1st Novice Men's VIII - Fairbairns 2009

Having performed well in the Clare Novice Regatta, we were hoping to do equally well or even better in Fairbairns. After an early start and a good deal of manouevering through the pre-race marshalling chaos, we made it to the start line and prepared for the race. We started strongly and kept up a relatively good speed through the course, managing to keep the rate from dropping by much, despite the onset of tiredness. After Chesterton corner we started to build our speed and power up gradually, and indeed caught sight of the boat who had set off a few minutes before us, from Hughes Hall. As we passed under the railway bridge, there seemed to be a good chance of catching them, and this spurred the crew on to even greater efforts, but in the end we crossed the finish line mere metres behind, with a respectable time of just over ten minutes, which gave us 12th place in the Men's Novice VIIIs division.