Chesterton Rowing Club
The traditional New Year’s Day 10k. Not much more to say about it than that: we had lots of people this time, which filled up the ergs at Combined. Look at our smiling post-erg faces.
Your egrets were: Shonu, Karen, Lorraine, Anne, Katherine, Yan, William, Simon, Paul, Ralph, Alex, Nils, Richard.
This year’s Autumn Head had a distinct headwind, stronger in division 2, so don’t judge the times too harshly. Results are on Webscorer (archive); on time order we had:
Men’s Mas 4x-: 12:05.5 (video) - our second outing (prev: the SBH), with a slightly different lineup; Ralph in for Simon. A couple of light touches but less dramah overall.
Men’s Nov VIII: 12:48.6 (video) - most of the crew’s first race, so well done them.
Women’s MasDE VIII: 13:01.5 (video)
Women’s MasB IV+: 13:41.8
Women’s MasC 4x-: 13:42.8
The beginning of another Autumn sees another Robs SBH. See here for the 2021 version. This year we had:
Meg, Lorraine, Manja and Dory entered as a 4x12:22.5).
Karen, Angela, Caroline and Shonu were in the 4+ with Manja coxing (14:23.2).
William, SimonE, PaulS and DaveR in the MasE 4x- (11:35.7).
Of the men: a decent start to the season. We had no practice beforehand, and a couple of brief bursts down the Reach sugegsted we should aim for 26; we did off the start, but (to me (WMC)) didn’t feel settled. We had a brief (a-la Harry) touch on the outside of First Post, which my GPS suggests cost us about 20 seconds, and then went to and stayed at 28, which felt better. Those 20 seconds also got us a Tabs double on our tail which gradually overhauled us and came past on the Reach; and just before the finish line a fast KCA pair.
Pic: afterwards, in Tischka’s.
It’s that time again… Monday and Tuesday were cancelled due ot the Great Heat Wave, so our story starts on Wednesday. We have five crews this year, 3 women and 2 men. Days are covered last-first…
Friday too wasn’t an outstanding success. Highlight of the rowing was M1’s row-over ahead of Nines 3, a far more interesting race that we’d expected: having distanced them at the start they came back on the Reach, getting to perhaps 3/4 of a length. M2 fell victim to City, and the ladies went down. Vidz:
Afterwards to the Tivoli (thnx EC for organisation) for pizza drinks and speeches until midnight; and then it was the inevitable trip to City until quite late. Let’s leave the last word to RN: “So much was said on Friday night about what a lovely club Chesterton RC is and I think this year Bumps demonstrated it so well. Unfortunately, it was not an overly successful Bumps Campaign for us this year but there was little dwelling on this in the speeches and there were plenty of hugs and smiles all round.” And, I should add, M1 won the newly-donated (thnx Mike P-J) “Captain’s prize” for a minature oar each for the best crew that didn’t win blades.
Note: some pix below. Those that are mine are available at full-rez from Flickr.
Overhead Vid (M1).
Thusday wasn’t great either. M1 pulled out a much better row and were oh-so-close to Tabs 3 in the gut but alas City 2 behind got us just a few strokes too early.
M1 riggercam; down.
M2: row-over. JoCam. A fine start.
W1: down. JoCam.
W2 down, agonising. JoCam.
W3: down. JoCam.
But Wednesday was not a happy day. Our highlight was M1 - naturally - who rowed over, but everyone else went down. Some links:
M1 Cox: Theo von Wilmowski Stroke: Harry Bulstrode Jonathan Pilgrim Steve O'Rourke Conor Burgess Adam Townson Jon Hatchett William Connolley Bow: Ralph Hancock. Alistair Goodman has Covid for days 1 and 2, so AT was our sub.
M2 Cox: Joshua Blake Dave Richards Simon Emmings Ian Foster Brian Stevens Christian Turvill Ondrej Cervinka Paul Holland Alex Coplan. Paul Szyszko for PH on Friday.
W1 Cox: Tom Grimble Lorraine Turvill Catherine Vilhauer Sarah Burgess Katherine McCloud Alicia Higueruelo Jo Raskin Natalie Andrews Masha Netchaeva
W2 Cox: Rachel Ibbott Anne Roberts Alex Addyman Marija Milosavlievic Karen Momber Dory Polos Kasia Babusinska Ella Harding-Rolls Kate Winter with Sam Fisk for EH-R on Friday.
W3 Cox: Meg Richards Claire Hancock Shonu Das Louise Atkin Beccy Garrill Evelyne Donnaes Dawn Hawkins Paige Boxhall Katie Bolt. Brigita Silesova for KB on Friday.
