Race Reports

The supporters, including the Master and Lady Wilson, who turned out to see the two Peterhouse IVs racing one after the other were made to wait as the start of our race was severely delayed as a result of the earlier races overrunning but also because barges were using the river immediately before we were due to race. All of this meant that we had
a long wait on the river in the cold. This may have contributed to a lack of concentration on the start as we did not start together and the boat veered towards the bank. Disaster was averted with quick reactions and we soon settled to a strong rhythm even if our rating was a little lower than planned and it took time for us to warm up after having had to wait at the start.

---Written by Alex Collins (CKBC member)---

Fairbairns 2007 saw PBC's alumni club, the Cross Keys Boat Club (CKBC), entering two scratch crews.

CKBC's VIII, organised by David Sawtell and Patrick Overy, finished a very respectable joint 41st, just over halfway down the invitational VIIIs category, and beating a couple of Cambridge college first VIIIs and St Hugh’s, Oxford.

Peterhouse's successful Fairbairns 2006 IV returned as CKBC for the second time, finishing in joint ninth position with Peterhouse's Second IV and twelve seconds behind Peterhouse's First IV. Everyone involved had a fantastic day out and
most stayed to enjoy a superb Boat Club Dinner in the newly renovated hall.

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 lycra kit order had arrived in time for Fairbairns and the first VIII looked resplendent in their matching PBC attire. The crew was determined to lay to rest the ghost of their performance in Clare Novices and the day started with everyone in a positive frame of mind, the words of Al Pacino’s inspirational speech from the film Any Given Sunday ringing in their ears. The first indication we got that things weren’t going to go our way was when the Darwin boat in front went off straight into the bank at the start. Putting this distraction out of their minds, the crew achieved an excellent start, working within themselves but putting plenty of run on the boat.

On Thursday 29th November, Peterhouse Boat House was teeming with eight of our Novice women and their Novice coxswain, excitedly preparing for their Fairbairns NW1 race in the (unexpected!) early morning sunshine. After seeing off our NM1 counterparts, we quickly set about cleaning our boat, Greta, in the hope that she would bless those that rowed in her with good Fairbairns fortune!

Those rowing that morning were (from stroke to bow): Elena Hernandez-Merino, Nicole Spann, Rebecka Ahl, Elizabeth Mooney, Eva Steiner, Rachel Clark, Christina Millar and Kate Hatcher. Their much-loved coxswain was Lisa Mullins.

The novice men’s section were just short of enough men for a second novice men’s VIII, so we decided to enter a IV racing for time only instead. Owing to various commitments the crew had only been able to row together once before the race, so the Fairbairns course was always going to be challenging. Despite their inexperience, the second men rowed the course well and they were quicker than Downing II and Wolfson IV, both VIIIs!

The Second Novice Women actually managed to beat the First Novice Women in this race, due to the two crews being fairly evenly balanced in terms of strength. The Second Women had difficulty finding their rhythm though, and a couple of crabs slowed them down further. Nevertheless, the determination shone through and, with the help of what can only be described as battle cries from the six seat, they finally found their rhythm. A massive push off the Railway Bridge brought the boat speed right up to see them finish in style. It was disappointing to come in 48th, but there were some good individual performances from some strong rowers who will hopefully continue rowing next term and beyond!

Given the promising performance of the novice men at Winter Head, everyone was keen to see how they would perform in Clare Novice Regatta. The novice men were a little unlucky in drawing Caius A for their race, but the mood was still optimistic at the start. Just into the start sequence stroke caught a crab which caused significant difficulties and Caius were able to pull away from us. The crew recovered, however, and they were quickly gaining on Caius. Unfortunately, an extremely severe crab caught by seven meant the boat had to stop and start again, destroying the gains that had been made on Caius. The men rose to the challenge and were soon gaining on Caius, but there was not enough river left to catch them. The result was a disappointing one for the novice

Our first round was versus Trinity Hall First Novice Women. Our girls got off to an incredible start, increasing their lead on every stroke until disaster struck: stroke’s blade came out of the gate! In the time it took to sort it out, Tit Hall gained a lead of around 4 lengths and it looked as if all was lost. Peterhouse came storming back off their second start however, and were gaining ground fast. When they had drawn level and were starting to take the lead again, the Tit Hall cox took an interesting racing line, steering straight into the bank to give Peterhouse an easier win than they were anticipating! Peterhouse deservedly won by some lengths with strong tidy rowing all the way.

After a slightly disappointing start to the term in the Uni IV's, M2 had put in some mileage on the land and water to improve their results. The conditional were ideal to prove ourselves a slight head wind with crews around us who were equal or better than us on paper.