NW1
Continuing on from the success of Queen’s Ergs, NW1 were keen to prove themselves on the water. Dressed up as Pacman (cox) being chased by his ghosts, they descended up the river to marshal. Their first race was against Newnham NW2, who they left at the start line after one stroke. Described by CamFm as “absolutely thrashing Newnham”, they powered across the line with Newnham floundering somewhere in the distance. This beastly win (and a jelly baby induced sugar rush) gave the crew confidence to go strong into the next race against Selwyn NW2. Selwyn didn’t seem to pose much competition for Churchill as they stopped halfway down the reach— though the reason for this was unclear. NW1 were unfazed, and kept going, again dominating this race. This enabled them to qualify for the semi finals, against Darwin NW1. Initially, this race didn’t start well due to a bowside double crab, leading to a displacement of a bum from a seat. This didn’t deter the rest of the crew, as Alice fought to sort her seat out, the boat flew down the reach with only 7 rowing— still to beat the opposing crew by a couple of boat lengths.. The final was against Jesus NW2, this was the toughest race for the girls (+Harry), which was initially head and head, until the second half of the race, where Churchill NW1 pulled away to victory.
Pacman and his ghosts rowed away from everyone else to win this division. Some great rowing from all the crew. – Katy Surman, Paula Wulff
NM1
Overall a good learning experience for NM1 at Emma sprints having experienced victory and defeat. We lost against Tit Hall NM1 by a few lengths. The race started well until Tit Hall veered into our lane resulting in a collision. After a restart by the marshals and most of the boat seemingly forgetting how to row Tit Hall quickly took an unassailable lead. Against Hughes Hall NM1 we won by half a length in what was a much better performance from the crew. – Iolo Squires