Results and reports by Event

Round One

After a surprise emergency de-kit (the website said we were racing side by side from Ditton...) we got a good start (peaking at 39), making good changes on the 'swing back'(37) and 'suspend' calls (down to 34). We were able to take advantage of Tit Halls poor fortune to calmly row away from them, so that by the time we came around grassy corner, we they seemed to have disappeared into the distance. With Anton calmly coaching from the bank about 'technique over everything else' we rowed down plough reach at 33, taking it down 2 just before Ditton, concentrating on length (at which point Helen asked where the finish was and I had to reply something along the lines of 'I don't know, keep pushing', which to their credit they did). We took it down again after the corner, settling at about 29 (and looking so calm that Nigel didn't think we were racing). We rowed a good strong reach, with a little trouble with the balance, but we are going to look at the rigging for tomorrow. Trinity Hall didn't make up the time they had lost in the first minute of the race, and we finished well ahead of them (apparently 42 seconds quicker in a time of 9 minutes and 17 seconds, and we could have gone significantly quicker). Looking forward to tomorrow!

Uploaded Tuesday 29th October, 21:21

First round: beat First and Third

Just what we needed. During a warmup to Jesus Lock, giving us some time to get used to the headwind, our bursts and starts came together nicely, dispensing with any lingering pre-race nerves. When the start came, we went off higher than in training, striking 41 out of the blocks and settling down to a rhythm of 35. It soon became apparent that we were quicker than the FaT crew ahead of us, and so we started working off them, taking it out of them stroke by stroke. A series of big drives in the wind-shadow round First Post brought us to within a couple of lengths, and quick catches on bowside brought us round Grassy quickly enough to allow us to go for the overtake on Plough Reach. After shouting at FaT to move over, we got our noses in front by Ditton, but having to take a wide line forced another push from us coming onto the Reach. This, though, was the push that broke them: once we'd got clear water, we tapped it along at 30, then 28, then 26 until the finish. An excellent start to University Fours.

Quarter-final: beat Downing

Today's race was similar in many respects to yesterday's. After a false start from Downing, our move off the start on the second 'go!' was solid, and we closed on them steadily before getting have overlap by Plough Reach. Forced to take the outside line round Ditton for the second time in as many days, we managed to hold level with them, which led into an excellent back-and-forth up the Reach as our opponents refused to give up. Full credit to Downing for staying solid right through to the end; for us, the focus now shifts to our semi-final on Thursday.

Semi-final: beat Jesus

Another strong start saw us settle onto a sustainable-feeling 35. Holding this on out of Grassy - thanks to bowside for another tight corner! - we relaxed as we realised that we'd opened up a decent lead. With Joel in the stroke seat following Nigel's signal, we took it down to 30 as we came up the Reach. The first I saw of Jesus was when, having crossed the finish line, I sat up to have a look, and I have to admit that I was pretty pleased with the distance that we'd put between us.

Final: beat King's

Lining up for the start, we knew that this was going to be a challenge: King's were really up for it and looked tidy. With that in mind, we took off fast, getting up to 44 before settling onto 36. Once we were through the Outlet, we started to make progress: our first big push, coming out of First Post, took half a length out of them, as did the lift after Grassy Corner. They took Ditton Corner very wide, which let us close down the gap to three lengths as we came round on the inside. Coming up the Reach we settled down onto 34, and kept reeling them in, making it to about a length and a half away. Unfortunately, King's clipped the bank just downstream of our finish post; while this may have let us get overlap on them, it will have distorted the victory margin in our favour. While the last race may not have been the most solid technically (the Outlet did disrupt us), it was definitely the most committed: the will to win was palpable, even way back in the bows. And with that commitment, we delivered.

Uploaded Thursday 31st October, 18:35

Semi-final: beat Jesus

Despite what Ed thinks, we actually raced Jesus in the semi-final. Not Christs. Still a good row though.

Uploaded Thursday 31st October, 18:26

First Round: beat First and Third

In the aftermath of the massive St. Jude storm, the river was pretty windy, but with the previous few days of training, we'd gotten used to the conditions already. We were on the downstream station chasing FaT. The start was good. Adrenaline pushed the rate up a bit higher than what we had done in practice, but it felt pretty relaxed and not very tiring along first post reach. Going into the gut, some confusion from the bank party's call 'On station' spurred a big push, as we thought that the distance between us and FaT hadn't changed (whereas Anton meant that we'd moved up to on station in terms of Bumps distance). Then came the big bow side push for Grassy (most tiring bit of the race for me). The line was really tight and we didn't seem to lose too much speed. Coming out of the corner, we'd got to 1 length on FaT, then after a another push, Ed screamed something like, 'Move out of the way FaT!'. This urged us on a bit, and we overtook them coming out of Ditton, having taken the corner with them on the inside. Along the reach, once we had plenty of clear water, we wound the rate down to mid/high 20s for the last 500m of the race.

Uploaded Monday 28th October, 20:01