All in all, not a bad show at all. THe men's A boat, stroked by Peter Gould had an interesting race against St John's C. Complete dominance was shown, and with John Hill in his first competative race, they opened a commanding lead of about 20 lengths! Carnage was encountered on the boat house row where an eight was sat merrily drifting in Catz' lane. AN easy ours was called (pretty much outside the JOhn's boat house!) and Catz started again after clearing the drifting boat. They won by a "a margin", but i heard rumours that they had spun and started to go back before Johns arrived. A little but of a mismatch in speed but some good rowing from Catz.
The B boat were a little less lucky. THey were drawn against a very quick CHCH boat B, and although their rowing at times resembled the famous "CHCH Catapiller" they crossed the line a length or two down on CHCH.
THE Men's C looked fierce as the approached the start line. It was only after a closer look that you noticed that bow was not wearing a shirt at all, but still matched the blue shirts of the other boys! It was a little chilly that day and i'm not sure that Worcester A were not a little frightened. THe race panned out as you would expect, but the improvement in the technique from earlier this week was phenominal. Even John said their first three strokes were good! The were beaten by a margin, but did themselves proud.
THe women raced very well. THey had a few crab related incidents from the start, but then matched Oriel for pace till the end. So many what ifs..
Day two!
General synopsis:
Men's B - raced brilliantly just couldn't hold on to a strong keble B and lost by 3 lengths
Men's C - had been so scary on wednesday, they frightened poor little Mansfield into scratching so are into the next round!!!
Women i'll leave this to Lydia, I didn't really see much of the race, so i'm sure she will be able to give you a better report, eh Lyds??
Racing today sees our Men's A and C crews battle it out for a place in the fourth round. COme and watch if you are not racing: the races start at 12.30 for us!
D
Two crews racing - Men's N A and Men's N C
first to race was MNC. This was never going to be an easy race, and with a change of stroke from wednesday, things were even more difficult. This being said, the boys rowed the best i have ever seen them row. For a period of 40-50 strokes, they were in time and moving quite nicely. The superior speed of Somerville's B's was irrelavant to our own personal sucess. In novice racing, the outcome is very rarely something you can influence. You cannot race to won, but row the best you can, and i must say that out of all the sucesses this week, today race for our C crew was the most spirited, the most inspiring of all. There were more topless antics from Bow, Joe Freind, who's blue tint matched the other's shirt again! there was also a little pin mixed in, when he caught the biggest crab i think i have seen this year, causing him to loose his seat and his oar!!! His efforts up till then had been exemplary. I think there will be few penalty drinks bought by him tonight! I only mention this because i know that every single man on the crew should be over the moon with their efforts today - crabs or no crabs, every man out there gave his everything for his college and i can ask nothing more from any of them. I hope you guys all enjoyed it today, you certainly should have done!
Next race was the MNA - also a match characterised by bow rowers! I don't want to mention names greg, but, greg, if someone was to mention, greg, that you should always, greg, make sure, greg, that your gate is fully closed and locked before racing, greg. This being said, after a bit of a scrappy start, and quickly dropping to 7 men as our nameless bow's blade popped out of his gate, the rowing looked good. At the end of the green bank, Catz's city side advantage had increased to about a length. When greg finally joined the rest, we increased this to about 8 lengths by the end of the boat houses, and finished a full 12-13 lengths ahead of Magdellen B. This is not just a testament to the age old A boat vs B boat, there were times that the boat was flying. A full congratulations to all members of the crew for a blinding race. More to come tomorrow from MNA, who have to take it pretty easy tonight at Catz night! SOrry boys, but i have a feeling that you will celebrate tomorrow night in style!!