After a very successful first day of bumps, spirits were high when we met at the boat house for the second round, and lifted even higher by the unexpected sunshine. But as our rhetorically honed coaches had emphasised during one of their inspirational speeches, “things don’t usually go to plan in bumps”, and a crab during a practice start reminded us that now was not the time to be complacent.
Well, we weren’t. We started off strong, kept going strong, and finished strong. Clare in front of us just seemed to surrender the moment we had a whistle on them, so that the second and third whistles followed in quick succession and our bank party shouted at us to “hold it up” mere seconds later. We had also gained half a length or so on Trinity Hall behind us, vindicating yesterday’s result, and adorned ourselves with plenty of shrubbery for the row home.
More of the same tomorrow, girls!
–Teresa Krieger, W3, 7
With the sun finally managing to peek out of the clouds at the boathouse, we set off feeling optimistic, despite the strong winds that seemed to be trying to emulate the gales we experienced at GoR. After a long, tense wait by the lock, we drove off chasing Clare Hall for around two minutes until they were forced to concede. More greenery for W3!
–Siena Carver, W3, 3