Our hearts sank as we arrived at the boathouse to be met by hurricane conditions. However, we W2 girls are made of sterner stuff and were resolved to fight back against the blustering wind, power through the stroke, and just generally row really good and all that.
Despite the wind, the row down the river to marshal was uneventful, and our spirits were lifted by the abundance of liquorice allsorts, courtesy of Eve, which got us through the seemingly endless wait under the motorway bridge. After this wait, we proceeded to the start line.
Then we were off! After a strong start, we raced around the corner only to be met with a wall of wind! However, we were prepared and the power remained strong (both epically and manly so). We battled on gallantly down the reach, I crying out calls from my carefully prepared race plan- which to my immense delight, did not blow away straight into stroke’s faces [Ying: it was a head wind, would have blown off the other way!]. A few (painful) minutes later and the finish line was in sight (which I observantly informed the crew of). Spurred on by this knowledge, we made a final sprint to the end, finishing completely exhausted, but with an intact boat and no crabs caught. And to add to that, a generally solid performance from everyone all round. We returned with heads held high and ready for some more action. Bring on bumps!
–report by Chloe Wallis (cox) and Eleanor Dickinson (stroke)
Result: winner of W4 division, beating 8 W1 crews and 11 men's crews overall, time 6:38taken and made by Eve Bonner