St Catharine's College Boat Club

Rowed Over

We knew it was all or nothing today. We knew we didn't deserve spoons. We knew that the results hadn't been doing our rowing justice.

We rowed down to the start, not the world's best paddle, but we knew we had to conserve energy for a long row-over. The first start was delayed due to a large island of weeds that had drifted into the middle of the river - we'd wondered why we were the only boat in the middle of the river with 6 seconds to go until the gun!

The second time we actually got to start. The fact we were under the bridge meant that the ringing in our ears caused by the cannon caused us not to be able to hear Alex for the first 10 strokes. This was clearly a good tactic as we produced our best start of the week, hitting a majestic and relaxed 43, and by the time we came out of the start sequence we'd already put more distance between ourselves and Magdalene.

The start was as close as Magdalene came, but we knew that Hughes Hall were holding off for a go at the overbump, so we had to push on to try and get as much distance in case Fitz hit Magdalene. A stride took us down to 36, the second one down to 34, and after that we opened up more and more clear water. Indeed, we weren't losing very much ground at all to Maggie in front. If only we'd rowed like this yesterday...

Coming around Ditton we were 4 lengths clear of Magdalene and cruising, enjoying the sun, and watching the fun and games happening behind. Coming under the Railway Bridge the gap was now 6 lengths, we'd dropped the rate to 30, and although Fitz were only a canvas off Magdalene, the Hughes crew rowing at rate 26 decided there wasn't enough time left to take us and finished Fitz off. We then pushed out to somewhere between 7.5 and 8 lengths at the finish.

An accomplished row, probably the best row I've ever been part of. I think this shows that, under different circumstances, we could have definitely have done some bumping. Next year, now we're in a position more representative of our speed, I reckon we can do some damage!