Two days in and the bumps have begun in earnest (though perhaps not in the way our crews had hoped), with all crews on the river now familiar with the process, if not so familiar that they avoid snapping sterns and breaking bows (thankfully not those of any Hertford boats – yet).

W2 – Bumped by New W2

Cox: Abbigail Colwyn

Stroke: Ella Walsh

7: Phili Kent

6: Faye Heron

5: Maddie Burrell

4: Lobke Timans

3:Iris Volkers

2: Rosie Bound

Bow: Sophie Allen

Day 2 of summer eights and after such a close ‘nearly-bump’ on Wednesday, W2 arrived bright and early at the boat house ready to win back the bump. After much discussion of tactics-we were aiming for the long race, a potential over-bump, and hope that GTC would catch New (spoiler, they didn’t!)–W2 made their way to bung line 5. With one long and final stare at New College behind us and Oriel in front of us, we set our heads in the boat and prepared for the race.

The gun went off and we were off to a great start, pulling away from New and towards Oriel, Abbi screaming “POWER TEN, DRIVE ONE!” We could hear Lewis, having forgotten his whistle, shouting from the tow path “one boat length!” as we gained on Oriel. But in the corners of our eyes New College were making a rapid gain on us and their blades came ever closer into view.

Calling another power 10, we drove through the heels with all our might, New’s bow now overlapping and Abbi trying to make a desperate escape using her rudder. We kept rowing as the distance between Abbi and New’s blades got closer and closer, and we started to question what would come first: Abbi actually conceding or Abbi getting hit by the oncoming blades of the boat!

Just at the last minute Abbi was forced to finally admit defeat and we were out of the race, disappointed but pleased with our performance, knowing we had certainly fought to the last millimetre! After landing and debriefing, we all settled on our goal tomorrow–making it to the gut would be good!

M2 – Bumped by Brasenose M2

Race report in progress

M1 – Rowed over

Cox Ettie Caverly

Stroke Danny de Rozairo

7 Harry Connor

6 Hamish Streeter

5 Jack Waterman

4 Oscar Dimdore-Miles

3 Alex Allison

2 Freddie von Kaufmann

Bow Patrick Austin

After a solid row-over on the first day, the boys were looking forward to pushing for a bump on the second. We were confident that we could leave the chasing Queens in the dust, and the only question was how close we could get to LMH. After a slightly longer and chunkier warm-up than yesterday, we felt fully prepared for the 4 minutes ahead of us. Suddenly we were off: a fast start built to a high rate of 43, and we could quickly see that Queens were being left behind. Not long after Donny bridge we heard our first whistle from bank-riding Graham- we were a length off LMH. We noticed the water was becoming increasingly choppy in the wake of the fleeing boat, and we maintained a high rate 37 in the wash. As we hared past Longbridges Graham gave the two whistles- we were now only half a length off. In the increasingly turbulent waters we committed everything, Hamish reported that he was ‘blacking out’, and we inched ever closer to LMH. However, we soon tired in the wake, and having committed all our energy to this push, we were, as Jack said, ‘completely binned’. Nonetheless, we kept on LMH’s tail for the rest of the course, surviving the second-half of the race at just over a length behind LMH. We finished exhausted, and admittedly disappointed that LMH had slipped through our fingers. However, we knew that today was not our best rowing, and was oftentimes scrappy and hurried. So we remain confident that our best rowing is yet to come. With a tad more calmness and precision, we have confidence that we can take the bump on LMH tomorrow. FTD

W1 – Bumped by New W1

Cox – Jack Yates

Stroke – Philippa Thornton

7 – Sarah Edwards

6 – Sophie Clark

5 – Becky Kirk

4 – Kaja Fenn

3 – Grace Davies

2 – Emily Pagden

Bow – Ellie Van Vogt

Before the race, W1 were of one mind: stay calm and make this our best rowing, the kind you can’t help but enjoy. With lots of time to warm up we got in some lovely pieces reminding ourselves of what we can do. Once again we high fived and ate our jelly babies, excited to see what was to come.

At the starting gun, we began our start sequence, taking clean, powerful strokes to build up our boat speed. Going fast, the rowing felt good, and we started to close the gap to Magdalen ahead of us. But we were being chased by a fast New College crew, and though our rowing was something to be proud of, we couldn’t hold them off for long, getting bumped just after Donnington Bridge. It might have been a short race, but we gave it our all, and Hertford W1 will fly again tomorrow and Saturday!

Handing the seven seat baton on to Harriet after my last ever bumps race, I will be in the boat in spirit, cheering you on! Thanks for today, as always an absolute joy to row with you gals, forever proud of you