A nervously tense atmosphere hung over the boat house in the morning. After a frustrating and slightly disheartening start to the week, W2 were keen to turn their results around, but unsure whether this was possible now that they were bitterly aware of the notoriously unpredictable nature of bumps racing. Today, it didn’t seem likely that we would catch Wolfson before they caught Caius II, and the chasing boat, Sidney Sussex, were a bit of an unknown quantity.
Despite our nervousness, the solid row up and wise words from Mark at the start – reminding us that unpredictability could work in our favour as well as against us – steadied our minds, and we were determined to prove ourselves in true Murray Edwards style. Off the start, even though it wasn’t our best, we seemed to be holding Sidney off. In the boat all you can hear is a cacophony of splashing, shouts, and whistles, and it’s nearly impossible to distinguish what is going on around you or which boat the shouts and whistles are for. Luckily in the midst of all the noise Mark’s voice broke through – yelling at us to hold it up and saving us from a collision with Wolfson, who had caught Caius II but failed to clear the river quickly.
My heart fell. I could see Sidney gaining and they would surely catch us now. But, as soon as we had space, Nadia called a restart. We snatched back our focus and furiously dug in our heels. A few strokes in, we glimpsed Sidney wedged into the bank. We didn’t know what had caused this, but it didn’t matter to us – with a clear river ahead and behind of us, we knew that we could row a clean, powerful course. This we did, and at one point thought it may be possible to catch Clare II ahead, who had encountered some steering problems and hit the bank on a corner. They recovered however, and whilst we gained a good amount of distance on them, weren’t able to try for an over-bump. A row-over was enough to lift our spirits though, and although tired, our morale was significantly improved by the day’s success and the anticipation of tomorrow.
Harriet Christie