The Club's Results
May Term 2024
1st men's VIII
Cambridge Head-2-Head (Open 8s Band 1)
Radegund Mile Head Race (College VIIIs)
6th out of college 1st boats
Time: 6:52
Time: 6:52
No evidence exists of any race last weekend.
In-between then and now, we appear to have learned how to sit a boat (at least moderately), and at least began to listen to Bella during a race.
It feels good.
At least, it feels like the race that we have at the start of the term most terms, one where we rowed hard and went home going “well, we probably could have gone harder around grassy, but we were all out of gas by the end”, and “hmm, we rowed like we were slightly-better coordinated than a dung heap built of manure (with Csongi demonstrating precisely how much we are rushing by comparison to him from the aerial footage)”. Great.
In fact, better than that, as we went over comfortably at 34 or above, having anticipated 32 or so, so at least we pushed together.
A nice place to work from (and maybe next time I won’t be borrowing Isaac’s special blade).
Mate’s subbing in for Isaac was hugely appreciated. He’s been invaluable this week for M1, subbing in on strokeside for Elnoy’s mysterious illness, and on bow side today for Isaac’s anticipated post-Edinburgh-stag-do illness (JP sabotaging M1 from beyond the grave), keeping up without much trouble (I bet he had thought that I wouldn’t mention his overhead crab on the way down to marshalling <3).
We had a good time. It may not have been the cleanest of rows, but it now feels that we’re in a good place to build from.
Yeah FaT!
Champion of the Thames Eights Head (Men's 1st Div. Mays)
Time: 4:46
It was a race.
Marshalling was mostly boring, but punctuated by multiple instances of nice squeezing in-between two other crews from Bella.
The plan was to set off as soon as we could behind Clare, both to have slightly rougher water, and to see what it is like to be chasing. It didn’t quite go to plan, but the start sequence was reasonable. In general, the start seems to be a great deal slower than previous Mays M1s, but the cruising speed is faster - there’s no sub-1:20 splits at the start this year.
There was a really nice amount of death at the end, a good amount of exhaustion and pushes throughout (it was really interesting afterwards detailing the calls that the rowers valued, and the impressive lack of overlap between what was recalled by different people).
Not the fastest, not the slowest. A bit frustrating to be so far behind Clare (7s), but nice to have that same margin ahead of Robinson. There’s a lot of speed left to eke out of the boat, Clare won’t know what (double overbumped) hit them on Day 1.
May Bumps
Down 4 - Bumped by Robinson, Hughes Hall, Fitzwilliam and Caius IIWednesday
Bumped by Robinson
Bumped by Robinson
This was not plan A.
We got bumped coming onto the reach. It was incredibly depressing. We had a row over in the legs if we wanted it enough, but Binson clearly wanted it more. We’d got them overbumped last year, when they geared short, went out to catch us, failed and then we’re caugh by Catz I. They came for revenge, and we were unprepared. Apologies all.
With Hughes behind us, and 6,5,3 of the Blue Boat in their stern 3, it’s a tough task.
Time for plan B, a “cunning plan.”
Thursday
Bumped by Hughes Hall
Bumped by Hughes Hall
“I have a cunning plan:”
We shot off for Robinson and did not achieve our desired result. We came close. “A canvas, a canvas/My kingdom for a canvas!”
“I have a plan:”
Friday
Bumped by Fitzwilliam
They were fast. Not even around first post. They’d been faster than us all term, and we went out to hold them.
Bumped by Fitzwilliam
“I have a plan:”
But for tomorrow:
“No worries, I have a cunning plan:”
Saturday
Bumped by Caius II
Aw shucks. The new cunning plan included a row over here and a double overbump on Maggie II.
Bumped by Caius II
“Baldrick[Daniel], I have a cunning plan:”
I have no plan now, only leg pain and sorrow.
That was a pretty awful row. There was no rhythm, and the shortest bumps race I’ve done (even shorter than the 6 returner Catz M1 bump on us last year), and a pretty bad campaign.
In these 4 races, we’ve had 13 people race in M1. Most of these subs hadn’t rowed all term. Injury and illness (and annoying Scottish commitments) abounded, and we paid the price. I regret day 1, but today, with two subs, was always going to be difficult.
I’m proud of the attitude these past few days, but bitterly, bitterly regret the results. I’ve had 7 terms in M1, with last term out due to injury, and my novice term. This crew didn’t deserve the result that it was handed down, and it certainly didn’t deserve to lose Angus, Isaac, and Bella on various days. It was enjoyable to row with everyone, we just didn’t have the grit for Day 1.
Four 1st years in the boat (Isaac being a PhD 1st year doesn’t really count), three of whom learned to row here. They’ve had an accelerated start to rowing at FaT, and hopefully have an excellent time ahead of them.
I hope to rectify this campaign next year.
Links
Full 1st men's VIII results archive
