Bumps, day 3: 0 / 0 / +1 / +1

Another gorgeous day with little wind.

M1: up (St Neots)

For all of you who wish to study our final-day opposition, the Champs-Press bumps is almost on this vid; and for those who want to see what St Neots were really like, they appear here too on the row back.

Thursday turned into our make-or-break day: having escaped Sharks on day 1, and got Nines 2 easily on day 2, we needed to get St Neots or face Sharks again on Friday; and whilst I wouldn't object to giving them another go, on the whole I'd say once was enough. We were one of the first boats to Stourbridge and waited around for W1 which was delayed by Something (always nice to see the old traditions maintained). We lolled around under cloudless blue skies joking about the marshalling. James H revealed that he had a cunning frustrate-the-Sharks plan: start badly, or not start at all, and let ourselves get bumped by Nines! Which would have given us an easy day on Friday bumping Nines back. Ingenious, and not something that would have occurred to me, but naturally we didn't seriously consider it, tempting as it was.

No, we rowed for glory instead. John pushed us out on 45 (with no stream and no wind that made perfect sense, and he'd done it on Tues and Weds too) and Emma counted us down (I really should slip in some thanks to those two for bank-partying us, so here it is) and we set off perfectly aligned. The race plan was that St Neots would be a good deal harder than Nines, and we couldn't really expect to get them before the Plough, or possibly on the Reach, but that we should go off hard and try to break them. Last year they were shockingly fast, but we knew that this year we had a faster start than them.

Although looking at the GPS trace I can see that our actual start wasn't desperately impressive - peak 1:27 - we've hit 1:20 on other days.

We got one whistle fairly soon - after perhaps 15 strokes. We (well, I) regarded this as ours by right and, as planned, we really paid little attention to it - just keep it hard. Vague shouting from the bank not long after the A14 bridge suggested we'd closed to 3/4 length, which was welcome but not very important - we knew we weren't going to close just yet. Then somewhere in the fog of going round FP things started changing as we closed in to 2 whistles, and then rapidly 3; this was unexpected but quite welcome (at that point I was going through my usual mental fight with myself, which this year took the form of: "yes this hurts, but its going to hurt a lot more if you let Sharks chase you down the Reach tomorrow, so lets not let that happen"). It got somewhat choppy but we kept it up (the trace shows that, as usual, we slowed a little round FP but then we picked it back up to 1:38 / 1:39 and held that) until the bump. Which came rather suddenly in the gut.

Actually there is some (poor quality but welcome) video that establishes the sequence: we're half a length down round FP, within at most 10 strokes that closes to overlap, and within a couple more strokes we bump / they acknowledge, about at the "change sides here" sign.

Hurray for us. Next stop: Champs? Or Press? We didn't know at that point. It turned out to be Press. Bring on Friday.

W1: up (Nines 2)

Tonight a different race. Nines 2 on their way down in front and the Champs Junior Girls chasing rather than being chased. We'd seen Nines 2 out training a lot but knew they's be feeling under pressure having been Bumped on the previous two nights and that they had some inexperienced rowers and they'd been Bumped fairly early the previous two nights. So we felt confident. We had a better start, Champs Girls did gain on us but we rowed calmly and started to gain ground on Nines, soon there were calls for a length, half a length, a final push and yes "Hold it up" we'd got them just coming into First Post. All very surreal after the previous two nights long hauls. Champs behind steered to avoid us only to go careering up the bank on the other side.

M2: row-over

To be filled in. But its lunchtime now.

W2: row-over

With two Bumps under their belt tension was rising. Tonight they had Cantabs 5 to chase but knowing they'd Bumped the crew we'd Bumped on the previous night at a similar place we knew it would be a longer row tonight. Taking full advantage of the bend at the start the crew went out fast hoping to catch them early but it wasn't to be. Coming out of Grassy the bank party were erging [I think you mean "egging"; though the idea of a bank party on wheelie-mounted ergs instead of bikes is quite appealling - ed.] them on knowing they only had until Ditton to the finish. A very gutsy row over. And another chance to catch them tomorrow.

