W1 Michaelmas Term 2011 Round Up

This term has been full of ups and downs for W1. Our high points being the fantastic result in Fairbairns, the illuminating Crew Meals, the Infamous Tit-Hall swap.... Our lows being Winter Head, I need not say more. We have been on a steep learning curve from Day 1.

The Women’s Side lost a fair few of our experienced Senior rowers due to graduation and consequently the 1st Ladies of this term had a lot of work to do to bring ourselves up to scratch. Outings, Land Training and Circuits commenced with a vengeance, and we did everything in our power to try to be ready to face Fairbairns! We used Winter Head as the trial run for Fairbairns, and it was very illuminating. We discovered some issues with our crew mind set and technique and focused on sorting those for the end of term. As a crew we hadn’t yet discovered quite how hard we could push; Stef (our coach) soon sorted that out by setting us some 2ks to do (Land Training did not seem so fun in that week).

In typical W1-Style we managed to pull it out of the hat at the last possible second (our penultimate outing) and Fairbairns was a fantastic race for us. We were together finally, everyone was pushing for the crew, everybody wanted to do well, and as a result the boat flew. Our start was good we hit a nice rhythm, the rate was a little high but we settled down to something sustainable within the first three minutes, and kept the power on through the ‘boat house’ corners. We then hit the reach. We knew that this was going to be one of the hardest parts of the race and credit must go to Annabel Butcher (Cox) for refusing to let us give in and slow down. Seeing the Infidel Ladies behind us on the reach spurred us on; there was no way we were going to be overtaken. Going through the Gut we forced ourselves to go faster, to row better, and to get those catches in. As we rounded 1st post it was do or die; we did another race start picking the boat speed up and sprinting to the finish and crossed the line in 18 minutes 16 seconds.

All of W1 were pretty chuffed with the time, and it goes to show that hard work and determination really do pay! Thanks have to go to Stef for not giving up on us even when the going got tough, to Liz Elder for coaching, bank partying and remaining part of the squad even when injury meant she could no longer row, and to the Ladies of W1 themselves for making this term enjoyable as well as successful. Our prospects look good for Lents, it is not going to be easy, but if we work like we did this term I believe we will all be smiling come the end of Bumps.

Ella Richards