Simon Freytag (Men's Captain)
SELECTED RESULTS:
1. 1st & 3rd I, 9:16
2. Camb 99s, 9:17
4. Queens' I, 9:37
5. Queens' I, 9:40
6. Caius I, 9:42
7. Catz I, 9:43
8. Darwin I, 9:49
9. Clare I, 9:57
10. Selwyn I, 10:02
11. 1st & 3rd II, 10:02
14. Catz II, 10:23
18. Pembroke Women I, 10:43
21. King's I, 10:51
22. Newnham Women I, 10:53
23. Clare II, 10:56
27. Clare Women I, 11:13
28. Caius Women I, 11:15
King's also entered a coxless four into the elite open category. This proved a much faster category and King's, after a bad performance, came last in their heat and thus failed to qualify. They raced the same event on the Sunday and although again failed to qualify for the next round gave a much better performance and beat crews who they had lost to on the Saturday.
Finally, King's also had a coxless pair racing open elite, who had a good row but again found the elite category very fast and failed to qualify.
The men's 1st VIII sent stern three and bow in the "Hammer and Sickle" to contest the novice coxed IV's in the 1000m regatta at Peterborough.Our first heat was against Peterborough City, Nottingham Trent University and Norwich RC. We had a good start and were level with Peterborough and Norwich, Nottingham being dropped early. By 250m it had become a two horse race between us and Norwich who were maybe slightly unsettled after being late to the start and given an official warning. Combining this with the enjoyment of seeing our nose in front gave us clear water by 500m. Norwich then pushed hard, gaining maybe half a length but at 750m we responded and by the finish had clear water again. Time 3:45, slight head wind.
Our semi-final unfortunately consisted of 3 qualifiers who had all posted faster times than us, but we reasoned that they had been pushed harder. So although we knew we had to push hard as well, the biggest time gap to make up was 8 seconds.
By the time of the race the head wind was now moderate / light and the lake was a bit more ruffled. Our start was good and held us level with the three other crews, York University, Star Club from Bedford and Lea Rowing Club. However, we gradually fell back so that by 250m we were maybe half a length down. We pushed, and stayed level, until 750m where the disappointment of not gaining combined with tiredness meant we slipped back to finish a length behind third place. Although the finish was more ragged than the heat, we were pleased with the push at around 500m.
The final twist was that our time of 4:04 would have qualified us for the final had we been in the second semi-final...
The crew was
Str Simon Freytag
3 Richard Hope
2 Adrian Stoll
Bow Bert Kenward
Cox Russell Moore
Simon Freytag
Men's Captain
King's / St. Catz composite pair
Matthias Hammer (King's) and Matthias Reisemann (Catz) entered the Senior 3 and the Elite pairs at Peterborough Regatta. The first race was the elite event with Cambridge 99 (who scratched), Weybridge and Nottingham BC completing the 4 lane final. Conditions at the start were windy and while King's were still lining up, the race was started sending the King's boat out of their lane and into last place by about two feet of clear water. By the time King's had moved back into their lane, the rest of the field had moved even farther away. At 300m King's lengthened out and after the initial mishap eventually found their stride. Now into to their cruising pace, King's slowly started to gain on Nottingham BC. By 400m contact was made and this clearly rattled Nottingham who started to lose speed, allowing King's to draw level by 600m. A few strokes later King's had their bows ahead and Nottingham, now beaten, quickly dropped back further. King's, now second, made their move and got back in contact with the leaders Weybridge by 750m. With each stroke King's were now gaining on Weybridge and spurned on by their coach and support from the coxed four on the bank moved through them with 100m to go. Weybridge, seeing their victory slip, pushed back, but King's held on to their lead and crossed the finish line 0.5 of a second in front.
With the elite event won, King's had to turn around straight away and row back up to the start of the Senior 3 event which had been scheduled for 16 minutes after the elite pairs. King's arrived just as the boats were backing onto the stakeboats. This time the start went smoothly and King's soon had a length lead over the rest of the field. This they extended to three lengths by the 500m half-way mark, and then settled down to row home their second victory of the day.
The draw was made: Paddy v. Gillian was the outcome for heat 1. A draw for boats was made and Paddy gained the right to use Molyneux, but surrendered this to Gillian in return for the inside lane on the slight corner between the two sailing buoys we used for start and finish. Both scullers were using cleavers, Paddy for the first time ever in a scull...
