Results and reports by Event

That was the most tiring bumps we've had in a while. Three rowovers with fast crews behind for most/all of the course, ouch. We had little idea of the form of the top four going into Wednesday. We knew we were pretty quick and agreed to take it a day at a time and keep an open mind. The outside chance of headship kept us excited and focussed our training throughout the term. It soon became obvious that the top three had maintained form and headship would require a small miracle. Nevertheless, we were rewarded with a pretty hard fought and satisfying bump on the first day, keeping our hopes up. Maggie put in a solid performance on Thursday and didn't even concede the half length required to give us our first signal. Jesus also had a good go but didn't get much inside a length. We had perhaps been a little complacent, or at least used the wrong race plan. On Friday we reverted to the tried and tested, fly and die, 2/3 minute plan. It worked well, we closed on Maggie and gave them a scare, dropping Jesus who were eventually caught by Pem. On Saturday, we went out with the same intentions but nerves and fatigue meant it wasn't as successful. We hovered around the length mark for a bit but Maggie demonstrated that they deserved to retain third place. Pem had a good go, spurred on by Jesus, but we held it together. Shame the top three decided to keep up the whole good rowing thing, but there's not much we can do about that so a fairly sweet result nevertheless and a sincere well done to them. We've had a great term and got the boat moving faster than ever before, despite a slight reduction in strength and possibly fitness, whilst maintaining our normal impressive weight. Good coaching and focus throughout the crew are probably to blame. We learned to take a catch, woo! For the record, we've now taken down Christs, Robinson, Catz, Selwyn, Queens, Churchill, Tit Hall, Emmanuel, Caius and Jesus without conceding a bump. It's taken us five years and our neighbours in blue have followed us the whole way. Our turn to chase in Mays, don't get in the way. :)

Uploaded Sunday 1st March, 17:30

Day 1

Beedle the Bard reports...

M1 were a very keen bunch

To go and eat Jesus for lunch

With a push out of Ditton

The oppo. were stricken

And the bump came along with a crunch

Day 2

As told by Ed Would-Leer...

Jesus seemed quite deluded

With their whistles (or so we concluded)

Although within station

For most of the duration

The bump on Maggie eluded

Day 3

From the writings of John Milton-Brewery

We leapt off the start in a flash

To row into Maggie and clash

We got to a quarter

But they managed to thwart our

attempts at their stern to bash

Day 4

Attributed to William Wordsworthless

Our nerves and commitment were vast

The start and first minute were fast

Though we pushed at a length

Maintaining our strength

Maggie held us off to the last

Uploaded Saturday 28th February, 18:38

It was good to finally get a-rowing and a-bumping after counting down the hours for the last week. We knew that we didn't have much to fear from Pembroke and that we would bump Jesus if we rowed like we have done in training over the term.

The starting gun appeared to go off a couple of seconds early but we were ready. Our starts have been good in practise and by the end of the first minute we already had taken half a length off Jesus. By this point the water was seriously choppy and I felt about as neat as I did in M2 in 2007. We are, however, powerful. We had Jesus down to three quarters of a length by the gut, and to half a length by plough reach. We caught a couple of bad strokes and lost a bit of ground coming up to Ditton but we always had the belief. We gave an almighty push going into the reach and we munched into Jesus' lead. We got the double whistle again and the bell soon after. We gave a massive power ten and got the bump about a third of the way down the reach.

We have a reputation for being quick this term and we proved it today. Maggie are next. Downing and FaT should be worried. We are happy.

Uploaded Wednesday 25th February, 20:04

Day 1

Chasing Downing, Being chased by Pembroke

It just wasn't quite right. Maybe it was the nerves, maybe it was the bumpy water but it didn't feel like the pieces we'd practiced. Pembroke were much faster than we thought they would be, we weren't quite as fast as we thought we would be. Upsetting, but we use the anger to focus in and go out for revenge tomorrow.

Day 2

Chasing Pembroke, Being Chased by Queens

We were much faster today and showed a lot more of our true potential. Unfortunately while we were a lot faster than yesterday and did make up a bit of ground on Pembroke Queens were even faster. A shame not to get the chance to bump Pembroke back, but as things go we rowed fast, but the crew behind us were faster and thats just bumps isn't it!

Uploaded Thursday 26th February, 17:46

Day 1:

Well, that all happened a bit faster than I was expecting!

A good start saw us immediately take half a length out of them in the first 10 strokes with the first whstle being blown during our start! The second whistle couldn't have taken more than about 20 more strokes to be given, and another 15 or 20 strokes later we had three whistles. The bell was rung shortly after, and as instructed, we didn't panic, but just slightly upped the power to go in for the kill. The bell was actually ringing for a while longer than I expected, given the amount of time it took us to make up most of the distance (credit to Fitz for trying until the very end), but the bump was achieved somewhere around head station.

LMBC tomorrow, and it will be a case of doing the same again and seeing what happens...

Day 2:

I don't know whether we took too much confidence from yesterday's row, but we didn't hit the start as hard. That said, we apparently gained on LMBC for the first few strokes or so, but they pushed back out to 'on station' when we started to settle. Fitz behind us had a much better row than yesterday and actually closed to within a length, but this was presumably a fly-or-die move from them, with the fast Magdalene II behind them. They died coming into first post corner and were swallowed up by Magdalene. That seemed to settle us down, and we pushed on for what we thought was a realistic chance of an overbump on Tit Hall II, given that we'd been significantly faster than them earlier in term. Hats off to them though, they've obviously improved, and although we gained for the first part of the course, they held us at about 4 lengths or so for the remainder.

A reasonable row once we settled into it, but a bit rushed and unbalanced. Now we've got to make sure we get the job done on Girton II on Friday, otherwise Magdalene will be waiting.

Uploaded Wednesday 25th February, 18:17

With a start even Nick couldn't criticise, we took half a length straight away. After another few seconds, I was getting a funny feeling there was something over my shoulder and the race was almost over. After an extended bell ringing session, we pulled to the side victorious (and also had the pleasure of watching FaT get bumped). Reportedly, the Fitz cox spent the entire race looking over her shoulder at the guy at bow...

Uploaded Tuesday 24th February, 21:06

Crime: section 3.7568 sub section a part (ii): bumping within 500m

Victim: Fitzwilliam II

Defendant: Clare II

Plea: Guilty

Sentence: LMBC III

Sentence on good behaviour: Tit Hall II

Uploaded Tuesday 24th February, 18:16

Argh I just wrote a huge run-down of how we did on each day and my computer ate it. So I shall summarise: Up 3, well done, ladies!

Uploaded Saturday 28th February, 16:46

Day 1:

Bumped without working very hard

Day 2:

Worked very hard without bumping

Day 3:

Worked hard and bumped

Day 4:

Worked and bumped and did the sandwich thing and worked again and rowed over and celebrated!

Uploaded Saturday 28th February, 16:20

Day 1: Bumped Newnham in 15s after they crashed

Hmmm... All a bit unsatisfying, like a suppressed sneeze. We were pushed for time spinning and pulling in and kept calm admirably. Newnham did not. I reckon they hit the bank after about 15 strokes. You were in a different league to them. It would have been nice to get a more hard earned bump, but still well done. It was like a very realistic practise start.

Luckily you have a chance to do just that tomorrow.

Uploaded Tuesday 24th February, 17:53