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The Club's Results

Lent Term 2009

1st women's VIII

Cambridge Head-2-Head (4th division)

2nd W1 college VIII
Time: 15:57
A good row, not brilliant, but definitely committed from start to finish.

We had a good 1st leg, with a massive push off Ditton really lifting the boat into a new gear. A slight wobble on Grassy was quickly rectified, followed by a slightly poor line by me on First Post and a slight wobble with our final push for the finish.

The 2nd leg was also good, closing on Pembroke constantly off the start. We started to move wide to overtake coming out of Ditton and closed to the point of overlap when we then wobbled and Pembroke stopped our gain. An all-out push from the kink brought us just 1 second behind Pembroke at the finish.

Still a long way to go, but a very surprising and a throughly deserved result for our first race of the term! (Mark)
A fantastic start to term! We still have a lot of work to do before bumps but the potential is there, so let's keep up the hard work!

The race had a few wobbles but we got it back together quickly and there was definite commitment from *everyone* in the boat.

OARSOME!

(Thanks to Derek for taking the photos) (Liz)
AWESOME, GIRLS!!!
Would have loved to see you row!
Just keep this spirit up and carry on training hard, and there'll be no way anyone snatches the headship from you guys!!! (Ulrike)
An amazing result girls!! (Sonya)

1. Pushing for the finish
2. Overlap
3. Closing the gap
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Pembroke Regatta (1st division)

1st round
Lost to King's by 1 length
So generally the Pembroke Regatta races give a good indication as to how boats might do during Bumps.

Unfortunately due to problems with injury, and a squad so small that we could only rely on temporary subs, we took the decision to swap over 3 and 4, in the hope that this may work without having to lose people.

This was the second time that 3 or 4 had rowed on the other side, their first being in a tub a couple of days before, so it was a big ask to have their first VIII outing as the regatta race.

Quite simply, it didn't work. King's went off hard on the start and had 3/4 of a length on us, and any time we started to make up ground we'd catch multiple small crabs which would set us back again. How we managed to only lose by a length I don't know.

The good thing to come out of it though I suppose was that it made many people think we were on our way down for Bumps, and because of that, we as a crew thought there wasn't much that we could lose. (Mark)
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Lent Bumps

Wednesday
Bumped by Emmanuel
Panicked, rushed, unsettled; coupled to poor lines. First day nerves out of the way. (Mark)
Thursday
Bumped by Jesus
Very panicked, very messy. Air strokes in the draw strokes made us lose momentum right off the start and into the corner, and an explosive Jesus start had them close to 1 length by our 5th stroke.

We knew Jesus would give it all off the start due to a fast Downing chasing them, and our aim was to hold them off for long enough so that Downing would have a shot at the Headship later in the week. Unfortunately our lack of momentum round First Post meant that Jesus closed rapidly and we were bumped on the entrance to the Gut.

Our lack of experience showed today, as it did yesterday, but every time we go out there we build on that experience, so come Mays, and even next Lents, we'll be in a better position to fight back. (Mark)
Friday
Bumped Jesus
This sounded immense on the radio. Huge Congratulations!!!!!! Go whack Emma tomorrow! (DM)
Phenomenal performance.

We were quite sure that Downing would bump us at some point, so our plan was to make it as hard as possible for them. With a demoralising bump on Thursday it was a case of damage limitation.

Our start was not perfect, but much better and a lot more relaxed than Wednesday or Thursday despite Downing getting an early whistle at First Post. That was the last whistle I heard from behind and we managed to stride (finally!) to 30 before squeezing to our race rate of 32. By this stage Jesus had opened the gap by an extra length or so.

We had a good Grassy corner thanks to bowside, and a good push into the Plough. By this stage I noticed Jesus wasn't getting any smaller. A tight Ditton thanks to strokeside pressure brought us back on station with Jesus, and an almighty push followed by an excellent rhythm brought us our first whistle (confusing several in the boat, given Downing was far behind!). A quick check of the cox box showed 31, and I could see ahead that Jesus was rating much higher than us, and their faces showed exhaustion. This was followed shortly by two blasts, the Jesus cox steering to the left and my voice apparently going up in pitch.

Absolutely loving the ride at this stage another squeeze got us three, then a continuous whistle. Calls to steer left along with a bumps push were followed by bow hitting 7's blade, creating an unusual double cross shape on the bumps chart, and completely messing up people's BumpIt predictions...

Utterly ecstatic, we don't care how the rest of bumps goes. We proved we weren't a spooning crew and we deserved a place high in the table, despite our general lack of experience.

