The Club's Results

Having listened to my recording from the race and looked all the photos, I have to say I still don't know what exactly happened that we had such a terrible bladeclash (which with no doubt ranks as the most scary moment of my two years of coxing). Had I known that the crew I am overtaking would simply refuse to do even the slightest concession of the line despite being on the inside of the bend and us having the right of way anyway, I might have done things differently, but that is the advantage of hindsight. At least they got a penalty for impeding us..
As it is, we had a fairly good result even with having to stop rowing twice, to the entertainment of the crowds on Hammersmith. However, it would have been really nice to actually be able to compare ourselves with the rest of the field but we will have to wait for regatta season for that. (also, well done to Pembroke who must have had a great race!) (Sonya)

Hmm... I think it would be fair to say we were somewhat overawed by tideway, but then that's why we did it. Hopefully next time we go, we won't. I for one spent most of my time thinking "there are a lot of crews here" rather than coxing properly, and as such while my lines may have been okay (I think), my coxing was gash. I get the impression that a lot of people in the crew thought something along the lines of "this is a twenty + minute race, I'm going to save something for the end", and as such the commitment to moving fast before Hammersmith wasn't there. Again, probably my fault for a failure to insist upon proper pressure up to that point.

Having said that, I think that this week we have produced some very good pieces in training, and although we didn't produce on the day, we can take that experience forwards to next year. There are 6? people in this crew around next year, and that is valuable for next year. And even though I believe we could have been faster, we still went up 20 odd from our start position.

Finally, this was our final race as W2, and as a note to the girls, you have been awesome to cox. The progress you've made has been epic, and the commitment to training has been really great. So perhaps bumps didn't go our way, and we didn't really train for WeHorr, but there has been a lot positive from this term, and I hope to see you all again in a boat next term/year :).

edit: Times at Barnes and Hammersmith indicate we were 265th then 260th then finished 258th. The fact that we were faster over later sections indicates to me that we set off too gently. Or that may be due to other crews blowing up. Oh well. (Swords)

That seems incredibly even splits relative to the crews around you; two years ago we were 107th, 77th, 85th at the three timing points, and we only gently blew up in the last third. (Peter)