Race Reports

Summary

Up 3 places by bumping Clare Hall II, Sidney Sussex III & Downing III.

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» Video Footage from Hammersmith Bridge (Courtesy of Olay)

This term, the First Men entered the Head of the River, along the Championship course in London, for the first time in several years. This meant a very low placed start for the boat. Having sat on the Tideway for a couple of hours, we finally paddled down below the start line at Chiswick Bridge.

Summary: Up Three Places. Bumped St Catharine's, Wolfson and Caius II.

Day One: Rowed Over

We started off the race with a good start and got to a length off Girton by 20 strokes. Girton were also catching Cats fast. We kept closing on Girton and they were also closing on Cats. With us within half a length of Girton on first post corner they caught Cats, who hit the wind and lost their momentum, and the two boats were out of the race. FaT II bumped Wolfson on that corner so there was nothing in front.

Day One: Bumped by FaT IV

Unfortunately not the best first day for M2, despite a lot of effort. Chasing Clare II and being followed by First and Third IV, we got off to a reasonable start, with a solid push off the motorway bridge and into First Post corner leaving us settled down at a good rhythm. However, carnage in the Gut with a 3 boat pile-up (St Edmunds I bumping Girton II were promptly crashed into by a closely-following Clare II) meant that we had to wind down to avoid a serious accident, allowing a steaming FaT IV to catch up rapidly, missing a bump by what seemed like inches from the stroke seat!

Day One: Rowed Over (Head of Division 2)

With the choice of pain or pain and depression and with nothing to bump this was never going to be a pleasant race for the first women. We were fairly confident we could hold off New Hall for the duration of the course, and were just aiming for a good, tidy row. The start went to plan, with us pushing away from New Hall who were being gained on by Robinson, and we settled into a good rythmn.

A timed head race from Little Bridge to Railings (approx. 1600m).

Crew	Division	Time	Result
Women's 1st VIII	W1	07:37	9th/17

Full results are available on the Newnham BC website here.

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.

We got off to fairly tidy start, although the adrenaline meant that the rating settled slightly higher than we'd practiced. Riverside seemed to pass quickly, with some 'focusing' calls from Lucie attempting to maintain concentration as the pain started to kick in.

This term the size of the men's section was doubled with respect to previous years' Michaelmas terms through the addition of a Third Men's VIII, which was also the first Peterhouse senior VIII entered into the Fairbairn Cup Races since 2003's joint PBC/CKBC crew.

The Second Women’s IV started out as a low commitment boat, with an aim to have fun rowing; the term “Gentlemen’s Boat” does not exactly apply, but the spirit of the name is accurate. When we decided to enter Fairbairns, we realised that we had to take our training more seriously, pushing harder with the outings than before and doing some land training. We were unlucky with injuries and University commitments, such that we had to draft in substitutes from the Lower Boats Officers, who had not been rowing, but the race looked set to go ahead with some last minute outings.