Bumps, day 2: +1 / 0 / +1 / +1

M1: up

A glorious bump up against Nines 2. Actually it wasn't really that glorious, more in the nature of Inevitable, Nines 2 having the misfortune of being a rather poor crew this year and we're pretty good.

After yesterday, today's race plan was obvious: us to get Nines 2 quite early, about where St Neots got them or perhaps a little earlier: before the end of First Post reach. But behind us, ah, the Sharks, who would surely know we had a slow crew ahead of us, and be out for blood, and therefore come up like a rocket.

The first part worked fine: we got a decent start, peak 1:20, and had only faded to 1:37 when we hit Nines. It got pretty choppy under the A14 bridge and closing in on them, but that doesn't seem to have affected our speed much. The second part didn't happen: City 3 didn't gain at all off the start, and indeed when we last saw them they were being hard pressed by Tabs 3 (who blew up not much later). What we hadn't thought of was that the Sharks knew we'd get Nines, and saw no reason to put themselves out pushing the start hard for no possible gain. Its nice that they were so confident of us.

Afterwards, to Queens for some club beer, tactfully leaving Nines (who were also boating from Peterhouse) to weep in peace.

There's a video of the M1 division on the reach which gives the lie to the Sharks' "Yours is the Reach and everything that’s in it (St Neots. Just not quite close enough for the overbump)" though perhaps they were allowing themselves poetic license.

W1: up

So the same sandwich as yesterday, Champs Juniors in front and Cantabs Juniors chasing, but with a little more knowledge. It wasn't going to be easy. We had a shaky start with a few recovered crabs caused by the weeds. Cantabs gained ground but we remained calm, we'd seen them off the night before and could do it again. Coming out of Grassy we started to gain on Champs in front, a length, half a length, at the Plough we had overlap, we could do it our cox said, there were whistles from the bank and cheers from the Plough. Just 5 more strokes we had a good line round Ditton but had to take a good corner, another 5 strokes and "Hold it up" we'd done it.

As can be seen by all the willow in the picture.

Small note: the picture is a re-uploaded version of this but with the colour balance "fixed", i.e. jiggered in Gimp.

The first half of W1 is nicely captured on video here; highlight is the COWS on City.

M2: row-over

M2 improved on their result of yesterday by rowing over. You can re-live the last few exciting seconds as they push to the line here. Ahead of them, Nine 4 have knocked Tabs 7 (Poachers) down, so they have a fair chance on Thursday.

Here they are coming round Grassy (about 2 mins in).

In their own words

This year, M2 are building a brand new, two storey "Bump House".

So...

Plans drawn up, management team assembled... Architect -KW...Project manager -SE...Site forewoman-VG. Regs consultants..Wykeham Connolley & co. Crew hired..fired..head hunted..and retired. Start date 16th July 2013. Let work commence... Tuesday. In a great flurry of smoke and whistles, our old bungalow of fear and uncertainty was demolished by the great wrecking ball of 99's M4. Site(and sight) all clear. Wednesday, Sleeves rolled up, builders bum glistening, in the evening sun. We pushed, we heaved, we dug deep and laid those foundations good and strong. Thanks to our forewoman Vicky, for great leadership and direction throughout, staying very cool under pressure and ensuring we prevented a late collapse (oh...and for not eating all the pies).

Good job well done. Foundations laid.

W2: up

Today W2 had Champs to chase. After a slower start than yesterday they started to gain ground by the A14, but Champs were gaining on Cantabs in front. Cantabs caught a crab and slowed right down and it looked like Champs might get them first. This was the time for a Bumps 10 and yes they got them shortly after the A14. Well done W2. Up two!

Unfortunately W2 had the poor taste to bump out early again, but you get to see them in the distance towards the tail end of this video. Amy, Emmsie and Roy are in there too.

Other views

* Amy about City.

