St Catharine's College Boat Club

Bumped Trinity Hall M2

As we arrived at the boathouse today, we were expecting a tough one. Chasing a fast Trinity Hall M2 who were themselves chasing a slow Clare M2, it looked to be a long race - a row over, or just maybe the Selwyn M2 overbump? Things didn't get off to the best of starts either with the news that our 4-man, Anthony was too ill to race (unconfirmed reports suggest the cause was overconsumption of pasta). Nonetheless Dan Stein willingly leapt to our rescue - many thanks to him.

Certain that the only way we could get what we wanted today was to give our everything physically and mentally, focus was the watchword on the row down and it must be said that the boat moved really well, giving us all confidence.

The start was tricky today. Being stationed directly under the motorway bridge we had to deal with a very loud cannon and very strong winds. Although we had another dropped bung, Maria did an excellent job getting us off the start and with the cannon still ringing in our ears we made good progress away from Magdalene behind us. We began to close on Trinity Hall, but of course they were also closing on Clare. Despite not being particularly fast, Clare have the ability to drive the crew in front of them a bit wild, and Selwyn inexplicably parked on the outside of First Post corner.

So, just like on day 2, we found ourselves chasing a crew with lots of space in front of them. As is becoming our speciality, we ground them down. By the Plough Reach we had a length between us, and on Ditton Corner we bumped them for the first time. Unfortunately Trinity Hall didn't see it that way, and kept going. Despite Dr Scales' best efforts to lightly cajole Trinity Hall's stroke man into giving up, he was having none of it. There was only one thing to do here - have another go. The dragon got its second bite of Trinity Hall's stern at the Railings, and this time there was no disputing it.

Today was another hard-won and well-deserved bump, proving that those ergs really have paid off. Bring on the final day and  don't mention the b word!