St Catharine's College Boat Club

From the start we tried to gain,

and we pushed through the pain.

The doublé was the goal

and Queens' dignity we stole.

Making Catz great again.

With the rain stopping just before our division it turned out to be a lovely day for we wee row. Today we were chasing Queens W1, who we had beaten at sparring last week. As before we were being chased by HHLC, so we were in the ideal situation with a crew had a chance at in front and pressure from behind to keep us hot on our toes. As expected HHLC gained on the start while we kept station with Queens. The whistles from behind didn’t phase us and we used them to gain whistles on Queens. The whistles progressively increased but Queens kept putting down the pressure and didn’t make it easy for us. After about 2 minutes HHLC faded and we started to pull away just as on day 1. Lucy WHO? Round grassy corner Queens took a dodge line and a final kill call saw us make contact, going from three whistles to a bump in a short space of time. While we committed to the entire race, rating higher than our usual rhythm (still silky), we owe a lot of this bump to the slick lines taken by Alex, taking advantage of Queens at grassy. We had to work hard for this bump and Queens put up a strong fight, but we really gritted down and for that we were rewarded. Tomorrow we face our second battle against Caius, and it certainly won’t be an easy race. Whatever the outcome we will likely be racing the majority of the course so we need to face the final day with focus and determination. Tune in tomorrow for the final day of our lent campaign to make Catz great again.

“Deny them of thy blade on day 1 then deny them of thy bump on day 3.” —Catz W1 (2017)