St Catharine's College Boat Club

Bumped First and Third M1

A strong peformance on our first day, finishing with a bump on FaT M1 beside the railings.

After a pretty dodgy start and first few corners we settled down into a strong rhythm that eventually ate up the metres between us and FaT without too much drama. Coming onto the blustery reach we lost less speed than both Pembroke (behind us) and FaT, and took the final length off of FaT very quickly.

Rumour has it that LMBC (in front tomorrow) blew up on the reach after chasing Jesus hard so we are looking forward to trying to row a similar race, relying on our faster cruising pace, although also hoping to have a more clinical start.

Day two and bump two for Catz W1!! We knew that we were going to be faster than Trinity Hall, but our main concern was getting away from Girton off the start and giving them no chance to bump us back. This was exactly what we did!  We pushed away from Girton off the start rating higher than we normally would leaving Girton eating our puddles and leaving no doubt that we are the faster crew. 

We got our first whistle on Trinity hall very early, and it was down to half a length coming out of first post corner. We bumped them shortly after around first post corner :) Bumping on first post corner is a rare event in the W1 division and so it is a testament to how well we are working together as a crew, and how we have peaked mentally and physically at exactly the right moment.

Job well done. Tomorrow we face Queens, and plan to do exactly the same again. 

Today was a better day.

A very solid start led to us being up about half a length on Selwyn by the motorway bridge, and we were soon getting our first and second whistles up the way to first post. We were getting 3 whistles as we started to take the corner, and got our "legs down, go for the bump" call. After beginning to tire from the push, we finally heard the "Well Done Catz! Hold it up" shouts from our umpire, shortly after first post.

The hold up was apparently slightly light hearted, which caused a slight crunch and a lost bow ball on the bank and a slightly irate umpire, but Steve's on the damage for tomorrow, and we're on the holding up!

 Jesus bumped Wolfson ahead, so we should hopefully have a just as easy (or perhaps even easier!) bump on the cards tomorrow. Fingers crossed. But as always, you never know what's going to happen in a division like ours, so we'll just have to wait and see...

Today was going to be tough. We were chasing Jesus M3, who had followed up blades in Mays with some very respectable times in the recent regatta, rivalling Darwin M1, so we were pretty confident we'd be chasing the overbump (by times, we were the second fastest boat in the division behind Jesus, but that doesn't really help when the luck of the draw puts you behind them..!) In front of Jesus M3, were Selywn M3, who we were expecting to be bumped out before first post corner. Darwin M3 were in front of Selwyn, and we got a much faster time over a similar distance at Champ's Head earlier in term, so the overbump was definitely possible (and certainly more plausible than when we were chasing a similar feat on the last day of Lent's, when the course ended at the start of the reach).

After earlier carnage in the day, our division was already running about 20 minutes behind, so we were banned from practice starts on the way up to spin.

Thankfully, we got our practice start. Unfortunately it came on the third cannon. The start apparently looked good, but felt pretty shoddy, and I think we can do even better later in the week. We rapidly pushed off Christ's M3 behind us, keeping pretty good ground on Jesus M3, as they pushed onwards towards the bump.

Nearing first post, there was suddenly commotion, as we were only half-way through the stride. There was a carcophany from the bank party "Take it wide! Maria, wide!". Expertly steering wide, I saw determination in Maria's eyes. Then came the calls "Hold it up! Hold it up!". Darwin M2 were at a lovely 90 degree angle to the bank around first post, and we slammed on the brakes and drew to a halt. The next 5 minutes were spent floating about yelling at the bank wondering what just happened.

Turns out Darwin M2 somehow bumped up on Wolfson M2... And then their novice cox proceeded to have an interesting parking experience. Selwyn got impeded, and bumped by Jesus, but Jesus basically had overlap anyway, and we were about a length and three quarters behind. After a few minutes of CUCBC dilemma, Jesus were awarded a technical bump on Selywn, and we were well ahead of Christs, so awarded a technical row over. 30 minutes later, Selywn must have lodged a complaint, and they were both given row overs instead (which would have probably set up an unfortunate repeat of today tomorrow). But then this was once more over-ruled this evening thankfully.

We expected today to be tough. Turns out it was, but the strength required turned out to be mental rather than physical. It was an interesting day, and given the situation, at least we had a technical row over instead of a re-row. No blades now, but given our unlucky starting position, it would never have been easy.

Onwards and upwards tomorrow. Selywn, you best be ready...