bumps
stoat | July 22, 2011[This post written in arrears and given an in-arrears date, so few people will see it. But I care.]
So, day 4. Champs 1 again ahead of us, and we sort-of resolved to go for it rather harder this time, but in a slightly vague way. We mostly decided that we would aim to get them by the Plough; and if we didn't, we'd take the race from there. And we knew Champs 2 were fast off the start but we knew if we held them to first post they would fade from there.
I'd watched the early divisions. Div 3 was notable for practice starts in bright sunshine followed by it pissing with rain on the division. Ah…
stoat | July 21, 2011Still on the rowing I'm afraid. A row-over today: two years ago we'd have killed for a high-quality row-over like tonight, but after yesterdays superb bump-up, tonight felt like a let down.
Thinking (and drinking, in the Waterman again, a pub I'm coming to like) about it afterwards, it all seemed like an unwelcome mirror of last years M2, also on day 3, albeit at a far higher standard. Just like then, we'd bumped up the day before so had no fear of what was behind us; just like then we had a crew ahead that we knew we were faster than; just like then we were a bit too confident of grinding…
stoat | July 20, 2011...I will wear the green willow. Yes, we went up: yay! Though that doesn't begin to capture it.
L to R: Andy Southgate (4); Steven Andrews (5); Chris Wood (2); Ollie Crabb (S); James Tidy (Cox); Chris Metcalfe (3); William Connolley (B); James Howard (7; with George); Chris Smith (6).
Yesterday, Tabs 3 caught City 3 round about Grassy; and since we mostly held station with Tabs, we were happy that we could get City in a fair fight. But! Behind us, Champs 2 had caught Nines 3 not much after the motorway bridge: and while we'd pulled away from Nines by at least 1/2 a length, that was still a…
stoat | July 19, 2011Bumps again, hurrah. The distant sound of gunfire. The culmination of a lot of peoples training for a long time. And, as I discovered once again while waiting for the start, a deeply unpleasant / scary / unnerving experience. It didn't help that we had to stand around for 20 mins waiting for the 4-minute gun, wondering what the hold up was: it turned out to be the bloody Georgina. Meanwhile we're chatting, thinking, looking about, going for a wee, trying to dispel the nerves. Early rain had given way to a beautiful evening, though getting dark now. We'd done a good start after the railway…
stoat | July 21, 2010 Yesterday we rowed over, but discovered that we could leave the crew behind us and most likely catch the crew (Nines 5) that Cantabs 7 dropped for us. And so we did, just under the motorway bridge, which was a pleasantly short row. We had just a teensy tiny little moment of panic on the second stroke when someone on bowside got a minor crablet but we recovered from that quite nicely (we had managed a truely storming practice start on the reach that fairly whizzed us along. Alas that used up our one good start of the day :-(). We'll need to row rather better tomorrow if we want to get Cantabs…
stoat | July 20, 2010It is the first night of the bumps (and see? I haven't bored you with the boaties for ages).
This isn't us - this is Cantabs II in M1 just about to catch what must be 99's III, I'd guess. Congratulations to all of them and in particular Petr Arnold at bow. He certainly looked very happy afterwards. Slightly bad news for our M1 who are now ahead of them tomorrow.
To explain my cryptic notation in the title: W2 went up; M3 went down; we (M2) rowed over; W1 and M1 rowed over.
Our race was quite interesting. St Ives (rather an unknown quantity behind us) gained a little on the start but fell…