Race 1 - Rowed over
Queens’ M2 once again found ourselves starting at the top of the third division, with the aim of rowing over ahead of Catz M2 to earn the right to remain as sandwich boat. We knew it wouldn’t be an easy task. After a row up lacking confidence, but technically fairly strong, we span on station and prepared ourselves for what was to be - for three of the crew - our 9th Mays row over in a row. The canon went, and so did we, with a fairly shaky but reasonably fast start. We settled into a rhythm around first post, and benefited from clean water through the gut. Coming around grassy we saw Catz get bumped by Maggie, and there was a noticeable drop in power as we seemed to relax – however the threat of an overbump from Christ’s was there and we couldn’t afford to rest on our Laurels with two thirds of the course to go. Indeed Christs gained and coming around Ditton they looked alarmingly close! However, we then started to open up on the reach, and the overbump wasn’t realistic from about the railway bridge (although we weren’t quite able to wind down before the finish).
Race 2 - Rowed over
Feeling a bit more confident we rowed back up to the start, making the long and lonely journey to station 17 right at Baitsbite Lock. With a little more time (the division was back on schedule after earlier delays) we were able to get out of the boat and relax for a few more minutes. We got back in on the four minute canon and started to think about Clare M2 ahead. We knew catching them was a tough ask, but possible – if we did it quickly! Our start was strong, but we very quickly faded. As we knew from last year, sandwich boat is a very tough position and so that was almost inevitable. We kept up the chase all the way to the Plough, at which point we wound down to 28 (to keep in contact in case of a mistake), winding down to 24 on the reach, and staying there until the finish – never really threatening Clare. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to row over again – this time ahead of Maggie - and have another attempt at Clare.