St Catharine's College Boat Club

Rowed over.

Carnage is the best word to describe the M4 division on Thursday. Catz went into the race justifiably nervous, given that the Emmanual M4 crew 2 boats ahead were well known to be, shall we say, dodgy... In a stroke of good fortune for Catz, Emma incredibly managed to bump soon after the motorway bridge, with Clare breathing hard down their necks. Unfortunately, Emma's bump was far from conventional, aided as they were by an ejector crab from the Churchill crew ahead. Emma braked hard to avoid a bedraggled pink blob meandering to the bank, Clare held it to avoid Emma and the entire back end of the division came to a juddering halt.

Awarded the rerow, Catz thanked the bumps gods for the opportunity to have a full course shot at Clare, only to discover that with wake-free wash ahead, Clare were left to pull merrily away. Catz rowed a superb race, and held station all the way to Ditton, before fading slightly in the final straight. Saturday brings much the same situation - Clare ahead, with slower crews in front of them. Fingers crossed Catz can reel in Clare before any more chaos causes problems ahead.   

(Guest writer: Chris Eddy)