Another race, and high expectations. Having gone through the term unbeaten at Autumn Head, Uni IVs and Winter Head, the 1st Fairbairns VIII were understandebly nervous going into this competition as the favourites.

Race preparation after Winter Head was serious, and every crew member turned up to every training session wanting to keep winning. After a sleepy Wednesday morning outing, we had a day and a half off, before a good crew meal on Thursday evening. Everyone arrived early for the pre race boat check, which meant that the full crew and our coaches Rob Jeffrey, Peter Taylor and Charlie Adams could have a good team talk. This left everyone feeling pretty psyched and I was confident that every man on the team would be giving at least 100% to the race.

Marshalling was rather delayed, which meant that we were unable to do our pre race mini warmup to Jesus lock and back. This meant that the first stroke we took in VIIIs was off the start line! I had arranged for at least a 2 minute gap to be left between us and the Darwin crew in front, as I did not want to risk having to overtake. In hindsight this was definately needed, as we took 80 seconds off their time.

Going through town the boat felt a little rusty. Nerves had set in, and I was trying hard to channel them into the water! However, we soon managed to settle into a smooth rhythm, and we really started moving coming past the P+E. Under the railway bridge we put in a push which greatly added to our boat speed. Moving down the reach I could really feel the crew moving well together, especially around the back end, something we had been striving for all term. This allowed us to relay power to the water together, and our rate 32 felt sub r30. Coming round Ditton we lost a bit of boat speed, and the balance began to go again as the crew really began to feel the strain of the race. Jon had put in some super motivational calls to make sure we kept in the game, and another push brought us back together.

Out of first post, Jon called that we were 12 and a half minutes in. Although we hadn't discussed it too much, everyone in the crew was hoping for a sub 14 time, and as soon as the call was made I knew that the boat would respond - which it did. After the motorway bridge all I could think about was hearing the first of the boom calls. With everyone feeling like their heads and legs were going to explode, the final push was not quite as pretty as the one for Winter Head, but we lumped the boat over the line. Although we had no speed coach, our time shows that our average split was 1:37.9 for the race, a very powerful row.

As soon as we were on the bank we had people asking for our times. Jon had a definate sub 14.10 on the cox box, and Rob gave us a 14.02. However, these were unofficial, and we were unsure how we had done. Word on the vine was that both Downing and FaT had got 14.10 flat, so we were hoping that we had done enough. After a few hours nervous waiting, the official results were announced at 4.55, Queens' had won Senior Fairbairns. To say we were ecstatic would be an understatement and some. Jon took to yodling 'Queeennnnssss'''' ' from the balcony, which was a special site. After collecting our medals and new shield, we cracked open the champagne and headed back for photos.

A fantastic finale to a great terms racing. With 5 novice boats coming up to seniors now, Queens' are longing stronger than ever. Bring on the Lents, where M1 start 13th...