|
Post by Captain Annie on Jan 6, 2006 20:29:58 GMT
hehe! bit of both! we were all "fighting" (greenshirt wasnt our only target and he wasnt the only one throwing at us) but it was all in good fun!
|
|
|
Post by Flick on Jan 8, 2006 19:15:12 GMT
Good.
|
|
|
Post by wilderbeest on Mar 6, 2006 12:36:09 GMT
Bumpy bumpy bumpy bumpy bumpy... OK, here is the key: = bumped another crew = rowed over :-( = bumped by another crew - = day off First men: - :-( First women: - Second men: :-( - :-( :-( :-( Second women: :-( - :-( :-( I'm in second women. So we didn't do too fantastically, but at least we didn't get sthingys (for being bumped every day) like the second men did... In case you're interested (and even if you're not), more detail! First day we were chasing Girton W2, and being chased by Clare W2. I caught a crab within the first ten strokes, oh dear oh dear oh dear, they bumped us faaiiirrrly quickly because there were only six of us actually rowing. Not good. Janet cried because she ruined it by catching a crab, Sara cried because she thought it was her fault I caught a crab, Liv (our coach and part of our first women crew) told us to forget about it as it was no-one's fault, and she told us to smile. No-one was very happy. Second day we were chasing Clare W2, and being chased by Newnham 3. We didn't get a very good start so Newnham 3 gained on us to begin with, but we kept on pushing away from them while they were gaining on us. However, FaT W2 were chasing Newnham 3 and gaining on them, and so all three boats were very close, even all three overlapping towards the end, but FaT W2 bumped Newnham 3 just before they could bump us... phew... by that time Clare W2 had bumped whoever was in front of them, and the pair of boats in front of them had also bumped out, so we had no-one to chase, and the nearest crew chasing us were CCAT W2, who were not too close, so we completed the course without bumping or being bumped (rowed over). That afternoon we went to watch the other Tit Hall crews race from The Plough, a pub next to the river. I was the only one with no bike, so I walked by myself to meet them there. Except I wasn't entirely sure where the pub was, so I got there... nearly... except on the wrong side of the river. And it's in the middle of the big long stretch with no bridges, so I had to walk all the way up to the lock and back down the other side, by which time I'd missed them, and the rest of my crew were just leaving... oh well... such is stupidity. Third day was our day off, but I got roped into marshalling. Which was extrememly boring, since my job basically consisted of standing still and being a finishing post. Which I call a waste of time. However, I did see our W1 crew row past with leaves and stuff in their hair (a strange tradition for when you bump, it means that as you row back to your boathouse everyone can see who the day's successful crews were) so cheared and clapped and shouted "Row hall!" muchly. Fourth day we were chasing Downing W2, who we thought we ought to be able to catch since they'd been bumped twice already, and were being chased by FaT W2. However, although we may well have been able to bump Downing W2 if that was all we had to worry about, FaT W2 were just too quick for us and bumped us pretty quickly. However, that was probably our best row of the week! We again went to The Plough, I stayed on the right side of the river, and we had a great afternoon chearing all the Tit Hall crews past. The first to go past us were M2, they had already been bumped by then but we clapped them anyway. Then we saw W1, who with perfect timing managed to bump Girton right in front of us! Then we saw M1 go past still chasing Emmanuel hard and being chased by Queens hard, they had a row over that day. Fifth and final day we were chasing FaT W2 who we didn't think we'd be able to catch since they'd already proved themselves to be much faster than us, but with wishful thinking we thought that if they bumped Downing W2 quickly we might be able to go for the over-bump on Clare Hall, who started three places in front of us. That was not to be because we were being chased by Newnham 3 who we managed to hold off for a fair while but who got us eventually. In Other News, Amy B was rowing in the Homerton W crew, she had a bit more success than me: :-( - . They were further up the same division as us. Then on Saturday night we had boat club dinner and a lot of people got very very drunk... And now if you have read this far you are very very bored. Sorry. Bring on the May bumps! (Which incidentally happen in June, the week before may week. Yes, Cambridge is odd.)
|
|
|
Post by Captain Annie on Mar 6, 2006 15:55:18 GMT
hehe, sounds like good fun, a lot of bruises i guess though!
|
|
|
Post by wilderbeest on Mar 6, 2006 18:31:14 GMT
No. No bruises. It's very carefully managed such that do dangerous situations are created, unless a cox is very silly and fails to concede. The only bruises I have at the moment are elbows, from front drops (trampolining), and one on my foot which I can't quite remember how it got there, but I discovered the morning after boat club dinner... of course it could have just been from when I ran over my foot with a trampoline, except I would have expected to notice that before then...
