Christ's College

Dear Blades

This is just a quick note to update you on the progress of Christ's Boat Club so far this term and to let you know about the forthcoming Lent Bumps.

We have had a very successful term across the board so far and all the crews have performed very well in the various races and competitions. Our training has been slightly disrupted due to the bizarre weather in the past few weeks as the Cam has been closed to College crews. This term has been an interesting one as several of the college 1st crews, both on the Men's and Women's side have been quite secretive and have not competed in many of the usual races, making Bumps predictions all the more difficult!

However, Christ's have continued the recent upward trend and have pulled out some great performances. Starting with the Winter Head to Head race early in the term the 1st Men and 1st Women came 8th and 3rd respectively. This was a good result for both crews, allowing the women to stamp and early lead on some of their competitors and the men had a very respectable row. However, the men were narrowly beaten by Trinity Hall, who we knew are starting ahead of us in Bumps. The major success of the day came from one of the equal lower men's crews who were the top lower boat in the race. This gave them a great sense of confidence that was carried forward into the other lower boats later in the term.

The next race of the term was the Newnham Short Course. Christ's crews have often not raced this as it has fallen in an awkward place in term, and many of the other colleges also chose not to race. The 1st Men and 1st Women came 3rd and 2nd respectively, a very good improvement for both crews. The men improved and were very close to the winners (Clare) who have been a very fast crew this term. The women were unlucky to lose out to Emmanuel by a few seconds and still beat many of their Lents competitors. The lower boats all performed very well and gave the entire club a good sense of confidence coming into the crucial few weeks before Lent Bumps.

The weather in the 4th and 5th weeks of term really began to deteriorate, causing the 1st men's crew to replace their usual Monday morning circuit training with a snowball fight! Robinson Head is usually a good test of Lents performance but due to the fact that it fell the day before Head of the Nene in Peterborough, many colleges decided not to compete, including all of our women's boats. As only our 1st men were planning to attend Head of the Nene, all the men's boats competed. The 1st men had a very good row, coming in 3rd overall and maintaining and good hold over some of our Lents competitors. M2 and M4 also had very good races, coming in 2nd and 9th in their division respectively. Again, despite the weather Christ's were still managing to keep up a good show on the river and stamp our mark on many of the other colleges.

Due to the awful weather the Head of the Nene race was cancelled, which was a great shame. The Christ's 1st women were hoping to retain their S4 victory from last year, but were denied the chance. Also, it was one of the few races with a significant proportion of the college 1st crews entered, meaning we were hoping to gauge our performance a lot more easily.

This only left Pembroke Regatta as the final test in the run up to Bumps. As it is a side-by-side regatta down the Long Reach, it gives ample opportunity to size up the opposition and really put in a tough race. The 1st men drew Trinity Hall in the 1st round and were understandably nervous as we knew we had to put in a good performance to banish the demons of Head to Head and scare them for the 1st day of Bumps. Despite having a fairly poor race, we did beat them which gave us confidence in the subsequent rounds. The 1st men beat Emmanuel in the quarter-final but were knocked out by Caius in the semi-final, which was nothing to be ashamed of. The 1st women had a fantastic day, winning the regatta overall and beating several very fast crews in the process. Their performance had been consistently improving and they put in 4 fantastic races, giving them the best psychological advantage in the forthcoming Bumps. Due to the fact that the weather was still quite bad and the river level was very high, the conditions were not particularly safe for several of the lower crews. This meant that W2 and W3 scratched to avoid any possible damage or injury. M2 and M3 were unlucky to lose out to FaT II and Magdalene III respectively quite early on.

In the Bumps line up, the 1st and 2nd crews on both sides of the club are guaranteed positions, so this left M3 (Fellows), M4 and W3 competing in the Getting-On Race for a place in Bumps. Both M3 and M4 got on with very good performances, but sadly W3 were unlucky to come in as fastest non-qualifiers. I am confident they put in a very good row and under different circumstances would certainly have got on!

Despite the bad weather and interruptions to training, I feel Christ's is well prepared for the Bumps and I am confident that all the crews will be going up next week. The Lent Bumps racing begins next Tuesday 24th February and continues until Saturday 28th February. I will be sending out reports of the performance of all the crews on a daily basis, and further information will appear on the Boat Club website (www.christsbc.co.uk). Various details of the times of divisions and start order for Bumps can be found either on our website or alternatively on the CUCBC website (www.cucbc.org).

If you are nearby on any of the days and would like to watch, please get in contact with either myself (on drb46@cam.ac.uk) or Penny Thuesen, the Women's Captain (on pt303@cam.ac.uk) as it would be lovely to receive your support.

Lastly, may I add my many thanks to all the Blades and other supporters of the Boat Club who have supported us over the years and have allowed the fantastic ability of all our crews to shine through and put in such good performances. May this upward trend continue into next week and beyond!

Regards,

Duncan Bull

CCBC Captain of Boats 2008 - 2009