St Catharine's College Boat Club

W2 arrived at the boathouse, excited from yesterday’s success and feeling confident chasing First and Third W2, but nevertheless it was a blizzard outside and we couldn’t quite believe that we were going to be rowing bumps in these conditions. Warm up seemed to be going well as we did our usual front stops build in fours, rowing (somewhat) merrily down the stream. This merriment quickly ended when bow’s blade ended up caught in a crack in a wall near Green Dragon. Unfortunately, the blade became logged and almost in slow motion, snapped. Oh no, we all thought! This was NOT good. We had no bank party at this point, so Fiona was frantically calling anyone who may have been within the vicinity of the boat house, to try and source a new blade. We managed to contact M3 and got them to leave one of their blades near the start of the course. After much debate about the difference in gearing between women’s and men’s blades, and many a random coach inspecting the blade, it was decided that we should opt for the men’s blade. Suffice to say we felt rather guilty as M3 rowed past us in 7s (apologies to the guy who was inevitably freezing due to unexpectedly not rowing!).

A detailed commentary of the race itself is offered below by Sid: ‘It was epic. Picture the scene, icy breeze, snow everywhere, gunpowder in the air. A bang! And we were off. Pretty soon we realised we underestimated the incompetence of Jesus W3, who decided they liked the bank more than the river. Pathetic! So the First and Third machine took revenge for a bloody first day. Then, in the distance ahead of us....there they were... looking...ermmm...out of time. Like a coiled viper, we decided to strike. First post, 4 lengths , we kept it tidy, we stalked our prey. Grassy was a tight corner for us too, they ran wide, clearly horrified at their impending doom. They decided to go wide around Ditton, and Fiona saw the opportunity! She dived down the inside and it was neck and neck coming out of the corner. And Catz took the lead of the race! Not content with being done nor both crews stopping despite what the umpires said was a bump, they both kept racing! Eventually we took the lead and the racing line, our stern past the bow ball. And Fiona still cracked the whip, before we decided that we had pounded them into submission by enough and that this was not a formula one race. But twas not over! For queens decided to keep racing toward Catz! Eventually sanity prevailed and an astronomical shelacking from the umpire afterwards really drove the message home for Queens, quit when you're done!!!!’

Special thanks again today go to our bank party, comprising of Izzy, Jack and Sid. They risked some treacherous conditions cycling along the ice rink, which had become of the tow path, at the side of the river. A member of another bank party literally broke their collar bone during our division – so massive kudos! Overbump secured! A successful day, albeit it eventful. Who knows what will happen for the rest of the week considering the weather conditions. However, this W2 is prepared for any eventuality now and we will be hoping to chase St. Edmunds W1 in the next race.

W2 face the blizzard