Well, here we are again: town bumps. Overall results: O4 - up 3; W3 - up 3; M3 - down 1; W2 - down 1; M2 - down 3; W1 - up 2; M1 - down 1; Overall +2, and 4th in the John Jenner trophy! O4 was Christ’s staff; M1 rowed in Christ’s lovely Filippi. Compare: 2023, 2022.

When not rowing I (William) was droning (occasionally at the expense of my stated marshalling and poling duties, but there was always someone there); my playlist is here. That list has a few from Jo; see more of her’s here.

Of M1

Crew: cox: Theo von Wilmowski, stroke Harry Bulstrode, Jon Hachett, Conor Burgess, Jonathon Pilgrim, Lars Okkenhaug, David O'Loughlin, William Connolley, Klaus Okkenhaug.

Tuesday: GPS. Harry's GoPro. Grey, stopped raining, river up. Arrived early for warmup on ergs and quick starts together. Good start outside Plough (1:25). Four minute gun just as we came onto station, mild panic but plenty of time. Ever so slightly over-angled at start, but start good, held City much better than expected, got 1 1/4, perhaps 1 length at end on Press, but alas they were by no means slow. But around First Post City got their act together and started coming up, and they got us between the Plough and Ditton. Note: they ended up with blades.

Wednesday: GPS. Harry's GoPro on my rigger. 6:59 (1:46). Nice Wx. I'm feeling slightly hassled due to my marshalling stuff-ups, but much less nervous than yesterday. Less faff on meet, but did some starts on the ergs. Decent row down, and the race... went all according to plan. Which doesn't often happen at bumps. We stayed on station with City for a while, they took out Press later than I expected, where they got us, and Nines weren't ever a threat.

Thursday: GPS. Harry's GoPro on JP's rigger. 7:02 (1:47). Another nice evening, perhaps even a touch on the warm side. The race again much as expected: in that - alas - we didn't catch Press or even get close; perhaps slightly unexpected was Nines rudely charging at us towards the end, but they did not pose a real threat. If they get encouraged and start their run-up a bit earlier tomorrow we might have to work harder.

Friday: GPS. Harry's GoPro on Theo's back. 7:02. A slightly duff start: we hit the end of the chain, bounced gently and turned a bit, and a slight wind blew us towards the shore, so that Harry's first stroke got a little caught on the weeds and we went down to bowside (this felt huge at the time but you can barely see it on the video). We recovered, but one or two more less-but-still-slightly duff strokes got us a not-tip-top start. However, it didn't matter: despite my unvoiced fears, Nines behind us did exactly the same as yesterday and waited until too late. Ahead, we didn't really sniff Press. And after the start we settled nicely, I front-loaded my effortly slightly as an anti-Nines anticipation.

Of W1

Crew: cox: Meg Richards, str: Lorraine Turvill, Rachel Newby, Eleanor Gordon, Beccy Garrill, Mareike Collis, Sarah Burgess, Louise Atkin, bow: Jo Raskin.

Tuesday Bump Up: First night for W1, and as we settled at our starting position 14 nerves were riding high, but we had a decent start at the canon with good build on our pace. We quickly closed in on Rob Roy 2 and we caught them in the Gut, just past first post corner. It was a bit of a surprise for

us and we were of course overjoyed. It was the first willow for W1 since 2018, first bump for several crew members and also for our boat Annie Eliza.

Wednesday Bump Up: Feeling buoyed by our Tuesday night success we were (ever so ever so cautiously) feeling anything could be possible while we did our pre-race planks. We did a great start outside the Plough, to our delight, and we rowed up to our new starting position 13. A shorter race this evening, slightly slower pace, but we delivered another bump to the Xpress1 crew just before first post corner where all chaos ensued resulting a broken blade (not ours, nor our fault!).

Thursday Relaxed Row Over: On setting out for our third outing of the week we weren’t sure what to expect on this lovely warm evening, but doing the maths we thought our worst outcome would be a row over. From position 12, we started well and eagerly built to our race pace and got in our stride. It soon became apparent that the two crews in front and the two crews behind had bumped out; once we were sure the coast was clear, we enjoyed a row to the finish allowing ourselves to take the rate down a few pips.

Friday Excruciatingly Close Row Over: Once again starting at position 12 we prepared ourselves for a ferocious final night. Our confidence boosted over the course of the week, we set our sights on bumping Nines 2 - a poignant race as we go into battle with a few old Chesterton crew mates in the boat ahead. We had a cracking start at the gun and we executed our plan to mow down our rivals, chomping up the space between our two boats. We got to about ¼ length between us, their cox was looking around anxiously as the whistles sounded, we so nearly got them… Alas, after our planned 4-minute attack, Nines pulled slightly ahead and we battled on for the rest of the course but we didn’t manage to catch them. It was a good fight well fought and we were proud of our week’s achievements despite not quite making the final bump we were after.

Back at the boat house prosecco was had and Annie Eliza got the christening she never had when she first joined the club. It was an exciting, exhilarating - if excruciating - crescendo to a fun bumps week!