The Club's Results

Blazed SPS 1st VIII :-). (Gonzo)

A good row though a bit nervous off the start... we pulled ahead early on and settled comfortable, although we didn't find a really good rhythm until after the railway bridge, when we sacrificed rate for ratio with good results. Crossed the finish with a couple of length of clear water. (Natasha)

Would anyone like to own up to talking to Christs about cheese, barmen and gorillas?
http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/boatclub/node/1616

I also don't believe that we took half a length in two strokes. Maybe their first two strokes took longer than ours. (Peter)

A more competitive round. Robinson made a valiant effort off the start and held within a length for most of the race. Past the kink, we pushed hard and made our move, clearing some open water around the railway bridge, from which we continued to move to finish with over a length of open water. A really good race piece, thanks to some very committed competition. (Natasha)

Robinson produced a very effective race to the railway bridge, managing to be the only crew not hold overlap to 500m, and gave us a mild scare. However, our rowing stayed calm while they were alongside and without any great increase in pressure from us the margin went from 2/3 length to several by the finish (Pembroke don't seem to have managed to take any margins for any of their races, so the best guess we have is "several") (Peter)

We expected a tough race on this one and we got it, with our alumni holding onto us for a good portion of the race. We pulled ahead on the start but they stayed with us until the kink, where we started to walk away and never gave an inch back. (Natasha)

After watching Black Prince looking sharp in taking down Jesus a few minutes before, I was expecting this to be the toughest race of the regatta. However, some combination of time in the boat and fresher legs from Pembroke's total lack of planning of the draw meant we moved rapidly away off the start and settled onto a slightly more relaxed rhythm off the bridge to conserve energy for the possibility of a harder final. (Peter)

Like Christ's and Robinson, Caius lined up looking very serious and professionally ignoring our more banterous marshalling. They gave us a bit of a scare of the start, pushing ahead about three quarters of a length. But the crew stayed focused and committed to our own race plan, despite a rather unorthodox push during our build off the start: to which the crew responded well and we surged ahead by half a length. About twenty strokes saw the boats holding together, but a second massive surge sent us ahead, and gradually gave us inches of open water. From the bridge we left them in the wake to finish with about a length of open water. (Natasha)

Iain had warned us on the way down that Caius liked to blast off the start, so I was actually less worried when Caius went 2/3 of a length up than when Robinson were 2/3 of a length down. After Natasha's innovative mid-start push we never stopped moving through them, and I still don't quite know how we went from 2/3 of a length down to 1 1/4l up between strokes 15 and 60; did Caius blow up after 30s?
In any case, with nothing to save for we rowed off into the distance considerably more than Natasha's report credits us with; my out-of-breath counting put the finish whistles at 11s gap, which would equate to about 3 lengths. (Peter)

A reasonable row, finished 23 seconds clear. (Rich)

Well done guys. Hope your HoRR result doesn't suffer from overtraining for a sprint ;-P

Also, TWO overbumps in M1?! It would never have happened in my day.... (RTT)

Excellent Gentlemen. You were at least 2 lengths clear around Grassy. (Mark)

Saw you from Ditton, looked strong, good to see you finished so clear! (Swords)

Hmm - I honestly thought it would be a lot closer than that. Good work. Be careful though, it could be a trap... (JPD)

YAY! Well done guys :- ) (Charlotte)

Only 23 seconds clear? What happened? :) (Neil T)

Nice and comfortable - a lot calmer than yesterday, with the quality of the rowing improving as a result. (Gonzalo 'Blade' Garcia)

Handled awful conditions very well, and so did Downing. Well done boys! One more to go (Natasha)

Allow headwinds. (Nanny)

A good row in unpleasant conditions, finishing around 2.5 lengths clear. (Rich)

Congrats boys :) (Tsunami)

A very hard fought race from both sides, congratulations to Downing on throwing everything at us; we were expecting them to close to a few feet at Ditton and then blow, instead they closed to inside a quarter of a length and then stayed there or thereabouts until the railway bridge (so I'm told; from the bow seat I had no idea whether we were safe or they had overlap all the way down the reach, which was fairly terrifying).

Sparring with the women was spactastic, but did involve hitting 50 at (nearly) full slide.

More to come when I don't have a dinner to go to. (Peter)

Pretty exciting stuff. With the race starting in the middle of a furious hailstorm that reminded some of Helm's Deep, we quickly moved up on Downing (as per normal, despite their race reports). However things soon changed shape as Downing started to come at us from first post corner, and came fairly fast. From the amount of noise being made by the supporters down plough reach, it was getting pretty intense, and just before Ditton they were less than 6 feet from our stern.

We'd discussed the possibility of all of this; however, it came as a nasty surprise that, although around Ditton we pulled it out to quarter of a length, they then stayed there all down the reach. A pretty hellish couple of minutes for some of us!

Coming through the railway bridge we had a surge and after that started to pull away slightly more steadily, crossing the line above station. And after that it was a couple of minutes of pure lactic burn, nice...

Huge kudos to Downing - they proved they were capable of some very serious speed, and gave us an awesome race. But in the end, we got over the finish line: well done boys for such a calm and committed row, it was intense. (Leachy)

This academic year saw a large turnover within the men's side. We embarked upon our Lent campaign with only two rowers from last year's Mays boat and hence a less certain outlook compared with previous years. Races early in the term suggested that certainly Queen's and probably Downing were faster than us. We were improving extremely fast with time together, but the question was whether we could generate the required speed in time for bumps.

