St Catharine's College Boat Club

We started head at the top of the third division.

Going into a race knowing the best you can do is row-over is tough, but we'd spent all term preparing for this moment. We knew we were a match for Hughes behind, and this proved to be the case. We had a strong start, and soon pushed away. Coming round grassy, a fast Emma II two back bumped up on Hughes, and Clare bumped up on Peterhouse II four back, leaving a big gap between us and the crews below. We strode down to 32, and kept strong but efficient through to the end, saving ourselves for the next race to follow.

Our reward was a free shot at Pembroke II in the M2 division. We knew they were fast. We also knew they were chasing Christs who were less fast, but Christs was chasing St Edmund's, who were less fast again. This was going to be an interesting race, and there was serious talk of a potential overbump. Alas, the bumps gods didn't look favourably on us, and there was a 3 boat merge, as Christs hit Eddies just before Pembroke hit Christs, giving Pembroke a technical row-over, and us without a target.

We finished at a leisurely rate, leaving some energy for tomorrow... It'll be a big day. Time to push off Emma II like we did in Mays.

FTW. 

Brief and bittersweet was M1’s first day of the bumps campaign.

As we rowed up to the start, our focus absolute, the weeks of work coming together the mood was optimistic as ever (except Johnny, he was probably grumpy). Cannons roared one by one till we were off, nerves of steel led to a solid start, the crew moved together well, however Peterhouse were equally quick off the mark and despite some of our best rowing gained relentlessly. So it regrettably came to pass that we were bumped. However, spirits were high upon return to our slightly overflowing boathouse, a good row all things considered and there are plenty more boats on the Cam.

The fact that W2 were rowing up to the start of the bumps course at all today was no small achievement: the term started with a scramble for rowers, and could well have ended with a Getting-on-Race made particularly challenging this year by a reduction in the number of spaces available in the bumps.

But the W2 crew racing this week is an enthusiastic, well drilled one who put in an excellent performance in the GoR to see off more than half of the entrants, including some 'big names' such as Downing II, Caius II and King's II.

A clear result of a tight GoR is that all the crews that do get on are going to be good, so this week was never going to be an easy ride. Today, despite an excellent start we struggled to find a rhythm and an incident of the crustaceal nature eventually led to our demise to the oncoming Murray Edwards crew. Nonetheless, we are confident we can get them back tomorrow, beginning with the same punchy start as today!

Alas, today was not our day. W1 were bumped by Queen’s in the gut.

The boat should be proud of their race.  A cleanly executed start was followed by a lovely rhythm set up in the boat. Off of the motorway bridge we were within station to Caius, even with pressure behind from Queen’s. The boat continued to be lifted and flew to first post. However, here Queen’s managed to break our ranks and around the corner gained their whistles and unfortunately we had to concede into the gut.

It was a strong row by all and I hope you are all proud of yourselves. There were some interesting movements in the division that weren’t expected which will make this bumps series exciting. We will be coming back tomorrow fresh and ready for round two. Let’s see what the new day brings! 

As Lent Bumps draws ever closer the women of SCCBC have been storming the race circuit. From the gruelling ergs to the hefty weights sessions, all of our hard training this term is starting to pay off. Top this off with some real improvements on the water, our Bumps campaign is looking very exciting. (And being Bumps, anything could happen.) With two good-looking women’s boats out, things are looking really exciting for Catz.

The 7^th of February saw W1’s first off-Cam race in the Head of the Nene race in Peterborough. We came a strong third in our division just behind two other Cambridge colleges (Churchill and Sidney) and in front of Warwick University. This was a challenging row considering it was a straight line and unlike the bendy Cam we are all used to. However, as always, the women did themselves proud and left nothing to ask for.

This weekend, both our W1 and W2 have been racing in Pembroke Regatta. The W1 crew did amazingly well against a very strong Emma W1, who are currently second on the river in Lents. They only beat us by half a length of clear water and really struggled to get away from us, something they were not expecting judging by the look of surprise on their faces!

W2 also did the wheel proud! They won their first race “Easily” against Magdalene W2. It was a beautiful race to watch with the other crew crumbling against them. Unfortunately neither of our crews made it to the finals but it was still a really good day of racing for Catz!

In the final run-up to bumps we are putting in our final hours of training and starting on the carb-loading, for a week of excitement! W1 are currently 8^th on the river and W2 are competing in the getting on race on Friday 20^th. Fingers crossed for some bumping and moving up the tables! For the girls of SCCBC, it’s all to play for,

Lent Bumps this year runs from the 25^th to the 28^th of February (). Why not come down and show your support and love for the wheel!