Author: Alice Levin

With a (slightly) painful 7am start on a bitterly cold day in February, a mixed W2/W3 crew met at the boathouse ready to face the Pembroke Regatta course! Following a gentle paddle up to the P&E (and a very cold forty minutes waiting in zero degrees for the start of our race), we moved up to the starting point on the Reach.

Our first race was against Emmanuel W3. As we moved into our standing start positions, the tension in the boat was palpable, especially as it was the first ever standing start in race conditions for a few members of the crew. Unfortunately, our start did not go as planned, and after a few strokes, someone caught a bad crab and we had to stop as a result. However, with some cheering from the marshals on the side and encouragement from our cox, Hannah, we quickly started again, and kept our rowing strong until the finish line.

W3’s coach, Felicity, then signed us up to take part in a second race to get more practice in for Lent Bumps. This race was against Queens’, and we were determined to do better. Our start was good, and although Queens’ seemed to take the lead in the first couple of strokes, we quickly caught up and overtook them. By the time we reached the Railway Bridge, roughly the halfway point of the course, our boat was a solid length ahead. Seeing Queens’ coming up behind us gave us the energy and motivation to keep going, and to continue pushing hard with every stroke, increasing our lead by as much as we could, until we flew past the finish line.

Overall, while the first race was a little demoralising, the success of the second race boosted the morale of the whole crew hugely, and we all rowed back to the boathouse feeling pretty content with our morning, and with building excitement for Bumps!

Giulia Bollen Gandolfo, 2

It was freezing on the day of Fairbarns 2017, but W2 arrived at the boathouse ready to row our best and show off how much we had improved, both individually and as a crew, over the course of the term. After a quick warm up on the ergs, we quickly got the boat out, only to find out that the race was running late. As we waited for our slot and watched other crews row past, the excitement was mounting.

Finally it was our time! As we had only rowed a short distance from our boathouse to the start line, it took us a few strokes to get into our groove, but we quickly got our legs working as we fought away the cold. At stroke, Beth set a strong, steady pace for us to follow, and Watson and Issy kept us motivated from the bank. Despite the cold, and the fact that this was the longest race we’d done as a four, we managed to keep our rate up throughout, helped greatly by Alice’s encouragement. After a strong start, we began to gain on Girton, and we kept up this good pace for the first half of the race. The fatigue got to us, however, and the Robinson crew behind us began to gain. As we neared the end of course, this in fact proved to be a blessing in disguise, as we rowed our hardest to hold them off.

Fairbarns 2017 was a great way to end Michaelmas rowing. Although the whole crew was suffering from end of term exhaustion, we worked well together and put into practice changes to our techniques that we had been working on all term. Fairbarns Dinner after the race was the perfect way to celebrate our accomplishments!

Juhi James, bow

With what had promised to be a bitterly cold day brightening up, W1 paddled Octopussy (complete with a couple of new pairs of shoes) down to Jesus Boathouse and the start line. Nerves were high, with this being the first time some crew members had ever faced the senior Fairbairns course.

After two strokes we built up to a strong rate, and settled quickly into a sustainable rhythm. Utilising the joint experience of the Michaelmas line up, we battled past the one minute mark, and kept going strong down the Reach. With Newnham nowhere in sight behind us, and as we made a gain on Pembroke W1, Murray Edwards strode to the finish line, bringing it up a couple of pips on the legs past First Post and towards the motorway bridge.

We definitely did ourselves proud, although on reflection we realised that we had saved ourselves a little too much for the final stretch of the long Fairbairns course. Nevertheless, Fairbairns and the rest of the term were celebrated in style at a fabulous Fairbairn Dinner.

Leanne Hagger, 3

Winter Head was W1’s first race of the term and of the new academic year, and being my first race in about a year and a half, it is pretty fair to say that I was dreading the thought of a 2.5km race.

As we rowed up to marshal, we took the opportunity to focus on our timing and balance, with the help of some last-minute coaching from Robert. By the time we reached the Lock, our spirits were high despite the cold and wind, helped by a bag of Haribo sweets being passed up and down the boat.

After a solid, if slightly early start, we settled into our strong, sustainable racing rhythm we had being practising all term. Before long, we were coming around Ditton and onto the Reach, with Robert telling us that Clare were overtaking Caius ahead of us and that he wanted us to do the same. And with Robert and Christina’s encouragement we slowly began to move up on Caius. As we came under the Railway Bridge and Christina called for us to pick it up, we really began to move, reducing the distance between us and Caius with every stroke, crossing the finish line only seconds after them.

Although we didn’t place as highly as we had hoped, this Winter Head was a brilliant chance for us to get some (very promising) racing practice in before Fairbairns, where we hope to do even better.

Maria Rust, stroke

This was W2’s first race of term and, for two of the crew, their first race with MECBC. W2’s term had got off to a somewhat uncertain start, going from a rolling crew of five, down to four, and back up to a rolling five, before eventually settling as a four – better late than never!

Unfortunately our cox, Alice, and our coach, Watson, weren’t able to be with us for the race, but Christina stepped in to save the day and her boyfriend Tristan gave support from the bank. By the time our division was marshalling, it was clear that they were running behind, resulting in four very chilly rowers, with Tamzin, being Australian, feeling it the most.

The cold was quickly forgotten when we began the race with our five powerful strokes to get us up to race pace. We got off to a good start and quickly pulled away from the Four that was following us. The majority of the race was quiet, making it hard to keep the power on, but Christina’s calls kept us motivated and strong. The most exciting part of the race, and our biggest motivation, was an Octuple scull trying to overtake us towards the end. Despite them having twice as many people and four times as many oars, we gave them a good fight, pushing harder to make it difficult for them. We got to experience Christina going ‘nuclear’, and this was the best we’d rowed during the race (partly out of fear)!

As always, we ended our race with a trip to the pub and a well-deserved pint. We were all really proud of each other for how far we’ve come, with the help of Watson, from where we started. Now we’re even more excited to keep working hard in the run up to Fairbairns!

Danielle, 3