CRA Bumps 2015 – Day 1 – Cantabs Men back on top!

Cantabs Men entered fourteen crews into the 2015 CRA Bumps with crews including juniors who only stared sweep rowing a few weeks ago, recent graduates of the adult Learn to Row courses and veterans with many years of rowing experience behind them. While results were mixed, as expected in the highly variable lower divisions, the evening’s racing ended on a high.

The Hunter Crew (M14) was unusually inexperienced this year, with half the crew taking part for the first time, They put in a solid ‘row over’ at the Foot of the River, but never looked likely to catch the 99’s 7 junior crew ahead.

The Hill Billies (M12) bumped City M12, but directly ahead of them the Juniors (M13) were bumped by Xpress 7, leaving the Hill Billies in direct pursuit of the Juniors on Wednesday evening.

In Division Three, Motley Crew (M11) were fairly confident at the start, but a classic bumps misfortune overtook them. Mehrdad Ekbatani writes:

The crew two boats ahead had a banana start into the bank which meant they were bumped immediately. We had to row through their carnage that caused one of our crew to catch a crab, many tangled blades later we got going again only to somehow get bumped by the sandwich boat 200m from the finish line.

This made M11 the Sandwich Boat at the top of Division Four, where they will no doubt be looking to undo some damage on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Divison Three, the InVeterEight’s Michael Walker seemed to be feeling the Gallic influence: “We rowed over. Il était magnifique, mais elle n’était pas la fin, qu’un début!”

The Poachers after bumping Champs 5

The Poachers after bumping Champs 5

Further up, Phil Gunning’s Dads Army crew (M9) were bumped by Radegund 2, but the Poachers (M8) bumped Champs 5 and will be chasing Champs 4 on Wednesday.

At the bottom of Division Two, against the trend of their recent successes Aquaphobes (M7) were bumped by St Neot’s 2, and will row as Sandwich Boat at the top of Division Three on Wednesday.

Near the middle of Division Two, the combination of Hills Rd M2 and Senior Men (M6) were bumped by Xpress 4. Immediately ahead of them, the Cantabs Masters (M5) bumped 99 4, sending the 9s crew down to be chased by Cantabs M6 on Wednesday. Joe Ouroussoff describes the Masters bump:

Start OK. Stayed on station until before First Post Corner. Closed around Grassy then overlap just before Ditton. We cornered Ditton better than them, they went wide with overlap and conceded about halfway round.

The Hills Returners crew (M4) were left to row over after City 5 bumped Champs 2 ahead of them.

At the end of a long evening of racing, it was finally time for the M1 division, where Cantabs were to pull off a unique triple, with all three crews bumping up: Hills Road (M3) caught Chesterton 1, the Senior Men’s M2 caught City 2, and M1 bumped Robs to regain the top spot on the river! Finn Grimwood writes:

M1 executed a textbook race plan last night to retake the head station from a very experienced Rob Roy crew after losing it last year.

Weeks of preparation paid dividends as our relaxed but powerful start set up an excellent rhythm for the race. Our first whistle came into First Post Corner, with two whistles at Grassy. After continuing to close down Plough Reach, we heard our coach signal the bumps push coming into Ditton Corner.

After that, a powerful push saw us move to overlap – and shortly after, a bump – on Rob Roy just before The Railings in a time of 3 minutes 30 seconds. Our focus now turns to rowing over for the next three days to take the headship in 2015!

The exciting first division made an excellent finish to a good first day of bumps for the Cantabs Men. Well done to all the rowers, coxes and coaches!

To see how the Cantabs Women fared, see https://cantabsrowing.org.uk/cra-bumps-2015-day-1-cantabs-women-on-the-up/.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.