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Having had just three outings with our new coach, Lianne, we produced a solid row against a well drilled Trinity Hall to lose by three seconds.Trinity Hall went on to win in the next round before losing to Caius, the eventual runners up. The first half of the race seemed to be going our way with significant gains being made (we were drawn on station two, 120m behind Tit. Hall), however our lack of fitness showed as we approached the reach and Tit. Hall more than made up the ground against the fierce headwind on the reach - all credit to them for a well executed race.
The crew contained two newcomers to SCCBC, Dan Stein at 2 (First year medic) and Jonathan McCree-Grey (First year physics Phd) at stroke. Both have already shown themselves as great new assets for the senior men.
Training is now under way to put a competitive senior 8 into Fairbairns at the end of the month.
Despite several setbacks we are now sure both the upstairs and downstairs of the boathouse will be available to use from the very start of Lent term.
Having been on a few site visits this term I can confirm that it will be a brilliant new facility, and certainly make us faster! Not to mention the admiration we will receive when the outside is given a generous lick of maroon paint.
W1 entered Autumn head after only a few outings togther as a crew, and without really having any idea of how we stood in relation to the other crews on the river. The long course enabled us to really start working together as a crew, and the row felt powerful and controlled. We managed to push off Girton, and even held off a very strong Lea RC crew who were bearing down on us in the closing stages. Despite a powerful and together row we finished eighth out of nine crews in the Women's First division. With more time in the gym and on the water we are optimistic that we will be able to compete with the top boats by Fairbairns.
After winning the second division of Uni 4s last year W1 were determined to make an impression in the first division. Unfortuantely, due to availibilty issues we had not rowed together as a crew before the first round of the competition, but we were not going to let this get in our way!
In the first round we were racing Trinity Hall. Both crews were fairly level off the start, but after a few strokes we began to pull ahead and after a few hundred metres had taken a commanding lead. We held this lead all the way to the finish, winning by an easy margin.
Selywn W1 pulled out which put us straight through to the semi-finals. Here we faced the extremely imposing LMBC W1. We managed to stay level off the start, but they were rating much higher than us and managed to pull ahead. They retained this lead and, despite our best efforts, this very strong LMBC crew won by two lengths. Congratulations to LMBC W1 who went on to win the final against Caius.
We were very pleased with our rows and are looking forward to setting the crew for our first IV in preparation for Winter Head and Fairbairns.
Come down to the boathouse this Sunday (October 5) to lounge around in the sunshine, eat some free food, have a go in the unsinkable boat, see what erging is all about, and generally meet awesome people, coaches, seniors and novices alike.
There will be people leaving from the Plodge every hour from 11am to take people down to the boathouse! Hope to see you lots of you there.
Bumped King's II
After not having to row much past the motorway bridge on either of the first two days, M2 arrived at the boathouse on Friday refreshed and ready for a sterner challenge chasing King's II.
The start of the race was slightly panicky as Clare realised we weren't particularly straight, but bow and 3 prevailed and brought the boat back round. There was something slightly resembling a stride today, but we still only dropped to about 35, a couple higher than we'd intended. However, we had our first whistle not long after the motorway bridge, and although they held us at a length for about 20 strokes, they started to fall back to us, before contact was made just as Clare was calling for the entry to First Post.
Bumped First and Third III
On the final day, we were chasing a spooning First and Third III. However, we knew from the results at Robinson Head that they definitely had the potential to match our speed, and so we prepared to row a long race once again.
After some fun and games trying to stop drifting into the barges above Chesterton before going to the start, we arrived on station just as the 4 minute gun went. The start (unlike the practices we'd done) was one of the best we'd produced during the week, and we strode to 34, intent to grind them down over the course.
The rowing was hard work into the headwind, but we were rewarded with our first whistle halfway along first post reach. By the time we entered the corner the gap was down to almost half a length, and a brilliant line from Clare edged us closer. A determined power 10 in the gut took the remaining distance and we secured the bump on the entrance to grassy.
An absolutely fantastic performance by the crew, 5 of whom had never been in a boat before October, and despite losing 2 weeks of training to a frozen river. Many thanks to Ivan Scales, without whose coaching this result would not have been possible.
Lent Bumps starts on Tuesay and we're looking forward to strong performance across the board. For information on where to watch the bumps from see here. Click on a result to read the race report if it is available.
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | |
M1 | Bumped Churchill/Rowed Over | Rowed Over/Bumped Fitzwilliam | Bumped King's | Rowed Over |
W1 | Bumped Magdalene | Bumped LMBC | Rowed Over | Bumped Trinity Hall |
M2 | Bumped Robinson II | Bumped Jesus III | Bumped King's II | Bumped FaT III |
W2 | Bumped Christs III | Bumped LMBC III | Bumped FaT III | Bumped ARU II |
Bumped Jesus III
On day 2, we chased a Jesus crew who had been bumped by Hughes Hall in about 45 seconds on day one. Whether this was due to them being slow or Hughes being incredibly fast, we weren't sure, and we were also wary of a Robinson crew with potentially all eight men rowing trying to bump us back.
The start of the race was calm and composed, and we quickly started to gain on Jesus, gaining one whistle by the time we hit our stride. Two whistles followed before the motorway bridge, with three whistles just through the other side and the bump occuring about 50 metres further upstream of where Hughes hit them yesterday.
It's always satisfying to bump quickly, but we know we have a much sterner test ahead chasing King's II on Friday.