Christ's College

There's a saying that we bandy around in training, that it's really difficult to have two good outings in a row. How much more true that is in a race situation. One of the big challenges of bumps is to come back day after day and perform. Sadly, after a great row yesterday, we were not able to repeat it today.

We went off hard again at First and Third II, but this time they were more on their guard and we failed to take any ground, but equally held King's behind roughly on station. FaT II got a sniff of Churchill in front of them around first post corner, and quickly moved in for the kill, bumping out on Grassy. It was bad timing for us to lose our 'hare' in front, as King's had moved to one length in the gut as we lost our technical focus a little. Once King's had their tail up they moved in on us quickly, up to three whistles out of Ditton corner. We fought valiantly along the reach, but couldn't resist King's charge.

M1 felt that their row over had earned them the right to have a shot at the bump on the final day. We knew it wouldn't be easy, even if Churchill were on for spoons, because they had beaten us at Peterborough the previous weekend. However, we determined to attack it hard, put Churchill under some pressure, and see what happened.

The start wasn't our best, but we came out into an alright rhythm and gained our first whistle before the motorway bridge. Perhaps this surprised us a little and made us think it would be too easy, because although we inched in slowly along first post reach, there were times when Churchill also pulled away. The cheers of the alumni picnic spurred us on at first post corner however, and we moved in closer. A fantastic line round Grassy from Katie, manouevering through clearing crews, gave us two whistles on the exit. This eally put the wind in our sails, and we moved from half a length to a quarter in very few strokes. Outside the Plough Nick rang the bell, barely audible above the roar of the crowds, and within ten strokes there was a shudder through the boat as our bows hit their stern canvas.

A great way to end the week. After a disappointing Lents campaign, we started this week with 70% of people predicting us to go down, and 34% predicting us spoons. However, we showed real character to come away level, a result not to be sniffed at in the first division.

After yesterday’s powerful but scrappy race, we were determined to get the absolute maximum technically out of every stroke as we knew we had the length of the entire Bumps course to catch Selwyn.

Off the start we wound to 38, striding to a strong rhythm at rate 34 and began making inroads on Selwyn. After a much improved First Post corner, we gained our first whistle in the Gut. Continuing to reel them in, we pushed past the Plough as the second whistle sounded, gaining the third as we rounded Ditton. At the sound of the bell, Katie called a racing restart and Selwyn, unable to respond, conceded as our bow gracefully mounted their stern and, with the cox’s hand shooting into the air, crashed down on the other side.

Having broken our way into the M2 division, we were keen to strengthen our position with a strong attack on Emmanuel M2. We also knew that the Corpus crew behind us would be looking for revenge from our attack yesterday, and would be just as strong. All crews started well, Corpus making ground on us, and us making ground on Emma. As we came under the motorway bridge, we gained our first whistle, and Corpus began to flag.

After obtaining the first whistle, we tried to pull Emma in, and they held us at three quarters of a length along first post reach. By first post reach, Emma were beginning to pull away, and making a move on the Queens’ M2 ahead of them. At this point, a massive push from Christ’s gave us the second whistle and Emma made another move on Queens’. Fearing the worst, Nick rang his bell and we went for it. An incredible effort latter we bumped them in the gut.

Bring on Queens’ tomorrow.

Division 4- sandwich boat: rowed over
We were chasing Corpus M2 who bumped Jesus M4 very quickly, leaving Guy to do some acrobatic coxing under the motorway bridge. We then pushed for the overbump on LMBC M4, however the usual effortless style of the fellows’ rowing was disrupted by the choppy water. We experienced some ‘technical difficulties’ nearing first post corner allowing them to pull well clear. We chased them down the course for a row over.

Going into day 2- hopefully we will now hold Sidney M2 for the row over, then have Jesus M4 in the sights for a bump to establish in the 4th division.

A disappointing row over! We underestimated LMBC 4 and didn’t go hard enough off the start. This allowed them to open up water between the boats which they held for the race. Another try tomorrow but could be tricky- likely to be a very good St. Edmunds crew chasing us...

“NINE MEN, ONE BOAT”
-or-
“HOW TO CRAB AND CRASH, AND STILL ROW OVER”

Today’s row-over left the entire crew with a bittersweet feeling. It was an incredibly heroic race, as you are about to discover in the next lines.

