It was the first day of Lent Bumps, and W2’s first race since our brilliant performance at Pembroke Regatta a couple of weeks previously, and I think we were all simultaneously excited and terrified! As third in our division, behind Wolfson and Clare, it’s safe to say we were all feeling the pressure, but I endeavoured to keep everyone calm and collected (or as close to that as we could get, because after all, it is Bumps). We had some brilliant subs with us, who hadn’t rowed with us and almost certainly had no idea what to expect, but they were all amazing, and we’re very grateful to them!
Most of us hadn’t rowed (or in my case, coxed) in Bumps before, but we had been practising standing starts and doing plenty of pieces in anticipation. This certainly paid off on the row down, as we managed to get in some good rowing, and our practice start outside the Plough was also great. However, the nerves that had ebbed and flowed since getting into the boat made themselves known again once we were parked at our station; this was probably not helped by the weather, which had begun to deteriorate between marshalling and finally reaching our station, and would eventually descend into rain on the row home. The adrenaline seemed to kick in, though, when the four-minute and one-minute guns were fired, and when the start gun eventually sounded, we made a strong start, gaining half a boat length on Clare pretty quickly. Unfortunately, Clare then pulled away, and we had a very strong Hughes Hall/Lucy Cavendish crew bearing down on us from behind. W2 gave it all they had, though, and we managed to pull away from their overlap three times before we were eventually bumped! We then had an excellent row home, with some particularly nice timing when squaring and at the finishes.
I’m so proud of W2 (and again, so grateful to our subs), and hopefully we can take our lead back against Hughes Hall/Lucy Cav tomorrow!
Alice Levin, cox