17/7/04 Nat Champs. The other three boat went to nat champs. The blue and the yellow crew got through for the repechage but not the final. The lightweight men came 4th in their 4-
17/7/04 Molesey Regatta. Run of good luck from dev squad continued as we won the s4 division beating Thames by a half a length in the first round and beating Barnes Bridge (again - they must be getting sick of us) by 2 lengths in the final. Lost s3 by half a length in the final to Sons of the Thames having beaten Staines by a length in our heat. Got a pretty medal this time :) Not such a good day for Granta. The 8 were entered in s2 because the entries were late and were knocked out in the first round. Their four got through to the final of s3 before being beaten by Furnival by 3 and 1/2 lengths.
10/7/04 Kingston Regatta. Yay - we won the novice division. My first pot. Its very pretty - silver tankard with briges and the Kingston crest engraved on it. We beat Mortlake Anglia by about 4 lengths in the first round and beat Barnes Bridge and Vesta by about 6 lengths in the final. Cambridge day all round as the blue boat won s4 and s3 with a 3 way Cambridge final in s4. The Granta boys also won the mens novice and s4 divisions.
2/7/04 LMBC Day at Henley. Managed to make it down after all by binning our afternoon erg session. Reallly glad I did as it was really good fun although the weather was being a bit tempermental. Huge rain storm blew over sow e all had to rush for cover. Managed to get tickets for the Steward's enclosure as well and went to Fitz's picnic.
30/6/04 Henley. The Maggie/Tit hall boat did not manage to qualify but were the second fastest non qualifiers. The Churchill/Catz composite also didn't qualify (3rd fastest) and nor did Granta (10th fastest - they're not happy boys). The only Cambriddge boat to get through was Clare in the fours and CUBC. Not going to be able to get down for LMBC day either as I have 2 outings for dev squad and can't make it down in between. Oh well, there's always next year.
18/6/04 Women's Henley. Good year for our first women. Best of the Cambridge colleges they got through to the second round before being beaten by University College Dublin who eventually won the event
9/6/04 May Bumps. Sadly got off to a bad start on the Wednesday as we never really settled off the start and windscreen wipered up and down until we got bumped by a strong Pembroke II crew before First Post corner. With visions of spoons in our heads we were all ecstatic to row over on Thursday ahead of Newnham II (who got us at Lents) after Pembroke II bumped out ahead of us. We had hoped to bump on Friday after Caius II had been sent down to us. Sadly we turned out to be fairly evenly matched and we rowed over on station behind them, not being troubled by Newnham II who held station until Ditton where they gave up a bit into the strong head wind down the reach. On Saturday we were therefore expecting another row over between the same crews which is what we got although Newnham II did look to be putting a last ditch effort in and were gaining slightly until someone caught a boat stopping crab and they were bumped behind us. We continued to row on strongly in the hope of getting Caius. This proved to be fortunate as we caught a boat stopping crab of our own down the reach and had to restart. Homerton looking for the overbump didn't even get close. Down one overall - a significant improvement on Lents. May even get to bump someone one of these days.
9/5/04 LMBC/Concept 2 Erg Champs. A 4000m relay, 500m each with changeover times being included in the time. We did ok in our division coming 4th as the top second boat. Our first women won their division (although this may have been partly due to a ringer drafted in from Fitz to sub for Clare Paddison)
10/4/04 Training camp. Not as successful as had been hoped for. Quite a few people from first boat did not turn up and I was the only one from second boat. On the plus side I got to join the first boat training camp coached by Roger Silk which was really helpful and it was possible to feel significant improvement in the boat over the week.
28/3/04 The Boat Race. We won the 150th Boat Race - yay! By 6 lengths as well so hardly a narrow victory. Its a shame Oxford chose to mar the event by complaining when they were in the wrong. Acer tried to cut across when they were not clear of Cambridge so they moved into Cambridge's water. The umpire warned them and told Kenelm to hold his line which he did. Oxford did not clear as fast as they should have done and had to be repeatedly warned. They were in Cambridge's water when the blade clash occured so it was their fault. The Cambridge boys stayed cool through the blade clash. Even without the blade clashes Cambridge were clearly the superior crew. The blade clash and loss of 2's seat cannot have lost Oxford more than a couple of lengths and Cambridge won by 6. By the end of the race they looked like they were on a sunday afternoon paddle. Face it Oxford - we won because we were the better crew. (We lost Goldie vs Isis as well by a lenght and a half but lets not talk about that).
21/3/04 CULRC and CUWBC boat races at Henley. Sadly defeated in all five races by Oxford scum. Very close margins though and hopefully there will be a larger intake of triallists next year providing a stronger base so we can whip them next year. Granta vs Nepthys - Nepthys by a canvas. Blondie vs Osiris - Osiris by half a length. Women's lightweights - Oxford by half a length. Women's blue boat - Oxford by 4 lengths. Men's lightweights - Oxford by half a length. Oh well, still the proper boat race to go.
6/3/04 Women's Eights Head of the River on the Tideway today. Our first boat was entered and started at about 80 something. They tried to enter our second boat but there were too many entries so we managed to avoid having to do a race which is over 7km. the results aren't up yet though.
28/2/04 Lent bumps. Not our most successful year in bumps. All our top boats went down. Hooray for us in the 2nd ladies boat who went down 4 and got spoons. Spoons are much better than blades on account of being cheaper and easier to transport. We were sadly beaten by Emma II, a very good crew who went on to get blades, Kings, a first boat who have made good progress this year, Newnham II, an all girls college which should be able to field good womens boats as they have a wider pool and Wolfson, a first boat from a graduate college who were stronger than us. I still think (despite proof otherwise) that we were a good boat. We had good technique but didn't do enough ergs and weights to be strong enough to do well in bumps. We had good starts but lacked the stamina to be able to bump. damn. ah well, there's always next year. The 2nd men went down three, the first men down 2 and the first women down one. on a more positive note, the third men went up three, putting them into the bottom of the second division and the fourth men went up one. Its all based on luck in bumps.
Photos from races can be found at:
JET Photographic
Natures Images
Ede and Ravenscroft