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May Bumps 2014 M2 Day 3

Submitted by Simon Wright on Sun, 15/06/2014 - 14:18

With Corpus rowing over as the sandwich boat again, we were faced with the same battle as Thursday. Today started similarly to the two days before, staying roughly on station with Corpus and Emma, and the three boats pulling easily away from the rest of the division. We hit a much smoother rhythm, and while Emma moved to a length at the Plough, this was as close as they got.

Moving out of Ditton, we pushed Emma back onto station, and moved back up on Corpus, sitting on station for most of the reach, while a push under the Railway Bridge earned us a whistle. Corpus held us at just over a length to the finish, but with a two-length gap to Emma, we'd rowed much better than the day before.

Corpus also finally bumped up to division 2, so it's a spooning Pembroke II ahead on the final day!

May Bumps 2014 M2 Day 4

Submitted by Simon Wright on Sun, 15/06/2014 - 14:48

Carnage saved Pembroke II from our deliverence of spoons in Lents, and we were determined it wouldn't be the same today. However, they'd managed to hold Corpus to 300m from the finish the previous day, so we knew it wouldn't be easy.

Rather strangely, there was a tailwind on the reach, meaning the course would be even shorter than usual. But the plan was to go long, concentrate on pushing off Emma again, and then really apply the pressure to Pembroke over the reach. The start of the race was fairly familiar, we hit our solid rhythm in the gut and were rewarded with one whistle, obtaining two when we went past the Plough. At this point Emma had got to one length, but then faded much harder than in previous days.

Pembroke held us at half a length for what seemed like an eternity. We started to move again at the kink, getting to about a quarter of a length just before the bridge, where Adrian decided an up 2 was required. At this point we moved up onto overlap, and after 10 strokes of sitting there, bouncing over the stern, we finally got the satisfying feeling of blade on stern at Morley's Holt. Just like the last day of Lents!

Unfortunately, this long race took its toll when we had to row as the sandwich boat. The much hyped plan of a 3 minute sprint was great, but turned into a 90 second sprint followed by 90 seconds of attempted sprint ("do it for the children!") followed by 6 minutes of pain. We took very little, if any, distance out of Corpus, and ended up many lengths behind, rowing the second half of the course at 30.

However, the objective had been achieved - a well-deserved bump after a long, hard week. Congratulations to the crew on a successful term that's included wins at Head of the Cam and Head-to-Head, a 99s regatta campaign that only ended with a defeat to a blading Darwin crew, and a return to the second division after 5 years. Many thanks to Chris Quarton and James Bywater (and Dr Scales!) for their coaching, James Wagstaff for stepping in at the last minute, and the rest of the crew for their dedication to training this term. Onwards and upwards next year!

May Bumps 2014 M4 Day 3

Submitted by Josh Gibson on Sat, 14/06/2014 - 08:57

Today’s effort was absolutely heroic from every member of the crew. We pushed off fast to try and get an early bump on Emma IV before they bumped a tumbling Homerton III, but weren’t able to catch them. Expertly navigated through the carnage by our cox, Bryony Hutchinson, we settled in, admittedly slightly demoralised, for the long haul. It was now that Pembroke IV pushed hard to get on top of us. At three whistles for most of the corners, we did not give in, constantly repelling every Pembroke push. Heading round Ditton onto the reach Pembroke collapsed – we’d broken them. We did not let up and rowed home with our heads held high, pushing them to four lengths. I’m so immensely proud of everybody in the crew, not just as individuals but as a unit. Saturday – at last – should be our day: let’s bring it home Catz!

May Bumps 2014 W1 Day 3

Submitted by Sarah Lucas on Sat, 14/06/2014 - 07:09

Rowed-over.

A good execution of a good race plan today. Closing the door on Churchill's initial pushes, we held them at or just beyond station for the majority of the course, edging out to two lengths down the reach. Credit to the crew for a determined, technical and speedy row, making this row-over as enjoyable as they ever can be.

May Bumps 2014 M4 Day 2

Submitted by Josh Gibson on Fri, 13/06/2014 - 08:30

A solid day two for Catz M4 as we earned a hard-fought row-over behind a Pembroke III crew who achieved a spectacular double over-bump. Chasing crews that have been flung down the division, and now free of a turbo-charged Pembroke III, we’re confident of some proper racing heading into day three. Watch this space.

May Bumps 2014 W1 Day 1

Submitted by Sarah Lucas on Fri, 13/06/2014 - 08:54

Bumped by Peterhouse.

A strong row today. Peterhouse gained their first whistle by First Post Reach, and second whistle by the corner, but were pushed back to station through the gut. Held on station until Ditton Corner, where they came into us again. A scrappy kill call bought us a fraction more time - we were bumped at the spinning posts.

May Bumps 2014 W1 Day 2

Submitted by Sarah Lucas on Fri, 13/06/2014 - 09:05

Bumped by Girton.

A fast start saw us on station with Girton at the stride - a change we can be proud of. From there however they gained their first whistle under the motorway bridge, and closed to catch us just before First Post Corner. Again strong rowing by all, but we were simply outclassed. Today was always going to be very difficult, but we can look forward tomorrow to showing what we are made of.  We may be down (2) but not out!

May Bumps 2014 M3 Day 2

Submitted by Dan Potter on Fri, 13/06/2014 - 11:50

After an incredibly quick bump on day one, we arrived at the boathouse pretty confident.

The row down was alright, but as one the first day, we couldn't do any practice starts.

We started closing the gap between us and Caius right off the start and the first whistle came quickly again, soon followed by shouts of "three quarters of a length" from the bank. At this point many of us thought it would be over as quickly as yesterday, but we lost some speed coming around first post corner and Caius managed to pull away. We made a strong push coming out of Grassy corner and came back to within three quarters of a length of them but didn't manage to get any closer . Coming onto the reach, we were back at station, where they held us for the rest of the course. In the end, we didn't have the reserves to mount a big final push.

Credit to Caius for a great race. We're determined to not let them get away again tomorrow.

May Bumps 2014 W2 Day 2

Submitted by Janina Noack on Thu, 12/06/2014 - 22:59

We started confident and strong, had a great row down and felt well prepared to show Trinity Hall that we could bump them back. We moved off the start calm and concentrated and heard the first whistle after only a couple of strokes. We moved away from Murray Edwards and gained on Trinity Hall to one length. Unfortunately we then had a bit of an incident - despite tightening it multiple times before the race, 4's gate sprung open, and the blade flew out. Rowing only in sixes, Murray Edwards quickly gained on us and they got the bump not long into the race. However, we are confident and highly motivated to get them back tomorrow!

May Bumps 2014 M1 Day 2

Submitted by Chris Eddy on Thu, 12/06/2014 - 20:38

Thursday was disappointing for M1 in the sense that we went downwards, but in another sense, we should be very proud of the row. Having failed to hit a decent rhythm in an all out attack on Jesus yesterday, it was nice to settle in much more calmly for a longer row today. Pembroke dropped away from our start, which was typically aggressive if still a little tense. Jesus ahead were held on station through to the gut where we started to lose contact. Pembroke, having been sent away to about two lengths started to pull back towards us, gaining gradually until we failed to respond to their push out of Ditton which brought them to a canvas. An sweet kill call pushed us out towards quarter of a length, and we took full advantage of the breathing space to move across the reach, but Pembroke weren't broken, and there was nothing left for a second kill. 

On the positive side, that half a length gain off the start will still be there tomorrow, bringing us a whistle, and as Dan put it: "Even if Catz don't always know how to escape being bumped, we definitely know how to bump up".