***Video*** at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm4V21WVtKo (Mark)
You have no idea how pleased I am! Well I am sure you do. Awesome job, I am so proud of you. This is how you know how to row, so none of that fear again please. Go and bump Emma tomorrow! I will be checking the website during my conference talks... All the best!!! (Julijana)
Woop woop, huge congratulations girls and boy :) Just listened to the radio commentary whilst eating my breakfast and I almost choked on my museli with excitement! Best of luck for tomorrow, wish I could be there cheering you on tomorrow but I'll be dreaming of another bump tonight :) (Charley)
Hearing this news made my day. Best of luck on day 4 - I wanna see a V for victory traced out on the top of that table! (Jij)
Awesome!!! Can someone please put up a descriptive race report for all of us who missed out on this when it happened live. (S.C. Mertes)
Well done, fantastic! A really great result to bump a crew back. Good luck for tomorrow. (AmeLia)
Well done, ladies! Go return Emma's bump tomorrow! (Cynthia)
Woohooo! Go girls!! Good luck for tomorrow. (Erica)
Girls, this is PHENOMENAL! I am so happy for you! (Charles)
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Well done girls!!!!!! (Lyns)
Amazing!! Well done!! Looking forward to watching you go hell for leather at Emmanuel tomorrow! (Neil T)
Just saw the smiley pop up!!! :- D well done girls! (Charlie)
Well done girls, everyone is so proud of you, and you should be so proud of yourselves! (Louise)
Just listened on the radio.. Sounds like a really amazing row - awesome effort girls! (Katie)
Saturday
Rowed over
A really good row.

Not many nerves existed now since there was nothing to really lose. Even if we were bumped we had already stopped the general consensus that we would go a long way down, and that made us very happy.
We showed that, despite having a slower start, we were quicker than Jesus over the course, and we knew that Jesus would have their whistles early on in this race.

Our start was perhaps the best out of all our bumps races, but the stride took a little longer than yesterday. Jesus got two whistles very early on and for quite a long time too, around First Post and into the Gut - turned out to very optimistic given there was still about a length between the boats during this time(?)

No more whistles followed and we opened up the gap from then on. Onto the Plough we were probably about on station with Emma, if a little out, but coming around Ditton Emma gradually opened up the gap until the end showing their speed and strength.

An excellent row from Emma who showed how they deserved the Headship this time round, but also an excellent row from the girls who beat the odds to drop no further than 2nd.

To overcome so many disappointments with injury, obvious from our performance at Pembroke Regatta, and no permanent replacement up until a week before bumps we have done ourselves proud.

Many thanks to all our supporters, and especially to Julijana for subbing in whenever we've needed her, to Kim for being our lifeline, to Jenny and Anne for supporting us on the bank, and of course to Iain who kept us going through the rough times and got us up to speed despite all of the hurdles.

We're already so up for fighting for it back next year. (Mark)
Well done FaT W1. Looking at the last couple of years, there seems to be a history of underestimating this crew. I don't know whether that's a reflection of your own lack of confidence or just misjudgment by everyone else, but in either case I think you have proved a point this week. It takes a lot of guts to turn around and fight after going down two in the first two days, especially from the Headship, and all the more so when many of you have so little racing experience. You might not realise it, especially the freshers among you, but there are a lot of us bufties out there (in the Real World!) watching the progress of First and Third up and down the bumps charts. You've done us proud this week. Well rowed. (Erica)
Congratualtions girls - a fantastic achievement to have bumped back yesterday and held your position today, that takes real guts and is something you should be very proud of :) I hope all the ex-novices enjoyed their first taste of senior racing proper and are hungry for more, and that the experienced pros are now keener than ever for Mays (Liz you know you want to...!). Enjoy a well-deserved rest and the dinner/bop (3 boat clubs = triple carnage... news please!) and I really look forward to watching some more bumping action on the last day of Mays :) (Charley)
Good job girls, and sorry it didn't work out today, but you are all here next year, so it's certainly something to look forward to. I am very proud of you! Have a good time at the dinner and the bop tonight, and I expect some awesome rowing next term and blades in May bumps. Also, please can someone write a detailed report on the rowing once everything is over? (Julijana)

1. Overlap
2. Concession
3. Ditton
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Women's Head of the River Race (Novice VIIIs)

95th, 2nd in Nov(A), 2nd Oxbridge college
Time: 21:07.97
Well what a day it's been; very good fun was had - especially since none of the crew had rowed off-Cam before.
I can't believe we came second in our category by just 0.7seconds! But well done to Downing for putting in a good race!.
We seem to have a habit with coming second in races - Winter Head-to-Head, Bumps, WeHORR...

So I went down yesterday (Friday) evening for the coxes' pre-race chat and then returned after several Tube delays to Liz's just before 11pm.

We left Liz's this morning, and got to Imperial BC, our kind hosts, at about 10am at the same time our boat arrived thanks to Cantabs.

Building the boat on the side of the street with some cake and a cup of tea I decided to carry out my plan of taping up the first few inches or so of the area of the rigger triangle, just out from the saxboard, in order to prevent any splashes/waves from making too much of a mess in the boat. Despite two rolls of duck tape, I ran out by the 5th rigger and abandoned the plan, leaving the boat looking like half the riggers were kept on by tape.

