News

On the morning of Robinson Head nobody was entirely sure if the race would be going ahead or not, due to the large amounts of ice! Not willing to interrupt our training we had a hard water session in the morning anyway, avoiding the part of the river frozen solid. At midday the race was announced on, but over a shortened course of about 1.5km. Having effectively raced the course 3 times in our morning session, and this being our first race of term, the girls were excited to see what time we could get. We had a very solid race, our rolling start sequence was suddenly changed on the start line with the decision not to have a stride, and it worked perfectly. The crew naturally settled finding their rhythm and really making the boat move with every stroke. We stayed strong and relaxed until the last few hundred metres, when calling for a wind for the finish had no effect as the girls were now feeling the work they'd put in that this morning in their legs. Still we finished strongly and we're extremely happy with the time we achieved knowing there's plenty more we can easily do to improve.

Annabel Butcher

Report

On Monday 16th January GCBC  started its absolutely momentous task of erging (and cycling for coxes) 2012km in under 24 hours in order to buy new blades for the women and a men's scull.

The system was basic: split the day up into 48 half-hour slots.  Get 8 ergs and 1 bike.  Find GCBC members to occupy said ergs and bike for said slots and ask them to travel 6km each whilst on them.  It should be simple...

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).

  Read more »

Just a quick update on the Fairbairn Cup races run by Jesus College on the 2nd December 2011. More details and full race reports will be added as the club recovers from term/racing/BCD....

 

M1 8+ (15:25.8, 22nd 8+, 14th Cambridge college)

Bow: Rich Watkins; 2: Rich Taylor; 3: Calum Eadie; 4: Cosmo Coulter; 5: Nathan Grand; 6: Rolf Fredheim; 7: Alex Fudge; Stroke: Tom Hellier (c); Cox: Ellie Stone.

 

After a couple of very good training sessions before Friday, M1 were confident as they came up to the start line that the potential to do well was still alive and well following our success in Winter Head.  We’d chosen to do a rolling start, so after two strokes to settle down the draws commenced, and although the boat felt a bit rocky, there was strength and enthusiasm behind it all.  The winds got everyone spinning their hands faster than ever before and we quickly reached rate and lengthened out.  Read more »

A powerful start and a power ten to put M1 to shame proved just too little for the NM2 boys.

Despite high hopes and high quality training, Queens' suspiciously hench "NM2" pulled away as the last as Girton's oars betrayed the rowers.

Dressed to the nines in their angels and devils theme, featuring a dashing coxing appearance as the Devil, (complete with tail) the crew pulled together to strike fear into the hearts of their rivals. And despite confusion prior to setting off, being awarded a last minute bye, Girton made it to the start line in good time.

A good start saw them pull away from the Queens' boat powering down the Reach. Starting on the meadowside, the sun was in the cox's eyes, but the boys pulled together and continued to make excellent headway, pulling away half a length on Queens'. Ably assisted by their Bank party of Alum Hussain, Lorenzo Santinelli and Laura Highcock (also due credit for the costumes) the crew continued to squeeze the Green Monster away from the Queens crew. Read more »