Well done to W1 for their second bump, and to M2 for getting the first male Churchill bump in a quite a while. You can check out W1's bump on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dp0I_mM93U&fmt=18.

M1: Bumped by Fitz on The Reach.

W1: Bumped Jesus II in The Gut.

M2: Bumped Fitz II on First Post Corner.

W2: Rowed over.

M3: Bumped by Robinson III in The Gut.

Some mixed results on this, the first day of Bumps, but everything to go for tomorrow! Well done to W1 for bumping Kings.

M1: Bumped by Clare.

W1: Bumped Kings on First Post Corner.

M2: Overbumpeed by Christs II at the Railway Bridge.

W2: Bumped by Christs II on Grassy Corner.

 M3: Overbumped by First and Third V.

On June 7th our College Men’s First Boat travelled the small distance north to compete in Peterborough Regatta, a two day event involving numerous side-by-side races on the Peterborough Rowing Lake.

We arrived at the rowing lake with what we thought was plenty of time to reassemble the boat and relax before racing.  The boat was unloaded, but as we began to "rebuild" it we slowly came to the realisation that we had left a rather vital piece of the boat back in Cambridge – one of the footplates that attach rower to boat. A frantic search amongst all the other trailers and boats eventually produced a spare footplate, unfortunately the wrong size for our boat… with minutes left before we were meant to be at the start line we desperately tried to fit the plate, and eventually left it only half attached, which presented a few difficulties for our man in the four seat.  Frantically trying not to be disqualified we rushed the boat to the lake, nearly concussing our cox in the process.  Once on the water we realised another major oversight... many of the bolts had not been properly tightened, and the boat could literally have fallen apart during the race! There was nothing to be done at this stage but hope and pray that we would last the 500m of the race.

We reached the start line having had mere minutes to get warmed up and tried to focus on the task at hand. There were two other crews in the race, and as we lined up for the start we eyed up the competition – fellow university Anglia Ruskin and a Peterborough City crew. The race began, and, whilst it was certainly not our best rowing, the adrenaline surge from the last 20 minutes of stress allowed us to push hard and we came out victorious, winning a place in the final.

The time between races was enough for us to calm down, regroup and tighten the bolts holding our boat together, giving us a much more relaxed run up to the final race. Our first few strokes of the race, which may have been the worst we have ever taken off a start, allowed the other crews to gain a third of a length on us, but a few strokes in we managed to slip back into gear, and as we hit our stride we were already level with the other crews, walking away to a lead of nearly a length by the finish.

A victory for Churchill, and a set of nine shiny pots to take home with us – a great day, despite the unseasonal weather and numerous potential disasters!

(James Davies)

This weekend's race was Champ's Head, run by Champion of the Thames Rowing Club (who, despite their name, are based in Cambridge). Churchill entered M1, W1, M2 and W2, with M1 once again demonstrating their eagerness by doing the race twice.

The course is fairly short, approximately 1.5km from outside The Plough (a pub) to the Penny Ferry (another pub) near Chesterton. The shortness of the course was more than compensated for by the strong, gusty winds - which as always were blowing in exactly the wrong direction.

Below are the times for Churchill's crews. Full results can be found here.

Churchill were racing again this Saturday, this time in City of Cambridge Rowing Club's Spring Head to Head. The course is 2km long from the Railway Bridge to the Motorway Bridge, but as the name suggests you do it twice! On the return leg crews had to row against both the current and a particularly strong head wind, which explains the time difference between the two legs.

This week W1 and M2 were racing and their times are shown below. Full results can be found here.