After some illnesses and injuries after bumps, we managed to keep a boat together to attack the Tideway with the help of alumnus Andrew Shipley subbing in from last year.

Our fairly inexperienced crew managed a good start and settled into a decent rhythm despite being quickly overtaken by a boat from Hannover behind us (finished 77th). We struggled a bit in the waves of headwind from Barne’s Bridge to Hammersmith, but held what seemed to be an experienced Dart Totnes crew from overtaking us ahead of Hammersmith bend. Once round, the switch to a tailwind and relatively calm waters was quite beneficial, and we swept down towards Craven Cottage maintaining a few seat gap. Around the final bend into Putney we had a thrilling side-by-side experience trying to fight them off (they ended 126th). While we didn’t succeed in that duel, it was both good fun and a great effort.

Ultimately we finished 167th in a time of 20:05. About a minute slower than our top finish ever last year, though the course was perhaps a bit slower this year. We were 30s off the top Cambridge college crew of LMBC, 15s behind Downing and 1s off Peterhouse who we were within a quarter length of bumping with our full first-boat crew. A decent result in a very competitive year where no Cambridge colleges came in the top 100, and a great deal of experienced gained.

Greg Tainter
Men’s Captain 2015-16