preiss finished and we drifted across the line.
On the whole, a working pair might have made the racing more comfortable, but once we'd drawn these two hope was slim. Ah well, hopefully next year I might manage to both not draw the winner in the first round of every competition I enter, and be in a position to make some kind of use of a more friendly draw. (Peter)

I didn't give up, I just got confused by hearing 'wind down' to the other boat. I think we generally rowed reasonably, and were beaten by a stronger crew, despite over-rating them by about 4. The only other positive I can think of is that when kristina gets round to it we'll become the only boat from sbr with photos.


6:41.2, rate 28. (John)

Our training plan of 4 outings and 7 weeks of hard post-Bumps lazing around wasn't exactly ideal preparation for a 2k race against a Blue and a Blondie, but they didn't look that great on the row up and we let Bryn talk us into believing that we had a chance to take them and to beast it for the whole course. Unfortunately they were significantly better when racing and we never even got close.

That said, we still did ourselves proud with a better-than-expected row. Bit panicked off the start then a particularly manly stroke from me took us into the bank along First Post Reach. However, that seemed to calm us down and the three corners came very nicely with some good pushes in the straights. Was not impressed with having to go all out right after Ditton but something clicked and we flew down to the kink, although after that lack of fitness kicked in and it was a bit scrappy down to the line. Very happy with everything apart from the result, just think what we could have done with more than a week's training and a boat that steered, had actual shoes and wasn't weighted 20kgs too heavy...

Thanks to Will, Tom and Bryn for bank steering us last week and not getting too annoyed with our zig-zagging and lack of either rate or speed! (Charley)

Yeah, indeed it was unfortunate we had unmatched opponents but we had a very good row. Seeing how we improved from our first outing last Monday when we could certainly not go in a straight line, nor apply any power what-so-ever, to finish this race with a minor crash and good rhythm throughout, is a great achievement. Hambleden has got major problems and I cannot wait to row in the new women's pair weighted appropriately and with shoes two rather than five sizes larger than mine, and with a steering plate that works!

Also, forgot to mention the most important part! Even though we did lose this race, we won Foster Fairbairnes pairs by default being the only women's pair that entered (which is why we were entered into Magdalene silver pairs in the first place). We should have gone with the same strategy as the men: enter as many pairs from FaT as we can, so there is enough (any) competition and fair racing.

A good outcome nonetheless. Thanks to Bryn, Tom and Will for great bank steering and coaching. (Julijana)

Devastating. A clear invitation to concentrate on the day job. (Tom C)