Results and reports by Event

It was our second and final day of racing, and after a strong start on the plough reach, the boat was feeling pretty good. The actual start also felt better than the previous day, and despite not lengthening a lot to begin, we managed to settle into a more of a rhythm. By first post we had a whistle on Downing, and then soon two, before Newnham started pushing into us. We fought for the third whistle on the plough reach but it wasn’t quite enough to avoid being bumped on Ditton. Regardless, it was one of our better rows of term, one to be proud of, and who knows what would have happened had 2 more days of racing had happened?! Thanks to Ada for racing with us!

Uploaded Monday 5th March, 15:17

With the Cam looking like a scene from “the day after tomorrow” we feared our destiny lay in cutlery. Cambridgeshire football association had cancelled all matches for the weekend and the met office was warning of death, but at lunchtime the call finally went out on the wireless, bumps was back on. Hooray! We immediately downed tools and hurried to the boat house feeling like the RNLI on a callout into stomy seas. With sideways snow and whitecaps heading upstream we cut a steady course up to the start zone where we proudly peacocked our newly improved “easy there”. Having been bumped by StEdmund’s Navy Seals on day 1 we knew that they would catch the trawlermen of Darwin within a few strokes so the plan was to navigate round them and go for the overbump on Selwyn M1. After another solid start at the cannon we settled into a really good rhythm. As expected StEds bumped Darwin quickly but not before we got a whistle on them which gave us a boost of confidence. We safely navigated past and at this point were flying, such that the sideways snow seemed stationary as we matched its speed. Our chasers, Darwin, tried to keep up but we pulled away around grassy and they got bumped. We chased Selwyn with everything we had and gained ground on them but unfortunately they managed to bump out leaving us feeling like the last kid to get picked at the school disco. With no one in sight to play with we switched to reserve tanks and brought Joel steadily home for the row over.

Uploaded Friday 2nd March, 23:37

John Cage - 4'33''

Uploaded Thursday 1st March, 17:17

An interesting start to M2’s bumps campaign this term.

Though we tried to hold the line, ‘I’ll be over you’ was the cry from St Eddie’s (A relative stranger in town to us undergrads) who went straight for the heart of us, just as Downing were performing some innovative, if unsuccessful, seat rearrangements in front of us.

A short race of what could not have been more than 30 strokes, and though we had all promised each other that ‘I won’t hold you back’ ultimately our fate was somewhat out of our hands, though we launched with a strong start and were set to grab Downing quickly, we couldn’t quite do it before dastardly St Eddie’s caught us and bedecked themselves with greenery. (Our misery was softened later with our on-the-ground investigative reporter giving us a tip off that they were seen later in the pub all in American stash, which we have taken this to mean that they must be essentially be Harvard’s first boat).

Despite a rather glum row back, with dear cox Mimo telling her boys ‘Angel don’t cry’, M2 remains the home of the brave and we are ready to say ‘Girl Goodbye’ to Downing on Thursday, our ambition unquenched by this somewhat irregular start.

Our aims remain to watch that sit and make sure our starts are as good as they were today.

Uploaded Tuesday 27th February, 23:38

The final day of Lent Bumps 2018 was upon us, and felt positively tropical compared to the day before (it was above freezing). Frustrated at the injustice of the previous races, and infuriated by a highly inaccurate race report we set out to get our own back on Hughes and finish the week on a high. Our row up was strong, with a good start at the Plough. We nervously counted down the minutes to the cannon, and before long it came. We were quick off the start, settling at a slightly alarming rate 37, before lengthening out and putting down the power. Sadly, we never got that whistle on Hughes and before we knew it they'd caught Pembroke. After some particularly terrifying yells from Chrysa they cleared, and we knew we were in it for the long haul. Feeling relatively experienced at high rate row overs after Tuesday, we kept up the rate and kept the strokes feeling strong, spurred on by support from the bank. We lengthened the gap between us and Corpus, and after a particularly strong power ten at the top of the reach we were only three lengths off Maggie, going for the over-bump. The gap proved too big to be closed, but we rowed well all the way to the finish line, and maybe made Maggie just a little bit worried. We reached the end exhausted, but proud of what was probably our best row of term and overall a fair result. It's been a wonderful term with a wonderful crew.

Uploaded Saturday 3rd March, 17:43

After battling gale force winds and a veritable blizzard on the row up, we pulled into station trepidatious about the conditions, but optimistic that we could finish what we started on Tuesday, and get that bump on Maggie. Following an extremely cold 4 minutes and the eventual starting gun, we were off. We had a good start, and after a strong row through to the motorway bridge we got our first whistle on Maggie. Soon after that we got our second whistle, and prepared to finish the job. Unfortunately, it seems that first post corner has emerged as the villain in our bumps story. Sensing impending doom with us on their stern, Maggie put in a strong final push and managed to bump Pembroke on first post corner. Being so close to a bump ourselves, we were forced to quickly swing wide around the corner. This move, coupled with a poorly timed gust of wind, had us saying a violent hello to the bank. Despite our best efforts to push off and keep it moving, the wind was unaccommodating, and we had to accept our bad luck and tuck in. Meanwhile we watched while the chasing boat (Hughes) made up the 2 1/2 boat lengths we had put between us to claim their bump.

