SCBC

Just for the record, no one from W2 has rowed bumps before. So,
unsurprisingly we were all rather (very) nervous and uncertain and not at all sure about what to expect. BOOM No.1 4mins to go and there's our signal to dekit. In the snow(!!!) Someone's having a laugh. BOOM No2. One minute left. Adrenaline's really pumping now. FINAL BOOOM!! The cannon sounds and we're off.

Excellent start, going strong, pulling away from Sidney II (who beat us in Pembroke) and gaining on Queens II (who suffered from equipment failure before the start of the race. You know, just to add a bit more drama to the whole thing).

We'd gone round the first corner (please don't expect me to know which one) when suddenly someone caught a crab. Oh no. Then someone else caught a crab. (W2, we really need to stop paying such devout homage to the crab gods. I'm sure they appreciate it and all but it's getting to the stage that enough's enough). Oh no, Sidney are gaining on us, the whistle's going continuously. And then THUD. What? We hit Queens? We bumped? What's going
on? And it's utter carnage, the river's just filled with a backlog of boats. Basically, the boats in front of Queens had bumped out. And then hadn't cleared. After much to-ing and fro-ing (and hitting someone's poor cox on the head with a blade) we returned to our initial spot.

So, after all that, we had to start the race again. It didn't last long. Essentially there was a crab on the first stroke, and then another one and we couldn't really get it together. We'd barely gone 50m before Sidney bumped us.

Still, it was a lot of fun. Fingers crossed for tomorrow :)