Despite the best efforts of our crews, Friday sees all Hertford boats remain without a bump to their name (or at least without a bump in the preferred direction). Hopefully Saturday will see the streak end, and hopefully there’ll be plenty of supporters there when it does!

W2 – Bumped by GTC W2

Cox: Abbigail Colwyn

Stroke: Ella Walsh

7: Phili Kent

6: Faye Heron

5: Amy Wright

4: Lobke Timans

3:Iris Volkers

2: Rosie Bound

Bow: Sophie Allen

Day Three of Summer Eights, and after two days of disappointingly early bumps, Hertford W2 takes to the water with one goal and one goal only: to get past the gut. This will be no easy feat, with a fierce Green Templeton crew behind us and very fast New College (whose unexpected agility we discovered yesterday) in front. But we cast these considerations aside, and put our eyes on the real prize: the gut.

And we’re off. The dreaded bung line 6 (set into a bend in the river) proves to be nothing for the Abbi’s masterful coxing, and we pull away from GTC and settle into the race.

But trouble is soon afoot, and a steadily encroaching GTC starts to draw near, just as we power towards the gut.

Our coach Lewis’ screams of “EMPTY THE TANK” drift over from the bank.

“POWER 10” shouts Abbi, “WIND UP THE RATE”. Wind one. Wind two. Wind three. A fourth wind for luck, but no avail. After a drawn-out battle, blades clash and the race is over.

“WE REACHED THE GUT” cries an ecstatic Abbi. Whoops and cheers travel down what must appear an inexplicably chipper post-bumped crew, before the obligatory (and admittedly less enthusiastic) three cheers for Green Templeton.

As we contemplate the ever-increasing likelihood of spoons, our strategy for tomorrow is still very much up for debate. Do we now aim to get slightly further, past Hertford boathouse? Do we over-bump our way back to glory and become the underdogs of Summer Eights 2018? Or, do we row in the opposite direction, backing it down from the starting line, with the dual-prong strategy of both psyching out the competition and ensuring we get our Hertford spoons (as we’re promised by our captain, Catherine Dumbill)?

Sounds like a good stash opportunity to me!

M2 – Bumped by Regent’s Park M1

Cox: Nayyar
Stroke: Justus
7: Sash
6: Maciej
5: Antony
4: Brian
3: Brooke
2: Mahmoud
Bow: Berlin

The crew was ready for the third day of summer 8s. Heads in the boat, with concentration, courage and optimism reaching levels off the charts. The seasoned rowers of M2 started rowing gracefully when the gun was heard.
After a clean start, the rate was built up gracefully and effectively and the thirsty for victory cox was encouraging us to settle into our rhythm, while steering the boat with great ease. Despite the momentum that was built up, in order to bump Brasenose II, we had to also hold off Regent’s from bumping into our boat. Unfortunately doom came upon us when Regent’s blades hit ours before Donington Bridge.
Never disheartened the crew will continue its efforts tomorrow for a better result!

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 getting a sniff of LMH yesterday, we arrived at the boat house ready for a second go at them. While we had the power yesterday, today we were planning to focus on keeping the technique together so we could pour the power into the correct channel. After a truncated warmup due to the carnage in earlier divisions, we arrived at the start line ready to give it our all once again. The cannon sounded and we got off to a cleaner, but less powerful, start than yesterday and closed within a length of LMH after Donney bridge, however Queens were in hot pursuit behind us. Queens took the better line through the gut getting within a quarter length of our stern, however this is where we stood up and refused to be broken. As we went up greenbanks we started to pull away from then, every push they did we answered with our own, shutting down any hopes they had of catching us. As we crossed the finish line Queens were over a length behind and visibly spent. While we didn’t get the bump on LMH as we hoped, we had an enjoyable sparing match with Queens where we showed our metal.

W1 – Bumped by St John’s W1

Cox – Jack Yates

Stroke – Philippa Thornton

7 –Harriet Thomas

6 – Sophie Clark

5 – Becky Kirk

4 – Kaja Fenn

3 – Grace Davies

2 – Emily Pagden

Bow – Ellie Van Vogt

W1 came together before the race to centre themselves. We each reflected on what we would be bring to the boat today with a calm and collected air. Harriet was back from her field work so our original crew was back together! We sat in the boat, cheered M1 past and then pushed off for our warm up, keeping the sense of calm in the forefront of our minds. Our warm up pieces felt strong and together, race nerves were firmly a thing of the past. Or bank rider, Sammy, reminded us to relax, this was a piece like any other we’d practised before. We spun onto bung line 10 and started our pre race routine: kit up, deep breaths, visors down, empty water bottles, jelly babies, and high fives.

The start gun fired and our start sequence was strong, enabling us to get up to speed quickly, in the first 30 seconds we hammered away and stood tall through the wash. The rhythm call came before Donnington bridge and we were flying. John’s were still behind us but Jack kept our heads in the boat, focusing on our rhythm and our race. As we were coming through the gut the Hertford cheers started, this was our patch! Coming out of the gut Johns were hot on us, but we harnessed the cheers and held them off. As we came down Green banks Johns were keeping up the pressure and we were keeping them off. We crossed the stream and came past univ boat house, Johns called a power 10, Jack called our power 10. Every stroke was powerful and calm, despite being chased so closely. We gave it our all but Johns’ bow was now at 7 seats rigger, we had to concede. We cleared the racing line and last few boats in the division rowed past. We gave three cheers for Johns and rowed home.

We did some great rowing today, we fought off Johns all the way down Green banks, pretty impressive for a 6 novice crew! After some cookies and a debrief our spirits were lifted, we were proud of how we rowed and we had fun doing it!

I am so proud our rowing so far, it has been a privilege to row with such amazing girls and I cannot wait to see what Saturday brings! FTD