Queens’ vs. Selwyn Crew: James Zimaras (cox), Billie Meadowcroft (stroke), Lea Gansser-Potts (7), Ulrika Andersson (6), Kathryn Van der Byl (5), Pippa Sayers (4), Katy Relph (3), Charlotte Hallam (2), Kate Attfield (Bow) A week of illness had hit the QCBC W1 following their trip to Bedford. 6 of the squad suffered from a short lived but aggressive colds, our 4 seat managed to get a chest infection and the bow seat fell victim to some unsavoury sushi which took her out for a few days with nasty food poisoning. The only survivor is Katy - no one knows how she has managed to avoid it… Copious amounts of Berocca might have been her secret weapon. Nonetheless, the crew got on with it and arrived on race day with spirits high (but lung capacities low). A focused and balanced paddle brought us to the marshalling zone, and then up to the start line. We exploded out of front stops and hit r40 on the winds as the start buzzer took us by surprise. The messy start was quickly recovered as we reached our ‘stride’ and we started to gain on the crew beside us. Seat by seat, we pushed away until we arrived at the halfway mark where our cox was in line with their 2 seat. The crew had set up a beautiful and strong rhythm at a solid r34. Unfortunately this is where our race started to break down, Selwyn had a huge push which brought them back level with us, and all our best efforts were fruitless as the Queens’ crew tried to hang onto their handles and transfer any of the force they had left into the water. Selwyn started to gain some water on us and we simple could not respond. We crossed the finish line half a boat length behind them. A disappointing race in many ways but a ban from training from our coach, and a prescribed rest hopefully will get this wonderful crew back on their feet (/into their stretchers?) and back on the water to get some great training in ahead of bumps.
