Last Saturday (30th January) the first three men's boats rowed in Newnham Short Course, a 1.6km head race from the Little Bridge (just before the motorway bridge) to the railings (on the reach). Their times and race reports are below, and we also have the full results from Newnham College Boat Club who organised the race.

M1 report, Will Hamilton

Last Saturday (30^th Jan) the Churchill College Men’s 1^st Boat competed at The Newnham short course - a 1.6 kilometre upstream head race (against the clock). It was an important race for us for a number of reasons. First, because of injuries and absences, it was the first occasion the current M1 has raced together, ever. Second, it is the last race we will do before Lent Bumps and covers most of the bumps course. And third, several of the crews we will be competing against in Bumps were also racing; we were eager to make our mark.

Of the last twelve days of Lent Bumps (i.e. since 2007), Churchill M1 has been bumped nine times. This year, we are determined to prove that Churchill is not a second-rate rowing club by getting the first bump for M1 in three years. The current crew has trained very hard and we went out to show what people should expect from us at the Newnham short course.

We pushed hard off the start, rating at 40 strokes per minute. This eventually settled down to a sustainable (but still very hard) rhythm. A few scrappy periods punctuated an otherwise solid performance, with Steph calling a “final push” when there was still about 800 meters to go.

We finished with a time of 6:23:51. Christ’s M1, who we are chasing Day 1 of Lent Bumps, finished nearly 15 seconds slower (6:37:94). This is a very encouraging result and hopefully predictive of good things to come. The boat chasing us Day 1, Girton M1, finished a fraction of a second faster than us (6:22:72)- a difference that can be made up by just one individual taking a single stroke better. So the results show there is everything to train for. Bumps have to be earned, and M1 will be doing our best to earn ours this Lent.

M2 report, Chris Wilson

M2 have been struggling to find a regular cox this term, but we do have a set of 8 keen rowers eager to make their mark during Bumps. For this race we were fortunate in having an experienced cox who really helped the crew (including a couple of subs) pull together. Our time puts us considerably ahead of the boat ahead of us in Bumps, but a little behind the boat behind us. That should make for an interesting first day!

M3 report

M3 luckily do have a permanent cox and have been making the most of her. Their time suggests they have a great chance of getting on in Bumps, and hopefully doing well during Bumps itself.