Winter Head - 1st Novice Men's VIII

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 the race. Down the reach they held off a strong LMBC boat at a consistent distance and pushed on well to the finish.

The final time of 11.02 for the 2500m course was a respectable first performance for the novice men, and one that beat several notable other College novice first boats including Queens', Selwyn, and Magdalene. In their division of 25 boats they finished 11th.