Author: Alice Levin

Determined to have a longer race than day 2, we all set off to row up to First Post Reach in high spirits. I had come prepared with jelly babies as we knew today would be a tough race – we would have to be quick to catch up to Catz W2 before Emma W3 caught up to us. We paddled up to the starting stations and awaited the (now increasingly distant) cannon.

We set off, pushing hard to keep Emma off our tail. We made progress towards gaining on Catz – afterwards Mark commented we were only a few feet from a first whistle, which was the closest we’d got to another boat so far. We approached First Post Corner and Felicity got excited at the prospect of using her corner skills for the first time this week, but sadly Emma caught up with us as we were making our way round.

We rowed back home determined to make Saturday our best race yet – we were definitely improving as a crew as the week progressed.

Sarah Martin, 3

Day 2 of Bumps dawned warm and not too bright. While the rest of W1 gathered at the boathouse, I was coxing W2 in their race, and drama there (an accidental siren causing half the division, including us, to be rerowed) meant that we got back to the boathouse very late, having passed W1 at the Green Dragon. I therefore left W2 in the hands of a very obliging Peterhouse rower who’d turned up early at the boathouse, wished them well, jumped on my bike and sprinted to the P&E.

Sadly, one of our crew, Giulia, had fallen ill and was incapable of rowing. Our perpetual sub, Amanda, had very kindly stepped in and saved the day, but this required a shake-up to the crew order and I found myself on strokeside for the first time in several months, with only a ten-minute row down and one practice start to get used to my new role. When I first took my seat it felt very foreign, but the start helped settle me down and by the time we were parked at our starting station under the bridge I had hope that I might be able to get through the course without crabbing.

I remember practically nothing of the start, the race, or the row home (I’m told we’d had a strong practice start and our rowing in the race itself was magic), but I do know we were bumped by Lucy Cav W1 coming round Ditton Corner. To be bumped for the second day in a row – the fourth time in two days for me – could be quite disappointing, but crew and club morale remained high. Some of W2 cheered for us on the bank and came to commiserate with us after we’d bumped out, which was very touching and very much appreciated by the tired W1ers. In the face of such strong support and boatie love within the club, who cares about winning?

Felicity Parker, 2