News

Due to bad weather conditions, the Emma Sprints Regatta (18 November 2007) was cancelled just before the novice women were due to race. Even though we never got the chance to show the other crews what we were made of that day, I would just like to thank the girls who turned up on the day ready to race. I’m sure we really would have intimidated our opposition in those matching white bunny ears!!

Uni IVs had left a bitter taste in our mouths and we were determined to do better in Winter Head on Saturday 17th November. Not only had we intensified our land training, but we had taken part in outings in Sir John with the first four, found time on Thursday afternoons to squeeze in some runs up and down the reach and even teamed up with the novice men for an VIII outing in torrential weather conditions. Confident that we had taken a step up with our fitness and that we had used every opportunity to get out on the water, we looked forward to a good race. With only a couple of weeks to go before Fairbairns we knew we had to prove to each other that we could perform well over the race distance.

As their first race, Winter Head was always going to be a challenging event for the novice men. The crew rose to the challenge well, however, and went on to put in a convincing performance. The race started very well and the men quickly began to catch the King's College London boat that had started in front of them. Unusually for novice boats, the rate was kept under control and at an effective level. By first post corner the men had caught KCL and overtook them just after the corner. The inexperience of the crew started to show here, and the strong rhythm that had characterised their race thus far broke down a little. By Ditton the boat began to pick up again as the crew found the rhythm and pace that had eluded them in the middle segment of

On the row down, tensions were high in the boat, this being our first race of term. We managed to do a few practice rolling starts, which reminded us we could really move the boat when it mattered. The start did not really reflect the quality of the crew, being a bit rushed and untidy, however we came nicely together at the stride, settling into a good rhythm at 32 (a rating that we maintained throughout the race). Our pushes into and out of the corners were good, and even when they were tired, the rowers really made an effort to work together.

Men's Novice VIII

Division:	M Stu B 8+
Time:	11:04
Result:	11th / 25

Promising result from the first race of the Novice season especially given which crews NM1 beat...

Men's 2nd IV

Division:	M Stu N 4+
Time:	10:21
Result:	3rd / 9

A strong result from M2 beating all the College crews in their division as well as a few crews in the Senior Student division.

Women's 1st IV

Division:	W Stu N 4+
Time:	11:46
Result:	6th / 10

Full results are available on the Cantabs website here [PDF].

Taking place half way through term, a solid performance in the Uni IVs competition was the target during the first few weeks of training after the Long Vacation. The race, over a 2000m course from the Little Bridge to the Railway Bridge, is a real test for any crew which has only been rowing together for a few weeks. We were unlucky to be drawn against Churchill I for our first round heat on Monday 29th October, and even more unfortunate to be the chasing crew. Despite this we started well, and gained on our opponents in the opening stages. However we failed to establish the solid rhythm we needed to carry us over the course and with no crew behind to push us on it was not long before we began to fade.

The First Men's IV's first (and last) race in the University IVs was against First and Third Trinity who went on to win the event. Although disappointed to lose, the crew can take away two very positive results. First that the IV managed to stay on station with the fastest crew on the river until Plough Reach and secondly that Peterhouse, the only Lent Bumps second division crew entered, completed the course in the 5th fastest time ahead of plenty of first division crews.

Given the performance of last year’s squad in this event, the novice men could only ever do better. The results of several practice ergos suggested a powerful squad that had a chance of finishing in a good position. Everyone in the squad did well, with many individuals beating their practice time by a considerable margin. The average 500m split time split was 1.42.6 seconds, placing the novice men 29th out of 41 places. As an important measure of the squad’s base strength and fitness, the result was a promising one.

Tuesday 30th October saw eight of our Novice women come together to enter the Queens’ Ergo Competition 2007. Those participating (in no particular order) were: Caryn Ross- Innes, Vicki Moeller, Elizabeth Mooney, Christina Millar, Rebecka Ahl, Elena Hernandez-Merino, Rose Fisher and Stephanie Benstead.

After a rather long wait in cold, watching other crews doing everything from the Haka to the Hokey- Cokey, our girls were ready for the off! With ‘The Eye of the Tiger’ blaring in the background, our Novices really showed they had ‘pulling power’ by moving us slowly but surely up the leader board… That was however until technology failed us and we were left guessing our position after the screen broke down less than 5 minutes into the race!

The PBC Newsletter for Easter Term 2007 can be downloaded using the link below.