The Club's Results

We chatted beforehand and made sure everyone was warmed up and as ready as possible - there were quite a few understandable nerves, especially seeing as NW1 had poached our stroke girl. Luckily, when we got into the boat and started racing, everyone performed admirably. Christi did an excellent job keeping the rate at about 29 for the duration of the race, and after a choppy first 30 strokes or so everyone got into the rhythm she was setting - even more impressive given we had two subs in the boat, due to illness and injury (well done to you guys for fitting in so successfully)! After getting into rhythm we had a successful race with a well moving boat and plenty of dedication. We passed a Murray Edwards crew which seemed to have done a good job of writing off their bows just before the White Bridge and they enthusiastically cheered us on (thanks Murray Edwards!). Passing Chesterton, I took the corner from a little bit too central and had to ask for some more strokeside pressure which got us round successfully. As we reached the P&E our bank party, already large with members of the club who'd coached us that term or were otherwise excited by what we could do, essentially doubled in size. Continuing to row towards the railway bridge our bank party swelled even further as the whole of NW1 ran down to cheer us on - we must have had well over 20 people there; it was absolutely amazing. Buoyed up by this amazing level of support and noise from the bank we pushed off the bridge and had a strong row through to the finish line.

A weak throw from the bank followed by some backing it down gave the tired crew some well-deserved minstrels (thank you Matt G!) before some cheeky spinning put us in a good position for the row home. This was the first time the cox box stopped working.

A shout out to Lea who managed the race on the wrong side with a very painful wrist, a fantastic effort from everyone, and the highest one of our second novice women's VIIIs has come for over ten years!