Bumps, day 1: +1 / -1 / 0 / 0

So much to say, so little time. I may expand this later. After all our preparations, the time has finally come to race (aside: vignette from oh so many years ago, when I was but a noob at Oxford, so long ago that the word "noob" didn't even exist: another coach, talking to his crew, on their last practice outing: "Pay careful attention to your rowing now, judge yourself, this is how it feels. During bumps, you'll judge yourselves just by how well you do; this is your last chance to know how good you really are").

So to spare the drama the result was: W2 up, M2 down, W1 and M1 row-over. But how much wild excitement is compressed into those few words!

M1: row over (but a good one, you understand)

(photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/lorenzo.r.santinelli)

Aren't we lovely? It felt good too. Other pix from Lorenzo for M1 are here, so you can intercompare. There's video from opposite the railings but that's only boats 1-6.

Brief race description: we'd expected the Sharks (City 3, behind us) to be fast but blow up after 500m. We'd expected St Neots to be OK, but not as good as last year. That latter turned out to be true: we got a whistle on them soon after the start. What we'd omitted to think of was how slow Nines 2 were; St Neots got them around the top of First Post Reach. Happily James (helped by John on the bank) saw them well in time to steer round with minimal loss of speed. That left us with plan B: row past FP and wait for the Sharks to blow up. Alas, they failed to comply, and after dropping back to maybe 2 lengths they began to gain ground around Grassy, to perhaps a length down at the top of the Reach. Still, its not far down the Reach (oh yeah) and they'd only closed to within 3-6 feet by the time we were safe and sound.

We were all very happy with the row: we felt we'd done well, and "defeated" (if we hadn't been faster than them over the whole course, we'd done well enough to avoid the bump) a powerful opponent (you can read what they say about themselves at http://www.cityrc.co.uk/images/bumps2013/BumpsProgramMenv7.pdf: they're hot).

W1: row over

Chasing Champs 3, being chased by Tabs 3. Within a length, I'm told.

(photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/lorenzo.r.santinelli)

They say: We were in a Junior Girls sandwich. Champs Girls in front Cantabs Girls behind. Our Time Race result was faster than Champs by 15 secs, but we weren't sure where over the course that would be. Junior girls often have a fast start but not the stamina for the whole course and we'd been told by Cantabs 6 that the G-oar-gous weren't only that but fast too.

So for the race, well as always it passed in a blur and we were totally focussed on Ali's voice. The row felt good, with good pushes. Comments from the crew "Chased them all the way, the crew behind gave up trying to catch us at the 2K point. I think my throat and lungs were possibly bleeding after that. Still coughing up shite now!!" Holy Guacamole that was a lung burstingly epic row over! We'll get them tomorrow night though ! And yes a Row Over - but a good one.

Video of the Reach.

M2: down

Down to Nines 4, alas. Still, better luck next time.

Pic.

W2: up

Probably best seen from Robert's cox-cam - they bumped just after the A14 bridge.

They say: Radegund 2 in front and Nines IV chasing. The crews fear that the Nines IV had been training lots and looked tidy proved unfounded; they pulled away quickly and gained on the Radegund 2 crew bumping just after the A14 as can be seen by all the willow.

(photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/lorenzo.r.santinelli)

Press head

We put in two mens and two womens crews into the Xpress head on June 3rd, and the W1 crew, pictured, won the W Nov category, so well done to them!

The race is over the "bumps course" which they interpret as "just past the motorway bridge" to Peter's posts (ie, the two iron posts that mark the start of the towpath, just after the bay by the Piek and Eel). You could do a standing or a rolling start. Press claim its a 2100m course, but my GPS tells me its more like 2250m. The average splits given below are based on the assumption that the course is 2250m. As usual I have GPS traces: M1 and M2.

