The Club's Results

Clare Novice Regatta, Mich Term 2024

A side-by-side knock out regatta for Cambridge College novice VIIIs.
Sat 30th November

The official results can be found here. At the bottom of this page there is a link to Cambridge weather. Club members, please go here to add (or correct) results, crews or race reports.


1st men's novice VIII, Men's Cup

Raced 5 rounds: Beat Jesus NM1 by a length in the final
1st round
Beat Clare Hall NM1 easily
A good start to a very good day. Not our best start but we built to a solid rate 34 and kept pulling away. By the White House, Clare Hall was in the distance and we kept going (despite calls from the bank to slow down). A decisive victory was great for morale but we might have appreciated the extra energy conservation (looking at you Will)! (Sam Pearson)
2nd round
Beat Pembroke NM1
Quarter finals
Beat Catz NM1 by 2 lengths
Semi finals
Beat Selwyn NM1 by 1.5 lengths
Final
Beat Jesus NM1 by a length
When NM1 arrived I was near spent in many ways... My Gopro battery was beginning to give up (sorry NW1 it gave up before I could get footage of you), my legs were beginning to feel the I-have-lost-count-of-the-number trips cycled up and down the course, and my voice was beginning to descend from unintelligible Irish accent to broken bottles... but all was very quickly forgotten when we started racing. Rowing down in 6's (and then pause paddling) and still gaining on the crews in front should have told me that it was going to be good to watch, but noting prepared me for taking metres of advantage with each stroke of the start on both of the first two races!
Last two races were much harder for the crew, in both cases starting off level for the first part of the race, but better technique and rowers hungry for a cup won the day!
First and Third, Second to none!
(Daniel Edwards-Medic)
With both crews having a good start, it was right between FaT and Jesus until FaT gained an early advantage. Rowing a consistent rate 34 throughout meant Jesus simply couldn’t bring it back despite their best efforts. Will reminding us why we are First and Third mid-race: we don’t finish second. Crossing the line as Clare Novice Regatta champions, beating Jesus by a length, I thought it’d be a good idea to catch a crab after the finish line in celebration. (Owen Stevenson)
We showed them why we’re called First and Third, because we don’t come second. Peaked in my coxing calls in the very first event and it’s only downhill from here.  (Will)
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1st women's novice VIII, Women's Cup

Raced 4 rounds: Beat Jesus NW1 in the final
2nd round
Beat Clare Hall NW1
Really clean looking for the one race I got to watch!!

If you had told me this morning that we would have 2 crews through to the finals I would have thought you somewhat bonkers - but how wrong was I! All of the finals, and winning 3 of them - what a day!!! Yeah FaT!
(Daniel Edwards-Medic)
Quarter finals
Beat Clare NW1 by 3 lengths
Semi finals
Beat Pembroke NW1
Final
Beat Jesus NW1
What a way to end a brilliant regatta! Probably the tightest race FaT NW1 had experienced all afternoon and worth every single stroke. After catching an early crab, the team stuck together and pulled up alongside Jesus again within just a few strokes and then kept neck and neck down the reach (also oar to oar at one point). With FaT rowing at a fast, yet steady and consistent 34, Jesus' overhead crab under the railway bridge was too much for their team. With only a few metres left to go, FaT pulled ahead becoming the third Trinity boat of the day to win their division. Yeah FaT! (Zara Bowen)
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2nd men's novice VIII, Men's Plate

Raced 4 rounds: Beat Tit Hall NM2 by 2 lengths in the final
2nd round
Beat Catz NM2 easily
So good they won it twice. (Apparently steering your crew straight into the bank off the start is deserving of a restart - in this case, with a 'Go' announced to the Catz crew several lengths behind, but not to us. Luckily Zara was on the ball...)


(Neil T)
Watching Catz row down with 4 women in the boat and hit pretty much every bit of the bank along the way was nice.

I don't remember the first start. I remember being told to hold it up after about 15 strokes, doing so, seeing Catz in the bank, Catz restarting, calling a panicked restart where the guys got it together very well and then essentially spending the rest of the course trying to teach them what 'down two on the recovery' means.
(Zara Bek)
Quarter finals
Beat Binson NM2 easily
Kudos to Robinson's NW2 for making it to the second round of an NM2 race. Their trump card seemed to be the ability to row in a straight line, enough to beat most of the NM2 crews we faced. Unfortunately, we could do that too. (Nick Nelson)
Even more women than Catz. They had beaten Selwyn NM2 (whom we had leant Bastian to0) and to be fair- they rowed well. 

More down 2s, more trying to get the crew to learn what a down 2 actually is, and a pretty solid row.
(Zara Bek)
Semi finals
Queens DQed
From the beginning, I could tell that this race would be our hardest test yet because we were not able to pull any gap despite our best efforts and an uncharacteristically high stroke rate (courtesy of our stroke Vlad who had previously, when asked by coaches in training, said that he was unable to go at rate 36 - it turns out that this was a lie). Furthermore, looking at the crews lining up before the race, they looked big and strong and we looked like our coaches refused to feed us unless we win Clare Novices.

