Race Reports

Small Boats Regatta took place during the first week of Lent Term. Matt Harris and Emanuel Malek were entered in the Foster-Fairbairn pairs event, with the course running from the Little Bridge to the Railway Bridge. Our first race as a crew in Michaelmas had seen us struggle with steering, colliding with the bank repeatedly. But after some determined training we were confident we had upped our game enough to be competitive against the modest pool of entrants in Small Boats. On the first day we were being chased by Caius who proved to be strong opponents but when they veered into the bank on the Reach we were in a position to capitalise and reached our finishing post a couple of seconds before they reached theirs.

Left with the bitter taste of a disappointing Bumps result, M1 were eager to prove themselves at the Head of the River Race. Despite one of the rowers from the Lents VIII not being able to make the race and illness plaguing the rowers up until two days before the HoRR, the crew pressed on and prepared as well as they could for the race.
Thanks to the experience of having raced the Tideway in 2008, we were confident that we could execute the race plan over the entire 6.8km of the Championship Course. After having watched (and studied) the top crews go off it was our turn to show what we could do.

On Saturday 7th March, W1 raced The Women's Eights Head of the River Race. An overall time of 22:00.7 saw us move up 100 places from our starting position to finish 190th overall.
On the morning of the race, after some impressively speedy rigging, we had plenty of time to people watch and try to see how many crews had managed to put their riggers on upside down or back to front. After some discussion about the best way to affix our number to the boat, we began the queue to boat.
Starting at number 290 meant we had plenty of time marshaling on the Thames before the race to get used to the immense stream and choppier water.

Overall W1 went up four and rowed over twice. It was a huge achievement bumping into the first division, managing to place ourselves as the highest Peterhouse women have been on the bumps chart and winning blades; an unbelievable week!

On Sunday 8th February W1 were hosted in Oxford by our sister college Merton to race in the Isis Winter League. It is only a short race; 1200m, but we knew it would be a valuable experience.

Tuesday

Confidence was high going into this week - for seven of the nine men in the boat, their first taste of Bumps.

Going into the Lent bumps with no other racing experience as a crew is a somewhat daunting task. This, I noticed, was particularly true when a boat known to be fast is starting immediately in front.

On the first day, Girton, directly in front, caught Robinson swiftly, leaving us with the Long Reach to catch LMBC II three in front. Getting into an excellent rhythm coming round Ditton gave us several lengths, although it was extremely close - with the overbump happening only a few boat-lengths short of the finish.

Despite the crew’s initiate dread at how long the race was going to be, on the actual morning the cold weather, when marshalling, meant we could not wait to get going. Eventually after what seemed like hours we approached the start line and were off.

Due to illness, the Fairbairns Cup was the first race the novice women had done all term, and they were eager to show that their training and hard work had paid off. Unfortunately, during the week leading up to Fairbairns three members of the squad were deemed too ill to row, which left only six novices that had trained together all term.
After two quick substitutions, a lot of carnage during marshalling, and some extra time for the slightly slower Sidney Sussex II boat ahead, the novice women were ready to go.

With the return of two of our best rowers from University trialling, a good result was expected from this IV. However, their ultimate performance was outstanding.

Only 1.26s over 3400m separated them from half of the Lents and Mays headship crew. Beating several other college crews, all highly placed in the Bumps, was icing on this cake. There was concern from the bank that the initial speed was too high to maintain, but the fitness work done throughout the term paid off.

Finishing a very close second to a much higher placed crew was a hugely encouraging result, and bodes well for the Bumps results next term.