First and Third Trinity Boat Club
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The Club's Results

Clare Novice Regatta, Mich Term 2012

4th men's novice VIII (Plate)

1st round
Beat Fitz NM2 by 1/2 length
The weather was quite good that day: sunny, not too freezing, and the wind was minimal. I was really eager to win. But to be frank, I didn't really have much confidence because we were "only" NM4.

The first few strokes were smooth for both boats, although I think the rate at which we started could have been a bit higher.

However, our stress was soon relieved as Fitz ran into the south bank of the river. We rowed at a very relaxed rate for about 150 to 200 meters, which was good for our stamina but not necessarily so for our morale.

I didn't expect it at all that Fitz could recover so quickly from the crash and could still carry on with the race with such strong will and powerful strokes. In fact, Fitz was constantly approaching us until we were about 1 length away, when we began to row really hard. I personally suggest we give them a big applause for their sportsmanship.

The two boats remained close for the rest of the race, and we tried to keep the rate and pressure till the end.

Judging by what I saw, Fitz certainly had stronger rowers, but our skills were the key to our winning (timing, feathering, etc). Fitz could have done much better if their blades hadn't got stuck in the water, which actually happened at least twice.

On my part, I did feel tired in the latter half of the race, and I guess my pressure went down a little bit. Soreness mainly concentrated on my forearms instead of my thighs, which indicates I ought to pay special attention to my upper body strength in the future.

This is my first race ever, and thank you all for fighting hard as a team. It's really been a pleasure training and racing with you. (Charles)
2nd round
Lost to Caius NM2 easily
Generally speaking, I felt less energetic as I did in the previous race. It might be that the first race had exhausted the crew more or less, and we did not have enough time to recover.

The starting strokes were technically better than the previous race, as far as I saw. Nonetheless, a few strokes later, despite the cox's repeating orders for more pressure from the bow-side, both boats began to deviate from the original course and soon got stuck together in the middle of the river. We had to align and re-start at around 50 or 100 meters from the starting point.

From then on, Caius was obviously faster than us and soon escaped my sight. We rowed on with our maximum possible power, but still could not catch up with them.

I made a few bad strokes during this race, mainly feathering problems, which I suppose was due to my incompetent arms, especially forearms. Luckily, these bad strokes didn't affect the stability of the boat.

From this race, I realised that I still need a lot of improvement on my strength and techniques compared with other crews. Although we didn't win, I still consider our performance quite satisfactory. Great job, crew! (Charles)

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