The Club's Results

500m re-row down the Reach, unfortunately not side-by-side (mt)

Outings suggested we rowed much better in headwinds (get the blades in roughly together, then lever together for a few seconds) than tailwinds (miss the catches, leave Matt hanging at the front on his own for a while, mess up the finishes slightly later), so we were disappointed when the predicted headwind was "only" gusting 30 knots.

It turned out to be a bit irrelevant; we moved away from Clare slightly off the start, but before the rudder had come on for First Post corner they had closed more than half of the initial 100 yard gap and the result was painfully obvious. As they politely asked to overtake coming into Ditton, a brief debate was held as to whether they had the umpire's permission to do so before the reach, but a quick check revealed that CUCBC hadn't deigned to supply our race with an umpire. We therefore had the pleasure of racing alongside Clare's 1.5 Blues crew for... a few strokes, as they took the outside of Ditton.

With the race over and Clare out of sight, we rather lost cohesion/power/interest for the slog up the reach and so don't have much idea how races against Queens' or Kings' might have played out. Three of us (with the addition of Bence) look forward to our return on Thursday for a lighter and more wiggly race against the old enemy. (Peter)

The fate of a few overturned lawnchairs had us amused at the amount of devastation wreaked by the UK's "worst storm in decades." By mid-morning, the sun was shining and the chairs had been rescued. Nonetheless it was a blustery day, made more difficult by the lack of working speakers in Scylla.

After waiting and tapping nervously for a full 5 minutes for Selwyn to be pointed in the right direction, we executed the best start I've seen since Mays, and our first half of the race was long and relaxed. We started flagging around Grassy and managed a decent Plough Reach before things started feeling heavy. Cornering was difficult, especially as the wind began to catch our bows but we endured against the massive headwind to reached our post before our opposition. Selwyn were fast and sat hard on our tail until they were blown into the clutches of Ditton and its patron tree. (Yining)

Solid first two-thirds gave enough leeway for a scrappy reach not to be too costly. (Thomas)

It became clear that Maggie were up coming down Plough Reach by at least a length. The response was determination down the reach, but it wasn't sufficient to win. True disappointment on every face in the crew, which suggests that the motivation and will to win is in the boat, which is key to unlocking the speed needed. (Thomas)