Chesterton Rowing Club
We entered five boats; results are on Rowclock. Our Elite Quad again did well, retaining their fastest quad on the Cam title, in 9:31 (vid); but note this was a slightly short course, around 2500m, with a best time of 8:18 from City. The distinctly-non-elite Master’s Quad managed 11:13.0 (raw) or 0:10:40 (with masters adjustment). The ladies Club A VIII was 11:02, the Mas E VIII 11:53 (raw) or 11:06 (adjusted); and the ladies Mas D quad 11:52 (raw; vid) 0:11:18 (adjusted).
Following the success of the SBH, it was time for the Autmn Head; and a fine autumnal day it was too, cool and cloudy to start but sunny later. Before going on about Chesterton I’m going to say what a pleasure it was to see City M1 today looking so sharp and strong, a joy to watch, and the only crew under 9 minutes. Results are here.
Leading the way for Chesterton, and with a storming time of 10:07 for overall 12th was our Club B 4x- featuring Steve O, Conor, Harry and Dave R. Vid. Another (Lorraine’s on fb).
Next was the W Club B VIII in 12:25 (fb Vid from Paul S); and then the W MasDE quad in 12:26 (raw) (vidz on fb that it won’t let me link to).
Twas the Robs Small-boats-but-large-fee Head, and various of our folk entered. Results here. From the top:
SteveO, Jon, Conor, Dave R: M IM3 4x: 10:23 - third overall (vid; fb vid)
Conor: IM3 1x winner of category: 11:34. (vid)
Harry: MasB 1x: 12:09 - slight contact with the far side of First Post (vid)
Rachel, Meg, Dawn, Lorraine: W.MasD.4x: 12:31 (vid; another vid)
Richard: MasG 1x: 12:37
Anne and Angela: MasF 2x: 15:17 - first race (vid).
It’s that time again.
The usual forerunner: CRA Time Race. Results at http://www.rowclock.com/Results/Time?raceId=120&scrolling=False. W1 and M1 won the masters categories.
Summary for the week: M1 down 2; M2 up 3; M3 down 2 up 1. W1 down 3; W2 down 3; W3 down 2 up 1. Overall -8 on the week. And, since positions aren’t kept this time, we get to do it all again next year!
Thanks for Jo Crisall for the videos, and Ralph Percival for many of the pix.
This year is the “staggered” pattern, with M1 and W1 not rowing. So it was nice to see M2 rowing just for once. And… they went up! A solid row against a decent crew, but they were faster. Vidz: Jo, William. Alas, M3, W3 and W2 were less happy and went… down. Vidz: W2 William, Jo. Weather: calm and sunny. Pix: courtesy of various, esp Ralph P.
M3: up. Well done them, catching the Tabs 10 crew that caught them yesterday. W1 and M1: row overs.
M1: somewhat nervously listened to the (distant) thunder whilst marshalling at Stourbridge but all went off OK. A decent start, perhaps a little wobbly halfway down FP, ominously City two behind bumped Nines behind before FP and then we didn’t get those naughty Hills Road Returners ahead of us. Vid.
W1: sat in anticipation watching the lightning in the distance beyond Green Dragon Bridge (maybe the weather was setting the tone for the race). With St. Neots (an unknown entity) chasing us and Cantabs ahead we knew it was going to be a tough race. After a solid start, moving up on Cantabs, we settled into a steady rhythm and held station but with Champs pushing St. Neots up the “excitement” started to rattle us. Still on station around FP with Matthew steering round bumped out crews we pushed on. Round Grassy we could see that City was pushing up on to Champs and tried to remain cool. Champs bumped St. Neots leaving us to go the distance of the course in a solid row over.
W3: After a torrid first night on Monday, W3 rowed down to our station on Tuesday, determined to do business. This time we started strong and a quick glance after we settled showed that Nines 6 did not pose much of a risk. The whistles and cheers behind us that followed shortly after, told their own story. With all immediate danger gone, we settled down for a good strong rowover. The way the Divisions fell this year, meant that the second half of our “sandwich” was not till Wednesday, but Dave kept us rowing as though we had something to prove. We took the corners in style and finished with a lovely, strong, well-set row up an empty reach, powering past the White House with a great deal of satisfaction. A rowover was the best we could hope for at the top of the Division, and it was a great confidence boost that we had rowed over well. Many thanks to Dave and to our subs, Anne and Sam (rowing her second race in her first bumps) and, of course to Masha, who has stepped into the boat for the whole week.
M1: doooown to City 2 before Frist Post. But, we rowed faster than Tuesday. Vid. W1: dooooown to Champs 1. M2: up! Again. The little scoundrels. They had to chase all the way to the reach for it though. Vid. W2: doooown to Tabs 6.
The usual blogging tailing off towards the end of the week… What happened on Thursday then? M1 rowed over: nothing head of us because City; behind us Tabs caught Nines before First Post and after that we were cruising. Vid. M2 were up, another short one. Vid; M3 lost a crabbing competition to Tabs 10. Vid. W1 went down, so the Prosecco competition with M1 looks promising. Vid. Ws 2 and 3 also down, boo.
