St Catharine's College Boat Club

George Nash and his partner William Satch rowed their way to a spectacular Bronze in the hotly contested Men's pair final at Eton Dorney this morning.

Bumped First and Third III

On the final day, we were chasing a spooning First and Third III. However, we knew from the results at Robinson Head that they definitely had the potential to match our speed, and so we prepared to row a long race once again.

After some fun and games trying to stop drifting into the barges above Chesterton before going to the start, we arrived on station just as the 4 minute gun went. The start (unlike the practices we'd done) was one of the best we'd produced during the week, and we strode to 34, intent to grind them down over the course.

The rowing was hard work into the headwind, but we were rewarded with our first whistle halfway along first post reach. By the time we entered the corner the gap was down to almost half a length, and a brilliant line from Clare edged us closer. A determined power 10 in the gut took the remaining distance and we secured the bump on the entrance to grassy.

An absolutely fantastic performance by the crew, 5 of whom had never been in a boat before October, and despite losing 2 weeks of training to a frozen river. Many thanks to Ivan Scales, without whose coaching this result would not have been possible.

Bumped King's II

After not having to row much past the motorway bridge on either of the first two days, M2 arrived at the boathouse on Friday refreshed and ready for a sterner challenge chasing King's II.

The start of the race was slightly panicky as Clare realised we weren't particularly straight, but bow and 3 prevailed and brought the boat back round. There was something slightly resembling a stride today, but we still only dropped to about 35, a couple higher than we'd intended. However, we had our first whistle not long after the motorway bridge, and although they held us at a length for about 20 strokes, they started to fall back to us, before contact was made just as Clare was calling for the entry to First Post.

Bumped Jesus III

On day 2, we chased a Jesus crew who had been bumped by Hughes Hall in about 45 seconds on day one. Whether this was due to them being slow or Hughes being incredibly fast, we weren't sure, and we were also wary of a Robinson crew with potentially all eight men rowing trying to bump us back.

The start of the race was calm and composed, and we quickly started to gain on Jesus, gaining one whistle by the time we hit our stride. Two whistles followed before the motorway bridge, with three whistles just through the other side and the bump occuring about 50 metres further upstream of where Hughes hit them yesterday.

It's always satisfying to bump quickly, but we know we have a much sterner test ahead chasing King's II on Friday.