The Club's Results

Including only Cambridge College eights, we came seventh (eighth including Peterhouse who had entered IM3). Some have claimed that poor weather conditions in our division (rain, wind) could have adversely affected out results.

Overall the race felt pretty solid and provided a platform to improve upon for Fairbairns. (Tim)

A solid performance with a particularly gutsy 1st minute, and stoic push after push up the reach into the head wind. Even with potentially adverse weather conditions, the dominant inter-division variation was one of stream. An upstream lock was open for some divisions, then closed for the rest. All we care about from the results is that, in our division, we were 6 seconds off Downing. That's 6 seconds we certainly intend to take back by Fairbiarn's. If we can paddle away from them, we can certainly race right through them. (Thornton)

The sunglasses were put on, and we headed for the start. A solid rhythm and level platform made the wind up easy, getting to race pace in good time. Downing M1, however, decided to start only 3 lengths behind. This made for an interesting time down Plough Reach - where their cox decided to follow my rather erratic steering off the line, as opposed to taking the line they were (apparently) screaming at me to concede. 10 lengths off Ditton Downing had overlap, forcing us to the outside. The boys did a brilliant job here, making Downing work hard for the overtake. With our mega-sharp catches scaring the rowers, and the interlocking blades scaring the cox we managed to only lose 2 seats round Ditton. Onto the Reach Downing pulled away, leaving us in peace (and some wash). A strong row up the Reach was followed by a fabulous wind from the railway bridge. A reasonable time given circumstance, and looking forward to kicking some Queens' ass in Fairbairns. (A. Manion)

We had a fairly solid start despite the fact that Downing M1 decided to start about 3 lengths behind us, making this rather more like a bumps race than winter head(!), and we managed to hold them until the first corner, at which point they closed in on us. However, following a terrible line by their cox around grassy, we held them at around a length for most of plough reach. They eventually began to overtake us around Ditton, which perhaps took longer than it should have. Once they had pulled away on the reach, we had a slight wobble in their wash, before having an effective technical re-focus and getting back on with the race. Coming under the railway bridge, we entered our final phase and began our wind to the finish. We ended up at only rate 34, but it was a pretty decent 34 with awesome cover. The p and e definitely seemed to have been moved further upstream than normal for the race!

I reckon we lost a fair bit of time here because of Downing messing around, but regardless, I think M2 should have high hopes as we begin our final preparation for Fairbairns! (R.J.C. Stroud)

A solid row in our first race together as an VIII for the season. A particularly impressive last section of the race: a hot pursuit on the Robinson crew ahead fuelled us forward. Some great coxing by Yining saw us give everything after the bridge, with a successful 'bumps push' to the finish. A wide but not impossible margin to make up on the winners of the day, which will hopefully spur us into the focused and intensive training we will need to put us in good stead for Lents. (Angela)

Marshalling next to barges is even more awkward in an VIII. (Yining)

Marshalling next to barges is awkward.

This was a rather dramatic race! It was chilly and damp, and being handed an inhaler by my strokegirl might have been taken too lightly. Still, I think the race went quite well, despite a couple of wide lines and Daisy beginning to gasp less than halfway in - blades went in together, came out mostly together and moved some boat in between! Tiredness did begin to creep in through the last two minutes, but never had I seen such an effective response to a "spin the hands" call. The race ended with me screaming to come by some novice VIII that had set off three boats ahead of us, and our last ten strokes gave us half a length - a relatively good sign, I think. (Yining)