Murray Edwards College Boat Club

Bumps, day 4 and it is do or die for Murray Edwards W2. Having started the week with a pleasantly surprising bump on Newhnam III, followed by 2 pretty swift collisions upon Clare Hall and Emma III, day 4 represented the opportunity to cement our position as the best W2 on the river.

Yet, as what always happens in these situations, things don’t always go according to plan.

A prolonged marshalling caused by some animal rights protestors jamming the river in a boat worthy of the Cardboard Boat Race allowed us to contemplate the situation at hand. With nothing to worry about chasing us, the main question remained not can we catch First and Third II, but when can we catch them. Knowing they were chasing the ‘spooner barge’ Magdalene II, it was a case of charging through the wind and slamming FAT hard before they could perform a similar feat on Magdalene. Alas, this was not to be.

3 booms later, and we make good headway off the start, earning 2 whistles by the motorway bridge. Unfortunately, as our number 2 later informed me, FAT had the same whistles before we did. We fought valiantly and painfully up first post reach with spatterings of 3 whistles heard from the bank. Then: HOLD IT UP! I look to Mark on the bank, and ask the question of which I sadly already know the answer: ‘Did we bump…?’

No we had not bumped, but in the most infuriating of scenarios, we had instead become wedged between the bumping victors and incompetently parked FAT. The feeling of being unable to even go for an over-bump can only be described as like sticking an open wound in a ditch of seawater. As The Cambridge Tab eloquently put it, the final result of a technical rowover was little consolation.

However, as this is my last term rowing with Murray Edwards II, I would like to say that I am absolutely thrilled and delighted with the progress we have made together as a crew this term. Though our name is not on a blade, our final result of moving up 3 positions, on top of 2 wins this term, is nothing short of impressive. I am so proud to have rowed with you this term and with MECBC these last two years.

Magdalene II should be quivering in their lycra because Murray Edwards II are coming to get them. MECBCWellHard, over and out.

Eleanor Dickinson, W2, 6

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About 60 seconds – that's how long it took us to catch Claire Hall WII. We heard the first whistle before we had finished out start sequence, and we were only about 20 strokes in before we were holding it up. As a result, the spectators unfortunately did not get a chance to witness WII's world-renown battle cries of exertion. However, MECBC WII will not disappoint their fan-base, and will continue to drive hard, push down, stay loose and shout out until every last ounce of energy has been spent bumping whatever may lie ahead.

Christie Bates, W2, 4

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So the Tab asks “can Murray Edwards keep the Blades dream alive?” No pressure, uh huh. While it’s GREAT that both W3 and W2 have bumped today (and in such good style) there were some nerves in the boat as we faced up to the task of chasing Sidney, who failed to catch Pembroke II yesterday. At the Boat House, we talked strategy for a bit (read, “faffed”) and basically decided it’s too risky to pretend we are going to row a head piece, and a quick start will be essential (wow, rocket science!).We managed to push off in due course and marshalled in good time (yay for meeting early). As boats parked around us, and Percy Pigs and Haribos were passed around, we talked more strategy, focusing on the fact that we have caught Sidney before, and we probably can do it again. After M3 raced past us we pushed off again, and were told we actually do get two practise starts today (yay for catching up on schedule). Awesome.The row up was fairly uneventful. First practise start on the windy reach was ok, but the second one off the Plough was better. We put lots of distance between us and Sidney. Some of our best steady-state rowing is on the row up to Bumps and today is no different. We stayed loose and focused, maximising drive through the water and maintaining good balance. There was lots of cheering from our girls on the bank especially around Grassy to First Post, giving us encouragement to squeeze down that little bit more power and keep the bladework tidy. We spun, parked (really far from our station), spoke to the SU, and settled down to wait for the 4 minute gun.

