M1 Day 2 – Isaac Hilsley

Today we faced off against a very cheeky, albeit slow, Hugh’s crew. They fell at the hoof of the deer before donny bridge- a mere 37 seconds until the bump. FTD.

W1 Day 2 – Eve Hewett

Turning up to the boathouse for the second day of racing, there was an excited atmosphere amongst the crew. After a confident warm up, and a bit of a delay at the start line, the starting gun couldn’t go off soon enough. With a strong, powerful start we were quickly closing down on New College, despite the choppy water and strong winds. But out of nowhere disaster strikes! We catch an unsalvageable crab and in the blink of an eye have conceded to Oriel. Despite this unlucky turn of events, the crew are raring to go for day three – let’s see what the river throws at us tomorrow!

M2 Day 2 – Olly Harvey-Rich

After bumping Wolfson on day 1, Harriet had told us that this would be ‘the painful day’ – Brasenose were just one second slower than us in Rowing On, and so if we were going to catch them it was going to be a long, tough row. Still, we knew that we had it in us if we could row cleanly and together. We had a much better start than Wednesday and managed to settle into a really strong rhythm by the time we came through the Gut, closing the gap to just half a length. The next few minutes were definitely some of the most painful of the whole week. It felt like we were surely just about to catch them, so we pushed for ten at firm pressure, before they managed to do the same and open the gap up again. By the second or third burst as we came past Boathouse Island, everyone was feeling it and we lost a bit of technique as we tried to put down any last power that we had left. Eventually, we ran out of river and Brasenose managed to escape the mighty deer. It was gutting to have got so close to another bump, but we’d given it our all. We paddled proudly back up to Longbridges at about rate 16 as everyone gradually caught their breath, before hunting down some much-needed post race fuel. Overall it was a frustrating day, but we still did ourselves proud and kept hold of the position that we’d won the day before.

W2 Day 2 – Claire Heinbaugh

We showed up hungry–hungry for a sandwich boat. After bumping Hugh’s yesterday, we started second in Div 5 after New College and in front of Hugh’s. Our coach, Lewis, and I strategized for an easy start and a bump in front of Hertford’s boathouse–we knew Hugh’s would die off quickly, so we wanted just enough oomph to stay ahead of them. Our plan was that once New College tired out, we could bump them and move up to Div 4 chasing Oriel for some “fly-and-die” action.

Our start was solid, much cleaner than yesterday, the nerves were out, and we settled into a controlled race pace. We finished our power ten after the start and that’s when we heard it: one little “toot” from a klaxon. Who could have gotten into that much trouble after only 20 strokes? Mansfield.

Mansfield drove into the bank on strokeside and two-seat pulled an ejector crab. She was okay. All of the other horns joined in, and we held it hard. Unfortunately, Hugh’s did not stop. They came right up next to us and started celebrating, believing that they had actually closed a boat length on us. It is, however, much easier to catch stationary boats. New College also erupted in cheers then having “rowed over.” Yeah, okay we’ll see you tomorrow. Day 3 plan: controlled rage.

W2 Day 2 – Jemima Lane

Day 2 started incredibly well – we had shaken off all the nerves from day 1, and were buoyed by our previous bump! However, 20 or so strokes into one of our strongest starts yet, the entire division was klaxoned after a rower from Mansfield had been ejected into the river; devastatingly this scuppered our plans to bump New College, but we will be back tomorrow and ready to bump!