Again, we had our race plan, and stuck to it. We knew that Magdalene would be able to catch Kings given the whole course and going from King's performance on the day before, we expected it to be somewhere early down the reach. On the days previously, we had bumped Churchill and Christ's at Ditton, so this seemed as good a place to make the bump on Magdalene as any.

Our paddle to the start was good and our practice starts were the best we had produced. everything was looking good for the start cannon. And, as such, the race started fantastically for us. Our first stokes were long and calm and we built the rate nicely and kept blade work tidy. We were much faster off the start than both Magdalene and Christs (despite rating significantly lower - taken from later video analysis), and quickly started to make ground (much faser than we actually predicted we would as the plan had not changed from the previous days). By the time we came under the motor-way bridge we had got one whistle on Magdalene, and from there it was as if both Kings and Magdalene were being sucked towards us by elastic.

By approximately half way down the reach we had three whistles on Magdalene, however, all credit o them, they stayed calm knowing that King's were performing much worse than they had on the previous day. As such, Magdalene put in a very well timed push to hold-us off their stern (judging from the video - by what looks like less than two feet). Thanks to King's poor rowing, this was all the distance Magdalene needed to make the bump on Kings before we could get Magdalene.

Some great warning calls from the bank quickly told us that we were going to have to make to swift manouvers to get around the bumped-out Magdalene and King's crews in front of us, while Kate's swift and decisive steering and calls guided us safely through and set us up nicely for the row over that now lay in front of us.

As we calmed down from the carnage we heard from the bank that we had closed on Fitz to about four lengths off. We immediately decided that we may as well try for the overbump, as the Christ's crew behind was not going to be a problem wether we pushed or not. We dug-deep and pushed out of Grassy nicely, Kate steering some fantastic lines through the final corners with he aim of blasting out of Ditton and making as much ground as possible on Fitz down the reach.

Sadly (although unsurprisingly) the overbump never came. Fitz could see us making our pushes some distance behind them, and this gave them the distinct advantage of being ale to react in plenty of time. Apparently we crossed the line with about two and a half lengths to go. Not a bad distance gain on crew that started 6.5 lengths ahead.

I do have to say however, that this has been by far my most enjoyable set of bumps races (behind last May's of course ;-) ). I couldn't be more proud of the crew, coming through this term, and especially in the last two weeks there has been a development of both the physical side of the crew and the mental attitude with which the crew attacks training and racing which leaves me almost breathless. For instance, thanks to that change, attention to detail and willingness to accept advice, we actually rowed-over 45seconds faster on day 4 of bumps when compared with day 1 after some simple video analysis. If we can make that type of change in boat-speed within four days, I'm really looking forward to how much faster we will be going come the Mays! Bring it on!

I must also thank Q.C.B.C Head Coach Rob Jeffrey and Peter Taylor and all the other Q.C.B.C coaches for the extensive time and effort they put into making us the crew we are! While huge thanks must also go to Paul and Fi for always being there for us through the term and through bumps. Legends!

P.S. A huge thank you must also go out to Dave Sykes, without whom we would not have been able to row and train as a crew for much of this term. You are a star!!

P.P.S. Another big thanks must go to all the Queens' people that came down to watch us race over the four days, I haven't seen anything like t before, and it really did make a difference. Thank you!