Full results from xpressbc.org.uk/head, but in brief:

W1: 00:09:42 (1/4: 2:08)
W2: 00:10:26 (4/4: 2:18)
M1: 00:08:04 (3/7: 1:46)
M2: 00:09:24 (5/6: 2:04)

M1 were in the MasA/B category (winning time 00:07:36) due to the presence of Dr James "I've got a point" Howard; M2 were in the M Nov (winning time 00:08:27) which M1 might well have won, had we s/Dr H/Someone else/. Although he does tend to make us go faster so is well worth including. The "two" crews ahead of M1 were the same Robs crew, racing twice. Fastest overall were Downing (7:10); Caius didn't deign to enter. Aside: I coxed the M2 crew, an exciting experience. My calls are getting much better, and my lines were OK except for Grassy, where I avoided a Jesus-style handbrake turn, but only just. Top-tip for self-aware crews: bowside need to pull a bit harder, and strokeside can afford to slacken off a little, as you go round Grassy.

The bumps, at Oxford, in IVs!

TL;DR: down 2 in round 1, then 3 row-overs.

Saturday, 20th April, 2013

After last year we very much intended to come back for 2013. We'd done little practice this year, and thrown away the winning team of Tidy; Connolley, Howard, Holland and Wykeham and replaced it with Tidy; Howard, Wykeham, Connolley and Richards. The lack of practice rather showed: we got a lot faster during the four rounds, and indeed pretty well held station on Univ ahead of us in round 4, although they'd overbumped us in round 1. "Selecting" a boat entirely comprised of bowsiders was also possibly non-optimal.

No Cam trailers were going this year, so we were obliged to town Queens' small trailer ourselves. And since I'd just acquired a car with a tow-bar, I got the short straw. But it was fine, once we were out of Queens' lane.

Round 1: Auriol Kensington B got picked to replace Tabs 2 as the "crew behind us who were much faster than us" and duly bumped us within 500 m; within the gut, I think. James properly put his hand up, but (despite their boat being a bowloader) their cox failed to see this and errm came back and bumped us again. Anyway eventually they got the message. That, we hoped, was it for that round but no, Univ were coming up. James cut the corner around the boathouses, as you'd expect, and despite that Univ had (I thought) overlap at the finish although we were on different sides of the river; but the umpire didn't call it. But then they ended up giving the bump against us because, apparently, you aren't allowed to cut the corner.

Round 2: AK B had pushed down CORC Alumni to head our division, but that didn't make them slow - there was some disaster on the start line. And so it proved: Univ didn't get them, we didn't get close to Univ. Magd school 2 had a fast start and got to within a canvas after the gut before blowing up and getting caught by Linacre; we were starting to row together.

Round 3: No change ahead of us, but a faster crew behind us. Linacre came up well but were decent enough to crab just after the gut; that cost them about 4 strokes rather than the entire race, but it was enough and we were clear.

Round 4: Jesus now head of div 2, and they were caught by Univ. We held Univ, but didn't really close Jesus; that would have been asking a lot. Linacre came up again, but we rowed better and they were kind enough to clip the exit to the gut (local advantage :-) thus losing a couple of strokes.

So there we were: 2 down, 3 hard row-overs. A good day, and we improved significantly as we went along, as you'll see from the GPS traces. But those same traces will show you that we were slower than last year - I think last year's crew would have bumped this year's.

Thanks for Simon E for being our Umpire, and to Mike P-J for being our Pole-Man. And for inviting us round afterwards to his new pad and feeding us fish and chips. And to Lorraine and Meg for supporting, and Emma for entries and young George too.

Head of the Cam - results and round-up

Instructions, etc., are available from the main HoC page.

FINAL Results

The FINAL results are now up at http://tinyurl.com/hoc-2013-final.

Thanks to all the volunteers from Chesterton club who helped organise and marshall the event, our umpires, and of course to the competitors. We congratulate the fastest overall crew, Caius M1 (8:28); and fastest women, Downing W1 (10:13).

Pots

Those who won pots but were too cool to be at the prize ceremony are invited to contact me.

