Hertford put four boats out across the whole weekend of racing, getting some valuable experience to bring to the coming year. It was the first time at an external regatta for many of our rowers, and a really fun weekend.
Saturday Morning: M8+ // Hertford v Wolfson | 1000m
Cox: Finlay Jordan | Stroke: Olly Harvey-Rich | 7: Benjamin Wagenvoort | 6: Alexander Graham | 5: Yüran Shi (sub: St. Antony’s M1) | 4: Ari Blondal | 3: Ted Pal (sub: St. Hugh’s M1) | 2: Finn Pearson | Bow: Anton Fedotov
After a good training session on Friday evening, we were hoping for a strong performance in the M8+ 1000m races on the Saturday. We were drawn against Wolfson, whose boat was primarily composed of rowers from their M1, which is currently placed 4th in Summer 8s. Our boat, on the other hand, featured four rowers from M2, two from M1, and two non-Hertford subs who very kindly stepped in to fill our gaps. On paper, we were by far the weaker team.
However, after 16 or so strokes, we were marginally ahead of Wolfson. And then, their 7 seat was forced to stop rowing after his gate came loose. Their 6 seat also stopped rowing to keep the boat balanced whilst this gate was being fixed. We had a chance to take a lead, and were a length ahead of Wolfson at this point. However, Wolfson were too quick for us after returning to eight rowers, and went straight past us — a joint effect of tired legs from us, and big legs from Wolfson. Despite their mishaps, Wolfson won by 1.5 lengths, but there are plenty of positives to take from this race: we still held our own against a powerful Wolfson team, despite predominantly being M2 rowers at our first external regatta.
We also entered the sprint 8s afterwards, a 400m race from Christ Church boathouse to Longbridges, but were unfortunately drawn against Wolfson again. Similar to the previous race, we held them at the start of the race before they floated off to the finish line ahead of us. Nonetheless, an enjoyable learning experience.
Saturday Afternoon: M4+ // Hertford v City of Bristol | 1000m
Cox: Louise Södergren | Stroke: Olly Harvey-Rich | 3: Benjamin Wagenvoort | 2: Alexander Graham | Bow: Anton Fedotov
After our morning races in the 8, we were determined to take some of what we’d learnt to the 4 in our first race not against Wolfson. Fin, our normal M1 cox, was coxing the opposition City of Bristol boat after spending the summer there, so we knew they’d had some good coaching and weren’t likely to hand us an easy victory with dodgy steering. The 4 felt a lot more unstable than the 8 as we paddled up to the start line, but we soon found our balance and started to properly connect. Unfortunately we then had our messiest start of the weekend, with some timing problems leading to instability and shorter strokes, and Bristol took some seats off us in the first few hundred metres. We managed to reset and settle into a better rhythm by the second half of the race, but by then we’d sadly lost too much ground and lost by a few lengths. It was a frustrating race for the whole crew, but after a good post-race debrief we felt ready to make things right the next day. After packing up the boats for the day, the whole crew headed to get pizza to refuel and prepare for a better day of racing on Sunday.
Sunday Morning: Mx4+ // Hertford v Monmouth RC | 500m
Cox: Louise Södergren | Stroke: Mabel Williams | 3: Benjamin Wagenvoort | 2: Bella McKenna | Bow: Anton Fedotov
The crew had good power off the start, but with the mixed crew having two female stroke siders and two male bowsiders there was a power imbalance which lead us off course to begin with. The opposition, Monmouth, therefore gained on the start and it was then up to us to make up the distance and catch them. After some heroic steering from our cox, we straightened up again, put the power down and got into the flow of the race. We gained a little once we got into a long powerful stride but it was sadly not quite enough to catch Monmouth, who went on to win the final in the mixed 4+ 500m.
Sunday Afternoon: M4+ // Hertford v Wolfson | 500m
Cox: Mabel Williams | Stroke: Olly Harvey-Rich | 3: Benjamin Wagenvoort | 2: Alexander Graham | Bow: Anton Fedotov
After a somewhat frustrating first race in the 4+ on Saturday, we were eager to redeem ourselves coming into the race on Sunday. With a clear plan for what needed to be improved for this race, although not much time to implement it in a warm-up, we headed to the start line. After a strong and smooth start, we were slightly ahead before the 250m mark, but unfortunately the Wolfson crew slowly slipped away from us in the last 100m, to win the race. Despite the result, it was a great row that we could all be proud of, and the closest race of the weekend.
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