It’s been quite a weird day overall, with the least happy bump I’ve ever been in. Firstly, at the boathouse, we weren’t chattering as care-free as normally, distinctly aware that we were chasing Peterhouse, our boathousemates, and that we had chased them 3 times last Lents without catching them. I was anxious at the boathouse, and 15 minutes in when I hadn’t seen Laura, phoned her – only to discover she had been stood outside chatting to Pauline for ten minutes! There was excitement for and from W2 and 3, who had both had excellent rows today – and W2’s 25-stroke bump is the shortest I’ve ever heard of!
We thought we’d better have a chat, but trying to avoid Peterhouse whilst having a chat was apparently impossible for us, and we eventually gave up and had it whilst marshalling instead. Rowing up directly in front of Peterhouse was nerve-racking but worked, and once we’d marshalled and pushed off again, we did make some space. Dauntingly, they were our first opponents that Mark deemed good enough to require him to watch their start to report back. However, we responded with a great practise start on Plough Reach, in front of Gina. All that was left was the real thing.
We were worked up by Mark after the four minute cannon, ready to go off and get them – we do have it in us! Except that the one minutes cannon didn’t come – a Pembroke equipment failure – and so the preparedness was wasted, and we bantered for a bit longer. Then the one minute cannon and we focussed as much as a boat of talkative girls can. We pushed off at 20 – it felt late! – nearly ripping Georgie’s arm off (sorry!) and then were off!
As expected, the whistles didn’t come as quickly as they have before. But come one did. The first I heard, though, was Peterhouse on Tit Hall – nooo, not possible. We needed to push harder – if only because I was determined that we were not going to row over: it would be a bump, or a technical row over because we were to close to get out of the way. Not that I had admitted that determination to Reana or the rest of the crew.
We did get one whistle, then, probably, lost it – there weren’t any for a while, but I couldn’t hear the distances shouted so I couldn’t tell. It all meant push harder though! So we did. And we got back to one whistle. Then we were on two.
And then we got three – I don’t even know whether we got continuous before we were holding it up. We’d bumped – but that was far too quick to be normal. Trying to clear to let Churchill and Magdalene through, I turned to see a Peterhouse crab, and Georgie confirmed 3 of them had suddenly crabbed – and effectively stopped the boat dead.
After some panicky clearing, ending up with the bows between a sign and the bank (we should all listen to Georgie better, me included) we heard what had happened, and 3-cheered Peterhouse. It was a bump, but the ME-Peterhouse chase should not have ended like that. The most depressing bump up I’ve experienced.
We got ourselves off the bank, pulled in properly, and debriefed quickly, before heading back to the boathouse. Correcting people who thought we had been bumped – we didn’t have greenery – we smiled somewhat on the row back but to me it just felt long, and my legs were like jelly for most of it. Back at the boathouse, the Peterhouse girls were thankfully welcoming. The post-race chat in the boat bays made Peterhouse think we were avoiding them, but brownies made up for it. The chocolate was much appreciated to improve my dejected mood.
But now, the focus is on tomorrow, and Tit Hall – we can catch them girls, so lets go for it!
Sally-Anne Bennett, 7, W1