Cox: Lydia Farnham
Stroke: Charles Jameson
7: Niklas Schmitz
6: Douglas van Niekerk
5: Nicholas Frederick Budenberg
4: Daniel de Lisle
3: Illyaz Sayenko
2: Rusheel Somaiya
Bow: Rohan Mudumba
Coach: Alexander Miscampbell
Braving high winds Queens’ NM1 (aka Life) took to the water as the first Queens’ boat to race. A last-minute adjustment due to the conditions meant that the race course was shortened to finish at the P&E (1.6km) instead of the usual finish at the top of the reach (2.7km).
Despite a worryingly leisurely start at 26 strokes per minute, once the crew got going the rate wound up to a strong 34 and with good technique to match. After roughly a minute the crew settled on a more sustainable 32/33 stroke rate. During the middle section of the race Queens’ looked very tidy and with some good steering and calls from Lydia, the split stayed well into the 1:50s.
Unfortunately with about 600m to go, a boat stopping crab was caught under Chesterton footbridge and with one of the crew hanging out of the boat, the rest of the crew had to hold it up! Despite coming within inches of the water, he managed to stay in the boat and the crew recovered well with the last two minutes being some of the strongest of the race.
Queens’ NM1 sadly missed the top 10 by ~13 seconds but still finished a very respectable 15th in the Men’s 1st division. The final time of Queens’ NM1 of the shortened course was 7:29 which was faster than numerous other NM1’s including: Jesus, Downing, Pembroke, Magdalene and Kings.
All in all a solid Days racing from Queens’ NM1!