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Winter Head 2011-12

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19th November 2011
Event: 
Winter Head

On Saturday 19th November, 5 Christ's crews took part in the Cambridge Winter Head. This was the first on-the-water race for our novice M1 and W1 crews.

Summary of results:

W1 - joint 3rd in Senior division; joint 3rd of College Women's VIIIs

M1 - 8th in Senior division; 7th of Cambridge Men's VIIIs; 16th overall

W2 - 6th in division; 12th of College Women's VIIIs.

nW1 - 4th in Beginner division; 1st of Cambridge Novice Women's VIIIs

nW2 - 12th in Beginner division; 4th of Cambridge Novice Women's VIIIs

nM1 - 3rd in Beginner division; 1st of Cambridge Novice Men's VIIIs

The full results can be found on the Cantabs website: http://www.cantabsrowing.org.uk/?page_id=74
Men's 1st Winter Head VIII Fairbairns 2011-12
Senior Student
8
8:36

We set off for our row down on an uncharacteristically sunny day for late November. We had a nice level of focus on our row down, but sadly it was somewhat interrupted by our long wait at Chesterton. When we were eventually permitted to paddle down to the start, we had to try a good deal harder to keep our concentration, as there was an incredible number of other crews trying to make it down to the start. We managed to fit in a few bursts to get us warmed up. We had another extended wait when we were marshalling at the start of the course, but it gave us a good chance to try to hone in our focus on the race to come, and discuss our race plan. We decided that rather than going for the rolling starts we had begun to practise during the week, we should just go for a build up to our race rate of 34, because this had worked well during the row down.

We set off with a good gap between our crew and the one in front – Worcester College – so that we didn’t have to worry about getting caught up around the corners. We built it up into the start, as we’d planned, and reached around 36. At this point, we were a little bit frantic, because no one was quite sure how we should take the rate down onto our settled racing rhythm. This is definitely something which will need to be addressed over the next few sessions. Luckily, we managed to settle into a really nice rhythm along the first post reach, and were gradually closing in on the crew in front the whole way along.

We went for our classic “race the corners” race plan, which worked well for us until the push out of the gut, where we lost a little bit of the rhythm and pressure. We managed to get it back together for the long reach, where we spent our time inching into the crew in front. Unfortunately we didn’t quite manage to get level with them. Off the railway bridge we had a push for ten, which got quite frantic again, and didn’t really speed us up at all. We were a little chased the whole way to the finish from there.

The central portion of the race was by far our best, but the commitment from the crew was very impressive, as was our time of 8.36. with only two weeks to Fairbairns, the crew are looking very promising. Our main focus now should be to maintain our focus, and work on calming down the start and the finish.

rose.mcneill


Men's Novice 1st VIII Fairbairns 2011-12
Beginner Student
3
9.57

We looked forward to our first competition and the experience didn’t disappoint.

We rowed a misty warm up to the Motorway Bridge trying to get it nice and technical before the race. Our division set off at 8.30 AM and after a long wait we really put the concentration in the boat to pull off a well disciplined rolling start: we were rating 26 as the clock began and a call for ‘up 2’ built us smoothly to 28 into the first corner. The start was controlled and effective. The high level of focus was especially pleasing.

By the end of The Gut we were going strongly with a good rhythm and the boat felt well balanced. We pushed for ten to bring us nicely out of Grassy. Once quickly round Ditton we found that on the Long Reach we were easing off a little. But we had to make the most of the straight: we called for pressure and put it down hard twice along the Reach, overtaking a four just before the Railway Bridge (good motivation). We had rowed the Long Reach nicely. A little way before Morley’s Holt we crept up to 30 and were increasing, but this was not in the race plan. A call for control would have been beneficial here.

The stroke man let out a deep grunt that spurred the boys on; the cox had “eyes on the finish”. The continued high rating into the final 10 strokes meant that we soon felt the tiredness and lost focus, losing a little confidence. We made a quick recovery, found the concentration again, and firmly pressed home. Overall, we were happy that we maintained focus over the great majority of the distance and were thrilled to find out our time of 9.57 - making us the fastest beginner crew from a Cambridge college to compete that day. Next time our aims include keeping 100% focus into the final third of the course, steadying the rate with greater consistency, and trying to keep it just as technical close to the finish as we were at the start. Most crucially, we made it to Wetherspoon's in time for breakfast.

Ross Kempsell

ross.kempsell


Women's 1st VIII Fairbairns 2011-12
Senior Women's VIIIs
3
10:00

Due to the division times running late we had a slightly longer row down than expected. However, once the previous division had passed setting off early proved to be an advantage as we had a fairly clear row down and were able to get in some high-rate bursts as well as a full practice start.

We'd put a lot of practice into the consistency of our steady state and lower rate pieces over the previous weeks but were not as confident or well practiced in our high rate. However, the draw strokes on our rolling start proved to be the best yet and we comfortably wound to the mid-thirties, picking up the pace of the boat well and without rushing. We settled on the 'rhythm' call to r.32 which we maintained for the remainder of the race.

We were being chased by a mixed ability Downing crew which we quickly pulled away from. Calls of 'pushes for 10' through the corners gained us a time of 3:43 by the 1km mark, 3 seconds faster than the crew we eventually crew with.
Coming round Ditton we focused on the middle section of our race. Knowing this was an important part we responded well to Emily's call for a strong 20 strokes.

The railway bridge to the finish line we'd designated as the final stretch of the race. Coming under the bridge we had another set of draw strokes followed by a focus on increasing the rate by responding to a series of 'up 2' calls. We finished, exhausted, but with a general feeling the race had gone well.

In all, a good race, a good result and a huge improvement from the Autumn Head race several weeks back. However, there are definitely still aspects to keep working on and hopefully the two weeks leading up to Fairbairns we can make these changes, keep improving and have a successful and rewarding race.

Alice.Taylor-Bennett


Women's Novice 1st VIII Fairbairns 2011-12
Novice Women's VIII
1
11:36

This was NW1's first race on the water, and at 2.5km they were a little daunted by the prospect of that kind of distance.
However, they nailed it.

They got a solid rolling start, building to around rate 30, and kept it there with some good, strong rowing up until coming around Fen Ditton corner. Here, a crab slowed the boat and unfortunately could not be recovered and resulted in the boat crashing and parking on the corner. Nevertheless, the girls remained calm, pushed out from the bank and built it back up to racing pace: from there to the end of race was the best, most focused and fastest rowing they've ever done - good power, rhythm and ratio. This was partially because the novice women's Lady Margaret boat, who had been following us, managed to catch up and overtake us whilst we were stopped and they tried to push off Christ's. I'm very pleased to say that we instead rapidly pulled level with them and then pulled away hugely, with a fantastic push from the whole boat. The girls finished the race strongly to earn their first place among Cambridge Novice Women; 4th overall in the division. We ended up beating Lady Margaret overall by 45 seconds, despite stopping. It also appears that NW1's time to the 1km mark (4:06) was actually faster than some of the senior W1 crews.

Although the race time obviously isn't as good as what the crew is capable of, there is still great reason to be extremely pleased: the quality of their rowing was their best yet; the way they pulled away so well from Lady Margaret, instead of panicking, bodes very well for Clare Novices Regatta next week; they won!; and finally, they all enjoyed the race.

Great results for Christ's: well done girls.

megan.moore

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Winter_Head_2011_Results_By_Event.pdf54.52 KB
Winter_Head_2011_Results_By_Time.pdf22.43 KB