The row up was a little splashy and rocky and fraught with incompetent crews and extremely hostile (Cambridge college!) coaches. But it wasn't too long until we had spun and approached Chiswick bridge.

Our rolling start was fine, albeit a little slow to get up to rate, and within the first minute we were preparing to overtake. Exeter Oxford were out of the way, yet a slow Durham Amateurs sat in the line and refused to move, despite advanced calls. I was forced to steer around to overtake, but as we did they decided to move into us, causing a blade clash, with Liz catching a semi-crab.

The rhythm was generally good, and later down the course we had really good pushes at 30/31 although they were really rushed when I called them. I didn't help with the fact that I didn't really cope with the river being so wide, especially later on, and Cambridge style "stay-to-the-right" lines meant that the scenic route was taken for chunks of the course - I certainly noticed the loss in speed approaching Hammersmith where I was much closer to the Surrey side than the Eyot (sorry Simon!). This meant that the pink boat of Churchill just ahead, battling Downing now and again, would move closer or further away depending where we were on the course.

The push for the finish after the black buoy was very strong and committed and was a great finish to a fun race. Let's see if FaT W1 can go one better next year... (Mark)
This was a great race to end the term with. A very exciting start to the day - 300 crews seemingly turning up all at once with endless trailers driving up and down the bank and blades being stacked everywhere, and a pretty manic rush to get the boat into the river and push off for the start. Didn't really compare with any of the Cam races I've experienced before! After a lot of waiting around and concentration from bow 4 to keep the boat in a vague queue we were able to row up to the beginning of the race, inspired by the 'elite' crews who were already racing. We seemed to get into a good rhythm from the start, and it was a nice encouragement to overtake Exeter from Oxford and a Durham crew fairly early on. Stroke side coped really well with a blade clash with Durham and we continued at a steady rate for the rest of the race, overtaking 2 more crews if I remember correctly... Seemed to go really quickly after the halfway point of Hammersmith Bridge - in fact most of us at the end were quite surprised how short the race felt!! Was great to hear Mark call that we were closing the gap on Churchill and Downing at times, even though ultimately we didn't catch up with them. But finished knowing we had rowed really well as a crew - it felt very much in time and balanced despite rougher water than we were used to - and was good to see how far the gap between us and the boat behind us stretched!

Praise God for such a great first off-Cam race, and for the opportunity I've had to row with such a lovely, enthusiastic crew! (Kimberley)
This was such a fun race to finish the term with. The opportunity to row on the Thames with hundreds of other crews was amazing and a bit different from being on the cam with only 17 other boats...

Pushing off was a bit stressful, especially as I was rowing in flip-flops for the first bit (before we could sort out kit away from the bank) and marshalling seemed to involve constant tapping from bow pair and bow four!

The actual race went really quickly. It definitely felt shorter than Fairbairns. The start went well and it was encouraging to overtake two other crews so early on. The blade clash with Durham could have been avoided if their cox had actually given way but we coped well and got straight back into rhythm. The rest of the race is a bit of a blur: overtaking another two crews, slowly closing on churchill and downing, mark calling 'length and pressure' and 'time over the knees'!

I just wish we could have got that extra 0.7seconds off the time to beat downing, and avoided another 2nd place. Having said that, it was still an amazing result. (Alex)
This was an awesome race and an excellent day. It was so nice to not feel like there was any pressure on us going into the race unlike with bumps, and I think this allowed us all to really enjoy our last row together as a crew.

The row up was long and I can imagine that it would have dampened my spirits had it not been so sunny. The constant tapping coupled with the fact that we seemed to be moving backwards made me feel a little sea sick! There were also some scary coaches around trying to take over the job of marshalling and screaming at other crews, so thanks to Mark for keeping us out of trouble there.

The start went well, Alex and I in particular were glad to be doing a rolling start as opposed to a racing one and we soon got into a good rhythm (though the rate build was very gradual) and started overtaking crews. The blade clash as we passed 272 added a bit of drama and a lot of wobble but we carried on and passed three more crews in quick succession. Hammersmith Bridge seemed a long time coming, though at one point I remember Mark calling for a push off the crews behind us and thinking that we'd pulled away so far I could barely see them any more, which was quite motivating! After the bridge it seemed no time at all before Fulham football club and then the black buoy followed by our final push to the finish. Overall I was pleased with how smooth the entire row felt, and I suppose, the result. It would have been really good to win something for once but, as Mark said as we rowed home on the last day of Bumps, we'll settle for 2nd.. it's better than 5th. (Hannah Roberts)
Nice one girls! Gutted for you about that 0.7 seconds. (Erica)

1. Frontstops
2. Posing with riggers
3. Posing with Valkyrie
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