St Catharine's College Boat Club

We knew today was going to be tough. Cursed by another day with a slow crew two stations ahead of us, we knew that we would be hard pressed to catch Emma II before they caught Christs II. Only this time we had had the added pressure of Hughes I behind us, who were no slouches. The crews all remained roughly on station through the gut, when Emma got their first whistle on Christs, followed by our first whitsle on Emma. Hughes remained on station. As Christs predictably began to fade, Emma smelt the bump, and held us level as they moved in on Christs, finally bumping them on Ditton. As we rowed past we knew we were going all the way to top finish (no boats ahead to overbump unfortunately) and settled into our rythm, Hughes still in hot pursuit. All the land training finally paid off though, and half way down the reach Hughes started to inch backwards, stroke by stroke, and we knew they didn't have it in them to catch us. We pushed past the marshalling crews and hit the finish with a healthy two lengths between us, denying Hughes their blades and giving ourselves the reward of getting to chase Christs on day 4.