St Catharine's College Boat Club

Bumped by Clare II

This wasn't really a lot better than yesterday. We knew this was a crunch day - if we could row-over, we'd get a go at a weak FaT III crew on Friday. However, we knew that Clare had a very fast start and we'd have to hold them off.

And hold them off we almost did. After a disaster of a start in which we were pointing along the river, and Ivan was called to take a tap just before the first stroke causing him to miss it, we ended up going down the outside of First Post Reach, watching Clare eat into the water between with us. A good push saw us hold them at a canvas through First Post corner and into the gut.

And that's when it "happened". There was definitely overlap, but not bowball past cox. According to the bank party, our stern went down as their bow came clean over it, but without contact. Is this a bump? It took the umpires about a minute to decide it was, by which stage we'd pushed away down past Grassy. Obviously, given the mixed signals that were being given to the Clare crew, this mightn't be a fair reflection of how the race would have gone, but we'll never know...

So another frustrating day. We probably deserved to be bumped by a much faster crew, but the manner in which it happened, and the umpiring, was very disappointing. Clare had a camera attached to the bow, and I'd love to see the video!