Bumps: day 4 and round-up

[Day 3 - Day 1, 2012]

Well, its all over now. The last song has been sung, the last bottle drunk, the last burnt sausage consumed, the last nail painted, and the last naked quad rowed up to the lock.

How did we do, overall? Speaking as one of M1, I'd say "the boys dun good" - we had only one bump up, but we rowed well overall and had a really very exciting row-over on the last day, chased hard by Champs 2. Elsewhere, the picture was a less rosy. M2 went up on day 2, bumping the evil arch-villain Will Wyckham in the process, but alas it all went horribly wrong on the next 2 days when Tabs 7 upgraded both their rowing and their boat, and they ended one place down overall. M3 had keeness and determination going for them, but that wasn't reflected in their results, since they earned their spoons (which John had painted up for M1 two years ago, but which we fortunately didn't need then).

The ladies perhaps suffered from their success of last year. W2 rowed over 4 times, unable to catch up with City 7 ahead; W1 went down 3, but with a mighty row-over on day 3.




Video of M1 friday, a frame-grab from us going down Plough reach in a Champs sandwich (click for video). Its hard to see how close we are - alas the cameraman is focussing on the excitement of Tabs 3 bumping Tabs 2 in the far distance. However, I think we're probably closer than we thought we were. David Ponting took a nice pic at nearly the same time.




Steven would like to make it clear that rumours of naked quadding have been greatly exaggerated.

Refs

* Day 3
* Day 2
* Day 1
* Amy on Day 4

* The bumps chart pic is semi-ripped from Vera analytics.
* Champs 2 bowcam.
* M1 friday from madprof77; W1 on thursday.

Bumps day 3

[Day 2 - Day 4]

Less pizzazz and enthusiasm today, as the results are more muted. The pic is M2 having just done their practice start outside the Plough, rounding Grassy on the way to the start. Click for more.

M3: down again, poor chaps. M2: down, bad boys, to Will Wyckham and his gang of reprobates in their shiny new Stampfli. Get 'em tomorrow again, boys. M1: row over. Closed on Champs 1 but not enough.

W2: row over. W1: row over, but an exciting one. See Amy's blog, and video.

Refs

* Day 2
* Amy
* William
* Paul
* M1 at Jet Photographic
* M1 video by Rob Payne

Bumps day 2

[Day 1 - Day 3]

And so it falls to me once again to chronicle our efforts. As it happens, this was a good night for M1 and M2, who both went up. Here we are, happy to have bumped City 3:



M1: L to R: Andy Southgate (4); Steven Andrews (5); Chris Wood (2); Ollie Crabb (S); James Tidy (Cox); Chris Metcalfe (3); William Connolley (B); James Howard (7; with George); Chris Smith (6; sub for Tom Watt who managed to injure himself at the last minute, aiee). Photo credit: Gytha (but I did my best to sabotage it by leaving my SLR on aperture priority). Full story in tedious detail here.



M2: Ralph, Paul (Captain), Andi, William, Emma (Cox), Dave (hiding), Katherine, Gary, Rob, who bumped Tabs 7 (CCL, featuring Will Wykeham, Chesterton renegade who gets his comeuppance).

Elsewhere the news was not so good: M3 down, W1 down (so we're now higher than them, so James may win his bottle of whiskey off Freya), and W2 rowed over.

Weather for the evening: cool, still, threatened rain, but didn't.

Refs

* Day 1
* William
* Amy
* Paul
* Rob Payne's video

Bumps day 1

[Day 2]

Day 1 of the Cambridge City bumps, which we've been training for... well, since the end of last years's bumps.



In the pic: W2, who rowed over at #30. They get to chase City 7 again tomorrow, but now have City 8 bumped up behind them. M3 went down one to #53, just above the sandwich boat at the bottom of division 3. A thrilling race with an exciting conclusion round about the Plough, where they weren't quite saved by the InveterEight.

M2 rowed over at #32, with Leys Lysander (old boys, so probably pretty well the same crew as came though M2 last year) bumping out ahead of them, giving them a shot at Tabs 7 (CCL, boo hiss) tomorrow, if they can hold off Champs 5. W1 are down one to #13 to a very fast Xpress crew.

And M1: we had a good row. We quibbled about it a little afterwards, and in the pub, but it was good. However, it wasn't a useful test: behind us, Champs 2 got Nines 3 fairly quickly - before first post - and ahead of us Tabs 3 (Hills Road) got City 3 around about the Plough (irritatingly impeding us, forcing us to stop (for one glorious moment I thought we'd bumped them; but it didn't last, and we'd had no whistles) and restart). James then flogged us down the reach for some obscure reason, we stopped for some beer, and then went to the Waterman. Tomorrow will be the true test.

Oh, and did I mention that bloody Georgina held up M1 for 20 mins while they pratted around? Wazzocks.

Refs

* Amy
* William
* Paul
* M2 going round First Post (Jet) and M3
* Videos: M1; M2

Xpress heads

The Xpress head was on the 20th of June. We put in a decent crew and won in 9:42; you can even see our track (the section from ~30 to ~40 mins is the race itself).

That is the big pot. The rather nice shot glass is from the Xpress "International" Head Race on the 25th of June; the word "International" is intended somewhat for fun; from what I gather the excuse for the event is an exchange between Circolo Canottieri Aniene of Rome and Xpress: every second year they visit each other, alternating Rome and Cambridge. Steven / Katherine organised a mixed mixed VIII coxed by Simon, middle four from M1 (Ollie, Steven, Chris, William), stroked by Anna Rosa from Robs, Sarah at 7; and Tanja and Katherine again from Robs in the bows. And the Robs folk came from us originally I gather. Of the race: there was a stiff head wind. We came in 11:02 which won us the mixed category; GPS track here. We even got a plaque, which has been on various exciting adventures around the world since. Chesterton also put in a second crew in the second division (Meg coxing; a welcome back to Ralph at stroke; Katherine again; William C (sitting oddly on strokeside), Will W, Andi R, Simon, and special guest appearance by Emma "never again" M.). So I have two shot glasses :-).

[Yes, this post is a bit late, but better than never]

CRA timed race 2011

The CRA timed race is sort of the rowing-on race for the CRA bumps, except there are spare places, so it isn't. As I understand it. But it is a chance to row over, errm, not the actual course (because it is rowed from the railway bridge to Jesus boathouse, more or less, which bears precious little relation to the real course), a bit before the bumps, with something that may or may not be your actual crew.

Anyway, bugger all the caveats, here are the results, hot off the press, ripped off a boathouse wall by James Tiny (who he?) and presented to you here and now. The official version will be available sometime soon once the CRA website recovers from its DoS attack.

So, well, you can read the results for yourself. The only question is, can you interpret them correctly? We started 5 and came 4 which is fine. The Tabs crew that pushed us to the lock didn't deign to race, though. Nines look to be utterly f*ck*d, unless that is the 3rd crew or something - who knows.

Our M2 crew looks fairly handy for a boat close to the bottom of M2, and our ladies deserve congratulations for winning pots as fastest novice ladies - very promising. And after it all we repaired for a jolly evening in the Waterman which was excellent. That Chris Smith was there, and he didn't insult us particularly severely, which must be good, no?