Timings: the grimy details

The provisional results have been checked and are now promoted to final. Obscurity swirled around crews 439-445 but this is now resolved and it did not affect any category winners. Attempting, and failing, to unravel this explains the half hour delay of the prizes, if you were wondering. The Press X-Men novice VIII had to pull in a pointed sub at the last minute, and so are really IM3. They had the poor taste to win Novice VIIIs, and so the new winner is 99's Brown. Let me tell you about crews 439-445. Its really exciting (no, don't turn off) and burnt up an hour of my life trying to fix. So: we had start/finish sheets that looked like:

439 2x- PB&D T/F    W MasC          00:46:04
440 1x  Broxbourne  M MasD 00:32:54 00:46:01
441 1x  City Colm   M Nov  00:33:15 00:46:07
442 1x  City Thomas M Nov  00:33:47 00:46:17
443 1x  PB&D CM     M IM3  00:34:10 00:46:46
444 1x  PB&D NB     M IM3  00:34:26 00:46:10
445 1x  PB&D SC     M IM3  00:34:41  

You see the problem - no start time for 439, no finish time for 445. We could invent a start time for 439 fairly readily - there was only 20 secs between 438 and 440 - but the finish times were tricky, as the sculls were wildly out of order at the end of the course. Alternatively, we could decide that 439 had never started, and the finish folk had written down a batch of numbers out of order. Or perhaps 445 had never started and the start times were off-by-one instead.

In the heat of the moment I went for inventing start a start time for 439, and a finish time for 445, partly swayed by the general balance of opinion around me that a whole block being written off-by-one was unlikely. However... to cut many conversations short, PB&D have confirmed now that 439 didn't row, so the One True Answer is that the finish folk were off-by-one for a block. I will give them a stern talking-to, you may be sure.

Happily, this doesn't affect any category winners. It does change the order of the PB&D sculls.

Old stuff

The final draw is: http://tinyurl.com/hoc-2013-final-draw.

The draft draw was: http://tinyurl.com/hoc-2013-draft-draw.

Notes:

• My start marshalls asked me to group the VIIIs more at the top - because of the way we stake out the marshalling positions, its a pain to have 1x and 2x's mixed up in the VIIIs. So I've moved a number of small boats down. Don't be offended. You can have a gap if you need it.
• The start marshalls are friendly people. They are amenable to "please can I have a large gap" type requests, and to the sculls sorting themselves into order if required (or, put another way, don't trouble me with trivial change requests). The VIIIs, however, we'd really like to get off in order.
• Despite my pleas, many people provided no estimated time, and perhaps they were wise because I think to detect incompatibilities in the volunteered times. The order is based on your estimates, my limited skill, judgement and prejudices, and a bias towards sorting the VIIIs to the top and the sculls to the bottom.

Useful notes

• Race control is at Queens boathouse, upstairs. We're open from 7:45 for numbers.
• To ensure a prompt start, it will help if the crews can make some attempt to come up the reach in reverse order.
• The overtaking rule is, as last year, "cede the racing line to the faster crew". This is in the race instructions, which you've read.

WeHORR

[By Alison]

The Women’s Head of the River Race is, for many of us, the highlight of the rowing year. Although less immediately dramatic than the Bumps, it offers a much greater challenge: 20+ minutes of full-on racing on the Thames, against opposition from all corners of the UK and beyond. Just knowing that you’re taking part in a race alongside Olympians and along the same stretch of river as the Boat Race is pretty exciting!

This year, despite a terrible forecast, we were blessed with ideal conditions: no rain and best of all little wind. The crew were well-prepared, having made the best of limited water time together by committing to a programme of long and gruelling ergs which really paid off in terms of fitness over the long course.

We boated from Putney, right on the finish, which meant a good warm-up along the full length of the course and a chance to spot the landmarks that we would use later on to break the race into chunks. There followed about an hour of marshalling, tapping the boat in pairs to keep in position before we finally edged towards the start and spun. The race was on!

It was my first time coxing on the Thames, and although I’d watched the helpful ‘Coxing the Tideway’ video (on youtube) several times, coxing on such a wide river with such a strong stream has to be experienced before you can really understand how different it is from the humble Cam. We got off to a good start, with our stroke Lorraine establishing a great rhythm and the rest of the crew backing her up and really committing to every stroke.

