St Catharine's College Boat Club

Lent Bumps was a very successful week for M1. We went up 3 places to 8^th on the River which is the highest position we have been in Lent Bumps for over 25 years.

Day one saw us chasing FaT (Trinity) while we were being chased by Queens’. We knew it was going to be a tough chase, but we thought we could get them over the course. Unfortunately, Clare didn’t get the memo and FaT caught them after 500m meaning our only hope was the over bump on Peterhouse. We managed to slowly close on them in the strong headwind as we pulled away from Queens’ behind. Sadly, we didn’t quite manage to make up the 6 and a half lengths needed for the over bump despite a very strong row and coming within 1 length by the end of the course. Despite our hopes of blades being lost on day 1, we were confident we could have a successful week after a strong row over.

On day 2 we were chasing Clare and being chased by Trinity Hall.  After a slow start we gave away about half a length to the crews either side of us but as we hit our rhythm our superior boat speed showed, and we began to close. Having seen them get caught very quickly on Day 1, we were hoping for a quick bump and by First Post corner we were half a length off. Ahead of us though, FaT bumped Peterhouse who had crabbed and were unable to clear in time, meaning our race had to be stopped. After some confusion it was decided that were going back to the start for a re-row.  Despite being wet and bit cold we got ourselves into a similar position 2^nd time round. Clare made us work for it but we ground them down and got the bump on Ditton corner with Trinity Hall nowhere near us.

On Day 3 we got our 2^nd chance to get Peterhouse, this time only needing to catch 1 and a half lengths for the bump. Given our performance on days 1 and 2 we were fairly confident of catching Peterhouse without much bother from Clare behind with the wind at the lowest level of the week. Despite Clare closing a little on the start we rowed well and this time got the bump in good time at 1^st post corner despite a late concession from the Peterhouse cox.

The wind returned on day 4 and we needed to catch Christ’s to go up 3. After our best start of the week we consistently walked into them. They really put up a fight on the plough reach, taking the rate up in a last-ditch attempt to get away from us but we stayed on our strong rhythm in the headwind and managed to keep closing despite rowing directly into their wash. We finally got the dump around Ditton corner to round off a successful week.