The Club's Results

Day one of May Bumps 2023. The first time in ten races that 805 (and by extension, George, Xander, Csongi and I) were not bumped. Yet this felt like it should have been a disappointment, as we were ready to bump that day. We went off hard, and achieved a whistle on LMBC M2 fairly quickly. Robinson bumped Hughes Hall around the motorway bridge,  which was fairly speedy. We didn't even see Catz bump Christ's. (note that during the race, none of this was particularly apparent to us).

After our early "generous whistle" on LMBC M2, we rowed steadily around Grassy, unfortunately giving them back a length in the process, and had a nice line around Ditton, after which we had a solid push, reaching a length on the reach. Unfortunately, it was not to be, and despite several solid pushes we failed to bump. We wound it down a bit just before the finish, seeing Selwyn in the middle-distance. (Thomas Frith)

An odd day of racing in Men's div 1, where we had LMBC 2, us, Robinson, Hughes, Selwyn, Catz (Caius 2 being irrelevant). Hughes falling to 'binson so soon yesterday did not bode well for Catz's blade campaign. Or, more importantly, for us, though we'd beaten them by a length at 99's regatta earlier in the term (they had blamed a dreadful start). Even more was on the line as Oli's friend was stroking the 'binson boat, and he was NOT losing to Benji.
We weren't worried, which was maybe a mistake, and had planned to do the same as yesterday to LMBC 2, just without letting them extend the gap between First Post and Ditton. 
This went out of the window after 'Binson gained overlap before First Post. Oops. 
Big drives from the crew, keen steering from Kian and they're back to only three whistles at Grassy. The slow-motion video footage taken along the Plough Reach has more of us in Robinson's video than in our own. We take a good Ditton, they take a slightly less-good Ditton, and then the Reach pushes are on. Again, they gained slight overlap, but absolutely died by the White House, and we sailed home.

Catz averaged 1:32/500m along the Long Reach, and overbumped them after we'd got about 2 lengths clear. Uh-oh, tomorrow will be fun. (Thomas Frith)

This was a lot of fun. We went out rather hard, obtained two whistles on LMBC M2 very early on, apparently made it to 3/8 of a length. 

Unfortunately, Catz caught us before First Post, which is over twice as long as we lasted when we sparred them. (Note that I wasn't in the boat for the sparring, so clearly I made the difference). You'd think that they'd lend us the courtesy to get to at least Grassy after we saved their blades campaign yesterday.

I've never rowed that fast for so long before, and it was amazing to realise that while we were slowing down after about 600m, Catz were not, and bumped us after 750m. Clearing was efficient, but even so we had a very very long time before Selwyn (who started just behind Catz) rowed through.

Tomorrow, I do not think that we will bump them back.

(Note: Catz M1 have so many returners of some fashion that their M2 appears to be isomorphic to their Lents M1). (Thomas Frith)

A disappointing last day of May bumps. Avid readers of my race reports may recall something similar last year. 

We expected Selwyn to be a bit difficult to row over in front of, but doable with some grit.

This proved not to be the case. There was overlap on First Post Corner, and a bump in the gut. We shot into the bank after holding it up hard, and really whacking 2-seat's rigger in the process. 

A pity,  but at least we showed that our fly and die could be longer than it was yesterday?

As it happens, Selwyn did not have eight rowers to form an M1 in Michaelmas, as so many of that boat are off trialling. (Thomas Frith)