M1 down, a death foretold: the Tabs crew that caught Nines last night got us tonight, though a little later. Vid. M2: row-over behind the Evil Aquaphobes. Tough luck boys no entry into M1 for you this year. Vid. M3: row over. Vid.
W1 down. Vid. W2: row over. Vid. W3: up.
Afterwards: drinks at the Spring until Really Quite Late, then for those whose bodies or wills had not failed then, the Hell that is City.
For the record, this years crews…
M1
Cox Maddy Scragg
8 Will MillerHarry Bulstrode
7 Harry Bulstrode
6 Conor BurgessSteve O'Rourke
5 Steve O'Rourke
4 Chris Wood
3 Ralph HancockDave Richards
2 Dave Richards
1 William Connolley
M2
Cox Felicity Parker
8 Simon Emmings
7 Jon Hatchett
6 Steven Andrews(injury)/Thur, Mark Varley/Fri, Chris Smith
5 Steve Penson/ Thur and Fri, Lachlan Jardine
4 Ondrej Cervinka
3 Christian Turvill
2 Richard Woodham
1 Dave Byrne
M3
Cox Felicity Parker
8 Alex Coplan
7 Adam Berry
6 Matt Clark
5 Simon Clarke
4 Mike Prior-Jones
3 Sam Wilstead
2 Matt Yates
1 Paul Szyszko
And so the flow of regattas returns, with the Radegund Mile, which turned into a Rad Bridge-to-Bridge (confusingly called 2.2 km on some early adverts) which we did, and a Rad short-course, for college novices mostly. There’s a copy of the results, reformatted, here; or for the old-skool types the original results here.
Of the men: we came 5th overall in raw time, and only narrowly missed coming fourth, in 7:30, defeating our evil enemy the Aquaphobes, and our even more evil enemy Tabs W1 by a full 6 seconds, and destroyed our not-so-evil “enemy” Queens’ W1 - a somewhat eccentric draw saw us placed behind them, so we gave them an enoooormous gap, aided by a strange failure of Conor’s footplate on the start line.
Of the women: “Bubble bath” was second CRA VIII (including masters adjustment) behind… Tabs W1, with 8:48 raw. And Dawn bravely sculled the course in her first racing-as-sculler ever.
After a successful Head of the Cam 2021, marking a return to racing for Cambridge, we got our chance to return to racing at city’s Head to Head. Twas a pleasant day, mostly sunny, but quite chill when not sunny, with a light headwind for the downstream leg. Results are at RowClock. Note that the race was a little short - probably 1900 m, finishing before the motorway bridge, apparently to leave Covid safety for marshalling, or somesuch. anyway, you can’t compare the times with previous years.
The ladies in the “Bubble Bath“ IM VIII in div 1 did 8:15.4 and 8:23.5 for a total of 16:38.9, coming 2/3 in their category, only 6 seconds short of Tabs. Also in div 1, the ladies vet E “Half a Glass of Bubbles” IV+ either won - or lost, depending on how you view it - their category in 9:18.0 and 9:32.2; raw total 18:50.2, adjusted 17:26.2.
The men’s MasC VIII in div 2 achieved 7:00.6 and 06:58.5, for a total 13:59.1 raw, and adjusted 13:37.1, coming 2/4 (or 2/5 if you include a City crew) to the Aquaphobes on masters adjustment, but fastest on raw time. Our aim for the year is to beat the Tabs women.
The Head of the Cam, 2021 will be on
Usual head course, usual rules… errm, except for the Covid updates, usual classes. Book early to avoid disappointment.
See the Head of the Cam page for full details or https://tinyurl.com/headofthecam2021 for entries, draw, and (to be) results.
Well, it happened. The weather was kind, the racing was good, and everyone has reported a good time. Results are on the URL above.
Fastest men were Nines, in 8:53. Fastest women, Cantabs, in 9:47. Previous years are noted here.
Last week saw several Chesterton sculls and doubles out; last Friday two women’s VIII’s; and last Saturday two women’s VIII’s and one men’s. And it was good: it looks like we haven’t forgotten how to row. Roll on summer…
Well hello there! it’s been quite a long time. Rowing didn’t entirely stop during lockdown, but regattas certainly did, so we break our radio silence to report on the Christmas Head, infamously expensive and poorly marshalled (am I allowed t say that in public?) but unmissable for all that. The weather smiled on the event and whilst we won nothing - other than me in the “finest weasel-based hat” category - it was a great return to the water. Other than fitful sunshine the most notable part was the high water, about as high as I’ve ever seen at new CRA; but with wellies boating wasn’t too bad, though our times were affected by the stream.
Results are on RowClock. A Cambridge Diary has some pix, as do City.
Club life continues fitfully during COVID-19, with men’s and women’s squads doing virtual outings so we don’t all turn into total lardbuckets. This weekend would have been Head of the Cam wich is just Yet Another Victim of the lockdown, alas. Anyway, here’s a screenshot of the event to remind us all of the fun: two times 20 mins, with a ten minute rest for tea, or thereabouts.