On the upside, it was a mercifully short race so we’re well rested and ready to get Hughes back (and conquer first post corner) tomorrow.

Uploaded Friday 2nd March, 17:43

Reported by Victoria Lindley:

Aptly described by our bow seat as ‘the most painful race in the five bumps I’ve rowed’, WII’s first race was a series of highs and lows. The first experience of bumps for most of the boat, it would be fair to say that we were all feeling rather nervous as the countdown began. However, our start was very strong and we began to hear whistles within the first five strokes. Then came the three whistles and bell and, rather confident in our impending victory, we took up the rate and were within mere seconds of catching Maggie when we had an unfortunate encounter with Pembroke, who had cleared somewhat unsuccessfully. However, we didn’t let their inability to pull in their blades get the better of us, and we were soon on Maggie’s tail once more. And remained there. For the entire 2k. Whistle after whistle was blown, but sadly we simply could not catch them. We finished the race with a mixture of emotions in the boat: pride at not being bumped, astonishment at the fact that we actually managed to race the whole course, frustration at our lack of bump, but most importantly, serious determination. Maggie, watch out, we’re coming for you.

Uploaded Wednesday 28th February, 19:04

With Peterhouse M2 in our sights and our stroke late to the boathouse (academic responsibilities, Sergio? What are they??), our hopes were high for our first Bumps race of the year. We met with Nigel and Gripper on the way down to our station, and their dulcet tones calmed our nerves before the carnage that was to come….

Four minute gun. One minute gun. GO. We went off at rate 40, and Grip began to whistle almost immediately, with the single whistle converting to a double within only a couple of strokes. As Peterhouse began to steer round the upcoming corner, Tom did whatever he does when sat in the cox’s seat and cut in beside them. Seconds later, the classic lower division carnage began.

Pete’s 7 seat caught a crab, and at this point (presumably in solidarity with their lecturers - woo for the UCU!) most of the rest of the crew appeared to go on strike. This meant that, 30 strokes off the start, Tom began yelling for us to “HOLD IT UP”, with us having bumped Peterhouse so quickly that Gripper didn’t have chance to convert to a triple whistle, never mind pull out his bell.

To deploy a fine example of CBC technical terminology, this led to a ‘clusterfuck’ of epic proportions. Pete II came to a stop in the centre of the river, and with us jammed in behind them this left nowhere for the many boats behind us to go. Three boats rapidly piled in from behind, and the growing group of rather irritated coaches on the bank immediately began debating whether or not a re-row was in order (rather than, y’know, sorting out the now uber-clusterfuck a few feet away from them).

Once we’d finally extracted ourselves from the waterborne shitstorm that our division had become, we took off back home, foliage in our unisuits (thanks Nigel!). Whilst we don’t want to curse our performance tomorrow, when we’ll be chasing Churchill M2, we soon passed a rather garish pink oar….sat in the water….on its own….about 300 feet away from the relevant boat and crew. A good omen, surely?

Ben Rigby - today was for you. Hopefully we’ll do you proud tomorrow as well!

/// YELLOW FIRE ///

PS - it says a lot that it will have taken you longer to read this race report than it took us to win the race!

Uploaded Tuesday 27th February, 17:36

Reported by Jo Alstott:

Our second day of bumps started well, despite the snow, with our crew maintaining a decent lead off the start. Sidney Sussex and Lucy Cavendish were on the verge of bumping each other out behind us, and it seemed sure we would row over.

Unfortunately, as we were navigating the first post corner, stroke caught a horrific crab on the choppy water. The boat began to rush toward the bank, so our cox made the brave decision to concede, and thereby ensure the safety of the crew.

Although we got bumped, we came out victorious against the perilous weather. In fact, these conditions (pictured) were thought to be so unsafe as to necessitate the cancellation of the races following ours. In spite of this, we put in a solid performance until the very end!

Uploaded Wednesday 28th February, 19:05

After receiving some sound advice from Nigel and a pair of fashionable sunglasses from Gripper (given that the weather was actually far better than we anticipated), we pushed out with 25 seconds to final cannon. A strong start with a late push out by trinity hall W2 saw us close the gap in front before the motorway bridge. However, trinity hall succeeded in escaping to bump Newnham W3 about half way along first post reach. We cleared round the left of the bumped crews, chased now by LMBC W3. While we were able to hold them off as we passed more bumped out crews on the inside of first post corner, we were eventually caught on grassy, with contact between their bow and our stern.

We remain optimistic about our chances of bumping LMBC back tomorrow (who didn't give us three cheers after the race and therefore deserve it!), especially if we can hold the power at the levels we had at the start for a longer duration. Yellow Fire!!!

Uploaded Wednesday 28th February, 10:22