Home JOIN! Club History Learn to Row Juniors Squads Coxing & Coaching Events We Run Useful Stuff Photo Galleries Boat Booking Committee Contact Us

City M4+ Fly at Fours Head

Stu's Race Report

"Does anyone fancy doing Oxford?" was pretty much how it began. After a few months off the water and back on the hard, getting some R&R after a good 10-11 season, an unlikely combination was itching to get back in the boat and hunt some pots. A German that doesn't drink beer or eat meat, a lightweight vegetarian, a Fred, a lactose intolerant lightweight and a cox who'd taken a whole year off came together. A couple of outings went quite well. Then we won IM3 in the morning at Oxford Royal. Not exactly a tall order, but we went on to win IM2 in the afternoon and later IM2 at Robs' Autumn Head. Things were looking good.

The bar was set back in 2010 when the heavyweight line-up of Stuart 'Lightweight' Ladd, Chris 'Legs' Sinclair, James 'Ignition Sequence' Peoples and Sven 'Peppermint Tea' Friedemann coxed by Captain Jess Upton first raced Fours Head of the River and ranked 12th in IM2 and 205th overall putting City of Cambridge back in the ranks.

This year the faces changed to the pot-hunting, leaner, meaner lightweight crew with the return of Stuart and Sven, bolstered by Fred Lord and Barney Price all reined together by the overdue return of Kate Hughes, coxing from the bows. With months more training under our belt, the chalked-up successes of the Summer and the hunger which only a vegetarian knows, we were confident of beating last year's result.

Despite losing the race from CCRC boathouse to Embankment to the girls' IM2 4+ (and earning Sven his third bad German point for not speeding), we arrived in good time on the day. The tide prevented a practice outing so having rigged the boat in a flash we had time to burn, zoning in. Stu went to his headphones (Girls Aloud again), Sven went shopping, Fred sat in his loafers, Barney slept in a corner on the floor and Kate watched the boat like a hawk. We were ready.

A slight headwind off the start and some cheeky observation the London clubs' lines saw us settling into a good rhythm striking 34 in the stream. We quickly gained on Worcester RC and Leeds University while a stubborn Birmingham Uni stayed out of the stream but also out of the wind and made some steady ground on us using the inside track towards Barnes Bridge. Kate, having politely negotiated the overtake of Worcester and Leeds led us on up the stretch to Hammersmith maintaining a strong 32 while the headwind died away.

Having made early ground on us, the students from Biringham pushed again. Barney gave the word and Kate marshalled us together to hold off the attack and push them back. From then on it was a battle of wills. Our response wasn't always pretty, gaining a foot here, losing it there but our determination resolute. Throughout the rest of the course from Hammersmith, past Fulham and through Embankment they harried us but never held any more real ground for long. The pressure kept us going hard and fitness brought us home.

In a time of 20:22.32 we came 7th of 65 in IM2, 9 seconds behind Birmingham thanks to their early moves. More importantly, at 115th overall we had jumped up the ranks, beaten Cantabs in IM1, all the Cambridge colleges and a couple of Isis and CUBC crews too.