St Catharine's College Boat Club

Bumped Emmanuel II

In the last few years, M2 has enjoyed considerable success over Emma II (eg here, here, here, and here), and we were determined not to let this slip today. After some detective work from Scott spying on the (somewhat obvious) Clare II race plan at marshalling - "go hard off the start and hit Catz before they disappear" - we knew what we had to do.

The start of the race was slightly more composed than yesterday, although there is still room for improvement. As with yesterday, a second stride was required to bring the rate under 40, and this led to a large, positive jump in the quality of the rowing. We gained a whistle on the way into first post corner, by which time Clare, who had held us through the start sequence, were being pushed away quickly, and pushed for the second out of the corner. When it came, the legs came on and it was over in 15 strokes, bumping on the entrance to Grassy.

We're now in slightly uncharted waters with no second boats ahead of us for a while, and we look forward to challenging the ARU 1st VIII on Friday after a well earned day off.