M3: Qualified 13th of 32 boats in a time of 3:03.0

Hertford’s M3 doesn’t have automatic qualification, so we took to the river on Friday to prove we deserved to row in Summer Eight’s. Having narrowly missed out on a place in Torpids, the crew had a point to prove as we built up to race pace coming past Longbridges. The boat looked calm and relaxed, (perhaps because certain members of the crew hadn’t realised the race had started) but put the power down nicely and we soon found ourselves gaining on the boat in front. We kept to our race plan, and with Joe’s unfailing encouragement and the dulcet tones of Charlie Wang in the bows the course flew past. We qualified comfortably with a quick time of 3:03.0 which put us 13th out of 32 boats, getting our campaign for blades off to a good start. M3 will now be looking to make some real gains into division 6 when the racing proper starts on Wednesday. Bumps on St John’s 3 and St Hugh’s 2 look like very real possibilities.

Alistair Duffey – Stroke