​It’s 2k test week for the Eddie’s women and what better way to end it than with two back-to-back 2k races up and down the Cam in the first race of City’s Big Weekend: Spring Head-to-Head.
The weather was glorious, and the crew were in high spirits as they paddled to marshaling. Abandoned by their own bank party (who had in typical Eddie’s fashion, gone to the pub), the lovely Clare W3’s bank party assisted the girls at Marshaling in return for some raspberries and fruit pastels. After a brief lounge in the sun, the girls pushed off and started paddling to the start, chasing Magdalene W2.
By the railway bridge the Eagles were at race pace, with a choppy 2 minutes on the split and cruising at a brisk rate 30 which they maintained throughout the race. Despite waiting at the start to give Magdalene a bigger head start, the Eagles caught their prey by the A14 bridge with a speedy 08:09 on the clock, 30s faster than January’s Winter Head-to-Head.
After a short rest and a spin at Baitsbite Lock, the girls headed off again on the second leg of the race, giving Magdalene an even bigger head start this time to not get impeded. The girls adjusted their race plan to settle at rate 28 but it was clear that they just had too much gas, and so upped to a more comfortable rate 30. By the reach the Eagles had caught Magdalene and managed a cheeky overtake yet were then impeded by an X-Press boat and were stuck in their wake until the finish line. Despite this, the girls still pulled a time of 08:43, nearly 20 seconds faster than January.
The girls ended the day coming second in their category of six, behind Trinity Hall. An improvement of 48 seconds and a place up the podium since Lent. Once the boat was away the girl’s celebrated their success in the Fort St. George (as is customary) discussing their race plan for the City Sprint Regatta the next day.
An excellent start to the term. Congratulations women! Let’s bring this energy into Sprints tomorrow.

​This Saturday saw Eddie’s Eagles compete in their first pre-season race before the exciting Easter Term of rowing commences. The Eddie’s women, who had kept training hard over the Easter vacation, were in fine form when they boated on Saturday morning. The girls rowed beautifully ‘feet-out’ to the start, where, after a cheeky fruit pastel fueling sesh at Baitsbite lock, they set off on the 2.6k course down the Cam in the glorious sunshine.
Coxed by the wonderful Olia, the women set off at a steady rate 30 with MASSIVE watts and the most buttery recovery you’ve ever seen in an Eddie’s boat. By the reach the Eagles had their prey in sight: an unsuspected Darwin W1 boat. Spurred on by the war cries of the cox and coach Matt, the Eagles quickly caught up with their prey. Despite Darwin not yielding the racing line, the women overtook quickly and left them in their wake.
With the finish line now in sight, the women did not drop their rate or power (despite snarky comments from the bank on how far there was still left to go) and the women collapsed at Green Dragon bridge with a MONSTER TIME of 11:59, nearly 100s faster than Darwin, and beating the favourites Maggie W2 by nearly half a minute, thus winning their Mays III category.
Not only did the women win their category, but they came second in the Mays II category (4s behind Downing W2), a result that could have been a win if the Eagles hadn’t been impeded.
If the win itself wasn’t good enough, after a mandatory Fort St. George visit, the women were handed their pots by the Man, the Myth, the Legend: William Connelly himself, who no doubt is re-evaluating his lowly expectations of the squad...
This result is an exceptional start to the exciting Easter season, with the women hoping to collect more pots whilst they embark on what is sure to be an extremely exciting Mays campaign.
Yeah Eagles! Yeah Eddies!!!