St Catharine's College Boat Club

Thursday October 27, the first race of the season was upon us. There was definitely tension in the boathouse, would we win? Would Basile be on time? Yes was the correct answer to only one of these questions. We began the paddle down, half way through which Sid announced he had never won a race from the cox's seat. Our nerves suitably settled by this inspirational speech, we paddled down to Baitsbite and waited our turn for the start, attracting plenty of laughs as we were *marginally* too heavy for the boat, and therefore sitting somewhere in between the rest of the crews and the CUWBC boat under Barnes Bridge earlier this year.

Having watched M1b and W1 set off, we drew up to the start on upstream station. Due to our insatiable desire for an even set, our standing start was a tad more controlled than it could have been, giving King's a small advantage off the start. However, there we held them in the calm waters of First Post Reach. Hitting the corners we found new rhythm, leaving King's in the wake of our boat come submarine. The wind hit hard as we rounded Fen Ditton, but by then the result was clear. And for all those wondering, Basile was indeed late (again).

Unfortunately M1b lost narrowly to a strong Downing crew, but for a crew that was scratch this morning and only decided at crew pasta last night, they showed a lot of promise moving forwards into the eight next week. Special thanks to Sam for subbing in last minute after only rowing with the SCCBC for three weeks, and to Jill for helping out with marshalling.

Bring on the semi-finals tomorrow.