Cambridge Winter Head 2009: Reports

1st Michaelmas VIII - WON Senior College VIIIs
Result: 1st College VIII in time of 8.25s, 12 seconds ahead of 2nd place Downing. Beat the 2nd University Lightweights crew. Beat Imperial College London. Overall, across all events, came 3rd. Beaten by an IM1 senior VIII, and the IM1 lightweight VIII. A windy day, and a mixed thoughts crew as we went into this competition, hoping to continue our recent success in University IVs (in which we won the double). The start was pretty slow, and we settled into a rate 30. This didn't really change for the majority of the race. A small push into and a big push out of grassy sat the boat up, and the platform was good. Coming out of Ditton, we really felt the crosswind, so another push maintained the boat speed, and allowed us to focus on timing. A crab down the middle of the reach (which almost resulted in a second on the other side of the boat!) took off a fair bit of speed, but the composure was fantastic as we brought the boat back up to speed. A push into the finish, and we were happy that we'd put in a good performance, though it was unanimously agreed that their was more to give. Results came out and the crew were very pleased. An excellent result, and a good solid row from the whole team. Well done. results tab article - Queens' Rule River
C: J. Cribb S: P. Mildon 7: N. Gates 6: H. Dietert 5: M. Richly 4: G. Savell 3: M. Wigley 2: C. Sturrock B: E. Hewage Coach: G. Elliott Coach: R. Jeffrey Coach: C. Adams

Michaelmas Boars Head VIII - =58th overall, 23rd in division
This was one race that I had been looking forward to. The crew were 8 out of 9 of the Mays '08 M1, with Ed Kwong stepping in for Max Richly after he couldn't get a bit of metal out of his hand... Not having rowed together for two years, this really was a scratch crew, but no one would have believed it with the way we WOWED the crowds with our LOW RATE ROWING. If this had been a rate 14 capped race, we would have WON. Unfortunately for us, we had to take the rate up . . .and up . . and by the time we hit 30 we had almost crossed the start line. We settled into a nice rhythm here, and slowly began making ground on the crew in front . . . a team of swans . . who in turn were making ground on a Merton M2 crew. With them in our cross hairs, we overtook the swans, and went in for the kill. A hard slog up the reach, followed by TWO sets of BOOM calls left us crossing the line dead level with the Merton chaps. Everyone had a fantastic time, no one could believe the boat was balanced, and even Ed John was semi keen for the core that Jal proposed after the race. See you soon boys, Nick
C: G. Disney S: C. Adams 7: N. Gates 6: E. John 5: M. Beverton 4: D. Jalalpour 3: E. Kwong 2: J. Bishop B: A. Dyson Coach: R. Jeffrey

Queens' Mens Novices (George)
No-one from this crew has written a race report yet.
C: R. Brown S: J. Gilbert 7: D. Keeley 6: P. Lucas 5: P. Merchant 4: R. Blencowe 3: J. Baxter 2: s. goodman B: T. Mitchell-Williams Coach: G. Savell

Women's 1st Michaelmas VIII - 6th in 10.28
Nothing was perfect but everything was better... - wise words! Good work guys!
C: C. Clark S: G. Long 7: D. Malinova 6: A. Robbins 5: C. Drury 4: H. Miller 3: J. Milne 2: A. Davies B: C. Armstrong