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.

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!

The Novice women, our beloved Eaglets had another great day on the river! 
The weather might have gotten colder but that did not stop these little eaglets from flying! While the sun was out, temperatures on the Cam last Saturday hovered just above zero degrees Celsius which made for a chilling marshalling for Clare Novice Regatta, our second novice race of the term.
Learning from Emma Sprints, our genius eaglets found the best way keep that rate 26 feeling: warming up to Uptown Girl. (Seriously, check out the Reel, it is too good to miss!) And their efforts paid off! In their first race against Kings the eaglets were able to maintain a strong rhythm pushing long and strong throughout the 800m course down the Reach. While the race was neck-and-neck for the first half, the eaglets were able to pull away to win by over a boat length! A stunning start to the day.
While deservingly tired, the eaglets marshalled to race again, this time against Caius. The eaglets knew Caius was a hard draw but put their all into their second heat. After a slight blade clash off the start, the eaglets couldn’t quite keep up with Caius down the reach but gave them a good fight—the best we could have asked for. After a race well rowed, the eaglets returned to roost at the 99s singing their reprise of Uptown Girl and getting in the festive mood with an off-key version of Last Christmas. Nothing can kill the vibes of this boat!
A big congratulations to all our novice rowers, be it their first or second race, and to our novice cox on her successful first race! While two 800m sprints felt like a lot, the pressure is on for the 2,700m marathon of novice Fairbairns this coming Thursday!

The Eddies Eaglets have officially fledged from the nest! Our novice women soared in their first race on Sunday at Emma Sprints dressed in their finest (hand-crafted!) eagle masks. With Eddie the Eagle tapped to their bow, the Eaglets braved through yellow-flag-worthy winds—they truly learned to fly in a storm. In their first race against Fitz they built up to an astonishing rate 38(!) off the start. When Fitz caught a crab early on, the Eaglets were able to soar past them to a quick victory (settling to a far more reasonable rate 28). 

Another first in recent memory, the Eddies Eagles went on a field trip! And by that we mean the women’s senior crew took our boat off Cam to race in the Isle of Ely Head on Sunday. While de-rigging the boat the day before was done in a torrential downpour, the race itself was a beautiful, sunny day although the strong stream and headwind were certainly leftover from Storm Ciaran a few days prior. The Eagles arrived in Ely with plenty of time to rig the boat (no supervision from coach Matt needed....insert wry smile...!) Coach Abbie was once again doubling as our trusty cox, lead us from the boat launch and downstream 6km to the start line. The race was a total of 5km long—the longest sustained rowing this crew had ever done—upstream against the wind. The crew found their rhythm right off the start line settling at a competitive pace. So competitive that, at the 1.5km mark, the Eagles were able to soar past the City 8+ crew and overtake in approximately 30 strokes! By the 2km mark, City was fading into the distance, and the Eagles pushed through to the finish with a respectable time of 24:10 (just 7s behind Churchill W1!). After de-rigging the boat, the Eagles were momentarily lost—where do we go when Fort St. George is not just on the other side of the river? And so, the Eagles ended up at Maccies for their post-race crew chew. While certainly tired, the Eddies’ senior women are feeling strong for the upcoming Fairbairns race at the end of the month which—while a long race—won’t be quite as long as the Isle of Ely Head and certainly another milestone they can conquer! Yeah Eddies!! 

The novice men were in the first division of the day and after their first two competitors held a HUGE lead. Sadly they couldn't hold onto this lead all the way through but ended up coming a very respectable 5th in their division with an average split of 1:44.0.