At least not Kings I. But we did have a really quite decent outing tonight (rather more fun than the ladies on sunday; we rowed in the Champs head on sunday, which was an experience but not really fun. James H’s take on it is here). We weren’t exactly solidly balanced, but the wobble was small, not dramatic, controllable, and didn’t get in the way of a decent stroke. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I was rowing strokeside, which is not my native side. We met up with CS at the head of the reach with his Kings crew and challenged them to a side-by-side race down to the railway bridge. Oddly enough they stuffed us (well they were all wearing the same colour; and perhaps more to the point had been rowing with the same crew together for the last n months), and indeed the “race” was probably our worst bit of rowing. But as usual, after that, we settled down, and coming back past the boathouses was quite decent. A lovely sunset as we walked over the bridge to the Fort capped it off.

Meanwhile, the Ducks appear to have found an edible version of settlers of Catan, which is coming close to taking over from monopoly as our family game (deservedly so; it is a better game). James H apparently wants a boaters-vs-rowers version for the Cam; I think there should be one where your aim is to get your narrow boat mooring into number one position.

Here is our Heroic Champs heads crew (photo credit: Pete Twitchett, http://www.flickr.com/photos/rowrowphoto/). For those not up on the technica, stroke is the oarsman nearest the cox, and strokeside is the side and those rowers on the same side as stroke (unless you have a bow-rigged boat, when it gets confusing). I’m at 5, on bowside, as you’ll have noticed. This is outside the Plough, so is probably our start.