The Club's Results

Easily is putting it lightly. The race was over after about 30 seconds.

3 strokes in, we caught a crab. They pulled away slightly.

Within 5 strokes, we were back ahead.

A few strokes later, their 3-man caught an ejector crab and they held it up to try and help.

We wound it down fairly fast and paddled the rest of the way to the finish. (Barney)

This was a pleasing race.

On the row up to the marshalling position, we played around with crew order and sides, to accommodate our lack of natural bowsiders. It became quickly clear that putting me on the wrong side was potentially an error, as I nearly crabbed on the first practice start. How embarrassing.

Anyway, the start during the race itself was a bit smoother (I didn't dare attempt to feather until stroke 5 or so, which probably helped). Once we went into our wind, it became clear that we were all over Caius, taking a seat every two or three strokes. Some great calls from Tony saw that we pushed right through them seat by seat, and then finished them off by putting in a big ten for clear water.

At this point I blew up pretty hard. My lungs were deeply unhappy with the whole affair, in particular the cold air, and decided they had had enough. I think Adam had a similar experience - I don't know who's idea it was to put us in stern pair! Fortunately though, by then the race was largely over, and we just sat about a length clear of Caius all the way through to the finish line.

Textbook race really. Great coxing, and great determination from the crew, putting in the big pushes when they were needed. Still a bit more sharpness to come too, particularly around the front end, so hopefully FaT M3 will only be getting faster in the run-up to Bumps. (Gonzo)

Following our victory against Caius, I think we were all feeling quite confident going into this race. The rest of the crew assured me that they had had a good race against Clare M2 recently, so hopefully this was going to be a more straightforward race than the last.

This was incorrect. Clare had a pretty solid start, and although we moved up a few seats off the first 10 strokes or so, we didn't quite finish them off like we had done with Caius. However, some more nicely-timed calls from Tony saw that by the time we reached the Railway Bridge, we had opened up some clear water. The row to the line was very nice, with good length and a good push off the bridge. And having been a bit warmer at the start than I had been for the previous race, I didn't blow up this time, which was a nice bonus.

A very well-deserved victory for the crew, despite having to carry me down the course. I look forward to seeing lots of yellow smilies from M3 next week. (Gonzo)