First day of bumps for us W2 rowers. We knew we were chasing Kings W2 who we’d beaten in Robinson head but were being chased by Caius W2 who looked pretty scary. We arrived at the boathouse with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. One of our crew members, Beth Holmes, also arrived having just been hit by a car on her cycle down. This was cause for much concern and we scrabbled around for any knowledge of concussion that we might collectively have. With some of her scrapes patched up and like the champ she is, Beth decided to soldier on with the race. We hoped her collision wasn’t a bad omen for being bumped by a different, more water-ey, vehicle in around half an hour. (and also hope she is feeling better now!)
We had a good row down to the motorway bridge, fitting in a few starts along the way which felt balanced and fast. Once in our starting position we were treated to a rousing speech by Ben, our coach, who had made the unfortunate fashion choice of wearing a Caius one-piece for our big race day (for which I’m not sure he’s been forgiven?)
The canon went, the race began, and we got off to a quick start, pushing our heels into the footplates. The other thing that began was a constant bleeping from the cox box, which some of us mistook for uninterrupted and aggressive whistles from the bank. Nevertheless, we powered on gaining on Kings. We got a whistle on them, and then a second but Caius were rushing up behind us. In a matter of seconds and only inches away from Kings, Caius started overlapping with us; we’d been bumped. The race had gone so quickly that it felt like only 10 seconds had passed, although we were assured we’d been rowing for about two minutes.
The result was disappointing, especially because we had been so close to bumping but as a crew we’ve got a taste for it now and will be back for day 2 of bumps with even more determination.
Fiona Amery, stroke