Poplar Regatta 2009:

1st Men's VIII

4th in heat of IM3 8+

Despite almost all the crew having no previous experience of multi-lane 2k racing, we came into the race feeling that we could get through the heats and put up a good battle in the final. Our confidence might perhaps have been a little overblown after a good, but short row down to the start, where the fastest two of the heat would qualify for the final. We moved scrappily off the start and found ourselves down in fourth after the stride. It soon became apparent as we settled into a not wholly comfortable rhythm that we were in a 3-way battle for second place, Fitz having surprised us and rowed into the distance. We were missing a lot of length round the catch in the tailwind, and despite calling for a push through the 1000m mark, there was no change in boatspeed. Never more than 1/3 length off second for the whole course, we knew we had to move soon were we to qualify, and entering the last 250m we got to under a canvas. The push was very scrappy though, having never rated above 34 since Lents, and with Curlew next to us also pushing, our last 10 strokes fell completely apart and we crawled over the line in 4th with 7 rowers on their seats. It was a very disappointing result given our showing last week; we have a lot to work on. On the plus side, Champs Head can only be an improvement. By then the bug in the crew should have passed too, fingers crossed.

Written by Tom Wilson

1st Women's VIII

3rd in heat of IM3 8+

Poplar Regatta took place only a week after W1 have got back in an VIII. We hadn't had any outings as a full crew yet, but knowing what potential we had, we were still hopeful that we would do quite well. We certainly wanted to do quite well one of our competitors in the first heat was Queens, who we would be chasing in Bumps. We arrived in poplar with plenty of time to spare, so after we rigged the boat we settled down in the sunshine to have a crew chew picnic. Then we were up again, doing a quick land warm up and then into the boat for the measly 2k water warm up to the start. We did a couple of practice starts on the way down to give Sam, who had never rowed with us before, a chance to learn exactly what they were. It seemed that as soon as we reached the start line, the "Attention, Go" came and we were off! Queens had a mamothly impressive start which left us trailing, and LMBC got off faster than us too. Our rowing wasn’t quite together, but we were all putting lots of power down and there was certainly enthusiasm in the boat. We began to gain on Queens as the race continued but we weren’t gaining fast enough and so we came third meaning we did not make it threw to the next round. This did however give us a lot more determination to give rowing a bigger commitment for the rest of term so that Queens wouldn’t get away from us like that again.

Written by Deborah Smith