St Catharine's College Boat Club

It was another beautiful morning, albeit slightly windy and W3 were raring to go. Buoyed up by the overbump of the first day our energy carried us through our coaches' needless and excessive warm up procedures. (Go to the lock and far too many practice starts on the ergs.) Making it on to the river in good spirits, we were realistic about our chances. Caius had performed far too well for our comfort and so we knew they'd be chasing us down, a sandwich was sure to occur.

Without the delays, we started on time. Enjoying our new higher position on the river we were in for a true bumps experience, a boat behind and a boat ahead we had to keep calm and row smart, not hard.

Lined up perfectly by our cox and boatman the starting gun rang out and we pulled hard, behind us Caius seemed to us to be a little off center but still coming on fast. As we rowed we watched them approach and their whistle came before we heard ours. Under the pressure we didn't falter but used it as encouragement to goad us on. Our burst of speed let us catch Clare and the closer we got, the more it was obvious they were under pressure. Under the motorway bridge we finally caught them! Caius were thwarted and just half a length away.

The carnage we rowed into, because of other bumps, meant there was no way for us to clear the river causing Caius, Jesus and Emma all to pile up behind us. (Oops) The barge 'Georgina' chasing down the rowing only added to the glorious chaos!