Author: samb4

It’s been quite a weird day overall, with the least happy bump I’ve ever been in. Firstly, at the boathouse, we weren’t chattering as care-free as normally, distinctly aware that we were chasing Peterhouse, our boathousemates, and that we had chased them 3 times last Lents without catching them. I was anxious at the boathouse, and 15 minutes in when I hadn’t seen Laura, phoned her – only to discover she had been stood outside chatting to Pauline for ten minutes! There was excitement for and from W2 and 3, who had both had excellent rows today – and W2’s 25-stroke bump is the shortest I’ve ever heard of!

We thought we’d better have a chat, but trying to avoid Peterhouse whilst having a chat was apparently impossible for us, and we eventually gave up and had it whilst marshalling instead. Rowing up directly in front of Peterhouse was nerve-racking but worked, and once we’d marshalled and pushed off again, we did make some space. Dauntingly, they were our first opponents that Mark deemed good enough to require him to watch their start to report back. However, we responded with a great practise start on Plough Reach, in front of Gina. All that was left was the real thing.

We were worked up by Mark after the four minute cannon, ready to go off and get them – we do have it in us! Except that the one minutes cannon didn’t come – a Pembroke equipment failure – and so the preparedness was wasted, and we bantered for a bit longer. Then the one minute cannon and we focussed as much as a boat of talkative girls can. We pushed off at 20 – it felt late! – nearly ripping Georgie’s arm off (sorry!) and then were off!

As expected, the whistles didn’t come as quickly as they have before.  But come one did. The first I heard, though, was Peterhouse on Tit Hall – nooo, not possible. We needed to push harder – if only because I was determined that we were not going to row over: it would be a bump, or a technical row over because we were to close to get out of the way. Not that I had admitted that determination to Reana or the rest of the crew.

We did get one whistle, then, probably, lost it – there weren’t any for a while, but I couldn’t hear the distances shouted so I couldn’t tell. It all meant push harder though! So we did. And we got back to one whistle. Then we were on two.

And then we got three – I don’t even know whether we got continuous before we were holding it up. We’d bumped – but that was far too quick to be normal. Trying to clear to let Churchill and Magdalene through, I turned to see a Peterhouse crab, and Georgie confirmed 3 of them had suddenly crabbed – and effectively stopped the boat dead.

After some panicky clearing, ending up with the bows between a sign and the bank (we should all listen to Georgie better, me included) we heard what had happened, and 3-cheered Peterhouse. It was a bump, but the ME-Peterhouse chase should not have ended like that. The most depressing bump up I’ve experienced.

We got ourselves off the bank, pulled in properly, and debriefed quickly, before heading back to the boathouse. Correcting people who thought we had been bumped – we didn’t have greenery – we smiled somewhat on the row back but to me it just felt long, and my legs were like jelly for most of it. Back at the boathouse, the Peterhouse girls were thankfully welcoming. The post-race chat in the boat bays made Peterhouse think we were avoiding them, but brownies made up for it. The chocolate was much appreciated to improve my dejected mood.

But now, the focus is on tomorrow, and Tit Hall – we can catch them girls, so lets go for it!

Sally-Anne Bennett, 7, W1

The weather had cleared to an almost-but-not-quite sunny afternoon and the crew members were all in good spirits. We had rowed over and were now at the back of 1st division, determined to make it firmly into said division. Providing enough marshalls had proven to be a bit of a problem, though, and so we were a rower short when pushing off from the boathouse – 2 did an admirable job of trying to respond whenever the cox forgot herself and yelled “three take a stroke!” but we must have looked more than a little funny rowing in an odd, rolling constellation of fours – a bit like a crippled spider with several of the blades pointing in weird directions, and indeed we were laughingly cheered on by onlookers at other boathouses. 

Once spun and ready for the canon, which sounded timid and far away from our far position at the Lock, the mood was one of eager anticipation. It was quite windy on the river but we put down a lot of power at the sound of the third canon and soon heard the first whistle, followed shortly by another, then two. The power-technique trade-off was firmly on the power side but it paid off and by the motorway bridge we had overlap; by another power ten we bumped Selwyn W1.

Our first bump of the season has us chasing Magdalene W1 tomorrow, and, feeling empowered by our swift success and Reana’s race baking, we think we just might bump them too.

Anna Frosig, bow, W1

On our third day of bumps, W1 was really excited. Having the best outcome possible the two previous day, a row over at the top of division two followed by a really quick bump of Selwyn W1 on day two, we were all very optimistic about the forthcoming race.
After being photographed a ridiculous number of the times by Ola, the final canon went off. We pushed hard and it paid off. Very quickly we heard our first whistle. Obviously from this we were encouraged to push even harder, so not long after that we got 2 whistles, meaning only half a length away now.