|
|
|
Post by Captain Annie on Mar 6, 2006 21:16:54 GMT
hmmmm you would have thought so wouldn't you!
|
|
|
Post by wilderbeest on Mar 6, 2006 23:05:30 GMT
...leading me to the conclusion that it was probably a drunken occurence. Which doesn't surprise me, since there are definitely bits of the evening I didn't remember until seeing photos.
|
|
|
Post by Captain Annie on Mar 7, 2006 13:18:04 GMT
janet!!!! i am suprised at you!!!
|
|
|
Post by wilderbeest on Mar 7, 2006 23:10:50 GMT
|
|
|
Post by wilderbeest on Jun 13, 2006 23:02:06 GMT
Ooh bumps start tomorrow! We're sandwich boat so have to row in (hopefully) two divisons... chased by Catz II at the top of the third division then unless they catch us we're chasing Girton II at the bottom of the second division about an hour later. Will be nackering...
|
|
|
Post by wilderbeest on Jun 16, 2006 0:33:16 GMT
Bumps are indeed happening Anne, as you can see... We have rowed over now four times in two days. Which means we've already done further than most crews will do in the entire time of bumps. And they were hard row-overs too... Wednesday: We escaped Catz II easily, they were bumped by Clare II, then Jesus III who were next behind them were also pretty quick so we still had to row fast to row over. Then we chased Girton and stayed more or less even with them the entire time, while they stayed even with Homerton in fromt of them (including Amy B), so we still had to row hard to chase them. (Normally as sandwich boat you hope to either bump quickly so you get a short race, or that if the crews in front of you bump out you wind it down and row over slowly since there's no-one left to chase and no-one chasing you, so either way you only have to row hard for a little while. But that didn't happen and we went full pressure right the way to the end) Thursday: We were chased by Clare II, who we knew would be faster that Catz II, and Catz II were behind them and much slower so no-one was going to bump Clare II out, so they were behind us for the entire course. They gained on us for a bit through the corners to begin with, but we pulled away and broke them on the reach. So another row over even faster than Wednesday's. Then we again chased Girton II, who were chasing Homerton, and we all rowed over again at full pressure the same distance behind all the way... which is really annoying because I bet we could catch Girton if we weren't always nackered from having to row over from third division each day - we're at a bit of a disadvantage. Of course they'll go faster than us if they have fresh legs and we have no strength left. So tomorrow... Row over in front of Clare II again, which we know we can do, then try our very very hardest to get Girton... What's very annoying is the placement of Sidney Sussex slightly higher up the division - they're on their way down having been bumped both days, but we probably won't get the chance to get at them. If we don't manage to move up, Homerton should bump them tomorrow, then Girton on Saturday, and then bumps are over so we won't get to bump them which we sooooo could. :-( Oh well. So for the only Tit Hall bump has been W1 on Wednesday - chart at the moment is... M1 :-( :-( W1 M2 :-( :-( W2 (me) double double M3 :-( :-( W3 :-( :-( Where = bumped up = rowed over :-( = bumped down. So it's not looking a very happy bumps chart at the moment...
|
|
|
Post by Captain Annie on Jun 16, 2006 9:01:24 GMT
at least you havent been bumped coz that would be worse right?
|
|
|
Post by wilderbeest on Jun 16, 2006 12:01:44 GMT
Yeah, it would be worse - we're doing well, to hold station (be in the same starting place)having rowed over four times (and counting...) is a good achievement, and I'd rather have to row over eight times than get bumped, (we would also make history if we did so, the last boat to do this was New Hall WI in 1999). It's just extremely tiring - there's an hour and a half between the start of one division and the start of the next women's one, including the actual time for the race itself, (with a men's division in between), and you spend most of this rowing back down to the marshalling point and back up again - you get about half an hour or less to actually rest and get out of the boat, at which point you eat lots of sugaryness (jellybabies!) and try to encourage your legs and lungs to recover but it only takes about 30 seconds of the next race for them to start hurting as much as they did at the end of the first.
