St Catharine's College Boat Club

Bumped Girton II

An air of uncertainty surrounded the first day of bumps this year, not having seen very much of Girton II (ahead of us) or Addenbrookes (behind us) at all on the river. We had a long time to contemplate as we sat at Chesterton for an age as the M4 division was re-rowed, followed by W3.

The lack of practice starts on the way up told on the actual start. The windy conditions made pushing off difficult, and the start itself was very scrappy, with no cohesion for the first five strokes. As a result, we lost a little bit of ground to Addenbrookes before clinically pushing them off and moving up steadily on Girton. Despite grounding the strokeside blades on the corner, we kept moving, the kill call coming just before the motorwaybridge, and the bump coming the stroke before we were going to sprint (much to Lara's disappointment). Another bump before the motorway bridge for M2, and revenge for costing us blades the previous year.

Day 2 will see us chasing LMBC III who were overbumped by King's II, although a drastically slow Fitz II in front may cause us a problem. A much better start will be required.