Novice Fairbairns, as everyone knows, is the big race of Michaelmas term, the race that all of the term’s training has been building up to. It is the first experience that novices get of head-style racing, and is over a much longer distance than both Emma Sprints and Clare Novices (700/800m compared to 2700m). Leonidas’ training for this big finale was somewhat interrupted by a yellow flag causing their Sunday afternoon outing to be cancelled. It was thought that a yellow flag would also cause their Wednesday morning outing to be cancelled, but it was altered from yellow to green at 6am on the Wednesday, so much to the coach’s relief, the outing went ahead. The reason for his relief is that Jess had never coxed the corners that are upstream of the Selwyn boathouse, but are part of the course (the course running from Jesus boathouse to halfway down the Reach). This proved to be a highly productive outing as every other boat on the river headed down to the Reach, Leonidas and 2 other Selwyn novice boats headed down to Jesus lock to find extremely empty water, and the perfect opportunity for their coxes to practise those unfamiliar corners.
The pre-race preparation could have gone slightly better for Leonidas, pushing off slightly late from the boathouse and with 2 subs; the row down to the start could’ve gone much better. Leonidas’ coach then decided to rock the metaphorical boat by ordered a last minute crew order change. Originally the 2 subs were positioned at 7 and Stroke as that is where they normally rowed in their boat. However, the rest of the crew were not used to this unfamiliar rhythm, so Carl Salji (who normally rows at 4) moved to the stroke seat and Peteris Erins was reinstated to his normal 7 seat (he had been initially moved to 3 to accommodate the subs). However, this last minute change proved to be justified, the Men’s Captain Dave Barton describing after the race as “a race saving change”. This seemed to be so even from when Leonidas set off for the start line for their marshalling point. The crew seemed much more relaxed, and the ratio a good one. Several strokes before the line, Jess called for the crew to wind it up and Leonidas settled onto a long, rhythmical rate 30 shortly after passing the Jesus flagpole that marks the start-line. This rate was maintained throughout the entire race, as well as the ratio, an impressive feat for a novice boat. Leonidas came out of the first 2 corners and put in their first big push as they were going past Selwyn boathouse. Already in the distance, Jess had Downing NM2 in her sights, and with Caius NM2 (the following boat) nowhere to be seen, Leonidas pushed on into the struggling Downing boat. As Leonidas came up to Chesterton footbridge, they had closed Downing down to 2 lengths, and their power 10 off the bridge brought them up to within one and a half lengths. What ensued for the rest of the race was an epic battle between the two crews. As soon as Downing saw Leonidas coming up behind them, they turned into a different crew. Up until that point they had been looking like a second rate crew of 15-year-olds, but from Chesterton onwards they gave Leonidas the battle they were looking for, their technique improving ten-fold and their run increasing dramatically as a result. Downing had the psychological advantage at this point, having Leonidas in their sights (some members of Leonidas confessing they thought that the bank party’s cries of “You’re catching them!” meant that they were 7-8 lengths behind), and it showed. As Leonidas pushed on, the renewed Downing crew managed to push them away to one and ¾ lengths again as both crews approached the Railway Bridge, not helped by the fact that Jess was doing her best to find an overtaking line behind a weaving Downing cox. However, another big push under the railway bridge gave Leonidas overlap shortly afterwards. Downing moved over to the towpath side of the Reach and Leonidas to the Meadow side and the battle continued side-by-side. Leonidas maintained their momentum, bringing them up to ¾ s of a length behind. At this point Downing had a minor clash with the bank and by the time they had recovered, Leonidas had capitalised to bring them up to ¼ of a length. Both crews kept pushing each other right to the line and beyond, both thinking that the finish was much further down the Reach than it actually was. As a result, Leonidas and Downing kept racing until Leonidas finally got their bowball in front. However, on the line they were still a canvas behind, much to the disappointment of the crew, but the crew’s fitness must be highly commended. When the results were published, they were placed 18th (17th out of 1st Boats, beating 11 other 1st boats). This can be thought of as a good solid result, one which bodes well for the later terms and years. When put in the context of M1’s bumps standings (20th in Lents and 24th in Mays) and the small size of our college, then their performance can be thought of even more highly.
All in all, Fairbairns rounded off a good term for Leonidas, one that proved to be as entertaining as it was educating in the art of rowing!