My family and me.
A somewhat disappointing day today: we rowed well, but only achieved a row-over. Nines 5, as expected, succumbed quickly to Leys behind us, perhaps depriving us of that vital spark of being chased. But while we closed to within a canvas of Cantabs 7 just before Grassy we didn't quite have the oomph to catch them. So here is a picture of us from yesterday, rowing up to the start.
Pic courtesy of itinerant bow-bobble supplier Andy Nicol (well, when I say courtesy of, I mean I've ripped it off but provided you with a link to him. In fact Andy credits "Ivan Edwards" with the photos, so thanks to Ivan).
But how was our row, I hear you cry? Well actually it was good, the best we've managed so far. We get better every day (which bodes well for tomorrow) and weren't noticably down to bowside today. A good start, and the satisfaction of watching the Leys catch Nines well in our wake. They caught them before the motorway bridge, but only a little before: pertty well where we did, minus a place, which makes the Leys about as fast as us, perhaps a little faster. Certainly fast enough to make tomorrow exciting (not that today wasn't; I still nearly fall apart just before the start every time). We gained on Cantabs 7, and were down to a canvas coming into Grassy, but there we lost it - Emma says bowside (thats me :-() didn't pull the corner enough; perhaps strokeside failed to ease off just that fraction; either way, we went wide and never really recovered the distance. Cantabs didn't tire quite as we'd expected them to over the second half; motto, I think, is to push ourselves harder in the first half tomorrow.
Other club news: M1 down (after a long row; they got all the way to the White House on the reach, a painful place to be bumped), M3 rowed over (twice: as head of M4 and then as sandwich boat). they have City 10 on for blades behind them tomorrow. W2 up, and are on for blades tomorrow, needing to catch a weak-looking Nines 4. W1 also up, and have cantabs 2 to look forward to. So that is "-..++" for the night, for a net gain of 1. Pretty graph here.
Top-of-M1-news: Nine 1 have now gone down to Cantabs and Robs, leaving City well placed for a crack at them tomorrow: City were only 1/2 a length down on Robs at first-post so must be in with a good chance: go Savelie! Will Cantabs 2 get Champs? Probably: go Petr!
If you have the right facebook friends: here is us rowing past Grassy with our willow, yesterday.