The Time Race marks the almost-at-bumps point of the year.
The men entered Jeeves (M1; trace) and Wooster (M2), with times 4:44 and 5:15 respectively. That seems reasonbly promising for M1, with evil arch-enemy Hills Road at 4:56 who might be Tabs M3. Meanwhile M2 will have to hope that City M5 (4:51) get promoted to M4.
On the women’s side, W2 entered and got 6:11.
It seems that the CRA Time Race records are a little scattered, so I have gathered them all together here.
Surprisingly there was a somewhat luke-warm interest in participating in the Xpress Head on June 4th 2022. The clash with The Queen's Platinum Jubilee and the long weekend no doubt contributed, leaving only four of us with nothing better to do than race on the Saturday. We were myself (Anne Roberts) and Lorraine as the two old timers, Shonu who signs up for everything, and Marija who is the proud owner of her own erg which she also uses. Fortunately for us, Meg had just returned bronzed and relaxed from her holiday in Greece and agreed to cox.
So after no practice outings we headed off in Spare Rib to the race start. Lorraine in her usual seat as stroke followed by Shonu, Marija and me – a scratch line up from W1, W2 and W3. As I was coxing my Cantabs Masters G boat of retirees in the next division we had asked to be sent off in good time and not at the back of the pack which is frequently the case for a coxed IV. Somewhat to our surprised we were drawn as boat 1 with the dizzying prospect of being chased by Clare M1. We wondered how much head start Claire would give us. The rumour was 4 minutes. Lorraine muttered, ‘Hope we get around Ditton before they catch us up.’ It was a real treat to arrive at the start of a race and go off first and not have the usual wait. We did a rolling start and were off. Meg steered an excellent line around all the corners and especially snug on Grassy and the we kept up a rating of about 30 which felt long and solid. To our delight we were halfway up The Reach before Clare came around Ditton. We had a brief moment of thinking we might get to the finish line before them. However, Clare put on a tremendous push and overtook as at the railway bridge. Their push had lifted us on to finish in good style and a very respectable time of 11.05 over a course of about 2.1 km. With our masters adjustment we came in with 10.26 and somewhat unexpectedly came top of our category of Open Miscellaneous 4+ and a first Chesterton win for Shonu and Marija. Big smiles all round.
To complete a very enjoyable day I then won my first coxing medal with my Cantabs Masters G Harlequins crew in the next division.
Saturday the 21st saw a return of our Ely Training Day at the CUBC boathouse, with the men’s and women’s side sending an eight; and additionally a double and quad. Having an uninterrupted straight river was great, as was coaches in launches. And we’ll quietly forget the men’s self-sabotage of somehow losing half and then all the wiring loom.
Another successfull HoC is now past. The “entry” page is archived here; the results spreadsheet is here; the Rowclock is here. We had a total of 738 “seats” entered, which was good (2018: 610; 2021: 587) most of whch came in the last week (I say this for future reference for anyone else doing entries who would worry about thin entries two weeks before). Div 1 as usual was full-for-eights and “negotiations” were held.
Numbers and prize-giving were in-person at Queens’ coaching room; our thanks to them for allowing us use.
Image credits: Ralph Percival.
Div 4 pix of crews: https://www.flickr.com/photos/belette/albums/72177720298321436
Note: post written well in arrears, but dated to the event itself.
Unlike the lazy men the women - led by Anne - got themselves together and entered Vets Head. And selected me (William, your author) as their cox. We managed two outings a week with long pieces tackled with enthusiasm, and Anne’s untiring efforts even found a trailer, with Champs. And so, the big day. We were boating from Furnival, which is a good spot and the clubhouse has been tarted up. If you’re thinking of boating from there I’d recommend watching the video of us boating, because the “turn” onto the pontoon at Furnival is tight. Notice the luxury of not having to push off as soon as we’re in and settle down once on the water: Vets is more relaxed than HoRR. Nor was there a formal boating order. The water, once we were on it, wasn’t bad: a decent day, fairly flat, once the wash from the safety boats had subsided.
As to the race, see the video, part 1 and part 2. Notice me poncing around at the start giving #122 a nice gap, and then #124 rather rudely comes up our chuff. Kids these days. Anyway, we settled down and raced our race. Sadly we didn’t win our category but then again we weren’t last either and that will do. My lines were not at all impeccable for which I offer my apologies.
Pix are ripped from fb. Thanks to Lorraine for support; Jo for subbing in; and commiserations to Mel for her Covid-forced absence.
