St Catharine's College Boat Club

Our win over FaT on Wednesday brought the M1 4+ crew up against Kings in the semifinal at 1.30pm on Friday 30 October.  Based on earlier performances in the week we were confident we could hold them off and get through to the final, but having been bumped by Kings twice last year we weren't taking anything for granted.  We followed the same race plan as before, this time with Kings chasing from behind.  After a decent start our stride again gave Kings the chance to take in a little ground, but just like on Wednesday, we made a strong push on Plough Reach, and again after Ditton to give us some breathing space on the Reach.  Kings couldn't take the pressure as we pulled away from them, and a dramatic crab sent their bows skewing round, giving us a comfortable end to a well-executed race, and confounding the umpires who had expected Kings to win easily.

The final was immediately afterwards, chasing from behind a Peterhouse crew who had already seen off LMBC and Homerton.  Conscious of the high stakes involved now, we upped our game off the start and held onto Peterhouse through the first half of the race.  We followed the same race plan and made strong pushes along Plough Reach and the Long Reach, but Peterhouse were too fast and gradually drew away from us despite our best efforts.  In the end we had to be content with second place - still a great result, and fair reward for much hard work over the last month.  We are already looking forward to next year!