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The Club's Results

Lent Bumps 2009

4th men's VIII

Coxed by: Hans Liu

Tuesday
Bumped by Magdalene II
Start was okay, some minor spacking, however from where I was sat it felt more due to the wash than us. We were holding Magdalene II at about a length, having lost half a length of the start, and had lost perhaps a few feet on Clare II ahead of us. About a minute odd in, Clare II hit Fitz II, and then proceeded to demonstrate incompetence on an immense scale, ending up diagonally across the river, leaving a very dubious gap for us to attempt to steer through. Hans elected to hold it up for safety reasons, and we were hit by Magdalene II. The umpires thought there was enough gap for us to go through, so we weren't awarded a technical row-over. The crew is pretty angry at Clare II for getting in the way, but hopefully we'll be able to recover our position over the next few days. (Swords)
Wednesday
Bumped by Peterhouse II
Start was good, pretty quick and smooth, and we held station on Magdalene II, and managed to move away to what looked like 2 1/2 lengths from Peterhouse II. Unfortunately Magdalen II hit Fitz II ahead of us, at which point we rather lost our way somewhat. Some impressive coxing combined with an effective push narrowly avoided the bump round Grassy, however we seemed to loose it somewhat down plough reach, so despite taking evasive action round Ditton, they had a major overlap, and a blade clash sealed the bump. More thought required on efficiency and technique on Friday if better results are to be had.

^^^^ Think I must have been logged in when this was written. It's fair to say Magdalene had pulled away a fair bit when the bump occured. After evading overlap round Grassy, the seemingly inevitable occured around Ditton. A good try, but it's tough for a 4th VIII in the 3rd division. Let's see what the crew can do after a day's rest. (Richard)
The real test for a crew is going down 2 in the first two days. Crews who fail this test give up and spoon automatically. Crews who pass the test keep their heads up and row to their maximum potential. You will not fail this test.

Technically, it was a little messy but the boat got moving on well enough due to the mountain of power you guys have. Squaring up early will help you, hopefully in the row back you managed to find some of this in Hans's coaching. There was inspired coxing and no-regrets style effort going down during the race.

At the end of the day there is plenty of gratuitous crap I could spew about participation and patting you on the back, but I know this crew isn't about that. This crew is about mental and physical solidarity without cliched bullshit. You keep your fighting spirit and you could have something to celebrate between now and the BCD, whether it's bumping up or just knowing that you left bumps a stronger rower.

Good luck for the rest of the bumps. (Jij)
Friday
Rowed over
YEAH BUDDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Emma)
I once heard that a draw was a dull result. A row over being the bumps equivalent, I think we can safely say that it is perfectly possible to have interesting draws... We went off hard, in the vague hope of hitting Peterhouse II before Fitz II crashed into them from the front, however that was a little optimistic, as a result of our fast start Cauis II started to gain on us. By grassy I'm pretty sure they were on three whistles, and going for a bumps push, however a massive push from us held them off, just. We were under pressure down plough reach, and they started another bumps push... We were slower to respond this time, and they gained an overlap, and steered for the bump. A last ditch push, some nifty coxing, and no small amount of luck in the timing of our drive led to them missing our stern by what seemed a ridiculously minimal margin just around Ditton, and they ended up overlapped on the outside of us. At this point they paid for their two bumps pushes, and a minor crab by their stroke left them briefly in sixes and completely out of phase. Seeing that we had the temporary advantage, we decided to put some clear water in, and went for some hefty strokes down the top of the reach, and produced some of our best rowing, considering how tired we were. We pulled away a reasonable distance, and then it was simply a sprint to the line. We held them off all the way, despite them gaining on us all the way. Crossing the line ended what was certainly the most satisfying piece of rowing I've been in, with a sense of elation to be off the down escalator. Massive credit to the crew for producing such a committed row despite being down two, and huge thanks to Hans for successfully keeping us in it with some pinpoint coxing, and thanks to our bank party for support despite all seeming lost at more than one occasion... Keen for tomorrow, very keen indeed... :) (Swords)
Watching a FaT boat row over in front of the Neil McKendrick with millimetres to spare brought back some painful and yet extremely pleasant memories. Good job today guys, you've really earned your turnaround in the bumps charts. If you can keep up the work ethic and avoid complacency tomorrow you'll end the week on an upward curve. (RTT)
That's right boys. That's right. (Jij)
Saturday
Bumped Fitzwilliam II
Well done boys, you deserved this. Good to see you starting the pre-pre-pre-dinner drinks early as well! (Emma)
Well, it's 01:16, and my gardies was good... Anyways, I seem to have developed a tendency for verbose race reports, so I'd hate to disappoint. We were pretty quick off the start, but nothing special, however we got our first whistle after Motorway bridge. It then seemed an age until we got the second, and I must admit, I have no idea when that happened, however the third seemed pretty quick after that. Then, I was personally boosted by cries of "4 feet... 2 feet... 1 foot" from the bank, and after a look, I realised that the stern of Fitz II was within an easy arms length of my spot in the bows. At the next finish, I lent out, trying to catch their bows, bows, however half way through this movement, I felt an almighty shudder, as we crashed into their 7 man's rigger, due to some more nifty coxing from Hans. Mass celebration ensued, as we finally got the bump we felt we deserved. We had initially hoped to mount a positive bumps campaign, however I'd like to reference the report from jij 2 days ago, in that I have certainly left this particular week a better rower, and I can be pretty sure that the same is true for the rest of our boat. Massive thanks to all who coached us and let us have a respectable go at the Lents 2009, it was quite a giggle. (Swords)
This was some of the most abysmal rowing I have ever been involved in, probably including novice term. There was absolutely no balance or rhythm - and we would probably have got the boat home quicker walking along the bank with it.

Thankfully that was the row home, and today we also did some of the best rowing this crew has ever done.

I think it's safe to say this was the best race of the week by far, since Caius (who had overlap on us the previous day by Ditton where we bumped) were a good length behind as we ploughed into Fitz.

The only complaint with this row was that we would have hit them quicker had the boat not stopped dead as everyone launched themselves to frontstops every time Hans called for a bumps push - I think by the end though we had worked out what was going on, and our last push was effective.

This was a determined row, everyone gave it their all, and this showed through. This week has been an intense week for this crew, but I am proud of the result despite going down 1 - our rowing has most definitely improved a lot, and indeed, I would be interested to see if Peterhouse could still hit us now. Bring on the Mays! (Alex)

1. Rowing home with gre...
2. Cracking open the be...
3. Hans
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