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Race report written by Alannah The final race of Michaelmas for the Eddie’s men and it was a great one. I put together an amazing scratch crew, which included the infamous 2 seat of the 22/23 season making his long awaited return to Eddie’s rowing. What we lacked in costume we made up for with rowing. Despite being a scratch crew, set was better than last year’s M1 and vibes were definitely high. When the race began, we flew off at a very respectable rate 28, slowed only by Alberto’s incessant crabbing which eventually sent us into a bush in front of a very entertained audience. Huge recovery from the boys and dynamic coxing from me, we got straight back on track even faster than we had before. Overall, we gained on the (very slow) crew in front, finishing only a few seconds after them, and left the peas behind us in the dust. Overall was a huge W for the boys, topping our category (sorry Lucy Cav) and celebrating at the pub after. Expect big things from Eddie’s men this year x
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Race report by Alannah Atherton The Eddie’s senior men have spent the term training with the lovely Hughes Hall rowers, creating a hybrid M1 lovingly deemed ‘HEddies’. Senior Fairbairns was the first race of term for the Eddie’s boys, coxed by me with my notoriously dodgy chat down the mic. The gents did their best row of the term over the 4.3km course, keeping clean catches and huuuuuge legs, with a of 17:11 placing them second last, beating out Sidney Sussex with a DNS. Possibly the most enjoyable part of the day was post-race marshaling, where Alex had a nice lie down and Tom and I engaged in riveting discussion and pineapple biscuit sharing with the Corpus crew we were parked on top of. Note for next year: bring post-race tinnies. In Cambridge rowing tradition, the Eaglets dressed up in silly costumes for the famous Christmas Head!Need proof? Our excited Eaglets dressed as PacMan ghosts (with PacMan as their cox) were captured posing on the bank outside the boathouses waiting for their division to boat by the Cambridge Diary.  With their costumes on over approximately ten million layers, the freezing weather has all the eaglets asking Santa for more thermals and pogies in their stockings. Yet, the bright PacMan ghosts lit up the river through the snowy fog as they maintained a steady rate from the P&E through to Jesus flagpole. The 1.8km race was the longest sustained rowing many of the eaglets had done to date! With the race complete, our little Eaglets have become full-fledged Eagles! And, in true Eagles fashion, we ended the day at the pub celebrating our final race with the men’s side before we all parted ways for the holidays. That’s a wrap on 2023 and stay tuned to see how high these Eagles soar in 2024! (The internal rhyme in the final two sentences is my crowning achievement for the year) Through sicknesses, injuries, boat malfunctions, and shuffling crew line ups, the Eagles made it to Fairbairns! The grueling 4.3km race down the Cam had our senior women digging deep to maintain pressure around each corner and through each straight. Our fearless coach Abbie was once again in the cox’s seat cutting the sharpest race line the Cam had ever seen. With Sophie and Paulina setting the rhythm in stroke and 7, the powerhouses Elizabeth, Xen, Liz, and Kathy backed them up in 6, 5, 4, and 3, with Kiran and Adriana holding us all together in bow pair wow pair. After putting down major watts for a big finish, the Eagles were able to catch their breath while marshaling at the baitsbite lock in the sun. With a final time of 19:12 from the Jesus flagpole to the little bridge, the Eagles were a whopping 42 seconds faster than last year: a HUGE improvement of which the Eagles should be proud! While the Eagles have a well-deserved rest over the holiday, they’re preparing to come back stronger than ever in Lent. After gaining vital race experience at Clare Novice Regatta, the novice men were keen to display their true rowing talents at The Fairbairn Cup. Sadly, race conditions meant their usual cox (and captain) Alannah was unable to cox them for the race. So, the week before I was given the task! I put on my coxing hat and adopted one of my favourite phrases “fake it, ‘till ya make it!!!”. After a couple of good sessions battling the traffic of the cam I was feeling confident going into the race. With my trusty race plan strapped to my legs and a sneaky plan to keep the boys calm, off we went! Aim for a long & strong rate 24 I said….and the perfect rate 26 off the start we got! Being far too preoccupied with getting the correct lines and giving encouraging calls at the right times I forgot to press start and had no idea how far the boys had gone. I gave them my best guess “pretty sure you’re halfway but haven’t actually got a clue”. Showing me some of their best rowing – beautifully in time and balanced I elected not to inform them that they were now rating at 30 and just left them to it! As we turned onto the reach the crew firmly “pushed that bridge away” and powered on to my unrelenting pressure calls until that beautiful horn to signal the end of the race. Coach Jan was seen shrieking in delight running alongside, bursting with pride at their excellent performance. When he asked me what rate they raced at, and I informed him it was r30, he asked me again - refusing to believe that it could be so high when it looked so controlled. As the results came in, the proof was right there – second in their division and the fastest college crew! Outstanding effort. Watch this space….we are well and truly on the BLADE HUNT! Watch out Cambridge! |
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