Another week, another race. This time the City winter Head to Head: 2k downstream, bridge to bridge, followed by a brief respite and then 2k in the more normal upstream direction. A lovely sunny day, with a light headwind coming back. The draw is here and the results (read ‘em and weep) are here. For us, see below. Times are: out; back; total (raw) and total (with masters adjustment).
Div 1 131 Chesterton RC Novice Women's 8 CRA Novice Women's 8+ (0:10:09.00:09:55.60:20:04.60:20:04.6)
Div 1 136 Chesterton RC Senior Women's Four CRA Club Women's 4- (DNS)
Div 1 140 Chesterton RC Harry Bulstrode Masters B Men's 1x (0:08:47.00:09:11.80:17:58.80:17:49.8) (vid)
Div 2 214 Chesterton RC Men's Mas D 4x Masters D Men's 4x- (0:08:16.40:08:39.60:16:56.00:15:56.0)
Div 2 215 Chesterton RC Mas D Women's Quad Masters D Women's 4x- (0:08:48.30:09:10.90:17:59.20:16:58.2) (vid)
Div 3 313 Chesterton RC Roberts Masters E Mixed 4x- (0:09:04.80:09:29.50:18:34.30:17:02.3) (vid)
Div 3 314 Chesterton RC Burgess CRA Club Men's 1x (0:08:23.10:08:42.80:17:05.90:17:05.9)
Conor is still winning the Burgess-Bulstrode deathmatch, despite Harry’s most feared opponent - the bank opposite First Post - proving no obstacle this time. We (men’s master’s) won “fastest Quad of the day” for which alas there is no prize; entries look to have been somewhat on the thin side, to me.
City were fastest overall, beating Caius by a mighty 0.5 of a second in 0:12:56.4. Which - for a 2 x 2km course - is a 1:37 split. Argh: City revised their timings, I think only for div 4 - see at end.
Caius were fastest overall in 12:55. Which - for a 2 x 2km course - is a 1:37 split.
By roving reporter Anne.
I always love a head to head race as it feels likes two races for the price of one. And almost without fail, we always comment that the second leg went better than the first leg as we were actually warmed up properly. Not being in a crew for this event, I tentatively asked around for a doubles partner and was delighted when Katherine said yes. Fortunately, presumably over quiet cups of tea somewhere, Katherine and Simon came up with the better plan of rowing in a quad with Paul making up the fourth. And after one pleasingly smooth and well-balanced outing snatched in the twilight hours of last Tuesday, we headed to the start of the race. Division 3 due to Tishka being used already in Divisions 1 and 2. We weren’t quite as smooth in the race as our outing, due no doubt to race adrenaline and excitement, and the fact that we were rowing in dirty water from the crews ahead. Simon was steering Tishka which he thought responded more quickly to the rudder than the men’s new yellow boat he was more used to. We rated about 28 to 30, but probably rowed our
best at 28. Katherine gave us encouraging coaching from the 2 seat, and I tried to keep the rating at 28 when we started to get a bit excited and messy. Conor had called us the Pesky Quad on Facebook, as we drawn ahead of him at 313 to his 314. However once he had mentioned he was going to row over at a split of sub 2 [Ed.: Conor is good but not that good, he got 2:06 :-)] we decided it might be best if he started ahead of us. Fortunately we didn’t have to overtake anyone and we also didn’t let anyone past us. A City single stayed safely behind us, but did close the gap. Although our raw times were rather average our masters adjustment raised us up the finishing order and gave us all a smile. The day finished as it should with a cake and coffee in Tishka’s.
Note (which I’ll add here since people are appalling at doing this in general, not from secretiveness, just from not thinking clearly…): City got some grief for the Div 4 timings which were hard to understand (“City have changed the times for division four of Winter head2head so much from yesterday. Not just switched the two legs around so that the with/against the stream times make sense with with the other divisions. They've also changed the actual times of each leg quite a lot for all crews compared to the original times they put up. They definitely, massively, botched the timings for division four, more so than just getting the legs mixed up“). They were revised, but the only official announcement of that (AFAIK) is Seb in answer to #Rowbridge9211: “Timing for the event is done digitally using RowClock. However, we also run a backup system using stopwatches (this is more manual but more reliable). After reviewing the times we felt there were issues with the digital timing for Div4 and so replaced the times with the backup system. At the end of the day we want the times to be as accurate as possible. Three people queried times for specific crews and these have all been checked and resolved. I can also confirm that the updated results didn’t impact the winners in each category.”.
