Author: samb4

We pushed off from the boathouse in bright sunshine and high spirits, but turned our focus to the boat as we rowed up to marshall for our first race against LMBC. We anticipated tough competition and used the warm up to concentrate on technique and prepare ourselves for the race. At our marshalling station, we made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed watching the races come down from the previous division. All too soon, we were told to get back in the boat and prepare ourselves for the final row down to the start.

Nerves ran high as we came to front-stops and lined up side by side with LMBC at the starting line, but as the umpire shouted GO and Georgie began to call the draws, they were quickly forgotten in the heat of the race. We were not as quick off the start as we would have liked, and began to fall slightly behind from an early stage. We were determined not to be beaten that easily though, and gave a huge push into and out of the railway bridge, making the most of our corner, and suddenly finding ourselves no longer three-quarters of a length behind, but drawing level, and, eventually, pulling away from the other boat. Gaining new found energy from the prospect of actually winning, despite having initially fallen so far behind, we pushed hard into the finish, and ended up winning the race by a length. Needless to say, we were all extremely happy, and more than a little surprised that we had managed to pull it back. There was little time to celebrate however, as we were quickly told to spin, and row back up the course to marshall for our second race against Fitz.

Back at our marshalling station, we re-fuelled on Haribo, and tried to forget the fact that, while we had just had a tough race, Fitz would be rowing fresh… About 40 minutes later, after a motivating pre-race talk by Alex, we found ourselves back on the starting line. This time we planned to do a faster start, but as Georgie called the draws, and then the winds, we could already feel ourselves slipping behind, and by the time we were lengthening, Fitz were starting to pull away. Keeping focused and determined, we pushed on through the course, but this time, our push through the railway bridge was not enough, and while we did manage to reduce their lead, we could not pull back the distance we had already lost and over take them.

As it later turned out, however, Fitz went on to come second to Downing in the final, so we went out losing to an excellent boat, and a picnic of Reana’s amazing race baking at the boat house soon dispelled any feelings of disappointment.

Emma Jones (Stroke)

With the prospect of a puppy still high on the agenda, the composite W2 enthusiastically pushed off the bank for their first race of what is set to be an exciting year.  A brisk paddle to the lock in addition to delay caused by rogue barge drivers allowed us plenty of time to think about the race ahead, spot talent, and for conversation to become progressively more bizarre. Who wants one puppy when you can have a selection box style variety of eight? A push for the MECBC menagerie to branch out into aquatic species was strongly supported; fish trained to swim alongside the boat would surely help improve head race results; a whale could strike fear into the hearts of the those being chased in Bumps; and a kraken, well that would just be cool. Personally, I blame the accumulation of sugary sweets in the bow for sending imaginations astray; nevertheless hopes were high for the race ahead.

Our bank party of two happily became a three when Alex returned from the ‘real world’ of conference calls, emails, and general importance, but tensions mounted in the de-kitting process. Two, reluctant to remove gloves for the race, was politely reminded that the definition of ‘WELL HARD’ does not accommodate for those with soft hands. As we approached the Plough Reach, mentally prepared to ‘embrace the pain’, Nadia called for the start sequence of five builds and a power ten. With the rate sat at 32, we sliced down the Cam and had a particularly powerful push off the bridge. This was followed by a call for Alex (or words to that effect) which brought us to the finish at Peter’s Post.

Overall an exciting race with results to prove it! W2 came top of their division, managing to beat three men’s boats and two W1’s. Hopes are high for the Getting on Race. WELL HARD girls, regardless of the gloves!

Rowanne Willett, 3

Newnham Shortcourse Race report

First race of Lent term for MECBC’s W1! A deceptively sunny sky left some of us rather chilly –
mistakenly thinking t-shirts would be enough. Though never fear – the row towards marshalling
provided an excellent talent-spotting opportunity and our minds were soon suitably distracted
from the cool breeze. Once marshalled by the P&E however, it became clear that a MECBC puppy
was much higher on our agenda than the men’s crews rowing past. Whist Mollie did lengths of
the boat, passing Haribo from bow to stern, we persuaded Reana to concede that if we beat every
other women’s crew we could get a puppy! With “puppy power” vetoed, the talk then turned to
alternative motivational calls: “legs for a Labrador”; “drive for a Dalmatian”; and “spring back for a
Spaniel”, amongst others.

Remembering what we were actually there for, we began the race under the bridge with 3 draws, 7
winds and quickly lengthened out into a good rhythm. After some ups and downs at the beginning
of term – mostly down on stroke side – we set off to a promising start. Gathering speed and
maintaining a good rating we pushed around the first corner, then rookie 4 caught a crab (sorry!),
but luckily the crew was unfazed and the next 10 strokes were a determined drive to make up for
any lost time. As we reached the reach everyone pushed that little bit more, hoping to make up as
much ground before the expected wall of wind hit us… It never did. The psychological effect clearly
worked though. With that – alongside a powerful “push for Mollie” as we approached the finish –
we came 3rd and beat some men’s crews too! Well hard already, eh? Things are looking good for
Bumps with Selwyn finishing over half a minute slower than us.

Back at the boat house, Jess and I quickly found the nearest radiator as we attempted to warm our
freezing feet. Race baking was particularly exciting with a tin of Banoffee Whoopee Pies and Amy
worried Mark as she started peeling off lycra during the race breakdown.