Not such a great start for me, however, as I found myself too far over to the Middlesex side with an unexpected buoy looming and a marshal looking the other way from his boat just in front of it! Fortunately he saw us just in time and moved out of the way, although I had no choice but to go the wrong side of the buoy.

After that I found the stream again, and remembered the most important piece of advice from the video: the fastest stream is usually in the middle of the river, so there’s no point trying to cut the corners. Maybe I’m not the only cox used to the twisty Cam who found it hard to resist the impulse to take the inside of every bend!

Anyway, as we approached Hammersmith we really settled into our stride, and found ourselves bearing down on a Caius College crew. The overtake was really satisfying, with us shooting out of Hammersmith ahead of them with clear water between us, and with our supporters really lifting us with their shouts from the bridge.

The crew really had to dig deep during the last third of the race, with each landmark seeming to take ages to come. But here the long ergs paid off, giving us confidence that we had the strength and stamina to stay strong to the end. In our crew chat before the race Anne had urged everyone to give everything, so that no one got to the end thinking they could have worked a bit harder. I think I can safely say that that finish line didn’t come a moment too soon for any of us. We were so glad that we only had a short distance to row to get back to our landing point.

We came 247th out of 303 with a time of 22:20, a really satisfying result given that our previous placing was 272nd, and that we were within a minute of some very much more experienced Cambridge crews.

Crew:

8: Lorraine 7: Joss 6: Anne 5: Jo 4: Annie 3: Juliet 2: Meg 1: Alex

Cox: Alison

Many thanks also to our brilliant supporters and bank party: Emily, Janice, Mel, Simon, Dave, Abby, Nick and Freya.

Dropping the outside shoulder at the catch?

Part I in a series of, quite likely, one, posts about rowing technique. This particular one is a bit of a theme of mine. I sometimes wonder if people know what I'm talking about. The answer, or perhaps more accurately the question, is something like this:

That's Caius M1 from Grassy, Thursday Lents 2013. What you see is bowside (they've sensibly bow-rigged the boat, so bowside is stroke's side, so to speak) lunging out of the boat at you. You might possibly argue that they are doing this to excess, and indeed the comment on that pic is "oh god we're all so not in our range". However, they're racing to defend their headship. And as I was taught ages ago when I used to play Go: "anything you can see the best doing, you're allowed to do yourself, even if it looks like poor style". The unspoken caveat of course was "as long as you understand what's going on".

In a way this one:

is more interesting, because Kings have bumped and are just cruising home.

Before we go on, pause to notice the nice compression: vertical shins, chests touching the knee. And of course the separation (note that separation, at the catch, means the way the two sides of the boat part (as viewed from the coxes seat) leaving a lane between their heads (here is an excellent pic of Downing that shows this well); this is completely different to separation, at the finish, which means separating out and doing in sequence hands-then-body-then-slide).

Dropping the outside shoulder

However, that wasn't what I actually wanted to talk about. What I wanted to say followed from a perspicacious comment by Simon E when I praised the first photo. He asked "Interesting that everyone's outside shoulders are dropped, I always thought it should be the other way around?" And now he says that, indeed, yes that is what everyone is always taught, though I can't say I like doing it myself: the "Caius way" comes more naturally; and if you look, only about half of Kings are doing the "right thing", even though I'm sure that nice Mr Smith has been coaching them well.

And the "right thing" is? Well, the "right thing" as taught is to keep the shoulders roughly parallel to the blade, which implies the outer shoulder is higher than the inner. I can't find much detail about this online; this little thread about summarises it: the argument against dropping the shoulder is given as "With high school kids (ie, often with less experience than college rowers), those who drop the outside shoulder tend to also press down on the oar handle before the catch, and sky their oar, leading to a lousy catch." That would apply to our novices too, of course. Holding the blade to stiffly, and leaning at the catch, can easily lead to dropping the hands and skying the blade too.

