Results and reports by Event

Toby Milne-Clark reports:

First race of the new academic year, and the choppers were ready, coming off the back of our 2k tests and fired up for the year ahead.

Flooding from the night before added some additional challenge, but unfazed we paddled down the reach, a few warm up bursts to get us going.

The race started and we got up to rate 38 quickly, starting strong through the first few corners and on to the plough, where we had a good reset on to the reach. Wind picked up under the railway bridge making the last 500m a challenge and we had to dig deep (just not with the spoons). Molly made a 3 stroke remaining call and we all emptied the last bits of energy we had, little did we know that was a lie or she can’t count. We pushed on for the remaining 100m and finished with a time of 10:08 making us the second fastest collegiate boat on the river.

Overall successful first race of the year considering we had some subs from the CBC archives. Looking forward to the improvement over the weeks ahead ready for Fairbairns.

Uploaded Monday 4th December, 22:33

Toby Milne-Clark reports:

First race of the new academic year, and the choppers were ready, coming off the back of our 2k tests and fired up for the year ahead.

Flooding from the night before added some additional challenge, but unfazed we paddled down the reach, a few warm up bursts to get us going.

The race started and we got up to rate 38 quickly, starting strong through the first few corners and on to the plough, where we had a good reset on to the reach. Wind picked up under the railway bridge making the last 500m a challenge and we had to dig deep (just not with the spoons). Molly made a 3 stroke remaining call and we all emptied the last bits of energy we had, little did we know that was a lie or she can’t count. We pushed on for the remaining 100m and finished with a time of 10:08 making us the second fastest collegiate boat on the river.

Overall successful first race of the year considering we had some subs from the CBC archives. Looking forward to the improvement over the weeks ahead ready for Fairbairns.

Uploaded Monday 4th December, 22:33

- [ ] Skies were blue and the air was crisp. After Phil’s gruelling warmup on the ergs (M2’s AT done for the week) eight sleepy, slightly hungover cleavers trickled out of the boathouse to get ready. We were greeted by water levels that were higher than Patryk on an average Friday evening, but the natural Eastward flow of the river made marshalling a little less painful than it needed to be (with many amazing taps for 2 seat if I do say so myself). However, this would come back to bite us on the bum later.

Chilly and shivering up by the reach, M2 were caught in a web of rigours and blades as each of the boats anxiously waited for their turn to strut their stuff. This did leave some time for socialising with some of the neighbouring women’s boats in the hopes of getting a Rowbridge from one of them, but only Harry had success in striking up conversation and making them laugh (tell him to check Facebook later for a Rowbridge to Clare 4 Seat). As the matrix of boats began to untangle itself, M2 prepared for its fruit-pastel-fuelled frenzy (courtesy of Nate) and squared blades ready for Phil’s direction.

The Clare Cleavers (dubbed by Molly without our consent) got off to a fantastic rolling start with even better sit than usual, rivalling that of a Novice Women’s boat (thanks Lydia!) as we chased the Champs ahead of us like lions. Yes, they are much older than us, but this time WE were the sharks. All of a sudden, around ten strokes in, I began to get showered in the splashes of the catches of my crew mates. I thought “ah, I see. This is what it was like to be Justin last term” as I accepted retribution for all of those outings after which Justin was considerably soggier than he had been getting into the boat. Nonetheless, we continued to put power down, our legs smouldering like matchsticks, “legs through” after “legs through”, as well as indistinct words from Gripper (I’m sure he was saying something useful, I just couldn’t hear it).

With grassy corner now behind us, we prepared for the final stretch when crackling could be heard. The cox box was malfunctioning. Although my legs were in agony, I saw this as an excellent opportunity to piss everyone off with some of my backseat coxing, but alas Phil managed to get back onto the loud speaker in no time. Luckily, just as Phil was getting back to grips with technology (old people these days) we passed just by a cameraman taking shots of our rowing, which encouraged us to improve our technique more than any battle cry from Phil could. With our prey a few metres ahead as we passed under the railway bridge, we were all tired and weary, but Oscar at stroke was unrelenting with his rate 32 rowing, so our fear of crabbing, as well as our hunger for old people, pushed us past champs as we emptied tanks into the finish. Despite having overtaken another boat in a race which was supposed to be a time trial (pretty impressive if you ask me) Phil was insistent that we “kept focus” on the way back (as if we didn’t already look epic enough). While we were shattered by the time we returned to the boat house, Taeheon had us in for a treat as we crammed ourselves full of cake and watched him perform 15 of the finest burpees we had ever seen.

Uploaded Friday 27th October, 11:32