First and Third Trinity Boat Club
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The Club's Results

May Term 2012

3rd men's VIII

Champion of the Thames Eights Head (Men's 3rd Div. Mays), The Gentlemen of Trinity


Time: 5:25.7
Mediocre at best. Really struggled with the pickup in the headwind.
Edit: it seems we were second fastest crew with m2 and m4 very closely matched @ 0.13 and 0.20. I would hope by bumps, that increased training and better coaching will really show for the second eight.
We're all a bit decrepit to be going fast, with me in the boat simply to deal with inevitable heart attacks, arthritis and questions about medication changes. (Thomas)
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May Bumps

Wednesday
Bumped Robinson II
A good, rewarding race, that went exactly according to plan, but nevertheless was no easy feat.

In an aggressive start we hit a top rate of 48, before settling on a racy 40. Though the wash was fearsome, we didn't deign to be perturbed.

The balance wavered after the first minute, but we kept lively, and just as it began to get scrappy, we gained a whistle, and pressed on through First Post corner. Our reliable 'lift' move, deployed as a bumps push, sealed the deal.

Looking forward to tomorrow. (Preeyan)
I was initially worried by the lack of early whistles and quiet from the bank. Were we being dropped? Were they going to bump out ahead? Fortunately we got the first whistles coming into the gut and this caused us to stop being lazy and our push, in a theme that would become common this week, quickly led to contact with them. (Thomas)
Thursday
Bumped LMBC III
Today's result was particularly sweet for me, because I was in the crew that lost the M3 headship to a Maggie Gents crew two years ago.

An unusual cross-headwind caused difficulty throughout the first part of the race. After nearly brushing the bank on the start, we gained hardly any ground until First Post corner. Aaron gave a "MOVING" call from the towpath, and I closed my eyes and thought of Strawson, but still there was no whistle.

Then Maggie started closing on Peterhouse, and our bankparty insisted that we row faster. We duly obeyed. At Ditton there came a wall of noise shouting that Maggie had gone wide. As we rounded the corner, the cross-head rotated into a cross-tail, we rowed several inches longer, and we lifted into a bumps push, in a perfect storm with drastic consequence.

The stomp should be fun tomorrow. (Preeyan)
The battle for the third eight headship. We knew that today was the day where not performing could lead us to have nothing to chase and a long row over. We started well, but were not moving spectacularly, and settled onto a reasonably high rate, but perhaps lacking length. We felt we were a little lazy down the gut, but put in a decent move down the plough reach to get our first whistle. Out of Ditton we were told to go now, and produced our characteristic 'stop being lazy' bumps lift to quickly eat the remaining gap. (Thomas)
Friday
Bumped Peterhouse II
A beastly headwind, capable of veering into a cross or even a tail from stroke to stroke, showed no mercy to us. We nevertheless kept our wits and rowed strongly and confidently.

Spirits are high, and we feel that maybe we could have gone on forever. But thank goodness we bumped out before Ditton. I might not have any arms left otherwise. (Preeyan)
Peterhouse seemed to think we were a little inexperienced while marshalling, perhaps not realising that we, as preeyan pointed out, had more than 50years rowing experience through the crew.

We had an excellent push off (all credit to Iain.) and with the clear calls from the bank were quickly gaining on them. Whistles started coming in the gut and the bump just before the plough with a satisfying thud. (Thomas)
Saturday
Overbumped St. Catharine's II
Slight change of plan, boys! (Preeyan)
Selwyn ahead of us decided to get their act together (or emmanuel had a bad day), or we were a bit hungover from the formal dinner the night before. (I really recommend a three course meal on the Friday of bumps, as a good way to set you up for the weekend.)

Either way, they appeared to drop us early on and bumped out on the corner. At this point I knew an overbump was doable, especially as we felt we'd be a stronger crew into the headwind. So we pushed on, and with calls from the bank that the distance for the overbump was coming down nicely moved onto catz II.

The horrific headwind on the reach helped bunch us up, and we caught them just out of ditton corner.

I really enjoyed rowing with this crew. We were occasionally (often?) lazy in what we did, but if we decided to row well we did just get on with it, be it in paddling, sparring or racing. The attitude remained positive throughout term, and even when things got tough during the last race.

I learnt some new things that I felt improved my rowing this term, old person, new tricks... But definitely makes it all feel more rewarding.

Gonzalo did a good job of stroking most of term, and was very gracious in accepting the last minute crew change. Hopefully he thinks the aggravation was worth it.

The one regret... Not throwing Emma in the river. (Thomas)

1. The Gunshow
2. The Gents

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