So, sadly not a puppy this race – maybe we’ll have the same deal next time, Reana? And I’ve
probably missed lots of important actual rowing details – it was all quite exciting and a bit of a blur –
but a great first race with W1!

Evie Hampson, ‘rookie 4’ W1

All properly carbed up, we gathered bright and early at the boathouse, knowing we’d be there for quite a long time, since we were marshalling on the hard and were last but one in our division. We thus just stayed around with our first boat, waiting for the bank to be clear to get Owen out. This gave us plenty of time to become more and more nervous as we wanted to do our best considering we were a very fresh crew and had very few outings to get ready for the race. The initial plan was then to close the gate on the men’s VIII that was to follow us and to make it as hard as possible for them to overtake us. But as we pushed for the start and settled into a nice rhythm, it soon became obvious to our cox Nadia that she will have to change the race plan. It was clear before Chesterton that we were gaining on the St Catz boat ahead and that we will have to overtake them. Yet, I was not aware of this and was thus quite worried when as we were pushing the railway bridge away, I started to hear, on top of the loud shouting of Ying and Watson, the calls of another girl. My first thought was that something had happened to one of bow 4 and it was only when Nadia asked for repetitive pushes for ten that I realised it was the voice of the coach of the St Catz boat we were actually overtaking!!

We were all very happy to have overtaken one boat but this would not satisfy Nadia. When we were steering along the corners and pushing away from St Catz, she set her mind on catching up with the Sidney boat ahead! Sending the corners away and pushing for the last stretch under the motorway bridge, she called for more and more power until we overtook Sidney on the finish line and under the eyes of our W1! That was overall such an epic race – “like Bumps, but longer” to quote Ying – and I cannot tell how proud I am of this fresh crew quickly coming up together to be, after four only outings, the fastest college senior second VIII in Fairbairn’s! WELL DONE W2 AND BRING ON LENT!

Pauline Pilote, W2

As always, I got excited and nervous about the race whilst waiting to head to the boathouse, and was in a jittery mood for the fifty minutes we were waiting at the boathouse – particularly whilst waiting for other boats to return and push off so that we could get the boat out. We had the nicest pre-race marshalling I’ve ever had – we were simply waiting on the hard, and didn’t push off until 2 minutes before the race. We had a couple of strokes to take us to the start, then faffed to decide whether we would do a rolling or front stops start – Jess helpfully asking “is this the race now?”.

We went off, into a rolling start and immediately settled into a comfortable rhythm. I thought it was too comfortable, and wondered why Georgie wasn’t asking us to take the rate up. The reason was that, for possibly the first time in term, we had a lovely rhythm and ratio which kept our rating up without being more exhausting than necessary.

I consciously noticed various landmarks, and we seemed to be getting past them fairly quickly, with Georgie’s pushes off bridges and out of corners. It was a rare race with very little coaching from the bank (Mark was feeling incredibly ill and Marina’s voice isn’t very loud) but I think I heard the occasional ‘sharpen the catches’. We had a really nice push through the corners and we were suddenly on the final straight, giving our final push, going under the motorway bridge, nearly at the end, when Georgie shouted “where’s the finish?” which was slightly worrying, but we pushed through until we heard the “wind it down” call.

The marshalling at the end was not as nice as that at the beginning (particularly when we realised that Mark was looking worse after the race than we were), and boats were three deep on the bank before we saw W2 racing along the final straight. We were amazed and excited to discover that they had overtaken 2 boats during the race! Then it was back to tedious marshalling before rowing back to the boathouses, with some of the nicest paddling we’ve had all term.

Back at the boathouse, we enjoyed lots of Reana’s baking – lemon meringue cupcakes! – and debriefed about the race, which mainly consisted of “let’s wait and see the results”. Results were up a few hours later and we’d come 5^th, but importantly had beaten FaT and Caius, and had closed the gap on Downing. Bring on Lent term, and bumping up into the first division!

Sally-Anne Bennett, W1

This was the first race for a recently formed IV crew so setting off from the boathouse we were all quite nervous and unsure of what to expect. Paddling down to the start we got into a good rhythm and Nadia got us warmed up with some solid pushes for ten. On the way down we passed one of our novice crews (Silver Arrow) and despite being slightly unnerved by their very tired faces, we were encouraged by our fellow college boaties (if they survived so would we). Once we arrived at the marshalling station Laura brought out the Haribo for a last minute energy boost, though by then the adrenaline had already started to kick in, and Matt gave us some reassuring last words. Before we knew it we were paddling up to the line and Nadia was shouting for our first push for ten. We started off well (the Haribo were clearing working) and we soon settled into a good rhythm. We kept it strong until the finish- as pictures of our reddened faces and pained expressions will no doubt confirm- and were pleased to come fifth in our division!

Well done W2!

Lizzie Allen, W2

After having to queue for what seemed like hours, the whole crew were excited to start the race, especially after what seemed to have been the best row down of all term. Our moods were heightened again, after being asked across the river to join Worcester college Oxford later in the Mahal, as they were just starting their race. When we finally got to start our race, Emma set a really good rhythm for us to have a great time. The boat really started to fly as soon as Georgie called for us to take a stroke for different people in the boat. Overall with a time of 10.23, and coming 3rd out of a total of 14, W1 had a really great race. Well done ladies!

Jess Manning, W1