The Club's Results

Considering the fact that we have not yet done much high-rate work, we managed to maintain our composure well throughout. I think the three phase race plan was effective, particularly with the emphasis on process, process, and more process in the painful middle section of the race. There were a couple of slight wobbles, but what was really positive to see was that each time a call was made to correct them, we managed to reset back to the solid base we have been working on in the last couple of weeks.

Thornton's tactical crashes to make sure that we didn't embarrass the other VIII by beating them were also effective (and were nothing to do with the dodgy rudder setup at all). Overall, good work boys!

(We also won pots, and the other VIII didn't, so ha) (R.J.C. Stroud)

After the cock up entering our "matched" VIIIs into separate categories, being the crew with the slower erg we took up the mantle of M2 hungry for victory. An earlier outing in the week had demonstrated that, if we all committed, the rowing wasn't terrible and so we were determined to go all out and show Jonathan's Mother what we were capable of. That's exactly what we did. We took it straight up to 31 into the start and sat there for the course. Ahead of us, a Champs IM3 8+...not for long. By Ditton they were very much in our way and refusing to/failing the understand the need to move wide. We took a good half a length in the corner then sat there for a while. After a responsive reset for a steering mishap we moved up to 1/3 length advantage coming to the kink. Needing to cross we upped the pressure and walked the rest of the way through them in ~15 strokes. Off the bridge, phase 3: gun it, straight line to the finish...almost. After recovering from another steering mishap around the P&E, we began to lift it for the finish and crossed the line with a time just 5 seconds behind Jonathan's Mother, a gentle reminder that ergs don't float. (Thornton)