Race Reports
Sirens Storm Through Fairbairns
With a slight confusion at the boathouse, in terms of which crew had what boat, the Sirens unfortunately were consigned to row in Qandisa. Much as we all love the charming character of this wooden boat, having trained all term in Sarah Harriet, the thought of carrying this extra weight was a slight concern. Although lacking in strength in comparison to some other novice boats on the Cam, the Sirens were adamant they would do well since they had their technique nailed. This was going to be their race.
In for the Long Haul- The Nymphs take on Fairbairns
After the strenuous races of Emma Sprints and Clare Novice Regatta, the Nymphs were shocked to find out that Fairbairns was over twice as long. Despite not having a bank party until the last minute, everyone was relatively calm, if a little cold, not really knowing what to expect. The Nymphs pushed off with a strong start, gaining on Churchill and then holding them throughout the race (and getting a better time than our boathouse-mates). Although everyone was rowing well, 2.3 km is a long way to go, and a long way for a cox to keep the motivation levels high, especially when the boat behind is not threateningly close.
Leonidas push Downing II right to the finish
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.
Leonidas claims a scalp
Having come away with only a moral victory from Emma Sprints (Leonidas’ boat speed was vastly superior to Peterhouse’s), the crew were hoping to come away with a bit more from Clare Novices. However, things didn’t bode well when the draw came out, Leonidas being pitted up against Emmanuel’s NM1. One of the stronger boathouses on the river, they had already sent out a message to other crews this term as they had won Emma Sprints the previous week over roughly the same course. Despite this, the crew went down to the river with the drive to prove themselves after the disaster of the previous week. Things were set up for almost exactly the same drama as the previous week, being drawn again on the meadow side, and Emma also being involved again. And drama there was. Being drawn on the meadow side gave Leonidas a ¼ of a length or so head-start in order to account for the curve of the Reach to the right-hand side. An epic scrap ensued. Off the start it was not apparent which crew was the stronger, with no ground being yielded by either party. However, Emma started to show the boat-speed that had won them Emma sprints, as they began to slowly creep up on Leonidas. However, much credit must go out to Leonidas, as they did not allow this to unsettle them. As Emma creeped out to a lead of ½ a length, Leonidas’ cox (Jess Foster) called for a big power 10 to bring them back, this stopping the gap widening and reversing in size. However, it is at this point, halfway through the power 10 that the race ended. This is because throughout the course of the race, Emma’s cox had been unable to deal with the windy conditions that so commonly plague the Reach, and had been drifting across to Leonidas’ side of the river. They failed to correct this line despite numerous calls from the race umpire telling them to move across, eventually resulting in them crashing into Leonidas and causing them to be disqualified from the race. And so Leonidas claimed their first ever race victory, and in doing so causing one of the upsets of the competition in knocking out the winners of Emma Sprints in the 1st Round. The majority of the plaudits for this race victory must go to the Jess the cox as she kept her nerve despite the looming Emma boat heading towards her. By keeping to the best possible racing line and not backing away, she made it very clear to the marshal the infringement that Emma were making. A cox to watch out for in the future methinks.
Leonidas' First Experience of Racing
Emma sprints, the notorious fancy-dress regatta, provided Leonidas with their first racing experience on the water. The attitude that was taken into the regatta was one of cautiousness. This was the sensible approach to take as the crew had never taken part in anything like this before, other than a spontaneous bit of sparring on the reach with NMMaximus earlier on in the week. The main aim of racing was to get first race nerves out of the way before the more important regatta of Clare Novices the following weekend, particularly as 2 races were guaranteed (losers in the first round faced off against other first round losers in a race to regain some pride). And it was a good thing that this did happen. In the first race, Leonidas was drawn up against Queens’ NM1. Seeing as Queens’ had 2 boats in the M1 category alone (and 5 novice boats in total), it was suspected that they would be strong opposition. Unfortunately, Leonidas didn’t really get a chance to challenge them, suffering an absolutely classic case of first race nerves on the start line. Despite numerous practice starts at the same location under the Railway Bridge (the course being the length of the Reach) in the previous week, it all went to pot on the starter’s “Go!” Various missed strokes, mini-crabs and a large amount of slide-rush meant that the boat’s course was offset and the ability to catch in time degraded to the level of their first ever outing, one member of stroke-side ending up in complete anti-phase to his strokeman. As a result, Queens’ rowed off into the distance and Leonidas frenetically drifted down the course to the finish line.