Pushing through the pain, we did some push for tens, clearly paying off as then we got 3 whistles in a row. Now we knew it was just a matter of time before we would have bumped Magdalene. With Mark counting down the feet to Magdalene and extensive noise from our bank party, we bumped Magdalene very quickly overall. It was great fun, and definitely worth all the hard work! (A video of this awesomeness is available somewhere….)

Now let’s hope our success continues on for the last two days of bumps.
GO MECBC !!!!!!!!!!!

Jess Manning, 2, W1

On our second day of bumps we returned to the river with vengeance on our minds, sunshine in our eyes and teeny-tiny bananas in our hands. With our full crew reunited once again we rowed up to the reach in the now familiar Greta and after an excellent practice start we queued to wait to spin.

We rowed up to our starting position, sandwiched apprehensively between Homerton 2 and Kings 2. We waited in fidgety anticipation for the stomach churning boom of the canons. Well aware we had to build on our start from yesterday we came to front stops, legs tightly coiled, eyes in the boat, game-face grimaces prepped, ready to unleash the starting piece we knew we were capable of.

At the final canon we pushed hard off the footplates, focused on making our first strokes strong. We kept the rate up, pushing off of the motorway bridge and settling into our race rhythm.

But it was not to be. We were suddenly met by calls from all sides to hold it up, and digging our blades into the water we turned to see carnage before us. We looked to our bank party with furrowed brows and bewildered expressions, what had happened? Would we re-row? What even is a re-row? We pulled up to the bank as a crowd of coaches and officials discussed the situation. We were eventually told that a “technical bump” had been awarded to Queens 2.

We rowed home with our backs straight and our heads held high, knowing we had done ourselves proud. Bolstered by the knowledge Carla had retrieved her long lost hot-cross-bun from the depths of her hatch we vowed to return to the river with renewed spirit, (after much sleep and much pasta) to row once more into the unknown in search of that ever achievable but oh so elusive bump.

Beth Sherwood, bow, W3

With the crew mood somewhere between nervously excited and terrified, the galactic unit known as W3 assembled at the boathouse for what was (for everyone except for lovely stand-in cox Ola) their first ever bumps. Despite having collectively trawled through hours of YouTube footage, we all weren’t entirely sure of what to expect, or crucially exactly how many bananas it was necessary to digest pre-race. Erring on the safe side, we loaded up Gretel with all the bananas we had, and set off to our marshalling point. We rowed confidently down, with only one minor disaster in the loss of one baby banana to the cruel Cam. Rest in peace little soul. We then paddled nicely up to our starting point, where we were welcomed by a very distressed dog, whose whines and screeches interfered somewhat with our attempts at a collective boat aura of calm. However, the poor beast did provide something tangible to push away from (in addition to Kings W2) so with this glass half full attitude we settled down and waited for the cannon, which coach Mark called expertly. The next four minutes flew past and finally it was time to go.

The cannon signalled blast off and it was launch time. While our start was solid, it was soon clear that Kings W2 had got off to a flying start and were almost upon us. Yet the valiant W3 spirit kicked in both metaphorically and literally, and with Ola’s calls for a second start sequence and more pressure on the footplates, we were able to hold them off…until they finally managed to catch us.

As first bumps races go, we conceded that while we wouldn’t be accessorising with foliage this time, we had done ourselves proud and we saluted Kings as worthy opponents. We rowed back content in the knowledge that our crew grit and determination were still strong and intact- and this positive mood was boosted further by the news that Richard had finally managed to capture his dream selfie shot (#woowoo) reminding us that anything is possible if you just believe and persevere. With that in mind, we are now looking forward to the next few days of racing…we’ve got the guts, we’ve got the grit and most importantly we’ve got the bananas to go out and do our boatclub proud. Bring it on.

We’d like to thank the amazing Ola and the equally amazing Emma H for subbing in for our cox and 3 respectively- we’re all really grateful you came aboard.

Nina Jones, 5, w3

Due to our relatively late start from the boathouse, we had to forgo
our usual frontstops warmup and instead paddle down in fours. We
quickly caught up to the boat ahead which was paddling in sixes, and
our confidence was further boosted by great practice starts at the
railway bridge and at plough reach. Before we knew it, we were spun,
parked at our station, and the first cannon had gone off.

