W2

Started: 11th in WDiv4

Bumped Worcester II

Finished: 10th in WDiv4

Crew

Bow: Maddy Czura

Rosie Bound

Lucy Oswald

Anna Manning

Rebecca Nicholls

Rebecca Simpson

Georgie Lang

Stoke: Lizzy Skells

Cox: Carlo Attubato

Race Report to Come

M2

Started: 11th in MDiv4

Bumped by Brasenose II and Lincoln II

Finished: 1st in MDiv5

Crew

Stroke – Leo Santoso

7 – Brian Josephson

6- Joel Buzzard

5 – Lucas Tse

4 – Brooke Johnson

3 – Oliver Bertholdi Gibbons

2- Tetsuro Ono

Bow – Seb Quiroz

Cox – Lydia Coxon

M2 were well prepared for their race today, eager to put all their practice into play. Had a great start but sadly a speedy Brasenose gained on us and bumped us, rapid Lincoln were incredibly close behind so grabbed a bump too. M2 weren’t phased and went on to row a very strong race, sadly missing out on a bump. They are pumped and ready for a strong day tomorrow, racing top of div 5. Really strong race from a mainly novice crew, with most of them getting their first taste of bumps, ready to take on tomorrow

W1

Started: 6th in WDiv1

Bumped Christ Church

Finished: 5th in WDiv1

Crew

Bow: Penny Hyde

Ellie van Vogt

Allison Carrington

Kaja Fenn

Kate Furber

Philippa Thornton

Harriet Thomas

Stroke: Caitlin Donahue

Cox: Jack Yates

Dressed to impress in their fresh stash, red ribbons and matching visors, Hertford’s W1 rowers had their heads in the game on this amazingly sunny February Wednesday. Following an afternoon of spectating from the Longbridges balcony, it felt amazing to finally get onto the water as the afternoon sun cast a golden glow and start doing what we do best as a team.

Despite a pretty unconventional start, as we started to follow Jack’s calls and ‘not use our brains, only our legs’ (as instructed…) the rhythm came quickly and the boat started to move away from Wolfson. Our efficiency at our settled rate was then proved by the epic speed we gained moving past Longbridges, which was definitely in part generated by the Hertford cheers coming from the boathouse.

The fact that when, just past University college boat club, we heard that the crew ahead of us had conceded and none of us in the boat had a clue that we had bumped Christchurch and not Keble serves to demonstrate just how focused all of W1 were during this race. The confusion soon turned into elation, and I’m sure our celebratory screams could be heard all the way in OB quad. For the 4 returning rowers from last years Torpids crew, revenge against the crew that caused them so much grief in 2018 tasted super sweet.

It was a completely thrilling blur of a race, and BRING ON DAY 2!

M1

Started 7th in MDiv1

Bumped by Balliol

Finished 8th in MDiv1

Crew

Bow : Patrick Austin

Fritz Björklund

Rafee Ahmed

Philipp Schelhaas

Antonis Dimopuoulos

Hamish Streeter

Harry Connor

Stroke: Danny de Rozairo

Cox : Abbi Colwyn

Torpids 2019; this was what the M1 had been dragging themselves to Radley at 6am 4 mornings a week and pushing the limit on every erg. Given that this was the first bumps experience for 3 members of the crew, the pre race jitters were apparent in the club room. However any tension was soon forgotten about when we got to the erg room for the trademark Graham Topping pre race warm-up on the slides.

Boating upstream and buoyed with confidence after watching the W1 close in on ChCh, the boys pushed off, swarming up with back end pick drill followed by some half slide rate to get the juices flowing. A quick spin and we headed downstream to the bungline in good time.

With Balliol behind and a big Wolfson crew up ahead the boys knew they were i for atough race… BANG! The cannon went off and M1 were off, building the rate to 39 and settling at 36 after a minute. The start was clean and powerful but Balliol had got off fast and had closed to a length by Donny Bridge. However the M1 started sending down some big puddles and stretched out the gap a bit through the gut. Coming up the Greenbank, they inched closer and closer until we finally succumbed coming onto Boathouse Island.

After being bumped, the effort paid its toll and the crew collectively lost concentration and allowed Jesus to gain gain a couple of lengths from being 4-5 away from us at univ, but were too far back to get in any position to catch us.

Looking forward to tomorrow, the first day is under our belts and hopefully the extra race day experience can see us hold our speed the whole way down the track

FTD