Month: December 2014

Christmas Head 2014


 Boat Club President

Although most people have now gone home for the holidays, there were a few of us still kicking around, anxious to be back in a boat. On Saturday, City of Cambridge Rowing Club put on their annual Christmas Head – a 1.6km race. where crews row up towards the boathouses. After all the hard work at the Fairbairns races, for both seniors and novices, this was a fun race with which to end the term (complete with fancy dress).

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W1 Four: Stella Lempidaki (bow), Elinor George (2), Sarah Roe (3), Sally Mole (stroke), Gem Schofield (cox)

The Seniors were able to compete in a four, kindly lent to us from Emmanuel Boathouse. With only 2 outings, along with a change from our usual bowsider to a strokesider stroke, it took some time for things to fall into place. Complete with our Christmas Jumpers, ranging from stockings to gingerbread men, we came up to the start line and commenced our rolling start. Along the course, the pair which set off behind us was slowly closing up and we managed to hold them off till the Elizabeth Way bridge (at about 500m still to go). They didn’t manage to overtake us though – despite our moving to the side, they crashed against the canal boats so we were still able to cross the line first. Our time was 8.28 and we were 8 seconds off the next fastest boat, as well as 28 seconds off the overall 4+ winnner. Although not as strong as our row at Fairbairns, for the limited time we had to prepare for the race, we were happy with the result – after all, can’t take anything in fancy dress too seriously!

The novices put in another strong performance and were catching up to the crew in front from the start. About halfway through the course they had overlap with the bow and the other boat’s stern but the other crew moved more closely into our boat, and our novices crashed. After a quick push off and reset, they went for another start sequence and were once again closing the gap between them and the other crew. Luckily there were no more incidents but the novices powered on up to the line and completed the course in a time of 9.17. Had it not been for the crash they could have gotten a much lower time, and could have been much closer to the Women’s Novice Winners (Anglia Ruskin University) who has a time of 8.23.

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Novice crew: (from left to right, back row) Lizzy Morre, Tracey Hurrell, Polytimi Frangou, Teresa Knudsen, Elspeth Barnett, Sandrine Mueller, (front row) Maria Schaker, Aditi Ratho, Ellen Kendall

For both novices and senior crews, the results were not exactly what we had hoped for but  it was a fun race with which to end the term and will have given us more fire to come back at the start of next term to do even better.

Novice and Senior Fairbairns 2014


 Boat Club President

It’s hard to believe that it has been only 8 weeks since the novices first took to the ergs and the water. The term has indeed flown! The Fairbairn Cup  marks the end of the novice term, as our new recruits competed in their first time trail over a distance of 2.7km.

Last Thursday saw both NW1 and NW2 racing. Despite the cold and the spitting rain both crews did exceedingly well. NW1 came 13th (with a time of 12.12.1) whilst NW2 came 33rd (with a time of 13.13.0) out of 57 boats, including some school crews fromLeys School and St Mary’s. The crews really did hold their own, powering on right to the end of the course. This was, by far, the longest piece of consistent high intensity rowing they have done all term and can be very proud of their achievements. They had indeed set the bar very high for the Seniors, who were competing the following day.

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NW1 crew: Sally Mole (cox), Lizzy Moore (stroke), Abbey Child (7), Karen Lebe (6), Elspeth Barnett (5) Tracey Hurrell (4), Lara Gibson (3), Ellen Kendall (2), Teresa Knudsen (bow)
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NW2 crew: Aditi Ratho (cox), Maria Schaker (stroke), Polytimi Frangou (7), Ellinore Ahlgren (6), Larissa Wehning (5), Aude Claret (4), Stephanie Chan (3), Svenja Bolten (2), Sandrine Mueller (bow)

On Friday, the Seniors raced a distance of 4.3km, which was the longest most of us had ever raced. As Michaelmas term is mainly focused on the novices, there are very few races for seniors, and so all training for the term had been directed towards this particular race. It definitely paid off though…we came 7th out of 33 boats, with a time of 17.35, which is the highest any Lucy/Hughes crew has come.

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W1 crew: Gemma Schofield (cox), Sarah Roe (stroke), Jessica Phillips (7), Catherine Quinn (6), Sally Mole (5), Abi Miller (4), Elinor George (3), Michelle Cameron (2), Clare Collins (bow)

The hard work of Seniors and Novices alike has truly been reflected in their achievements, and all bodes exceptionally well for next term, and especially Lent Bumps.