The Club's Results

As much as I would love to say that we set off to bump today, we actually set off to overbump or row over (believing that overbumping Pembroke would be easier than bumping Magdalene before they bumped Jesus). Of course, race preparation was not helped by Toby cheerfully announcing that he lost his sense of smell and taste that morning, which set us slightly on edge.

It was pretty rainy at marshalling, despite the fact that we were under the A14 bridge (see William Connolley’s video on this for visual feedback), but the cannon was not as loud as we had been warned about. 

As per usual, we went off hard (I believe I heard “42 strokes a minute boys!” from Connor), and while Trinity Hall closed to about three-quarters of a length by First Post - note that this may be entirely fictional at this point - (possibly helped by a sneaky captain’s crustacean), they didn’t manage to close further until the Plough, eventually bumping us just round Ditton (again with a crustacean paving the way). 

I felt that we had it in us to row over. I don’t know why we didn’t. Apologies all.

Toby decides at 1pm that he should probably not row, and the wonderful Isaac Flanagan comes and subs, only to be horrified at the number of strokes required to marshal.

Getting the boat into the water felt like the Tideway. That is, we needed wellies, with water a third of the way up the hard. (Credit should be given to Rosie, Bella and Thomas G for helping here, saving us plenty of effort).

Conditions were rather difficult, and marshalling was difficult in the extreme. There was severe debate about whether Bumps should have gone ahead today, and I think that the conditions were too bad. Darwin W1 were pushed onto the weir at Baitsbite trying to marshal, and in general crews seemed really to struggle. 

Bomber had lengthened our blades, with a race plan of “To The Railings!” - with the idea being that we could catch Trinity Hall. It was not to be. Clare were faster than us and caught us in the gut. It was however, the first bumps race where I was aware of anything happening distance-wise before we passed First Post. I don’t know how best to explain this, but usually I only really begin to be aware of landmarks after entering the gut (even when we start on station 12…), and yet on that day this was not the case. All the racing was incredibly slow compared to usual, in the face of an absurd stream.

I am writing this just after we scratched from HoRR, as our crew is collectively too ill to race. What we have dubbed “Tobyvirus” has taken its toll, and at least one member of the crew failed to leave their room in eight days.

A weary campaign, but there was a lot of desire to do well.