W1 – Down 1 to 9th in Division I

Cox: Jess Li
Stroke: Abie Witts
7: Ros Martin
6: Annie Taylor
5: Annie Ault
4: Cat Zhao
3: Johanna Gewolker
2: Amy Holguin
Bow: Bridget Johns

The sky was blue. The sun was sweltering. The river had already seen some carnage. W1 prepared themselves just like every other day, watching videos of inspirational races. However, today was different. Our 6 seat had hurt her shoulder and so a sub was desperately needed. Annie was coming to our rescue, finishing her finals exam only 45 mins before our race was due to start. We did our normal warm up on the ergs, hoping she’d make it down to the river before we had to boat. We got blades out and went through the race plan once more. Fortunately, Annie flew down just in time and we made our way up to the start line. After a false start, due to a stray punter, heads down and ready, we were off. Teddy Hall were chasing us and on for blades. We knew they were strong and eager for a bump. Predictably, they came at us hard. We powered out of our start, but could see SEH gaining on us. Jess called our 6-6-6, our final push to get away from them. We gave it all we had but alas they managed to steal the bump just outside the gut. Tomorrow we shall be chasing them and shall come back hard.

Amy Holguin – 2 Seat

 

M1 – Down 1 to 2nd in Division II

Cox: Alice Vacani
Stroke: Chris Nicholls
7: Alex Allison
6: Jack Waterman
5: Steve Crabb
4: Hamish Streeter
3: Chris (CJ) Jones
2: Rob House
Bow: Maciej Bugala

After yesterday’s two row overs, we were holding our heads high, confident that LMH had been defeated and we could concentrate on taking down the Trinity spoons barge in Div1. However, we had to survive Div2 first… A dramatic klaxon two divisions before us resulted in everyone running late, and a warmup so short that we only had time to get to the top of Greenbanks and spin before coming back down onto bungline 1, right below Donny Bridge. There was a strong tailwind pressing on our faces, and a buoyant LMH below us. As the gun went, our start was the strongest it had been all week – a solid 40½, which settled out at a gutsy and long 37½. We were putting in the best row we had in weeks, and LMH started to slip away. As we entered the gut, LMH had learnt from their mistakes of yesterday and copied our line, pushing up on us and closing in until they within a canvas by Longbridges. We held on with sheer grit as the bowball started to hover around the stern area, and wound back up to 38 to hold them. As we reached the crossing point, we had enough clearance to cross without letting them too close, and their bowball faded back to just behind us. They took the inside path as they crossed, and as we reached Univ raft we made the decision to run away over to boathouse island. This took 1/3 of a length out of them as they had taken the longer track, but they surged back to overlap as we reached the middle of BH island. They inched up, but never swung, so we conceded just before Alex’s blade was run over by their bow at the end of BH island. All in all, it was an epic fight – we covered a kilometre with overlap the entire way and never gave up, but it is a shame that our best row in weeks is overshadowed by a bump and a demotion to 2nd in Div II. We hold our heads high and look forward to the new challengers of Jesus tomorrow.

Alice Vacani – Cox

 

W2 – Level at 5th in Division IV

Cox: Ros Martin
Stroke: Amy Wright
7: Molly Appleton
6: Hilary Yndi
5: Hae Jin Yang
4: Ava Scott
3: Sonya Chen
2: Catherine Dumbill
Bow: Miranda Ryan

What a day to be doing the race report! After yesterday’s row over and Oriel’s bump on Regents, we knew we were in for a tough one as Oriel II were a strong crew and there was still little chance we could get Linacre II. Prepping ourselves to keep them off as long as we could and maybe get the row over, we got to bungline six and waited. After starting late due to an obnoxious small boat driving down the river, we were off. Hertford’s start was strong, actually gaining half a length on Linacre II. As we passed Donny bridge it seemed that Linacre had already bumped out ‘MOVE TOWARDS THE OTHER SIDE’ we could hear people shouting at us, as Ros called on stroke side to give it more power. Our attempt to go around whatever was happening in front didnt fully work, and we crashed dramatically into Linacre II, who were sent into Johns. Catherine at 2 was thrown out of her seat and towards the bow, where I attempted to catch her as we watched more carnage unfold with Oriel hitting our bow side blades and the klaxon ringing.

Miranda Ryan – Bow

 

M2 – Down 1 to 9th in Division IV

Cox: Jack Yates
Stroke: Patrick Austin
7: Ross Johnstone
6: Harry Connor
5: Oliver Jones
4: Simon Neumaier
3: Matt Bosomworth
2: Freddy von Kaufmann
Bow: Andrew Ng

Having had two days of being chased by two very accomplished crews, M2 were cautiously confident that they may at least make it to Longbridges today. After foregoing what would have been a very sweaty erg room warm up the boys pushed off to encouragement from the incoming W2 and got to the bungline ahead of Brasenose M2 in good time after doing a couple of practice starts. The blustery conditions may have made for relief from the balmy conditions but caused us some difficulty lining up. As the gun went we quickly upped the rate to well above 30, however Brasenose got off to a better start and were less than a length off us by Donnington bridge. Here, disaster struck as 4 seat malfunctioned leaving Simon to slide up and down on his arse the rest of the way. However, with a large Hertford contingent cheering us on we rallied and with Jack calling what seemed like one power ten after another we held them at a canvas for a few hundred metres. Coming into the gut they swiped and missed twice as we held on grimly like a wounded animal. At Longbridges, Jack took evasive action coming wide however it was futile as our pursuers cut us off, giving Jack a hefty thud with their bow to remember them by. The performance was a marked improvement on the first two days but with spoons looming tomorrow, can the M2 finally make the distance?

Harry Connor – 6 Seat