St Catharine's College Boat Club

After a calm row up, the crew felt strong and well-prepared for the first day. Once we were on station, nerves started to set in and  this showed during our start sequence. As we got into our rhythm, it was clear that Trinity Hall were gaining ground quite quickly and we held them at half a length around first post corner. Despite this, Harriet called for a power 10 and we managed to push them back to one lengh past The Plough. Unfortunately after Ditton Corner, a strong head wind gave Trinity Hall the momentum to catch us and the bump came quickly at the top of the reach. However, we are positive that now we have got first day nerves out of the way, we will come back even stronger tomorrow and show Trinity Hall that we don't give up easily!

Please find Lent 2014 newsletter attached.

Thanks to all the crews that have raced today!

The winners are:
Tubs: Robinson
IVs: Catz
VIIIs: Robinson 1

Best outfits:
Tubs: Darwin
IVs: FaT
VIIIs: Murray Edwards (317)

We hope you enjoyed the prize giving and prizes.

We'd also like to thank Janina for taking photos on the day. Her photos are available here.

Until next year!

The Catz Cardinals Secretaries
Maria Negreskul (mn387) and Verriin Kaur (vk310) 

Quite a few people spent the first three days of this week dismissing Catz M1 as lucky - there were suggestions that we'd only escaped Kings on Wednesday and Clare on Friday by taking advantage of the melt-downs of Trinity Hall and Girton, but I'm inclined to say that you make your own luck. You have to be there to take advantage of these situations, and it was through our own hard work that we were in the right place at the right time. Still, it's always nice to finish on an unequivocal high, and against Peterhouse we pulled off the classic Catz bump. 

The row-down was probably the best of the week, although the spectators outside the plough seemed to rattle us sightly. The start was reasonable, if not spectacular, but Girton came nowhere near, as Clare flew up towards them. Around first post we were holding station solidly and although Girton got away from Clare they never came inside station with us. I forget exactly where we started to get whistles - the whole race is something of a blur - but they came gradually, boosted by massive support from Grassy (thank you so much to everyone who came to cheer) until rounding Ditton at half a length down we decided to finish the job, and cruised smoothly in to claim our blades. 

There's no real way to do justice to those kinds of moments in just three paragraphs, so I'm barely going to try. All I want to say in closing is how proud I am of everyone involved - all term the whole crew gave absolutely everything that was asked of them, and I'm incredibly happy that we've got the reward that we deserved for that. The wheel rolls on. 

Bumped Hughes Hall I

This was it. After the overbump on the first day and the following swift bumps after that, we were going into the final day +5. Now was a chance to go racing with a first VIII, and show that we were worth a place in the second division. We knew it would be a tough ask, and so set the race plan up accordingly - row a long race, make sure that they could see that we weren't going anywhere, and seeing if they would crack under the pressure.

After everyone overcame their fear of getting their feet wet putting the boat in, the row up to the start was very relaxed, given the circumstances. After a small delay at the start of the division to fix an ARU bowball that was never in danger of needing to be used, we were off on possibly the most relaxed start of the week. We moved slightly inside station on Hughes, and the stride was the most composed we'd pulled off all week, but Hughes pulled back out to station coming into Grassy.

The plan started to kick into action. No panic that we weren't getting whistles or closing lengths on an overbump like earlier in the week, just sit there at our steady 35-36 and grind them down. We moved inside station coming around Ditton, and it was fantastic to feel the lack of headwind that had been ever-present earlier in the term. Belinda called for the push for the whistle out of the corner and we got it at the end of the spinning zone. This was the time to go.

With the bank party screaming that we were moving with every stroke we started to close in. Two whistles came at the kink, and we got three under the bridge, but we knew we were rapidly running out of time. Hughes put in a big push and took six feet back out of us, prompting a cry of "they're getting away!", which in turn brought a rate increase and the final push. Three years ago we let them escape from overlap, and it wasn't happening today - the push worked and we made contact at Morley's Holt, less than 200m from the finish.

It was a fantastic row, and the best bumps race that I've been involved in, a real duel over the course rather than being finished in two minutes. Huge credit to Hughes for a fantastic race.

This victory gave us a chance to row as the sandwich boat at the bottom of the second division. Alas there's no happy ending here, as while we were inside a length of Pembroke II and closing just past the motorway bridge, the Christ's II cox decided that their spoons were enough and Pembroke didn't need some as well, clearing in "the most ridiculous manner ever" (Scales 2014). After the technical rowover was awarded, a long row back with the flag and a trip into the river rounded off the day well.

Up 6 is an incredible result, and testament to the crew in what has been a fairly frustrating term with a lack of water time. The adherence to the land training regime really showed in the latter stages of the overbump and the final bump. Many thanks to Dr Ivan Scales for his time trying to make us be effective in the little training we actually got to do on the river.

Well done to Pieter and Tom (thrown in at the deep end on the wrong side of the boat!) in only their second term of rowing, Alex and Belinda in their first set of bumps, and the second-year stalwarts Scott, Dan, Anthony and Stephan who got to enjoy their revenge for last year and then some! Onwards and upwards to division 2 next year!