The Club's Results

Having been rather ill for the past week, I was happy to be back in a yellow boat for the first time since Monday, even if I was doomed only to be racing once as I was still recovering. The rest of the crew had already raced, and weren't entirely pleased with how it had gone. It hadn't been smooth, and we'd lost to Peterhouse by 10 seconds. We set off first in our division, ahead of a 4- filled with ominous all-in-ones from various universities, and stayed at rate 36 off the start, before settling into 32-33. We stayed at sub-1:40 splits for a surprising length of time - though the Gut did put an end to that. Plough Reach was smooth, controlled and almost pleasant. The Long Reach was quite bad. The wind had picked up from the morning, and it was immensely scrappy rowing along it. Calls of 'get below 2-minute splits boys' were not quite as encouraging to the heart as they were to the legs. We made it through eventually, seeing the four close some distance as we did. The drive home to Green Dragon was again far smoother than I'd have expected, and we finished in exhaustion. All smiles, nevertheless, as the rowing felt significantly better than the first race according to those who were there, despite the time being slower. I blame the wind for the loss of this impromptu seat race. (Thomas Frith)