The weather was good - sunny and almost completely windless, which was a pleasant change from the rest of this term. We had to wait around for a long time before the final row down to the start. You could really feel the nerves in the crew - the practice starts and 10s went alright but not as good as in training. In no time at all we were spun at the start (after a brief confusion over the exact position of our start, no. 8), and it was only 5 minutes to go. The 4 minute gun went off - time to start taking kit off; final instructuions to the cox & crew. Checking equipment; gates, top nuts, etc. One minutes gun goes off. Strip to racing kit, last few words of incouragement from the bank party before the race. 45 seconds to go. 30 seconds. 25 seconds. We start getting pushed off the bank. 15 seconds. 'BOW PAIR', 'BOW PAIR' - we take up the slack on the chain. 10 seconds. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. Silence. Waiting for the gun - BANG!.
Everything starts at once; the first shorts strokes to get the boat moving, keeping it sat into the wind up, seeing Jesus II getting into their start, shouts from the bank, the cox telling us the remember to breathe, then wind up, lengthen out. The start goes alright; not brilliant. Someone shouts that we're gaining on Peterhouse - we're inside our distance. Concentrating on technique, getting the best out of the strokes. We're losing Jesus II, maintaining our distance on Peterhouse. Suddenly the aggression of the start wears off, this is starting to hurt - going into first post. Pulling the boat round the stroke-side corner. Cox shouting for a power ten out of the corner into the gut, doesn't go badly but no real acceleration until stroke 3 or 4. Jesus II are going away a bit more, but the line around the corner wasn't the best. Into grassy corner, again not the best line, but good enough. Another power ten out of the corner. No horns from the bank - we must be losing touch with Peterhouse. Have to keep pushing the legs down. Peterhouse were chasing Caius II - we know from experience that they are quite a tough crew; they don't give up easily. Around Ditton corner - maybe 2 lengths of Peterhouse; Jesus are nowhere. Settle down into the Long Reach; this is where the long steady state outings start to pay off as we keep it together and the pressure is still on. Past the railings - suddenly the shout goes up from the bank that Peterhouse have bumped Caius II, rudder goes on the steer round the boats. Looking like a row over, as Jesus II are about 3 lengths behind and we're not close enough to catch LMBC II for the overbump. You can sense the dissappointment in the crew - all that work just to row over in a fairly boring way.
We found out later that Caius hadn't folded, but their box man had come off the seat; and that before they were very close to bumping the crew in front, LMBC II. We knew that thursday would be at least as hard.
Time seemed to go much quicker for this race. In no time we had rowed up to the start, spun (at the right place this time...) and a few of us had had our usual pre-race trip to the bushes. The 4 minutes, then the 1 minutes guns went off. Everyone was quite fired up for the race, and determined to give that bit of aggression that we had missed the day before.
The race gun went off, and we did our familiar start. It was better than the previous day, winding up to the low 40s rating, lengthing out. Feeling the pain come back from the previous race. We were going up on them. Around first post we were hearing whistles for a length - we knew the key was to row consistently, and just reel them in. The push out of first post was amazing - we must have gone up around a quarter of a length: Matt's groan/scream off the first stroke of the push helped a lot! The noise from the bank was increasing; we were gaining on them. Jesus II were further behind than the day before. Another push out of grassy and we went up again. Past the Plough, and it was really starting to hurt. Nat's coxing was much calmer, and we felt in control of the race. We passed Peterhouse I who had bumped out, so we knew they were going nowhere.
In no time we had passed the railway bridge - the bank party said several times that we were gaining, up to a quarter of a length by this time. The push out of the bridge, trying to finish them off, wasn't as good as the first few - were we ever going to catch them? Going up to the top finish at the footbridge we had two more 'final' pushes; gaining slightly, but no enough to close the few feet remaining between us and the bump. We passed the finish line, both crews cheered the other for a good race - they seemed to be cheering more loudly for some reason... There was always tomorrow...
Again the time seemed to pass quicker every day. Friday was less sunny that the previous days, but with all the windy weather training we had done, we would only improve over Caius in bad weather. The start felt much more relaxed - the rating felt lower and we really got the power on. Jesus II went up on us at the start maybe a canvas or two, but we settled down into first post and got back our distance on them. We were inside our distance on Caius, but didn't seem to be gaining on them as fast as the day before. The prospect of doing it all again was not appealing, so I think all the crew decided to really go for it - time and time again we got to under a length, in the gut, plough reach. We could tell that they were getting away from us around ditton as we were hearing nothing from the bank. We got to the railings, and had another push there - that's were they had gone down to Paterhouse two days before.
We regained contact with Caius again down the second half of the reach - up to 1/2 a length off them. Under the railway bridge we had another push, we were gaining on them again. Again everyone realised that if we didn't kill them off today, we'd have to do it all again the next day - everyone pushed harder. Suddenly the shout came from Ian in the bows - 'overlap'. It was relayed up the boat so everyone knew that we had to go for the kill now. Nat was shouting again, making us push harder as the rating went up. Then the boat seemed to rock over to bow side, as Ian had come up level with the stern of Caius, hitting their boat to make the bump. The stern came up some more, and the bump had definetly been made; their coxes hand went up to conseed.
The celebration starting in the boat - everyone suddently finding the effort to cheer and shout manically. We got over to the towpath side of the bank, so that we could get some branches and foliage to carry home with us to show everyone that we had bumped. Smiles all round as pictures were taken, and then the victorious row home - even the slightly random attempt at square blades past the Bus Shelter was taken in good humour.
It was only after the race that we all discoverd that Caius had got overlap on LMBC II around ditton corner, and streched the distance from us to over 2 lengths. We all agreed that it was as well that we didn't know at the time. We also discovered that we had rated a good 44 off the start - so much for heavier blades!
Rowing down to the start you can always see the crew that you will be chasing, and from what we saw you could tell that they were a better technical crew than Caius, but not as strong. The first practice start was awful, as several people either almost missed the first srokes, or got caught in at the finish. The second one was slightly better, but not much. We had stuck with the gearing form yesterday, even though there was no wind.
We were now on the station that is under the motorway bridge - the cannons are also there so they are extremely loud. Again we were pushed out at about 30 seconds to go - it had stopped raining, and everyone had now felt like what it was to bump. The start was messy although we recovered well. Almost immediately we heard a horn for 1 length. We seemed to be going up on them very quickly. We had quite a large bank party, all of whom were shouting at us that we were going up. No steady grinding down the crew in front today. 2 horns for 1/2 a length to go. It was starting to get very choppy in the bows as we came up on their wake. 3 horns about 10 stokes later - we were really getting to them. Around first post corner, it was the best corner ever - only about a foot between the blades and the bank at the bows, and closer than that at the stern. The shouts from the bank were to take the inside line on LMBC, and Nat was certainly doing that. It was getting even more messy in the boat as we got closer. The shout for overlap came from Ian and the bank party, and about 5-10 strokes later, we had hit them, just going out of first post corner.
It was only when we had got to the bank when Nat told the crew that the rudder strings had broken just off the start, and that he had been leaning back holding the rudder behind his back! Apparently the look on his face when they broke was classic...
Danny Hindson.