The Club's Results

Last Mays had many things going for it, most of all the 'Thundercrew' which romped home to a great Mays retention. Is is pleasing that M3 seem intent on gaining such and epic moniker, namely 'chundercrew'. I suspect that having a more sober stern pair ay have helped speed, although after Jack had so elegantly jettisoned ballast, he didn't let it affect him.

In all seriousness, there are plenty of guns here, but they need to be used more effectively. Fix the rush, move together, and this boat will go much faster. (Swords)

Corpus had beaten us by 40 seconds in the race last week, winning the M3 division, so this was only going to go one way.

We rowed well and had a nice start but we were really no match for them - they pulled away to a little over a length over a couple of minutes and sat there.

The guys have made a massive improvement over the last week and hopefully gave Corpus a bit of a scare in the process. (Alasdair)

This was the most exciting race I have ever been in, as rower or cox. For context, LMBC M3 are ahead of us in bumps, and beat us by 25 seconds last week.

Due to dubious marshalling we started off unready and a little behind, but we had a great start and gradually moved out to a couple of seats ahead.

Around the bend in the reach things got interesting - between the wind, the other cox and my perhaps overzealous dedication to the racing line the boats drifted together. We committed to the blade clash and crashed along together for 100 metres or so before breaking free. The guys handled it exceptionally, especially Josh who's feet apparently ended up above his head but managed to get himself strapped back before I'd even noticed.

LMBC were also well prepared and took a couple of seats back during the clash, but found themselves on the outside of the final corner and on the business end of our do or die push. I'm still not entirely sure how we did it, but we rowed through them in 20 or so strokes and pushed away to a length plus of clear water.

Phenomenal work guys, let's do it again in two weeks. (Alasdair)

This is amazing! Well done M3, I'm so proud! (Julia A.)

Bumps is retarded. And with Caius around, downright dangerous. (In fairness their cox apologised, and it provided a good excuse to laugh at Barrell failing to cycle with a blade...)

We gained on LMBC 3, but Lolcatz 2 gained faster. Had we made it to Ditton we might have stood a chance of rowing over, but we were caught at Grassy. Were we rattled by the the 'collision' that snapped our stroke man's blade? Perhaps. Would we have been faster had our two-man not got so drunk we had to cancel an outing last week? Potentially. But in the words of M3 last year, at times like this I wonder: just what is the point? I might as well go to Cindies and get battered. (S.T. Jackson)

A little excitement up to the start, as Cauis III didn't see us before the Plough and so did a start into our stationary boat. Having replaced my blade and our rudder we were ready to go, and I actually think the disruption calmed the pre-race nerves.

The start was panicky, I suspect as a result of the unfamiliar environment of bumps, but not disastrous, and it took us a while to settle onto a rhythm. Once there the rowing felt alright, and we moved steadily on LMBC III. However, St. Caths II were moving more steadily on us, and coming into grassy they put in a bumps push to which we had no reply and caught us.

Over the next couple of days we've got to dig deep to give ourselves another chance regaining the M3 headship. (Jack)

So before the race, Caius decided to do a racing start into the back of us, snapping stroke's blade, and bending our rudder, as well as snapping their bow's blade. Fortunately noone was injured. After rowing down with just 6 of us and no rudder Ian was great, he had a spare rudder with him, and had the boat fixed in no time. Meanwhile numerous people were cycling in lots of blades (for us and Caius) and we were soon ready again.

I hope the Caius cox gets shouted at, and then learns from his mistake and never makes it again. I assume no one in Caius was injured as they did the race. I hope they're okay anyway.

So onto the race itself. We knew before we started that we were faster than Maggie following nines regatta, we also strongly suspected Catz II were going to be faster than us, we just didn't know what the margins would be.

We didn't start great, I know I personally didn't row very well initially, though we got it together after a bit. But Catz were gaining on us rapidly, we were also gaining on Maggie, but not quickly enough. We were down to 3/4s of a length when Catz hit us.

Did Caius hitting us affect the result? probably not, as far as we're aware all damage was repaired on the spot, and everyone was fine. Psychologically sure we we're shaken a bit by the incident immediatly after it, but there was a big gap between that and the start of the race, and it probably didn't affect our performance much.

All things told not a great row, but a fairly okay one cut a bit short, it was dissapointing not to get Maggie but unfortunately this is the nature of bumps, sometimes it isn't sufficient to be faster than the crew ahead. (Jack)

Well Hughes Hall had 2 blue boat rowers a goldie rower and the blue boat cox in their crew. More returners than M1 let alone M3, as well as a full compliment of other massive grad students. It's fair to say the odds were against us.

This race went better than yesterday, the loudness of the cannon under the bridge made us jump a bit and the first 3 strokes wern't great, but we recovered quickly. Although we made one or two mistakes these were also fixed quickly, and all things told I'm far happier with todays race than yesterdays.

All our best efforts wern't enough to hold hughes though, and we were bumped going into first post corner. (Jack)

Inevitably Hughes Hall M1 had no trouble munching us. Best of luck to them in their quest for worthy opposition. The row was I think a little spacky but that was probably a consequence of rating so high to last as long as we possibly could. Which turned out to be until just before first post corner.

Tomorrow we MUST row over to give ourselves the chance to make the bump that we deserve. Our start will be saner, with a stride and everything, and then we will have the advantage of a clear river ahead (assuming Hughes/LMBC clear promptly...) (Jack)

This was over quickly. We did not especially enjoy it.

Some say Hughes Hall actually is a genuine place, and that at least one of their crew really isn't a middle-aged land economist. All we know is they were badgering fast.

That said, a much better row than yesterday. Rowing down to the start with all 8 blades intact might have been a contributing factor to this. To change the result however, would have required a lolcatz fail of an even greater proportion than lents. Surely not even they could crash before first post? Perhaps Newnham could give them some tips on that.

Onwards (yet not so upwards), to Peterhouse tomorrow. I don't know who they are. I don't know what they want. If they are looking for a bump, I can tell them we won't give it to them.

Massive effort tomorrow, so we get the headship chance that we deserve. (Pete)

Being chased by yet another quick crew on for blades again, and same result as before. We didn't row particularly well, but lasted longer than before, making it just out of first post corner.

Cheeky overbump on Hughes for M3 headship tomorow =P (Jack)

Dubious row up followed by scrappy race, and this swift Peterhouse crew had no problems catching us. Good commitment from Josh who put on a gruesome show for the spectators after clearing.

Spoons tomorrow? No thanks. (Jack)

Last night we recieved an email from Magdalene assuring us that if we held Robinson to first post, they would bump them. Although we held up our end of the bargain, holding them just onto the Plough, Magdalene didn't get even slightly close to them.

Today was a good row, a hard sprint of the start, unlike on previous days we didn't panic as they got close, and held them well. But they steadily gained and bumped us on the exit of grassy.

All in all a very disapointing week. But perhaps we can take some solace in the fact that although we might not have blades with FaT III written on them, four other colleges will.

Totally didn't accidently add this to W2 instead of M3... (Jack)

Robinson II were faster and bumped us on Grassy.

An unfortunate result, and not how I would have chosen to end my time at First and Third, but no matter. We worked hard this term, and by the time of bumps the crew was unrecognisable as the crew who lost to Christs W2 at Champs Head. We should be proud of the progress we made, on the erg and in the boat, and not be too disheartened that a high starting position and an inexperienced crew prevented us from converting that progress into results. (Jack S)