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)