The start was exciting...Paddy steered straight into a bank, his strokeside arm pulling him around somewhat. This lost him 2 lengths to Gillian who settled into a smooth rhythm. Paddy recovered and his secret holiday practice in Reading showed as he held Gillian's lead to 2 lengths right to the finish.
Heat 2 was myself v. Matt. Although we had taken pencil blades, Matt got to use cleavers as we had left the pencils at the bridge and rowed away from it to find a good course. I made sure he got St Andrew, but he had the inside line from the start. So upon the "GO!" I steered a controversial line towards Molyneux and although having to concede half a length managed the inside. A few crabs, washouts, and strange strokes followed losing me considerable ground by half way, but then I found some sort of rhythm and excitingly (!) pushed the gap down to 1/2 a length by the finish. Matt wound down, but I decreed the finish to be further on, and the race ended in a photo finish. Despite my best efforts, the bank gave the result to Matt...
The dramatic final saw Gillian v. Matt. Matt again had St Andrew, but this time started in the outside lane. Both got a good start, Matt going up and nearly opening clear water. Gillian began to pull back around the bend, but the bend revealed that the purpose of the buoys we were racing between was for a sailing regatta. One boat was directly in Matt's path, and steering around it lost that half length lead. Neck and neck they pushed for the finish, when another boat impeded Matt and gave Gillian the lead. Although Matt pushed at the finish, Gillian responded strongly for victory by a canvas.
We toasted her victory with a drink (orange and lemonade, of course) at the pub in the sunshine, before drifting home in the early afternoon.
Simon Freytag
Men's Captain
Slightly disappointed with their performance, King's were looking forward to racing Nottingham again on the Sunday. On the day, however, conditions worsened throughout the morning and after a couple of fours and doubles had sunk at the start, the regatta was cancelled, denying King's the chance to race again.
On Saturday the Senior 2 coxless pairs were basically a two-horse-race between the boats from King's/St. Catz and the University of London crew. King's/St. Catz had the better start and pulled ahead by half a length. UL over the next 1000m kept pushing King's, who responded each time and kept their bows just in front at the half-way point. At about 1200m UL pushed again precisely at the moment when King's had some steering trouble and went into the buoys for a couple of strokes. Within three or four strokes UL had gone through and gained three-quarters of a length. Now it was King's time to push UL. By 1500m King's were back to within a canvas, by 1700m back to within half a canvas. Both crews then pushed for the line with King's still gaining, but edged out in the end by 0.3 of a second in tight photo finish. The rest of the field was 30 seconds behind.
On Sunday the field in the Senior 1 event was of a still higher standard with Leander, Marlow and another University of London pair contesting the winner's medal. At the start King's matched the speed of the field. Leander were two lanes away and King's clung onto their early pace. This drew three crews away from the rest of the field: Leander, UL and King's. By 1000m the UL crew had edged slightly ahead of Leander with King's in third place. Marlow in fourth attempted to make a come-back, but could not stay with the increased pace of the second half of the race and started to drop back. UL made their move at 1250m, putting clear water between themselves and Leander and leaving King's three lengths behind. King's increased their pace in response and started gaining back on Leander. Leander, now beaten by the UL crew, first started to drop down with King's making contact again at 150m before the finish. When Leander realised this threat they started pushing for the line with King's still challenging, but ultimately unable to make any further gains. UL crossed the line first, two lengths clear of Leander, followed by King's a further two lengths down. The rest of the field came in 20 seconds behind King's.
Shame the rudder could not have snapped during one of our 600 training miles this season, or whilst warming up, or just some other time.
Matthias Hammer.
...someone was asking how Ceri Jones did at the Nat Champs, which she went to as part of the CUWBC Development squad, rowing in one of their eights:
CUWBC had run 5 eights since the end of term and with the intention of competing at the Nat Champs. Unfortunately the President did not put the entry in on time (nothing to do with Ceri), so they were not entered into the draw. Not surprisingly many people were very disappointed. But the ARA agreed that CUWBC could have a private race on Sunday morning racing the 5 CUWBC eights against each other.
After our mishap in the pair on Saturday we left the same day, so I am afraid I cannot tell you how the race went. I can tell you that a couple of recent alumni also rowed at the Nat Champs. Liz Pinches rowed in a lightweight coxless four, which just missed a medal coming fourth, and Joelie Foster rowed in a double, which just missed the final.
I am not sure whether Ceri will be trialling next term, but I do know that three men will be trialling for the men's lightweight squad. Something of a record for us!
Coxless pair
Matthias Reisemann and I could only race on Sunday (500m), because Herr Reisemann had to
be in Newcastle on Saturday. We entered the S2 and Elite 2-. In the S2 heat we were last
after a bad start, but rowed through the other three, just clipping Staines at the post.