The day started with us rowing downstream towards our position on pretty solid steady-state paddling and two practice starts, one of which ended up inconveniently by bumping the railway bridge.

We got to our position not long before the 4-minute cannon. We had a great umpire who had previously coxed for Christ’s, and had some final advice for Ardi and myself. As we heard the first cannon, we switched on. The crew was silent, focussed, visualizing our goal. Downing, behind us, seemed pretty strong, but Queens’ were weak, and we knew that. With the one-minute cannon we started falling into the correct bumping mindset. Countdown came and we were pushed off. Come forwards. Square blades. Six, five… Off we go!

Our start was incredibly solid. We had great coordination throughout the entire crew. Ardi’s calls on the start were accurate and timely. We were flying. You could tell by the excitement of the bank party that we had done quite well on the draws and winds. We heard the first whistle: we were really close to Queens’. Downing was not really gaining much on us. Two whistles. Wow, we hadn’t even rowed past First Post Corner. Three whistles! We were about to bump Queens’!

Then it happened. Stroke came off his enormous shoes, got distracted by one second, and caught a massive crab that almost sent him into the water.

Keep rowing! Don’t lose it! Everybody in the bank was just about to go into the water and help me recover my oar. Ged and Ardi effectively pulled the handle out and in front of me, and I managed to recover, settle, get back into my seat and shoes, and keep rowing. But it was already a bit too late. Queens’ managed to escape our fury, and they were probably 2 lengths ahead. Fortunately, during the frantic seconds of the crab, we realised that Downing had already been bumped by Girton.

Unfortunately, FaT was already in sight, and they were thirsty for bumps, since Girton had managed to escape away. We kept the focus and gained around a length on Queens’.

Then it was time for bow side to push hard. Ardi was suddenly struggling to get the boat around Grassy Corner. Bow side kept pushing, but the calls and the pushes were not enough, and for the second time in 500 metres, we completely lost it.

FaT was just going around grassy when we restarted. It seemed apparent from the bank that it was all lost. A horrible feeling of disappointment was surrounding us. Most of us were already picturing the horrible line on the bumps chart, indicating Christ’s V, down 3, overbumped. FaT was only a couple of feet away.

But we were not going to let that happen. A couple of push-for-ten calls from Ardi kept us moving. It was a constant overlap-gain battle between FaT and us. We are strong. We can do this. We will not get bumped. Adrenaline was pouring out of the Sir Hans. We got strength out from somewhere, and suddenly we were already a quarter of a length away from FaT. We saw the railway bridge as we passed underneath it. This is almost over, but not quite yet! We kept pushing away from FaT, who seemed to have given up. But we wanted to keep rowing strongly; more experienced crews had had overbumps before just because of overconfidence. So we pushed hard for the last 400 metres, rowed past the next division’s crews proudly, and found ourselves exhausted, but incredibly happy, with what we had achieved.

This day gave a very valuable lesson to our crew. Things can really go wrong, but after all, it is just matter of keeping the spirit high, the minds clear and the team united. It was not the best race, and we were clearly disappointed with what happened at the beginning, but satisfied by the way in which we recovered and fought back.

We will get Queens’ tomorrow.

M5 rowed over again today. Although this time we did not make a show as impressive for the spectators as on the previous days, it was also quite an amusing race.

Xi was keen enough to sub in for Ben again. We practiced a couple of starts on the way down, a bit paranoid of the crabs that seem to have surrounded our boat on the previous days.

We got to our spots and waited for a long time. We analysed the surrounding crews: Downing was not going to give up easily to FaT, who were likely to be bumped by Pembroke. Girton had bumped us yesterday, and had a weak Queens’ IV in front of them. We were all thinking about the overbump to LMBC, but none of us wanted to say anything in light of what happened on previous days. Holding Downing away and rowing over seemed more reasonable.

Without much speculation we got ready for the 1-minute cannon. We were very focused on having a clean start to redeem ourselves from the scrappy 200-m we rowed on Thursday. No more crabs or crashes; no more poor starts, we kept thinking. GO!

The start was nice. We pulled away from Downing at the beginning. We rowed past Grassy and saw Girton and Queens’ a few metres ahead. Downing gained slightly on us and we heard their coach whistle; not for long, though. After Ditton we were already two lengths behind. Trying not to alter the nice rhythm, Ardi was very subtle in communicating our closeness to LMBC. But we could feel them close by. We were already out of Downing’s reach: paddling at steady-state all the way would’ve done the job. Then we heard one whistle, just after the railway bridge. Overbump?

