The Club's Results

It seems I managed to worry Sonya so much by talking about the cross-wind which was causing people to crash into the bank in every race... that we spent the whole race on the opposite buoyline. In spite of McTiernan promising to vomit if we made him so much as walk to the boat, and the relative lack of experience in the bows, the Gents strategy of "go mad off the start, then make random unannounced rate changes and trust Fletcher and Thomas to follow you" seemed to work. I don't think any of us were putting our blades in at the front, but we were taking enough strokes to open out a slightly scary 3 seat lead; Chesterton then slowed in the second half and we crossed the line with a slightly more convincing margin.

The most amusing part of the outing was, in a rush to leave the landing stage after collecting our pots, pushing off and leaving McT standing there looking confused. A close second was having an twelve year old girl threaten to "put you in hospital" when we rowed back close to (but avoiding) her fishing line. (Peter)

Interesting things happen when all 8 put their blades in the water around the front end; things get even more interesting when all 8 are capable of putting their blades in together but randomly fail. Making up the majority of the inexperience in the bows it was nice to row in a boat with some power, especially being sat in the ergmonkey seat at 65kg. It could have been a little smoother and a little more stable but it was certainly the most fun I've had in a boat in a long while. My personal highlight of the race was being highly confused by and not being able to coordinate catching at what seemed to be about 9/10ths slide. That, and seeing Chesterton's faces when they were somewhat forcefully informed they were racing us, previously on the (ever so slightly inflated) draw to race CRA Senior. (Thornton)

Having left the after-party less than 4 hours before getting to the boathouse for this race, this outing was one of the most unpleasant experiences I can remember, particularly on the interminable paddle back. I hadn't realised until we got back to the boathouse that this was Jack and Steven's first fours race, so perhaps we should have given them a few more pointers; more than one practice start certainly might have helped them!

Hertford took back our half length stagger in the first few strokes, but they only slowly moved through us in the next 250m. The fact we were still holding the rate in the 40s in order to keep up proved too much for a scratch four (apparently Hertford had been seen *training* on the Isis; definitely cheating!), and in the second half they moved out to a couple of lengths. We passed the static umpire (who turned out to be about 100m before the finish) and stopped rowing, then realised we hadn't finished and paddled over the line.

The most amusing part of the outing was probably being accused of behaving like a married couple; Matt and I have rowed together for long enough to know quite well what to bitch about in each other's rowing. (Peter)

We were so scared of Hertford after our IM3 drubbing that we decided to upgrade our original crew and drop in Matt and Ali; apologies to Simon and Thomas, I think we would probably have managed the win with the original crew. We had just been pretty slow while still hungover...

Although we seemed to be doing effective things in the water, the bladework was shoddy and on the paddle up it was by far the least stable "good" crew I've ever been in. Fletcher decided that 48 was a good rate to start at, although Ali (having not been in a boat for a while) was struggling to keep up; we moved quite convincingly on Hertford off the start, and they then oscillated between half a length and a length behind us. Julia then decided to make it slightly more exciting by crashing into the bank as we crossed the line; apparently cross-wind + small person at bow + strokeside never putting their blades in at the front made it quite hard to keep straight...

We collected our pots, drank our complimentary cans of Carlsberg, and rowed back considerably better than we had in the paddle out; it was up for debate whether this was due to remembering how to row as time went on, or the relaxing effects of the beer taking away some of the twitchiness. (Peter)