St Catharine's College Boat Club

W1 hoped that the campaign to catch Homerton today might be a fairly short and sweet affair as Peterhouse (who we had bumped yesterday) had been closing on Homerton before we caught them at first post corner.

After a fairly speedy start, we were roughly on station both in front and behind but closed to a length on Homerton by around the motorway bridge. Unfortunately it wouldn't be the quick bump we'd hoped for as Homerton seemed to have found some extra pace from yesterday and held us around a length for most of first post reach. Peterhouse had gone off hard and closed to around a length on us coming into first post corner, but they then fell away and didn't worry us for the rest of the race.

The adrenaline was surging as we had settled to a not-very-sustainable 35spm, so although we gained gradually on Homerton, it came in fits and starts. A big four out of first post corner briefly settled the rhythm and we were rewarded with two whistles and "great move!" from Rory on the bank. We were around canvas going into grassy but, again, it got a bit untidy and rumour has it that three whistles became two. But a big four out of the corner brought us back together and our fleeting moments of composure were enough to take us to canvas by the end of plough reach. On overlap all the way around Ditton, Homerton went wide and we took the racing line, sealing the deal in traditional fashion as we pulled out onto the reach - almost perfectly in time with Queens' catching Peterhouse behind us. Not the prettiest rowing but it got the job done!

Rounding Grassy