Mark gave a little speech of sorts at the station, commenting that both Sidney and Pembroke II have “competent starts”, so we should expect the first whistle to come in time, but until we get it, we should get the legs down and keep pushing. He speculated on the possibility of Sidney catching Pembroke, suggesting (as we have agreed) that we go off hard and not expect to have the full river to catch Sidney. He also waxed lyrical on how station 5 is the “best station for pushing out, well past the outflow with a nice straight line to the corner”, while I was more interested in thinking about whether it is a good idea to row without zephyrs, as it was getting chilly sitting around. Of course, a cruiser was trying to get to the lock as 18 boats of 8 girls + 1 girl/guy slowly lose body heat parked at the start…

The 4 minute gun came as a surprise; it was still very loud at station 5. Decided to row without zephyrs, so it felt like an even longer count down than normal as it was really getting quite cold. 1 minute gun came and went, and Mark collected the pole (with somewhat nervous prompting from us) and pushed us out, blades square, all good, and we were off. The start was reasonably strong, not our very best, but felt like a good start though not sure what rating we were. I think I heard Mark shouting “just outside a length” for a little, then entering first post we got a lot of calls of “toes-heels-swing” and we got to one length, one whistle. Chloe called “give me their cox” and we responded with power, though getting a touch sloppy with bladework. I heard “three quarters” from Mark, the two whistle followed, and Chloe started calling for push for 10, which collected us a bit and gave us a good surge out of the corner. I think I heard 3 whistles after that, and I remember Chloe calling “this is it girls, push for 10”, and that was a good push. We tidied up and put our legs down and the boat moved. The whistles went to continuous and it was a bump going into grassy. Not a bad location considering that most of our supporters are on that bit of river.

It was only afterwards that we found out how close Sidney was to Pembroke — apparently it was down to half a length at one point (and apparently nearly gave Mark a heart attack) but all is well, the bump is done, and we can look forward to catching Pembroke II a little sooner tomorrow. Not  sure what will happen on day 4 yet. We will take it one race at a time…

For today, we’ve kept that Blades dream alive. Still lots of bumping to do before the dream comes true. But hey, 3 crews, 2 days, 6 bumps— WELL HARD.

Wing Ying Chow, W1, 7

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In true English style, as we got to the boat house, we saw the sun was shining and the river was flooded. For a faff-prone crew, this added precious minutes to our pushing-off time. Luckily in the scheme of things, this didn’t particularly matter as the whole division was delayed due to earlier carnage. However this delay meant that both of our practice starts were cancelled. We vented out excess adrenaline into some really strong paddling, eventually we ended up pausing to avoid crashing into St Eds, a reassuring signal that there was nothing too threatening chasing us from behind. Newnham were keeping their distance as well, we had caught glimpses of a sneaky start they’d managed to fit in; they looked neat and powerful.We pulled into our station quite close the lock, a testament to last years W2 who only recently thrust the crew into division 3 glory. Our nerves were compounded by words from coach Watson, who told us that although we were probably the fastest boat in the division, Newnham III were probably the second fastest. The question was; could we catch Newnham before they caught Clare Hall? In the boat, we began to steel ourselves for the prospect of having to overbump.Conditions were perfect; the sun was out and there was virtually no wind. The expert hand of W1’s coach Mark pushed us out with 15 seconds to the start cannon. Poised and primed, we waited for the resounding boom of the cannon. BOOM. Our cox Georgie called ‘draw one’, and I saw strokes blade sweep out of the water. Knowing that our stroke was a perfectionist, she would not be happy with those draws, and she followed it with some of the best winds we have ever done. The whistles from our bank party started ringing – we had gained on Newnham! After a sustained push they held us off at two whistles. Coming under the motorway bridge we managed to crank it up and gain three whistles on them.

We could feel the boat rocking around in their dirty water; we were close and so thirsty for the bump. As Georgie called for a ‘Hammer time’, we stood on our footplates, the entire crew powering towards their stern. The sound of continuous whistles rang about us and we knew the bump was imminent. The Umpire and our bank party suddenly yelled for us to hold it up, we turned to see a shocked Newham clearing and a plucky Clare Hall rowing on, having only just escaped Newnham’s clutches. According to our coaches, Newnham were a quarter of a length or less on Clare Hall when we caught them. Unfortunately for Clare Hall, it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Holly Smith, W2, 7

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