St Catharine's College Boat Club

After Corpus failed to bump into the second division, we were chasing them again, with Emma II behind us. After another decent start, we moved slightly on Corpus again, holding Emma behind us. However, after the first 30 strokes we failed to settle onto our rhythm, instead rating higher and rowing shorter than desired. As a result, Emma strongly moved up onto us, reaching half a length by the plough.

At this point, at the fourth time of asking, Alistair got us to lengthen out to our rhythm at 35. However, Emma had their tails out, and pushed up to a canvas at the spinning posts. The next two minutes saw us hold there, moving the rate up 2 to keep our stern clear. This continued to just before the railway bridge, where a further push saw us spring out to half a length, and we continued to move away from a blown Emma boat. This push brought us back onto station with Corpus, which we held to the finish, crossing three lengths clear of Emma.

To push off from a canvas against a strong crew is testament to the character of the crew, and the amount of work that's gone into the land training. However, Emma will be back with renewed vigour on Friday, and another strong performance will be required.

Rowed-over.

Another well-executed race. A fast second minute saw us gain a whistle on Peterhouse ahead and we remained inside station down the course, pushing Churchill to over four lengths behind us. We finish 14th in the divison.

Down 2 isn't the result we might have hoped for, but the attitude and approach from the crew this year has been fantastic. If we can build from this platform we could hope to go far next year. Watch this space.

Today’s effort was absolutely heroic from every member of the crew. We pushed off fast to try and get an early bump on Emma IV before they bumped a tumbling Homerton III, but weren’t able to catch them. Expertly navigated through the carnage by our cox, Bryony Hutchinson, we settled in, admittedly slightly demoralised, for the long haul. It was now that Pembroke IV pushed hard to get on top of us. At three whistles for most of the corners, we did not give in, constantly repelling every Pembroke push. Heading round Ditton onto the reach Pembroke collapsed – we’d broken them. We did not let up and rowed home with our heads held high, pushing them to four lengths. I’m so immensely proud of everybody in the crew, not just as individuals but as a unit. Saturday – at last – should be our day: let’s bring it home Catz!

Rowed-over.

A good execution of a good race plan today. Closing the door on Churchill's initial pushes, we held them at or just beyond station for the majority of the course, edging out to two lengths down the reach. Credit to the crew for a determined, technical and speedy row, making this row-over as enjoyable as they ever can be.

After an incredibly quick bump on day one, we arrived at the boathouse pretty confident.

The row down was alright, but as one the first day, we couldn't do any practice starts.

We started closing the gap between us and Caius right off the start and the first whistle came quickly again, soon followed by shouts of "three quarters of a length" from the bank. At this point many of us thought it would be over as quickly as yesterday, but we lost some speed coming around first post corner and Caius managed to pull away. We made a strong push coming out of Grassy corner and came back to within three quarters of a length of them but didn't manage to get any closer . Coming onto the reach, we were back at station, where they held us for the rest of the course. In the end, we didn't have the reserves to mount a big final push.

Credit to Caius for a great race. We're determined to not let them get away again tomorrow.