We approached the first day of bumps with mixed feelings - huge progress had been made since last racing Downing and we had comfortably won Pembroke Regatta, although both of our main rivals were absent. However, our relative speeds at this stage were unknown.

In fact the first race was rather uneventful, seeing us steadily take distance though a very aggressive first half of the race and finishing with a large margin although Downing claim to have wound down for the last km or so. It was clear that LMBC did not pose any threat to either crew so it looked to be a two horse race for the rest of the week.

One of the perils of rowing over head is that you have to be prepared to deal with any race plan from the chasing crew and still be capable of racing the distance. We had no idea of how Downing were approaching each day so tried to approach each day with the same aggression and commitment, and be prepared for either a long race or a 500m sprint. Both the second and third days saw us move out to 2.5 or 3 lengths in the first half and sit there, generally rating 33-34 and feeling fairly comfortable. However, memories of 4th day shock tactics by Downing in 2009 were fresh in our minds so we rowed up on saturday expecting a repeat. Only two of us had rowing the last Lents and we were sure to impress on the new guys the likelihood of such a race.

Downing did not disappoint. They sat on station until the gut, when they began to move on us, and by the approach to Ditton had closed to what looked from the 7 seat to be around 3 feet of clear water but I am told it was more like a canvas. A glance at the bladework and postures of the Downing crew showed that they were sprinting flat out and we knew that they would blow as had happened last year if only we could hold them long enough. We stayed calm and the crew performed admirably, responding cohesively to Natasha's calls. As one member of the crew put it 'I got my head down, rowed as hard as I could and believed they would blow'. We took some distance with a strong push out of Ditton, and Downing sat at 1/4 length for the first third of the reach or so, falling back to 1/2 length approaching the railway bridge. At this point we could see that they were dying off, and we steadily began to move away finishing with around 2.5 lengths clear water. A fantastic end to the bumps, and one that I will remember for a long time. Thanks to Downing for such a great race, and for being such good sports about the result.

Unfortunately we have been unable to compare ourselves to Queen's as a the time of writing an injury has prevented them from competing to race at HBR. We have progressed hugely as a crew and have become fast sprinters which bodes well for regatta season. This is largely down to the efforts of JPD who coached us for the two weeks leading up to bumps - without his support and coaching prowess we would not have finished head and we can't thank him enough. Thanks also to Peter Summers and Emma for their contributions earlier in the term.

I'd like to extend my thanks to the rest of the crew - the team spirit and determination has been terrific this term. We now look forward to HoRR and May term having secured the Lent Headship for another year.

Rah Rah First and Third! (Rich)

All credit to Downing for a cracking last-day row. Coming past The Plough the margin was around a quarter of a length and a good line around Ditton put them to around eight feet, perhaps slightly less, but the boys showed incredible composure and steel to keep their heads and push away down the Reach. On the bank I (everyone?) expected that once Downing had missed they would blow, but they stayed within a third of a length or so until near the Railway Bridge before finally losing touch. Awesome race; huge congratulations to the crew, and to JPD for another stellar contribution. (Neil T)

After our stroke man caught the notorious 'broken rib' bug a week ago we have been forced to shake up our crew - we are now bow-rigged and every member has changed seats. However, the crew has responded well and we are beginning to learn to row a head race.
The race felt nice and committed but the rowing was too variable if we want to perform next weekend at HoRR. Rate fluctuated between 30 and 33 and we seemed surprised by the tailwind. We overtook one crew and were overtaken by a sharp KRC crew who eventually won IM2.
One week to go - as a new line up our rate of improvement is pleasingly quick. Morale is high and we're looking forward to getting our teeth into the Tideway. (Rich)

I'd like to write as impartial and accurate race report as I can regarding this result. After a successful bumps campaign, we were unfortunate to lose our stroke man to a broken rib. We therefore changed the crew around and brought in a sub for Kingston and a different rower for HoRR. However, I don't think that these changes particularly damaged our performance. After a rocky Kingston at which our lack of time together was apparent, the final week leading up to HoRR was feeling very good. Our coaches and cox were the same as we had last year and they agreed that a good result should be forthcoming. Four of our crew were in the boat last year when we finished 53rd, and we too felt very pleased with the crew, and excited about the race.

We set off number 60 amidst total chaos at the start, being told to start ahead of number 59 and very close to the crews in front (who had been set off with overlap!) and wound to a chunky 36. We held this for around 20 strokes, before striding onto our planned race rate of 34. Conditions were extremely choppy but we found a long loose rhythm, and the boat felt good. Throughout the race the boat felt light and we held 34, always out of our puddles. The race was certainly not perfect but we felt happy with the row.

Emma was careful to start timing as the umpire said 'Number 60, go'. We had an idea of what time we wanted to be on at various landmarks and so she was calling the elapsed time at regular points during the race. What confused us is that the time at winding down read 18:42. The results place us 154th with a time of 19:02. We don't really know what conclusions to take away from this race - to be honest we're all slightly baffled. That's not supposed to sound arrogant or conceited - we simply don't feel that our performance would have placed us there and are confused about the timing discrepancy. There is nothing we can do though, so we need to draw a line under that result and look to a new term of racing after a couple of well-earned weeks off.

Congratulation to the other colleges who performed well, and especially to Downing for a great result - well deserved. (Rich)

It looked pretty good from where we were sat at TSS and we hope you enjoyed the 'Go Trinity!' cheer from our boat. It's funny you should talk about a timing discrepancy - we recorded our time at 19.03 and got 19.22 - that's almost the same difference as you. Coincidence? (Jij)