St Catharine's College Boat Club

The first race of the year was in the quarter finals of the University Fours competition, against Trinity First and Third, who started upstream of us.  It was always going to be a difficult race, but after training hard since before term started we were confident in our ability as a crew and ready for the challenge.  Our new coach David Oldham had got us to practice the start countless times, and despite a bit of tension (and a small crab) we executed our start well to put FaT under pressure from the beginning.  A clear stride down to our race pace allowed them a bit of leeway around First Post and along The Gut, and for a couple of minutes the race was in the balance.  By the Plough however FaT had given it what they could, and a strong push out of Grassy Corner began to eat up the distance between the boats.  We stuck to our race plan and made another push out of Ditton, taking foot after foot of distance out of FaT all the way up the Reach.  A final effort from the Railings took us over the finish having caught up three or four boatlengths on the opposition, and leaving no one in any doubt about the result.  We will race again in the semi final on Friday.

Stroke side bringing us round First Post