M1 Lents 2016: Day Four

On the last day of Lent Bumps we found ourselves chasing Christ's again.  We knew it would be tough to catch them, but we also knew they were unlikely to escape by bumping out, as they did on Thursday.  Once again we had nothing to worry about behind us - all that counted was getting close enough to Christ's to finish them off on the Long Reach.  A strong start gave us a bit of ground, but choppy water through the Gut threw us off and allowed them to slip away again.  Christ's were rowing strongly, buoyed by the potential for a bump on Robinson, and they moved further away from us along Plough Reach.  As before, however, everything came together as we came out of Ditton corner and onto the Reach, and we first held them, and then started to slowly take ground out of them.  Our row up the Reach was epic - despite our burning legs and fading vision each push increased the boat speed, and as we came under the railway bridge we finally got a whistle on them.  We turned up the volume yet again, and over the last couple of hundred metres took another half length out of them.  Sadly, it was all a little too late, and the finish line saved Christ's, who crossed it ahead of us with just a few feet between our boats.  'Almost bumped' doesn't count for anything so our bumps campaign ended with two bumps and two unchallenged rowovers.  There is always a strong element of chance in bumps, so we'll take that - more significant, perhaps, is the fact that we demonstrated clearly that we were faster than any of the boats close to us in the division, and therefore achieved the goal we set ourselves at the beginning of term.  We are going to give everything to repeat this achievement in Mays.