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The Club's Results

Lent Bumps 2013

2nd men's VIII

Coxed by: Alex Manion

Tuesday
Bumped LMBC II
Reasonably solid race. An unspectacular start kept us just within station as Maggie got a rather suprising whistle on Churchill in front of them. We closed a bit through the corners but not enough to draw a whistle out of Iain. Finally we got to within a length by plough reach after a succession of pushes of various effectiveness, at which point Maggie began to blow up.

Ending it then would have been the easiest, and most would agree the obvious thing to do. However we figured we needed more practice at rate, so spent the next 3 minutes closing in. Jon at stroke, who was not feeling great, was very thankful for this decision... (Barrell)
The list of things we didn't do very well went on for quite some time at the crew chat, from not pushing hard and finishing it off round grassy to not gunning it at the start (and definitely not making it to rate) to some unusually lopsided rowing which was depressing because of how well we've previously rowed in wash.

After gaining on Maggie slightly off the start we were all put off by the weird horn noise coming from their bank party (my first thought was klaxon...) which apparently meant that Churchill were under threat. We then sat there to Emma's consternation for about 1km before they died, we finally got the whistle and then we moved on them and I hit my blade on their stern. I feel my tightrope walking needs some significant work... (John)
A longer race than expected but a convincing victory nonetheless. After all, crushing Maggie is what First and Third does best. Good work, boys! (Yining)
Thanks to M2 for dragging me to my first non-cheating and non-accidental bump since 2008. In spite of having sat in a bit of wash last summer, I was surprised by how difficult I found it to keep my blade under control as we approached Maggie's stern.

However, M2 also gave me plenty of practice at rowing in wash by chilling out once we got to a length off Maggie and sitting there for a few minutes before bumping. Given I was rediscovering that the problem with me rowing bowside is that I almost entirely use my inside arm and thereby was starting to blow up by 40 strokes in, this wasn't entirely appreciated...
In light of my inability to use my left arm, Preeyan kindly swapped with me for the paddle back, and I determined that I definitely prefer strokeside.

Good luck to the crew for the rest of the week; even if the race was rather scrappy, it was a pleasure to briefly (I was subbing for a sub...) row with such a classy crew, and I'm sure with a little composure in the wash you'll have a successful week. (Peter)
Thursday
Rowed over
From the bank, the race was well executed and the composure held throughout. Despite Churchill M1 appearing a heavier crew, their appalling technique (particularly after the railway bridge) meant they had to fight all the way to top finish to avoid being bumped. And their 5 man vomited afterwards. I felt the rowing was of higher quality than yesterday and look forward to seeing what you chaps can produce tomorrow and Saturday! (Tim)
When using the facilities provided at Chesterton for marshaling, it was interesting to note how all the Churchill (and Downing II and Caius II...) rowers stood about a head taller and a third heavier than I did. In this light, it was encouraging that for Churchill to succeed in staying away from us they ended up finishing in a pretty poor state, putting in a Herculean effort of which, as Tim noted, a particular highlight was making their 5 man throw up.

Overall, it was a much nicer row than Tuesday, but we never moved more than half a length up on them, which was a shame. Hopefully they'll be in a sufficiently lacklustre condition they won't manage it again today... (John)
Considering we didn't get a whistle on Churchill, I wasn't sure how effective our race had been. Seeing a crabbed blade and someone chundering behind us after the finish showed we had pushed them quite hard.

Really good performance, even if we had nothing to show for it (Barrell)
Friday
Rowed over
The plan was to set off hard and attack Churchill. Unfortunately it turned out we had no idea how to do this. Even more unfortunately, Maggie behind us did.

With some good advice from Iain - "Settle into your rhythm", which I translatd as "Stop rowing like twats" - we held them at overlap before pulling away down plough reach after they nearly forgot to take Grassy, then blew up rather spectacularly.

Better start needed today. (Barrell)
Saturday
Bumped by Homerton
We steadily gained on Downing II, pushing for and securing a first whistle. Meanwhile, however, a hefty Homerton crew was eating us up from behind, and when they eventually got overlap at Grassy, it was on our inside. We battled hard, but it ultimately wasn't enough.

Having dominated the head races earlier in the term, we were optimistic for this set of Bumps, but we never seemed to be able to pull unsustainable sprints when we needed to. Nevertheless, we at least stayed level, and we experienced all aspects of Bumps racing: attacking and defending, steering through carnage, and chasing hard all the way to the line.

Not only can you not get this experience any other way, it also made for my most exciting Bumps ever.

Thanks to Rob, Sam and our other coaches, Joel, Fordy and Blaise for subbing, and of course the crew, without whom there would be nothing at all. (Preeyan)

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