St Catharine's College Boat Club

After a rousing speech by Hunter "Abraham Lincoln" Sims, M3 set off to annihilate Tit Hall M3 in our own version of Gettysburg. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. A solid start allowed us to pull towards Tit Hall, a length separating us. This could not be maintained, however. Despite their poor start, the pink spectre of Churchill loomed large. At Grassy Corner, on the bend, we were bumped. While our campaign did not start particularly well, neither did the Union's, and many positives can be taken from today. We'll get them next time.

- Tom Cleere

After over an hour in torrential rain, the last thing that w2 wanted was a rerow, but due to a couple of slow clearing crews ahead of us, followed by an unfortunate incident involving our bow and Eddies’ stern becoming, shall we say, connected, we had to head back to the motorway bridge to race again. As Eddies had caught us in Lents after an unlucky crab on day 3, and a fast Downing crew had denied us our chance at a revenge bump, we were keen to have a good row and try to get Catz our first bump of the day! A solid start saw us making ground on Eddies, with whistles being blown throughout the race. A couple of good corners coming up to the reach saw us gain another half a length on them! Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, and Charlie ‘No kill calls’ Lamb calling a truly ungodly number of “Power 10s” and “Kill 10s”, we didn’t manage to close that final half a length, and so the bump eluded us. Nevertheless, a strong rowover leaves us in the perfect position to bump them tomorrow!

- Anousa Parkin

Today was a particularly special first day of Bumps as W1 lined up in our shiny new boat The Sandy, kindly donated to the club by Mr Sandy Robinson (1960). Starting in front of Queens' W1 for the fourth time this year, Catz were ready for another showdown. We were chasing Peterhouse in front. It was time to give Sandy the christening he deserved. A strong start left us immediately with our first whistle on Peterhouse. We settled to a nice leisurely 36spm and they held us at a length going under the motorway bridge. Pushing off bridge, we closed to half a length on Peterhouse while Queens', deploying what can only have been their familiar fly-and-die-at-grassy strategy, had cut the gap down to around a length behind us. Unphased by the familiar looming presence of Queens', we stayed composed and continued to reel Peterhouse in along first post reach, though they had other plans as we were driving them forwards to close on Homerton in front. A four boat sandwich began to develop as we closed to canvas approaching first post corner. It was time to make a move. A sharp line from Sid and a big four out of the corner finished the job as we bumped Peterhouse and denied Queens' once again. Bring on Homerton tomorrow.

- Fiona Conlon

"As grey clouds brooded over day 1 of Mays, M2 had a battle ahead. Having denied Magdalene M2 blades at Lents, they were pursuing us with a score to settle. Robinson M2 stood in front of us, also hoping to avoid a repeat of Lents where they were bumped by Catz M2. The cannon’s roar sounded the start of the race and the oars flew into motion; we charged down the river and soon came within our first whistle of Robinson. However, like some Lovecraftian beast, Magdalene crept up on us. Despite digging into hitherto unexplored reserves when the kill call was shouted, we found ourselves bumped. We weren’t disheartened however: the banter in the boat and knowledge that we rowed our best soon brightened our dampened spirits. We now look towards day 2 with a vigour and resolve to yet make a success of this Mays campaign."

- Nathaniel Tye

M1 executed the fastest start possible to try for an early bump on Trinity Hall. At first post M1 had a whistle on Trinity Hall, however Hughes Hall had a whistle on them. Unfortunately through the gut Hughes, powered by their returners (including CUBC President Dara Alizadeh), had higher speed and Geoff was forced to concede in the entry to Grassy. It was an unlucky start to the campaign, but M1 are hoping to righting this wrong later in the week.

- Nick Palmer