Once we arrived at railway bridge, I could see in the corner of my eye that we were a length down. At this point we were running on fumes but I started to put down all the power that I had left in the tank because I was determined not to lose. My rational brain was telling me that this deficit was insurmountable and that it was all but over; I was waiting for the finish line but it seemed to never come until (after some egregious impeding from Queen's) we crossed first by what seemed like inches - the only lead we had the entire race and it came at the perfect time. 

I'm convinced that someone in our bank party covertly moved the finish line so that we would have time to overtake, because I don't remember the course being that long. 
(Robert Crossen)
I was convinced we had lost that race until the umpire told us we'd won. After starting off at an absurdly high rate of something like 37, we utterly failed to stay in time and saw the Queens' boat steadily pull ahead. By the railway bridge, which in my mind was almost the end of the course, we were a length behind and more tired than in any of the other races. Zara's optimistic cries of "you're gaining on them" and "row long, row loose" were all that kept us going, along with the desperate commitment to at least have done our best. But she wasn't lying. My unprofessional glances to the right confirmed that we were indeed getting closer. Too little, too late, I thought. Surely the finish line would be any second now. But when I heard our blades clashing, I thought we might have a chance. Supremely confident in Zara's coxing ability, I was certain that Queens' must have left their racing line. But wasn't the race already over? Apparently not. What seemed like a couple seconds after the blade knocks, we heard Zara's call to wind it down, and I heard her ask the marshal what on earth was going on, and his reply "No, you won." Disbelief and ecstasy mingled. Apparently, not only were the other boat disqualified for impeding us, they also then overcorrected and hit the bank without crossing the line.

At the prize-giving, a crewmate compared this to a win on penalties. But after much animated discussion, we decided the best football analogy was winning with a last-second shot which the goalie stops, slips, hits his head on the goalpost, gets concussed, and we score off the rebound. Or perhaps the goalkeeper fouls the striker and then scores an own goal.

All in all, our worst race in terms of rowing quality, but the most entertaining to watch for sure. Yeah FaT!
(Nick Nelson)
"The amazing semi-final", frequently described by members of the crew as "dogshit". (Lily Kearney)
This is where things got interesting. Queen's were big. Queen's had a good start. We panicked a bit. R37.5 off the start coming down to r36 half way down the course was one panicked and rushed way to do this. Off the bridge we managed to get it to a more sensible r33 and they made a huge push. At this point we were a length down, and by the corner we were maybe one seat down and gaining rapidly. Then Queen's steered into us, I held my line, they kept coming in and clashed blades. When they steered away they hit the bank and we crossed the line a canvass before they did. (Zara Bek)
Final
Beat Tit Hall NM2 by 2 lengths
An absolute thriller of a series of races - this crew wanted that plate and they got that plate! Still utterly skunnered that the only race I didn't get a spot bankpartying for them was the amazing semi-final, coming back from a length down at the railway bridge to beat Queens (and yes, we did cross the line first somehow!)
Technique was some othe best I have seen from novices all term - best summed up by a random member of the public who I passed... "That's not a novice boat??"
(Daniel Edwards-Medic)

After the nerve-wracking semi-final, where we narrowly defeated Queen’s in a dramatic finish, I was filled with a mix of excitement and anxiety before the final. The semi-final had felt like a win handed to us by circumstance - a technicality more than anything. It was hard to shake the feeling that we hadn’t fully earned our spot in the final.

However, Luke, Neel, and Zara reminded us that the semi-final had been so close because we panicked. Our rushed strokes had drained us and nearly cost us the race. Their message was clear: we had to stay calm and focused. If we did, there would be no need for another dramatic finish.

In the final, we did just that. With a steady, clean start, we settled into a strong, powerful rhythm. The difference was astonishing - we pulled ahead of Trinity Hall early and steadily extended our lead throughout the race.

In the end, we won by a commanding margin, a stark contrast to the chaotic semi-final. It felt like a true victory this time. This wasn’t just some of the best rowing we had done all term; it was a performance we could truly be proud of.

(Fabian Brenner)
This was the best rowing they've done. R34.5 off the start rhythming to a strong 32 which they held over the course. Clean, technical and strong. We walked over Trinity Hall. 

No crabs or major air strokes in any races today!
(Zara Bek)

1. Maggie and FaT make ...
2. NM2 racing in the final

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2nd women's novice VIII, Women's Plate

Raced 3 rounds: Lost to Queens NW2 in the final
Quarter finals
Beat Pembroke NW2 by 1/2 length
Semi finals
Beat Christs' NW2 easily
Final
Lost to Queens NW2
Whe I arrived to bankparty crews at the P&E this morning, I could immediately tell that things were going well (no mentions of coxboxes) and things continued to go that way! Really good effort by all involved, and an incredible result getting to the final. (Daniel Edwards-Medic)
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