The Club's Results

 We had a pleasant row down to the Plough, during which I began to understand why we race in sensible boats like VIIIs, rather than double-coxed tubs. Chloe and Zoe between them established that having two coxes is not very effective for going in a straight line. 8 new blisters later, we arrived on the start line against Darwin. Under (partial) direction of the umpires we were given half a length advantage because a) our costumes were better than theirs, b)both Darwin rowers we men (in drag, of course), c)they had a much lighter boat, and only one cox, so were carrying as much as 100kg less weight than us, and d)we felt like rowing a slightly shorter race. After faffing around for what seemed like forever, we then raced down half the reach, ending in a dead heat, and a re-row.  

Unfortunately the re-row started with no advantage, and we didn't quite have the muscle to move our much heavier boat past theirs, ending in a loss by about 1/4 of a (tub) length. The cardboard spear was then promptly thrown at the opposition, though the prevailing wind meant that it didn't go anywhere near hitting them. On the row home we kept a lookout for the viking helmet that had been removed from Zoe's head by the wind during the re-row. Though we were not victorious, we had lots of fun, and enjoyed taking the now very soggy cardboard shields off the tub at the end of the day.