The next few minutes were a complete blur. Everybody checked their
gates and their footplates for the last time. Matt pushed us out while
Alex counted down. We quickly reached the end of our chain and I was
so focused on holding on to the bung that I didn’t realize we were
aiming for the opposite bank. A few quick taps by Emily (which almost
dislocated my shoulder) set us semi-straight and BOOM! we were off. We
were still in our start sequence when I heard the first whistle.
Having agreed as a crew to push for 10 at every whistle, I called for
a power 10 instead of finishing our sequence. This may or may not have
been a good idea, as we ended up doing power 10 after power 10 at rate
40! Luckily, we soon heard calls of “hold it up” from the bank.

We had bumped!

What a great start to lent bumps! Tomorrow, we are stationed under the
bridge. Bring on the cannons!

Nadia Tsao, cox W2

W1 set off from the boathouse knowing that there was absolutely no possibility of a bump…
because we were at head station and the w1 division had the day off… we’re not that pessimistic!
The row down was strong and we got in some practice starts off the bridge and by the plough. Once
we reached station we had to spin and as usual we were in the most narrow part of the river, so
after spinning at glacial pace in order to preserve the bows, we pulled in and went through our last
minute checks of gates and footplates. Soon enough the 1 minute cannon went off and we were
being pushed out- it takes a lot for a cox to sit quietly whilst Mark chooses your line using bow and
2, luckily he chose a good one, and we were off! My favourite bit of any race, “DRAAAAAAAAAW 1!”
Our start was strong and we kept the pressure up consistently throughout the course. There were
some particularly good lifts onto the reach and out of Grassy corner; along with some very optimistic
whistles from Churchill behind us.

Overall, Churchill only really held station on us and we managed to get away by around 3 lengths by
the finish… one epic row over down… hopefully the only one of these bumps

Bring on the bottom of the top division, WELL HARD!!!! xxx

Georgie Field, cox

So after having had sun for our last race, suddenly we were punished with snow. Ok, so it wasn’t exactly heavy, but we definitely saw a few flakes (which counts!) and our freezing hands were enough evidence. But did that bother us? Of course not! However we were very reluctant to de-kit just before the race. On the plus side, the hilarity of watching guys rowing past in shorts and t shirts, turning bright red, made the cold weather slightly more bearable. We rowed up in Winston, and then we parked, got out and awaited the return of W2. To keep warm, Richard’s penguin moves worked wonders. We finally managed to swap boats; a huge relief rowing in Owen again!

After a slightly awkward start because of a crab, (which was recovered from very quickly), W3 came out in fine style and kept up a decent race pace throughout. (Although poor Ellie lost her hat to the water!) Very soon we were drenched in the Cam water, but before we knew it, the end was in sight! Calls to ‘empty our tanks’ were heard from the bank party, and the boat picked up speed for the last few hundred metres. All in all it felt like a successful race!

We finally returned to the boathouse, to Reana’s delicious race baking. The thought of these cakes and biscuits was enough to get us rowing home with sufficient speed. The quantity of brownies and cookies eaten was enough to reclaim our calories lost from the race and the cold, and then some. Now for the hours of waiting to find out if out speed was fast enough…and it was! Lent bumps here we come!

Carla Bardua – 3

Feeling quite confident after our last outing before the race, we pushed off from the boathouse after much faffing and bearing in our minds the very last words of our coach Matt to one of his friends cycling past : “I’m sure they’ll get on.”

But, as we rowed to the marshalling point, I started feeling a bit nervous and was eager to do a good nice race to feel more confident in the prospect of the oncoming Bumps. As we were meant to row at the very bottom of the men’s division, we knew we’d wait for quite a long time and enjoyed the Jelly Babies Amy brought to cheer us up. Waiting at the very bottom of the queue for spinning, we took the opportunity to have a look at the men’s crews doing their starts just in front of us. It seemed to last for ages, however, and, as nervousness crept up, we were getting colder and colder, to the point that, when Nadia told us to dekit, we were all very reluctant to do so.

And then, suddenly, after such a long time of marshalling and about an hour later than when we were meant to start our race, off we were for the most consistent race I’ve ever done. After a powerful rolling start, we settled into a nice rhythm that we managed to keep throughout the 2k, thanks to the encouraging shouts coming from the bank and the expectation of Reana’s long-renowned chocolate-chip-peanut-butter cookies awaiting us at the boathouse.

A very solid race after all, punctuated by various calls in the name of our absent coaches, that helped us to get on despite the freezing wind, the long wait, and the splashes of icy water. WELL HARD MECBC AND BRING ON BUMPS NOW!!!

Pauline Pilote – W2 stroke