On Saturday, we entered Newnham Short Course which is a 2km race from the Motorway Bridge to the Railway Bridge (the same as the Bumps course). After our success last week, we knew that we could perform well, and that doing two 2k, let alone 1 was something that we could blast through. Unfortunately, the wind too was a little blasty, with speeds up to 20km/h and with the weekly rainfall, the stream was very strong. The row down was lovely,and we were sailing through the bends…of course, when we would actually be racing we would be rowing against it all! Marshalling was even more interesting than it normally is, with boats here, there and everywhere, with the odd near decapitation and bow pair rowing just to keep us stationary!

Although this was only a time trial, there were still boats in front and behind – Jesus W1 were behind us and Caius W1 in front (so some tough competition). But we were equal to the task! Michelle, our cox, coped amazingly well in the difficult conditions, as the stream made steering very difficult. Against wind and stream we powered through, knowing that on the Reach, with no cover, the wind would be even worse…to such an extent in fact that there were definite waves! We knew what was coming, and with Jesus gaining on us at Ditton corner, the race was on to push ourselves away (all good Bumps practice)! The whole way up the Reach they kept gaining and gaining but we weren’t ready to give up so with more calls for ‘Power on the legs’ from Michelle and encouraging ‘You’ve got this’ from Hannah on the bank, we managed to put in a last surge and hold off Jesus, as well as making up 3 lengths on Caius.

Out of all the W1 boats we came 8th out of 20, beating Caius, Catz, Wolfson and Girton, with a time of 10.32. The winners were First and Third with a time of 9.53, and the subsequent boats were all with 15 secs of our time so another really good result to take us into Robinson Head on Friday. 

After the slight chaos of marshalling, we set off for a first 2k. Luckily we had the wind and stream in our favour but that didn’t stop our coach, Hannah Spry, from reiterating the importance of the lock-on and not letting ourselves be fooled by how fast the boat felt like it was moving. With our cox, Michelle Low, calling for ‘Strong Legs’ and ‘Power On’, we finished after making up several lengths on LMBC – now Hannah wanted us to catch them!

After a quick spin around and some much need Haribo Super-Mix, we were ready for the race homewards – this one would be much harder against the stream and the wind but Hannah reminded us all of the importance of early squaring and sharp catches to send us home. Having warmed up from our first race, and with LMBC in our sights, we headed off and in no time at all we’d past First Post Corner, got through the Gut and were powering on to The (never-ending) Reach. It was at this point that we had to forget the pain that was in our legs and imagine a new pair that would take us across that finish line. All along The Reach, we were gaining, with Hannah and Michelle telling us how close we were…by the end we were only 3 feet from LMBC (definitely good practice for Bumps)!

The waiting for published times seemed to take forever but by 10.30pm we knew that not only had we won our division with an overall time of 16.55 but had also beaten St. Catz, Newnham, Jesus and Kings W1, as well as beating the winner of Mays Div 2 category by 10 secs!

It was really wonderful to celebrate Speedwell’s first victory with Dame Veronica, who donated her last year, today. I look forward to bringing you more good news over the next few weeks – with Newnham Head, Robinson Head and Pembroke Regatta on the horizon before Bumps, it’s going to be an interesting couple of weeks…STAY TUNED!

So it’s been an eventful week for our novice crews! Not only Emma Sprints on Sunday but the first round of Clare Novices today as well.

Sunday saw our 80s W1 sprint to victory in their first two races but were pipped to the post in their third race to come 4th in their division. W2 had just as much fun in the drama that was their race which resulted in a broken rigger, a blade coming out of a gate and their bank party having a collision with a cyclist coming in the opposite way! But the fun did not end there, as Newnham kindly accepted the offer of racing 6s.

An eventful weekend was then backed up with a nail biting race today. Despite having all rowed only once before (i.e. this morning) our girls overcame the poor steering of the Magdalene cox (not once but twice), a restart and two crabs to finish several boat lengths ahead of their opposition!

Looking good girls and can’t wait to cheer you on on Saturday! If you’d like to come down and join us, our first race against Kings is happening at 11.20am. Till then…