|
|
|
Post by wilderbeest on Jun 16, 2006 16:44:26 GMT
Clare II bumped us. This is very annoying. Especially since we escaped them so well yesterday, just inevitably we were rather tired so the race went fairly similar to yesterday's in terms of them closing in on us at the start, but we didn't manage to pull away as quickly as yesterday, so we got bumped. But hah, they so won't get Girton II and we're going to kick their ass tomorrow when it's them who've had to row twice and us who have fresh(er) legs - over the whole bumps course we're about 7 lengths faster than them even if they're quicker off the start. Today has been a generally :-( day in terms of bumps - M2 :-( W2 :-( M3 :-( W3 :-( M1 and W1 haven't raced yet, but I'm *sure* they can't both get bumped - that would be terrible. M1 are chasing Queens who got them yesterday so they may well not catch them, and are being chased by First and Third, who are quick and generally on the way up but they shouldn't really get caught by them. W1 are chasing Clare who they are sooo going to bump - will revenge us too! Being chased by Newnham who are also on the way up but shouldn't be too much of a threat. Ah well, tomorrow we shall get our revenge, on Clare II or (on Girton II if Clare II bump Girton II, which is unlikely), as we shall not have rowed twice today so can ****ing well get them!
|
|
|
Post by wilderbeest on Jun 18, 2006 16:59:22 GMT
And the final day, we got bumped again. Grrrrrr... This is so annoying, because we are much faster than Clare II who we were chasing, as we showed on the second day, but Queens were chasing us and were faster than us off the start - they will have been less tired and were chasing blades (which they got) so had everything to go for. They may also simply be better than us, the fact that they got blades says something about that, so maybe the "fair" finish order would have been Queens II, us, Clare II, whereas we ended up with Clare II, Queens II, us. So we moved down two places overall, and next year the second women can't use womens' hour to train as that's only the top two divisions. That sucks. But at least we didn't get spooons - unlike all three mens crews and the third women . First women were the only crew who really had a good week, bumping up three times and rowing over once - they should also have really bumped up the time they rowed over if all was fair. But bumps is an inherrantly unfair style of racing! So final chart: M1 :-( :-( :-( :-( - down four - spooons W1 - up three M2 :-( :-( :-( :-( - down four - spooons W2 double double :-( :-( - down two M3 :-( :-( (overbump - down three) :-( - down six - spooons W3 :-( :-( :-( (row over at bottom of all divisions) - down three & finish bottom - spooons Ah well... There's always next year! And in a way (a strange way, I admit...) going down is good because then next year the bumps should hopefully be easier! The exciting thing is that the first women finished in 5th place of the top division - within potential striking distance of headship (first in first division) next year! And then for the carnage that is boat club dinner... that was last night. I have never been so drunk. But then I don't have that much of a record to beat! But even Liv told me I should go to bed, and Liv is notorious for being absolutely wasted at boat club dinner... I also cartwheeled across the lawn in front court, which is forbidden grass... I seem to have a thing about forbidden grass especially when drunk; I've been across Corpus grass more than once when drunk. And I have my nicely signed BCD menu / programme thing, which is fairly illegiable as tends to be the case with BCD programme signings... everyone is convinced they're writing neatly while they're drunk, then in soberness a spider's scrawl is revealed... most of which says "ROW HALL!!!" in big drunk letters with an unknown signiture beneath. One of the ones which amuses me is "Well rowed! Please carry on, I promise bumps are often much less painful!" from Lizzy (women's captain), which is clearly a lie - if bumps aren't painful you're doing it wrong, and not trying hard enough, clearly! If anything it's only going to get more painful as we improve! Oh and fines as usual brought out some absolute classics - Athena (3rd men's cox) got fined for "the cox who said, "Boys, I don't want you to go floppy on me before you've finished taking me for a ride"!". Cat (1st women's cox) got fined for "the cox who shouted "concede, you bastards!" during bumps". Abi (our cox) for once hadn't really done anything stupid! Emily (1st men's cox) got fined for "the cox who fancies her bow-man" and Johnny got fined for "being said bow-man" - shame they were trying to keep that one quiet... As a boat we got fined for "the boat who have rowed the bumps course more than four times this week" - go us! Nearly all the first women got fined individually for doing something rude, details varying, but each one providing much amusement. Rob (one of my first year natsci friends, very good rower, rowed for GB juniors, now stroke of the first men) started messyness by smearing chocolate cake on Laura's face, Laura retaliated then things got a bit messy... we progressed to Viva (our disco-type ent thing) where I joint won the limbo dancing competition, which I think is quite impressive considerring my lack of balance - something I demonstrated by falling of the speaker for no reason when it wasn't even crowded up there to make me lose my balance... Then today is Suicide Sunday - first day of May Week - so we boaties had champagne bumps breakfast - or at least those of us who were awake at half eight did... Anyway, I am now very sober, which is odd because on Suicide Sunday the whole idea is to get very drunk as early as possible then stay drunk as long as possible - but I used up my drunkeness last night and can't be bothered. Oh well, there's always this evening...
|
|