Following our rest day on Thursday, and our division being cancelled due to snow on the Friday, when Saturday’s race came along we were all in high spirits, feeling refreshed from our couple of days’ break. This was the last day of our Bumps debut, and our last chance to make an impact as Medwards W2, having been bumped in our two previous races. The whole crew was ready to give it all we had to try and bump Downing.
We had a solid row up to marshalling at the P&E, with our coach Robert back as our bank party, saying we looked like we’d improved following our previous days’ racing experience. We got out of the boat for a team huddle, and as some would argue a slightly humiliating (yet of course very intimidating) hands-in ‘MEDWARDS’ chant, before rowing up to our station for the race. Winding up as we rowed up the Reach and practising our start at the Plough, we felt strong and together.
Sat at our station we de-kitted; despite it still only being about 1°C, it was an improvement from the bitter cold of the other two days racing. Adrenaline started pumping as the cannons started firing and we were pushed out into the middle of the river. The start cannon fired and we were off. We had a strong start and were gaining some water on Downing, but King’s were also gaining on us from behind. Downing managed to bump up very early on and King’s were too fast, and caught us.
However, we managed to row the furthest yet before being bumped, and everyone was happy with our efforts.
We rowed back to the boathouse in our own classic way, belting out tunes from Les Mis, Disney and ABBA, with Robert naming us ‘The Girlband of the River’. Spirits not dampened by the race, we took team photos and finished the week with a trip to the pub for hot chocolate!
It was great being part of such an awesome crew throughout Lent term 2018!
Helena Ascough, 7