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September 4th:
06:48-21:01
September 5th:
06:50-20:58
Posted: Sunday 18 May 2008, 6:14PM by Lisa Meegan
Well done to all the Sidney crews in Champs Head today, everyone did fantastically. In particular, congratulations to W2, who won the Women's Lower division and M1, second in the M2 division (losing out to LMBC 2 by just four seconds).
Also, well done to Rob Waddingham, cox of W2, who was awarded a coxing prize for the fourth best racing line around Ditton corner.
Full results can be found here.
Edited on Mon, 26th May 08 by Lisa Meegan
Posted: Thursday 22 May 2008, 10:49AM by Sarah Parks
W2's report by Sarah Parks
5.49.6 - 1st in women's lower division, 23rd women's boat overall
Keen to continue our success from last term, nerves were high. Paddling up the balance wasn't fantastic and our first practice start wasn't very in time, but Rob kept us together and things seemed to improve as we got to the motorway bridge, span and waited.
After a rather long wait and a lot of tapping exercises we finally got going. We had a pretty good start and had a lot of momentum going round Ditton Corner. The boat was well sat and we had a very tidy row but the power seemed to drop off a bit. Pushes down the reach didn't have a great effect on boat speed but we kept our rating of 32 and made it to the Railway Bridge where we had an up two which sped the boat up for the final stretch to the line.
Pleased with the tidy row we made our way home to the prize giving to see how we had done. We were hoping to get a good result, as we had beaten most of the boats in our division last term, and were pleasantly surprised to discover we had won our division, and beaten some college first boats. We celebrated with beer from our new tankards!
Edited on Mon, 26th May 08 by Lisa Meegan
Posted: Monday 26 May 2008, 8:41PM by Lisa Meegan
M1's report by Michael Marsh
4:42.6 - 2nd in Division 2, 11th overall
Before the race began we knew we had to put down a good result. We'd been training well and knew we were quite fast, but a lot of the crews around us in bumps had also entered so we wanted to see quite how fast... We were pleasantly surprised - not crew behind us in bumps posting a faster time.
The row down was a bit nervous, a few wobbly strokes here and there, but by and large very good. Our first practice start under the railway bridge was strong and, despite a bit of a shaky second practice start in front of the Plough, we were confident.
Our racing start was not the best we've ever done, but the rating came up well on the wind, allowing us to settle nicely into our rythm. A big push through Ditton corner helped keep the rating and boat speed up and a push out saw us surge up the first part of the reach.
The boat was nicely sat and we were holding our rating well. Down the middle part of the reach we began to lose a bit of cover, but a large middle-four push brought the boat speed back up again. We were racing strongly, each stroke with plenty of length, something we'd been working on quite a lot in training.
The rating dipped slightly under the Railway Bridge, but an up two call and another big power 10 from under it saw the rating jump up once again. This left us with the longest part of any race, the push for the finish. Everyone was tired, things got a little scrappy, but we held it together well and crossed the line 22 seconds better than Sidney's previous best time in this event.
Posted: Monday 26 May 2008, 8:43PM by Lisa Meegan
M3's report by Jeremy Coulon
Time - 5:34.9
Having trained harder than any Easter Term M3 in living memory, our first race experience of the term went reasonably well. We were a little further away from M2 in the results than we’d have perhaps liked (being 15 seconds slower than them), but nonetheless came away feeling reasonably proud of our result, especially after the unfounded rumours that we’d only beaten W2 by five seconds turned out to be false.
After waiting around for absolutely ages on First Post Reach, we finally made our way down to the Plough. Since we hadn’t yet practiced race starts we simply “up 2”ed every stroke until we felt like we were at a vaguely acceptable speed, and then tried to keep it there for the next 1450 metres – five and a half minutes, and several push-for-10s later, we were finished, if somewhat exhausted.
It felt as though we’d kept the power down pretty well throughout the whole race – certainly better than our previous outing when our last piece down the Reach ended up being a bit slow – and we were rewarded with an acceptable time, having beaten Madgalene M3 in the division above, and being a mere two second behind Churchill M3, who are two divisions above us in bumps. Having now practiced race starts, and achieved a speed almost 3 mph faster than we achieved with our “up 2” start, I’m certain that we could beat them if we were to race the course again.
Good job M3!