Results and reports by Event

The general theme of our racing this week was two different rowing styles, no finesse and a lot of power!

First round: We started upstream, able to see ourselves moving away from FaT down First Post Reach. As we came round the corner, one of my feet came out of the shoes, which was less than ideal. We moved a little further up then began to hold them, and coming onto the Reach they were starting to move back in. Luckily we'd built enough of a lead to hold on even with our interesting catches, and we crossed the line a little ahead.

Semi: The Clare derby! We knew this would be a tough race, and a poor start didn't help. With a reset and some good pushes, we felt we were rowing acceptably (for us!), and when Esther called that we were 2s up outside the Plough we began to realise we might actually manage it. A good Grassy (and less good Ditton) helped us move a little further. We put all our power down as we came on to the Reach, vaguely wondering if we would blow up. With our questionable technique coming back in, we held on and were pleased to hear we'd moved further into Martyn and Steen. Crossing the line, our main thought was 'hang on, we have to do that again?!'. This was the closest race for us, and its a shame the Clare-Clare race wasn't the final.

Final: A much better start settled us into a nicer rhythm. I think we were tired enough to make us row a lot better this race! We moved away from Downing fairly consistently, I think, with a nice line around Grassy from Sean. We were able to put more power down with our blades in the water for longer and kept our rhythm all the way down the course. A push called by Esther took us across the line.

Thanks so much to Ania, Esther and Dave for their bankpartying/coaching/bank-coxing this week :) A big improvement on last year, but definitely still a long way to go until either of us can call ourselves a sculler!

Uploaded Wednesday 24th April, 19:14