In which case, its an answer you can discard, as long as you know the reasons for it (which is to say, teach people not to "drop their hands into the shell and sky the blade"; don't teach them "don't drop the outside shoulder"). I think I have no problem, in my own rowing, with simultaneously dropping the outside shoulder and raising my hands into the catch (what I find very hard to do is to do this whilst staring forwards, as Caius are doing so nicely; I far prefer to look at my hands, which really annoys coaches).

Another possible downside is that it can lead to over-extension and weakness at the catch: if you've leant too far out your back will be weak; this can either damage you or weaken your stroke; but again, this is a matter of care rather than prohibition.

Comments on this, particularly by people who know better than me, are welcome.

Other pic

* Boat race crew, training.
* Kiwi Pair (e.g. 4:49)

Winter league 2013, legs 2 and 3.

See-also leg 1.

Somehow, I didn't get round to writing up leg 2, and no-one beat me to it. Press have the results for all three legs up.

How did we do, overall? (And at this point, "we" = the crews I was in. Someone else can write up the other crews :-). As an IM3 crew, poorly; as a novice crew, excellently. So, that's our problems solved then: we drop Dr Southgate. Or we drag our other points back in (paging Dr Howard...). We were nearly a minute (overall) faster than the best Nov 8 (and still 30 secs faster on the first leg, when we didn't have Dr S).

Oh, and did I mention that the third leg was an exceptionally wet row? Outstandingly so, despite being clearly our fastest.

But we were about a minute (overall) slower than the next 3 IM3's, and 2 minutes behind Champs M1/M2 squad composite - but then again, we know both their M1 and M2 are "about as fast" as our M1, and we're not yet close to our M1.

And me, as a single sculler: I got faster by ~30 secs each leg, but it was mostly a reminder to me that I need to get some more practice in and up my technique.

Refs

* Squamata WL3 courtesy of Simon E. * Squamata WL2 ditto.

Winter league 2013, leg 1

This year we have two men's VIIIs, a ladies VIII, and a lone scull (your humble author). See-also 2012.

Of the men (for I am a man, and can only really speak of manly matters) the one in division 1 was entered as Nov and was intended for the novices and newer folk. The one in division 3 was entered as IM3, but as it happened this leg it was full of pointless people. Also, due to shortages, several people rowed twice, and may have been a bit tired for the second race, despite a hearty breakfast in the Tivoli in between. Of the sculling, well, I haven't been practicing recently and got stuffed by Morley - say no more.

Weather: cold and grey, thin broken ice on the flooded fields by the start. Just to rub it in, the sun came out when it was all over. So we went for another coffee.

Full results are available from the CRA, or perhaps more conveniently via google docs here.

401 Cantabs Men     IM1 8             09:18 1
101 City Men        IM1 8  Dolman     09:33 2
404 99RC Men        IM3 8  Rolin      09:43 3
402 X-Press Men     IM2 8  fastx      09:57 4
...
308 ChestertonMen   IM3 8  Squamata   11:08 22
...
118 ChestertonMen   Nov 8  Crocodilia 12:09 56=
...
440 Cantabs         Nov 1X Morley     13:21 134=
...
124 ChestertonWomen Nov 8  Richards   13:02 122=
...
138 ChestertonMen   MasC1X Connolley  14:36 174=

Oh - what was the rowing like, and who did it?

Nov (Div 1): C - JT; S - Dave B; Will W; John H; Ian F; Paul B; Luca; John R; Simon E.
IM3 (Div3): C - JT; S - William C; Will W; Luca; Dave R; Dave B; Chris W; Simon E; Simon G.
W Nov 8+ (div1): C - Dave R; S - Lorraine; Joss; Sarah CH; Anne; Bev; Jo; Sarah D; Meg.

Apparently the "novice" mens crew was quite decent and rowable. The "IM3" one was surprisingly so (am I sounding patronising? I hope not, I don't mean to be), and was enjoyable at 30.