St Catharine's College Boat Club

Bumped Clare II

With 7/9 of the crew having coming so agonisingly close to blades in Lents, it's fair to say that there were some nerves before the race on Saturday. Just to add to the tension, we were chasing a Clare II crew who on the first day had already come within a canvas of the boat they were chasing, Corpus Christi, before dying and being bumped themselves.

So the plan was to go hard. With the bank being so busy on the last day, we knew that communication between the bank and the boat would be difficult. Fortunately, we knew that Clare's boatman Anton would start ringing his bell when they got within a canvas of Corpus, so this would be our signal to kill.

Naturally I took a massive airstroke again off the start, but otherwise it was solid, and fast. We didn't really stride. Going around First Post Corner the rate maybe dropped to 38, but not for long before Alistair made the kill call in the Gut, and it came back up above 40. We were closing on Clare, but they were closing on Corpus. Running on adrenaline and raw emotion we flew up the Gut and hit Clare on Grassy Corner, moments before they would have hit Corpus.

Blades.

It was unique row. The context, and the sheer guts from the crew, made it a truly special performance.

Every member of the crew worked hard for our success this term and I'd like to thank all of them. Thibaut may be going to the other place, but I'm pleased that he will continue rowing. Hopefully Sam won't let his talents as a strokeman go to waste once he leaves the Cam. Dr Wothers is a rock in M2; his experience and reliability are such an asset to the club. As for Alistair, Dan, Anthony, James and Chris, I look forward to rowing with them next year!

Finally, I'm sure that our term would have been nowhere near so successful had it not been masterminded by Simon and Dr Scales. Not only their ruthless ergs and excellent coaching, but also their tactical nous was vital to our bumps week. A special thank you to Simon for all of the hours he put into coaching and organising us this term.

Roll on next year: Michaelmas seems a long way away!