Day 4. Queens' II on Caius II. Neither crew had been round First Post corner yet; us because we had bumped up quickly, them because they had been bumped quickly. The bump would result in 9 blades and 9 spoons being distributed. Experience was on our side. 4/9 of our boat had rowed/coxed first boat this year. Caius had struggled to find a crew and 7/9 of the boat had only 8 weeks rowing behind them. However, W1 were quick to remind us of the luck going against them in 2009 Lent Bumps, when possible blades rested on getting Caius on Saturday.

Race preparations had become a ritual. Special guests for Saturday were shunned as the 9 of us shut ourselves in the erg room for our daily chat about  the day's race. We were unneccessarily early for marshalling, again. By now we knew every word of Bohemian Rhapsody, although our pitch still left something to be desired.

The start was not quite as clean as it had been with no pressure but adrenaline and desire drove the blades through the water and the boat the other way.

Since we had thus far been predictable in the location of our bumps, an impressive Queens' contingent were assembled on First Post corner. With 5 of our rowers coming from this years novices, we were particular pleased to have our LBC, Antonia, in the group on the bank and, we were soon to discover, heavily armed with champagne. The noise was incredible. Whistles and the cox box were lost in the shouting. On the corner, I lip read the "Hold It Up" from Chris and luckily the boat copied.

The flag duly materialised and the boar was paraded past the Pimm's tent with giddy pride.

A massive thank you to Char, Cath, Kate and Kris for coaching this term and another big thank you to our captain, Fiona, for making sure we kept up the outings through exams and always suggesting another long piece. And by never rowing more than 500m in bumps, we certainly proved Fiona's May term motto, "More pain now, less pain in bumps."

C: C. Clark S: L. Tate 7: N. Dickson 6: A. Davies 5: J. Milne 4: F. Gillanders 3: G. Hu 2: A. Smitton B: S. Brooke

 After a fun and eventful bumps we approached the final day once again against our old friends of Wolfson, we were expecting a straight shoot out along the length of the course, until realising the Christs boat behind had gone up 4 so far and were on for blades.

Undaunted we set off on what was our best row of the campaign, but coming out of Grassy Christs had closed to about half a length and we were still about a full length off Wolfson.  It was understood in the boat that our race was almost certainly against Christs, repeatedly they attacked to overlap and repeatedly we pushed them off until finally 200m before the railway bridge they pushed one last time and the crew had nothing else to give, Christs earning well deserved blades.

Although a disappointing end to the campaign the boat was happy enough with the performance knowing that no one had anything else to give at then end, and returned to the boathouse ready to enjoy the evening.

C: E. Thompson S: M. Jones 7: E. Kwong 6: M. Clark 5: M. Varley 4: D. Pattinson 3: R. Blencowe 2: C. Hansford B: T. Mitchell-Williams Coach: C. Adams Coach: K. Coventry

Nervous morning for M3, as we had Robinson II and Tit Hall II ahead, both strong crews, and probably the only boat in the entire division we had to fear behind us. Caius III, an extremely quick crew, who had dominated races throughout the term and already made their mark on the May Bumps. This was to be a challenging day, but we were optimistic, and set our sights on the second boats ahead.

Unfortunately, the nerves were evident and our start was not as sharp as we would have hoped, although it still wasn't poor. Things had been made worse by a dodgy start gun, where the 4min went, and then no 1min to follow it, causing a restart.

M3 went hell for leather and definately made up plenty of ground on Robinson, to the boys credit. Photos show it was below a length. Things seemed good at this point, because the rowing was strong and as we came down the reach, we saw our friends in Emma III take out Girton, chasing us. However, this also showed us the looming spectacle of Caius, who were still some way behind, but had clearly planned for Emma to bump.

Ahead, Robinson caught Tit Hall, where they had failed the day before. This spelled trouble, compounded by the two boats' failure to clear in time (see their subsequent fining for this). Rachel had an extremely difficult task of steering through down the reach, and through no fault of hers, bow side blades were caught on the bank. In the context of Caius catching up quickly, this didn't make life easy. We powered on and gave it our all, with Rachel calling every call she knew, including many she didn't like! We almost made it to the railway bridge, but things just didn't go our way and Caius caught up and got the overbump.

An undeserved, unlucky and upsetting defeat, and a sad end to our bumps. However, to our credit, we rowed strong, we showed our strength and commitment, and ability as a team, and were simply caught by a boat noticeably physically bigger than us. A good bumps campaign nonetheless, delivering us good times, and to some, their first bumps. Plus, we were allowed to drink this particular day of sorrows away that evening!

Congratulations to go to Caius III, who proved themselves an exceptional boat and earned blades.

Massive thanks to go to Jacob, who proved himself a mighty rower and deserves all our thanks for stepping in to replace Braj. He still hasn't been bumped - only overbumped! Cheers buddy.

C: R. Brown S: L. Bargery 7: B. Srigengan 6: G. Steele 5: B. Wright 4: T. Moore 3: K. Lim 2: N. Bookbinder-Ryan B: A. Lepper