Lent 2008:
Captain's word:
Lent term is that time when novices step into senior boats, training gets harder, outings are longer and mornings are colder. This year, with few continuing seniors, the novice rowers of M'mas took up all-important places in the first boats. Although this meant the crews lacked in experience and knowledge, their dedication and talent meant they took places in the top boats above seniors from previous years. While the results during Lent bumps were disappointing overall, a hugely successful training camp, lots of off-Cam racing and a renewed club spirit mean the development of new rowers will bring success in the future. Next term, another on-Cam training camp will take place, kick-starting the terms training and racing and off-Cam racing will continue allowing crews to gain side-by-side racing experience and to compete in different boats. With the return of rowers from the university teams, and the continuing development of our newer rowers we hope to have a very successful term of racing. As overall captain I am proud to be involved in a club that constantly strives for better rowing and better results.
Mens:
The start of the year pre-michaelmas saw Caius 1st Men invited to race in a preparatory event in Belgrade, Serbia against some other talented University squads. It was a great experience and a good way to kick start the program. Caius unfortunately had to start Michaelmas term with a depleted squad as many of the talented oarsmen were in their final year. However, as always Caius has been lucky to having some good new rowers and many promising novices.
Fairbairns was a tough campaign in trying to tie the different rowing experiences and styles together in one boat and compete against other more well established crews. However, despite not performing as Caius has done in the past great focus was placed on developing the Novices to replace the 5 people who left M1 over the summer.
M2 put in a strong performance and was composed predominantly by graduate students who had rowed together in the grad boat for most of the last year.
The Christmas vacation we were fortunate to go to Annecy, France and train in a beautiful lake in the Alps. Here we took a senior M1 four and the best Novices to train up the eight for the Lents campaign. We had wonderful coaches Ken, Ian and Trish who helped us establish the old Caius patten in the existing seniors and strongest Novices.
Returning to the Cam we definitely had our work cut out to train a squad for a tough Lents with only two returning M1 rowers. We had the good fortune (though he may not see it that way) of receiving Giles Moon who had been trialing for CUBC as a coxswain who brought a wealth of experience with him. Together with the help of our coaches Trish and Ian we trained hard on our base-line fitness and rowing as a unit in the pattern. We had a very steep learning curve and every session was a step-up from the last. We had high hopes for this lents despite having an inexperienced crew some of us felt we had great paddling and that we'd be able to transfer this to the races. We took part in the Cambridge Winter Head, Bedford Head to Head and Pembroke Regatta performing better at every race. Unforntuately, the week before Lent Bumps most of our crew got ill and we didn't have outings for 6 consecutive days, resulting in a slight loss of momentum at a crucial time. Despite this we worked hard over the final few days and felt it was coming together again.
Lents Day 1: We had a rocky start, but then got working well and aimed at hunting down Jesus M1. Knowing we had a thirsty LMBC behind us it wasn't going to be an easy task. We worked hard individually and put in a gutsy performance as a crew but despite closing in on Jesus (1/4 length at one point) LMBC were the faster crew on the day and they caught us before we caught Jesus.
Lents Day 2: We had raced against Downing M1 twice at Bedford three weeks preceding bumps and they were on average a faster crew but within reach. We knew that we had gained a great deal of speed and were confident that with a good row we could have held them off. However, downing put in a solid push which required a response from Caius and we didn't respond, this meant we sadly got bumped early on.
Lents Day 3: The crew felt demoralised by Day 3 but again despite the fact that Clare had a fast start they were not necessarily faster. We had a solid start and were gaining back on Downing and had Claire under control, coming out of grassy corner it looked as if we had the race under control, however Clare put in a solid push and we didn't respond in time.
Lents Day 4: Being chased by Pembroke who had performed very well at Fairbairns and remained as a solid crew since those days we knew they were going to be a strong crew to fend off. We again had the race under control and held them at a safe distance until the start of the reach where they slowly reeled in the Caius crew.
The crew was disappointed with their performance. We couldn't realise why such great practice sessions, great technical paddling would not transfer to race day. It all boils down to experience, which i can honestly say the crew now has. The view the crew takes on it now is that: 'We came to see that we learn nothing from winning, the act of loosing however, can elicit great wisdom not least at which how much more enjoyable it is to win. it's inevitable to have to loose now and again, the trick is not to make a habit of it.'
As for M2 they put in a strong performance and rowed over on the first day but got bumped on the other days. They had a tough job as they were chased by solid crews thirsty for some action in the first division. Despite this the team has all developed having rowed at a higher level and are ready for a new term of rowing.
So we move onto the Mays campaign.
Mays 2008:
Caius M1:
This year we have invited back our four returning CUBC oarsmen, Tom, David, Marco and Oli coxed by Giles Moon, thus leaving four places up for grabs for the top end of Caius M1. Trials for these final places will take place over Easter and the crew will be set by the start of Easter Term. We're are aware that the battle for the headship will be tough but confident that the speed and desire of our top end of M1 combined with the power, experience and talent of the returning CUBC guys will prove to be a force difficult to overthrow. Coached by Shane O'Mara and Ian Coveny this crew will be put through its paces from day 1 right through to the final Saturday of Mays.
Caius M2:
Caius M2 will be composed from the remaining good oarsmen from M1, and the best guys from M2 along with some rowers out of retirement. M2 performed well both at Fairbairns and in Lents and hope that their experiences along with the power and technical abilities of the new crew will power them to take the M2 headship back. This crew will be coached by our boatman Simon Goodbrand who has been working with M2 since the start of Lents.
Caius M3:
A group of hard working Novices from the Fairbairns term who have now developed into solid rowers backed up by some members from the Grad boat will form M3's foundation. They had a hard time in Lents with no experience in the boat from bumps but are now well equipped to perform well on the day.
Caius M4:
This is a group of amazing oarsmen who have decided to retire from rowing and replace lucusade with a Keg. They are a force of beastly proportions and are looking for blades!!
Aris Karcanias, Men's Captain, Lent 2008
Womens:
While Sabrina has been trialling this year I have been acting as Women's Captain for what has proved to be an exciting Lents campaign. After the first women achieved third place in Fairbairns, our training camp in Annecy gave us the chance to continue working technically and develop the talent of our novices, something the results this Lents are testament to. Racing has been the name of the game this term, competing in Peterborough and Bedford as well as W1 reaching the final of Pembroke Regatta in the build up to bumps. Despite being made up almost exclusively of novices, W2 proved themselves as the most successful Caius boat this term, bumping Wolfson, St Edmunds and Darwin. W1 had a slightly more stressful bumps experience after a collision on the first day led to tough re-row with Downing; resulting in us being bumped, followed by a row-over a couple of hours later. The next day saw things pick up, however, as we bumped Clare within strokes of finishing our start sequence. Saturday saw us face Downing again, and after our gutsiest row of the term, we got our revenge, and bumped them just strokes from the finish.
Results aside, one of the greatest strengths of the season has been the community of the club. The women's half is truly a squad: training together, socialising together, and supporting one another. Here's to an equally successful Mays!
Lucy Plint, Women's Captain, Lent 2008
