The Club's Results
May Bumps 2017
Friends' Boat (Racing as M3)
| 3rd men's VIII | |||
| in Denys Lawrence | |||
| bow | John Grenfell-Shaw | 2 | Ed Bryant |
| 3 | Neil Ibata | 4 | F. Kristensen |
| 5 | Jacob Currie | 6 | Ben Jarman |
| 7 | Alex Strange | str | Tom King |
Coxed by: Emily Gordon
Up 3 - Bumped Darwin II and Emmanuel III, bumped by Clare IIIWednesday
Rowed over Head
Rowed over Head
Did we though?
Nothing to see here...
The mesopelagic lower divisions are home to a variety of fish. Mostly average perch and snappers; some snackable minnows; the odd shark circling. We felt ourselves happy snappers at M4 head, but Clare M3 behind us had a sharply sharky look: they had raced Champs Head with zip and finished well ahead of most M2s.
They went hell-for-leather off the start and we did not. 'You paced that perfectly for a head race', one bystander opined, 'but not for Bumps.' They caught us in the Gut.
But Fortune's wheel turns quickly. An umpire spotted they had no bow-ball (a grievous sin): round it span, and down they went. We had a technical row-over; they were bumped by Girton M2.
Wednesday
Rowed over as sandwich boat
Rowed over as sandwich boat
Gained on the start, but not as quickly as Corpus took distance out of Darwin. Shortly after that we started chasing the triple overbump. Spoiler: we failed. Our excuse for this race included the handle of Ed's blade coming out. Having received kind permission from Isabel to use Denys we decided to remove the crew naming ambiguity (leaving M3 well-defined) and self-identify as W3.
Had a good start from foot of M3 Division and got inside station on Corpus M2. But there was no time: they bumped Darwin M2 within a couple of hundred metres. Chased Jesus M3 for the over-bump but they took out Emmanuel M3 in short order. Then the double-overbump on Queens' M3 but they in turn snapped up Selwyn M2. By the time we came out on the Long Reach there was no-one left to catch. Rowed over.
Thursday
Rowed over Head
Rowed over Head
Can confirm :)
Back at M4 Division head, older and wiser after Wednesday's tumult (and with S. Bell joining us in the 4-seat), we pushed more sharply out of the start. Clare M3 ground up on Girton M2 with great gusto, eager to avenge their technical loss of the day before. Girton in their flight put in an admirably endless Bumps push and gained slightly on us as well; Clare caught them before Grassy Corner.
King's M2, now our nearest pursuers, pushed for the over-bump but gained nothing for their pains. By the time we were out on the Long Reach it was clear we had moved away. Rowed over head.
Really enjoying being sandwich boat... Clare hit Girton well before Grassy (despite our calm demeanour allowing Girton to take a little distance from us). We rowed away from King's at the beginning, got to a snappy rhythm on the reach, and took the pace down allowing them to close up a little by the finish. Yet more leg-sapping but no worries.
Thursday
Bumped Darwin II as sandwich boat
Bumped Darwin II as sandwich boat
M3 Division foot again, and chasing Darwin M2, who had fallen to Corpus M2 so quickly on Wednesday. Drove hard out of the start (with S. Bell again in aid) through terrible wash and caught them 150m before the Motorway Bridge. Not pretty but effective.
Only afterwards did we learn that the cacophony of whistles coming from the bank had signalled not only our own imminent bump but also the consequences of three consecutive crabs from Corpus, which brought Darwin within seconds of avenging their Wednesday defeat (and so leaving us empty-handed). A happy end to a strange sandwich.
Sweet revenge, after being bumped by Darwin 1 a couple of years ago. Feedback from the previous day had included a certain degree of relaxation, so we tried to take up the aggression. This let to scrappy rowing, as we pushed through the cumulative wash of the 17 boats ahead, but not scrappy enough to deprive us of a very quick bump. Corpus 2 did their level best to deprive us of this small victory by triple crabbing on the start, but their rowing on in sixes was sufficient to hold of the Darwin charge long enough for us to convincingly hit them. Thank you Sam, for helping us to this illustrious result. Oh joy, Clare again tomorrow!
Friday
Bumped by Clare III
Bumped by Clare III
Velodrome in the morning, fly or die with Clare in the afternoon in race number five of the week. Aggression and very short strokes were the order of the day here, with a rate build on the reach. We may have taken some distance out of Corpus with our enthusiastic but catchless start, but it didn't really matter. This time we held Clare for the first ten, after which they ate into the distance just as rapidly as before. We never bothered to stride, leaving it at a scrappy 38 before taking it back up over 40 as they got scarily close. Unsurprisingly, we got only a little further than the motorway bridge.
Saturday
Rowed over Head
Rowed over Head
There was no pressure from Darwin, and it turned out, no pressure from anyone else. We powered through the corners in the high 30s, before striding it down to 34 mid way through Plough Reach. We were down at 20 by the end of the Long Reach, with the only pressure from some crew aiming for a very optimistic overbump. Thank you crosshatching for making our sixth race a little easier than it might have been.
Saturday
Overbumped Emmanuel III as sandwich boat
Overbumped Emmanuel III as sandwich boat
With Corpus a proficient enough crew to catch three crabs on the start line on Friday, we felt that our chances of catching Clare were slim, verging on nonexistent. We went into the race aiming for a repeat of our solid row over from an hour before, with a view to grinding down Emma for the overbump.
We executed this plan to perfection, taking full advantage of the wash-less First Post Reach to get into the gut well within sight of Emma, followed by two lengths off at Ditton. Hearing this from the bank I felt dispirited (two lengths being a jolly long way) until I remembered just how far back we started. We got to a whistle, after which Emma utterly crumpled. Two whistles shortly followed, and by the repeat of two whistles I was displeased they weren't three. We promptly achieved overlap and I briefly considered reaching over and tapping their stern canvas. No need to take the risk, though, as we were gaining inches every stroke. The bump happened as Ed's blade gently tapped their cox in the back...
A fine end to our 7th race of the week (and bringing me up to a round 40). And we ended ahead of Clare 3.
Backed up the chat. Cheers Clare for helping us out with the tactical bump on Friday.
Links
Full May Term 2017 May Bumps results
3rd men's VIII May Bumps results archive
Compare this crew with all May Bumps crews in the archive