In this race we beat the S2 2- course record of 1984 by one second, clocking a time of
1:39. This saw us straight through to the final. After a better start, we were second, but
Staines, who had qualified for the final via the repechage, had had their warning and just
managed to cling on to their lead, reversing the result of the heat. So we finished
second, after an agonising wait for the photo finish decision. This final was slower than
the heat, so for now King's/St. Catz hold the S2 2- course record at Peterborough. In the
Elite heat we were fairly beaten by the other three. Within the first 10 strokes they had
pulled away to a length, and although we did not let them slip any further, we could not
gain on them either. The race was won in 1:34, the second pair clocking 1:36, the third
1:37, and the two of us 1:39. Matthias Hammer
Gloucester 800m (Sat)
This was by far the easiest day, most likely because the lack of sleep factor had yet to
hit us. Apart from the cox that is, who forgot the race plan during the first heat. Some
bystander remarked that the cox looked like she was having a fit - and the check wasn't
even that bad! We beat Warrington by 1 3/4 lengths, which was psychologically beneficial
as we were drawn against them at Bristol too. The boyz from Birmingham we beat by 1 1/4
lengths and they were rather crestfallen to discover that we had entered all 3 regattas
too. In the final, boosted by the large selection of rolls from the food tent, we were up
against Agecroft, who were a bunch of very cocky lads. The cox was smoking on the way to
the start line and the lairy lads gave us grief for having a commie red boat and asked if
we smuggled plutonium as a lucrative sideline to our studies. After that, well we had to
thrash them, which we did, fits, rolls, check and lack of sleep and fags apart by a
length. We then were unceremoniously handed funky pots with clear bottoms and forced
to listen to more commentary ' and the nearside have won eeaaassssillyy' and plugs for the
food tent.
Bristol 500m (Sun)
After arriving in Bristol Dock at midnight to find there was no significant grassy area on
which to camp, bow pair and cox spent the night in the back of a Ford Transit Van. So
another night, sadly lacking in sleep. The day dawned sunny and we beat Warrington (again)
by a length. In the semis, we beat Hereford by 2 feet. It was particularly embarrassing
for the Hereford stern pair who were Magdalene alumni and they remarked on the red boat
and how we could possibly be good at rowing. I believe they were firmly put in their place
by the cox, who asked them if they played rugby. In the final, we beat Avon County, the
home team by 3 feet, though to be fair, they'd been doubling in the 8+ and weren't quite
as rested as we were. We made amends by taking their 4+ and 2- to Ross on Wye on our
trailer. We won a rather magnificent
trophy (name I forget) which we couldn't take away and some rather cheap and nasty
pots, but hey at least we went home with some form of drinking receptacle.
Ross on Wye 750m (Mon)
A heinous lack of sleep preceded this regatta, the main protagonists being Northwich who
were lagered up and playing The Pogues very loudly at 1.30am. Eton Excelsior, were a tad
cocky and we beat them easily by 4 lengths, losing them after the 15th stoke and not even
bothering to wind to the end. Walbrook Rowing and Canoe club had a Jesus boatman in and 2
CU coaches in, they were rather cocky too, but then again they didn't realise that the
mighty Darwin/King's had risen from obscurity. We beat them by 3/4 length. We knew that
Ross would be hard and we were beaten by Cantabs by 1/2 length which was probably a matter
of pride for them (town vs gown) but we accepted that it was a crap row and we were tired,
so we told Tabs to just bring the pots back to Cambridge. It was unlikely to happen as the
opposition in the final was Exeter who were fresh having not rowed all weekend and beat
them easily. Our loss on the final day was probably a good thing as we needed our egos
deflating and this humbling experience was just the thing. Also the cox didn't want to be
thrown into the river, though cleaner than the Cam, was still brimming with leptospirosis.
Overall it was a good weekend, full of sunburn, hills, promise and some amazing views from the Clifton Suspension and Severn Bridges.
After we stopped the boat dead in the second stroke of our fourth and last race of the day we did not get the boat running properly again. In a state of fatigue we delivered a race 6s slower than the Senior 1 final. Not quite good enough to beat the other crew from Sudbury in this Senior 2 final. We lost by nearly a length.
A summary would be: two finals, no pots, and an average rowing performance on the beloved long reach. We are probably better away-players.
However, we all enjoyed the last five weeks during which we managed to reach 7 finals and row home 3 victories.
Andreas Dullweber.