The Club's Results

Solid rate meant we beat them in the second half.
The start was a bit messy but we eventually settled on a rhythm (no ratemeter though)
Good lines through the corners and out onto the reach, where we were 3 seconds down.
However the rhythm continued and pressure didn't drop and we reeled them in down the reach, with good ground being made by holding in the finishes.
After we crossed the line, wound down and turned and watched in disbelief as Clare took their final few strokes to the finish. (Thomas)

Much as Tom said, all the work on rowing long and flat really paid off with it coming together at rate really well and plenty of work going down in the water. After an impressively calm start, with only a slight wobble in the outflow, we settled into a good sustainable (too sustainable?) rhythm which survived quite well through the corners. 3s down was called at the Plough and Ditton, and with a call of "We can win this", from and probably only heard by me, we upped the pressure a touch and started eating away the metres. Through the railway bridge Tom thinks we were at our closest, having visibly closed; Clare got it back together near the finish, but too late.
I claimed to the crew that we'd won by 7s, and it seems the timers agreed with me.

Having steered surprisingly accurately on the course, I made up for it by crashing twice within 20m of the new footbrige. (Peter)

Fantastic stuff guys :). A slightly frantic start, a little on the spacky side (I probably contributed a fair bit to this!). Once we got a call on the finishes, we suddenly started settling into a steady and chunky rhythm which we held pretty nicely until the end. Awesome steering on Pete's part, took some pretty fantastic corners, and hats off to the lads for putting down an epic push in the second half of the reach! (Jeffrey)

Not as pretty as the one against clare. We beat them in the second half once again, but I felt less due to a really solid rhythm making our boat go fast and instead simply because they rowed slower than we did. Was a little worried as I thought they had closed on us and I thought their finish was right by the P&E as we dashed for the line. (Thomas)

In common with far too many races I've done for FaT, I was far more comfortable with our position towards the end of the race than some of the rest of the crew. However, this time I had a little justification, as Walton was just standing somewhere random near the finish, and we didn't actually have to beat Pembroke by 200m as Tom thought...
The result was entirely in spite of me going round the outside of Ditton (thankfully Pembroke followed me round), and mostly down to putting plenty of work through the bulk of the race, with fitness to back it up. (Peter)

Overtaken (Thomas)

I think Tom summed it up pretty well. We didn't row particularly badly or particularly well. We were just entirely outclassed by a fast LMBC four. Nevertheless, getting to the final against a brace of first crews, with an unfit midget who hadn't steered before, three guys who'd never rowed in a four before, and 2008 Mays crews of 2,3,3,4... I think is a pretty good overperformance!
Many thanks to Tom and JPD for some pretty effective coaching, and I hope all of the crew go onto great things in the next few years.

Finally, personal thanks to Tom, JPD, Flo, Sonya, and anyone else who managed to keep me between the banks and pointing the right way (most of the time) without developing any neuroses. (Peter)

We didn't quite have the best start ever, and consequently they took about half a length off us from the start. Once we settled into our rhythm, however, we moved off and never gave them the slightest chance to come back. Must have been kind of a deja-vu for them...

Definitely the smoothest and best-balanced row we had so far as a crew! It was hard work all the way through but nevertheless most enjoyable at the same time! We made this boat fly today - let's do the same for the rest of the week!!! (Ulrike)

An explosive start from Caius saw them surging ahead within the first 15 strokes or so, but then on the length and rhythm call Caius had nothing more to give, and we ate up their advantage to push ahead at the kink.

Counterpushes were effectively negated around the railway bridge, and from there we slowly opened the gap up towards the finish. (Mark)

Got the start right this time, but made up for it by making the following 10 or so strokes quite wobbly. Then we settled into it again and drove off - pretty much like yesterday. Amazing how much fun racing can be! (Ulrike)

Go girls!! Good luck for the next ones :o) (Erica)

In true deja-vu style, Jesus also had a strong, fast start, jumping ahead immediately after the "go", but once again could not deliver anymore after the first 20 strokes.

A better start for us meant we were quick to break down their initial spurt, and once again we slowly opened up the gap from around the railway bridge onwards. (Mark)

We weren't quite sure how good this crew were compared to last time, since they were both entered as W1 boats (W1b and W1a respectively) and we thought they may be matched boats.

We thought it was a nice touch that the Jesus bankparty decided to follow us all the way to Ditton to watch our warm up exercises, and we are also grateful for their support.

This race was closer than the last, and once again Jesus cut to the chase from the start, gaining the advantage that we had come to expect. From there it took a little longer to claw our way back, but we did so, neutralising their advantage at the kink and using our advantage on the inside of the railway bridge.

Credit to Jesus for a very solid and close race! (Mark)

Half an hour after the semi-finals, this race was going to be a test of pure, physical and mental nerve for both crews.

Downing got off to a good start, and we gained very slightly after this, but they were much bigger and happened to be marginally stronger than us, and ever so gradually opened up the gap from then on. Pushes only held them or made us gain a tiny bit, and coming under the railway bridge a combination of the wind and exhaustion made us wobble slightly.

The length and pressure remained to the finish but at the end of the day Downing deserved to win for being the faster and stronger crew and credit to them! Indeed, all crews we have competed against have shown great sportsmanship and we have really appreciated this.

But I think we as a crew have silenced our critics well, and as a crew we have done exceptionally against our opponents, particularly when I, as the cox, just happens to weigh more than the average weight of the rowers, and I am taller than the average height of them too. Clearly, tall and well built rowers don't necessarily make for fast boats...

Mark (5'7", 58kg) (Mark)

For both this and the semi-final Iain had us do a power 20 after the start, to make sure we didn't give away too much off the start as in the previous races. We had a good start, with a few wobbles because of the wind, but in general we kept it together well and our power 20 gave us the push we wanted right before the kink. But the Downing girls were stronger, more powerful and rowed well, and slowly moved away from us. We kept slight behind them until the Railways bridge by doing lots of pushes. But exhaustion kicked in (as much in the other crew) and despite a good fight they got their deserved win.

We are sad about the outcome, but not because we did not row well. We gave our best, but Downing was better and gave it all as well. Very good race indeed, and it puts us in good shape for Fairbairns and Lents. (Julijana)

Didn't have the greatest of starts and a few mistakes just before the stride meant that we never really settled into a comfortable rate or rhythm. This left us about a length or so down which they slowly chipped away at as we made more mistakes and continued to row in a panicky fashion. However, they didn't really hammer home the advantage until the final 300m or so and we kept pushing right until the end.
We have done and can do a lot better than this. (DM)