Unfortunately the course is not long enough. We finished slightly less than a length from LMBC, but we could’ve gone 2k more to get them, and they would’ve given up before 100 metres.

Tomorrow we’ll have another go with the Queens’ crew. They’ve been very lucky so far...

Going into today we knew that it would be a tough day, with results from races in term showing us as faster, but not by much. However we also knew that there was likely to be a lot of action between the four boats above Maggie, leaving them without much to chase, particularly given the strength of the Downing crew just in front of them.

Despite starting with the cannon right under the bridge, our start was good, and well held out. We got the first whistle really quickly, more quickly than expected, during our power strokes off the start, which was nice! However, the next few took a bit longer to come, not helped by a few shaky moments coming down the gut and around Grassy.

As per our race plan we had a huge push coming out of Ditton, treating it as a new race, and from then we closed the distance quickly. A final push on the bell, and the bump was called, about 1/4 of the way down the reach. A good row, and pushed hard by Maggie.

Looking forwards to tomorrow, hopefully go for more attack in the first 500m, but keeping all the good bits of today. Very happy!

Today we wanted to add a more relaxed element to our rowing - yesterday's bump suffered from a bit of panic, and we didn't perform our best. We started this well with a touch of tanning during marshalling at Chesterton, now that the weather has turned towards what is more typical for this time of year!

Our row down to the start benefited from this relaxation, and was really switched on. Our start was also better than yesterday, and we settled on to a strong 36/35. We got the first whistle down first post reach, and some great calls from Scott meant that our pushes were really concerted. The following whistles came regularly - the second out of first post, third into grassy, and the bell out of grassy. We got the bump shortly afterward, just before the Plough.

Definitely a better row than yesterday, hopefully we can repeat this tomorrow...

Having seen Jesus W3 yesterday, we were all silently confident and hoping for a quick bump! Our aim today to improve from yesterday was to put the power down right from the start, and keep it strong.

Going off from Nick's favourite station, on an inside bend, we had a good line to begin the race. Off the start, we had one whistle on the winds, and two whistles by the time we'd finished the start! With some good calls from Lizzy and a couple of pushes, we continued putting the power down and caught them under the motorway bridge.

An excellent bump, short and sweet - a result of some really good improvements on yesterdays rowing. Can't wait for tomorrows race! Looking to once again get that power straight from the start.

Last day of bumps! There's no telling how badly we wanted those blades.. We were fairly confident of the bump today, but knew it had to happen fast. FaT II were chasing Wolfson, who they could catch if we gave them the time. On the other hand, Wolfson knew that they only had to hold FaT off until we caught them. FaT's plan (thanks to a loud coach) was to go really hard off the start - we had to match that.

We had a good start, but so did they. The first whistle didn't come until the motorway bridge. Having thought they'd crumble when we got close, they didn't. We fought for every whistle, but steadily creeped up on them, bumping them going into Grassy.

Blades! So happy with this week's performance, and we made some good improvements through the week. Up 6!

We were able to start today with slightly more confidence than yesterday, chiefly because we would not have to worry about Peterhouse chasing us from behind. However, prospects of a bump relied heavily on Clare III being able to hold off Hughes Hall/Lucy Cav. long enough for us to bump. (Stef had warned us that we might have to try and double-overbump Magdalene III)

Our start today was more steady than yesterday and we managed to pull away from Trinity Hall fairly quickly. We kept the rating high and got within half a length of Hughes Hall. At the same time, Hughes hall were gaining on Clare III in front of us.

We stayed half a length behind Hughes Hall/Lucy Cav. for some time until Tim started calling bumps 10's (he must have called this at least 4 times!). Luckily this had the desired effect and we were able to close in on Hughes Hall for the bump about 100m past the railway bridge.

It took a while for us to realise we had made the bump, with Hughes Hall coming so very close to bumping Clare III. Once the details of our bump had filtered through we were quite relieved at the outcome and rather grateful to Clare III!

Tomorrow we'll be chasing Clare III, today's raced proved to us that they are bump-able. At the same time, they showed considerable endurance in Holding off Hughes Hall for so long and this is something that we need to prepare ourselves for come tomorrow.