Bumps night 1

It was a horribly hot day – I think about 33 degrees. Emma sent us an email telling us to keep cool and drink lots of water and eat lots of pasta. I had a pasta salad from M&S but still managed to feel ill for most of the day (both from the heat and from nerves).

I had gone to the Registrary’s Garden Party at Clare but only stayed about 5 minutes before I had to hightail it to the river. I ran some of it so was feeling hotter, more tired and sicker than I had to. I got there at about 4.50, and the boat was already in the water. I got my new shirt, and we got into the boat. Emma had swapped over Kathy and Fran, probably because Fran was catching early due to her bum-shoving and therefore the back of the boat was following her and not Anne. At least this way there would be less people to follow her. There was faffing as the cox box wasn’t working and I think we had to get another one.

We pushed off about 5.30 I think and rowed up to the lock (there was a lot of traffic and we got past the railway bridge later than the 20 mins prior we were supposed to). Max picked me up on my late catch and picked Fran up on her early one. He asked us to compensate by either catching earlier or later. He told me to relax my shoulders and to not let my blade hang in mid-air before letting it drop. It was easier to follow Kathy than Fran.

Our station was second last and we spun and pulled in to the bank. There was no time to get out of the boat – the 4 minute gun went a couple of minutes after we got there. This was a mistake because we were all hot and bothered and had no time to compose ourselves. The 1 minute gun went and Emma started to count down. We pushed off at 30 and moved to frontstops as soon as we could, squaring our blades ready for the start. Bow and two had to tap a few times and I don’t think were ready for the final gun. We had a tentative and wonky start but got moving. City 8 cheered us as we went past. We got as far as the motorway bridge before Champs 6 bumped us. We didn’t keep rowing on as we should have, but I think we did end up pulling over.

We rowed on and pulled over again so that Max could get out and Danielle could swap to the cox’s seat. We rowed back without a cox box and I used this time to really work on my catch. I really zeroed in on what Anne was doing, and realised that I would have to get my hands away faster and speed up my slide to get there in time. Even then, when I was matching the catch, it felt very premature and I was finishing early as a result.

We got the boat out with help from City 8. City 8 had ‘bumped’ the Cantabs 13 crew in front of them because they never even had a chance to start rowing. There was blade/head contact which Cantabs complained about to the Bumps Committee. Fran and Kat were upset about it. We girls went for a drink upstairs feeling a little sorry for ourselves. Most of City 8 went up to watch the other races, and I went home later than I should have.