CRA town bumps 2023

The story so far: see Pre-bumps assessment 2023. So I went into day one nervous. I didn't sleep especially well and woke up at 6; rather than lie uselessly in bed I went for a little walk, sat opposite "fox house" and ate an orange. After work I decided not to go watch anything - I had on Monday - but rather "relax" at home. And so, to Christ's for 7:30, met, greet, and we're all a little subdued, one never knows.

Day one: up on Tabs 3

GPS. Paddle off (all eight, square blade, starting from arms-only), and it's all good, feeling - especially once we're at full-slide-feathered - very smooth, very reliable, very strong; the winds of Sunday are gone. Park up on Stourbridge, say hello to Jonathan P and Ed P (Robs 2 at 13); don't see Tom P in Tabs 4, Mallory, at 12. Women row by, no change at the top, I don't see our women so that's probably not good for them. And we're off. Nice strong paddle down chomping up whoever is ahead of us... oh, it's Tabs 3, 9, Hills Road. Lovely practice start down to 1:20 says GPS, which is the fastest I've ever gone. To the start, spin, relax. Just for once I stay in the boat; beg a sip of water off Jon. Nervous, but controlled. Don't think ahead, be in the moment, relax, breathe, focus.

And so we're off. Decent start, under control, keep myself in length, pace, we're not going to get anything in a hurry. Blow through the gunsmoke, its choppy under the bridge, and a bit smoother afterwards. No whistles for us, though some dimly behind... it might be Nines on us, they perhaps got up to a length, or it may be Tabs behind them, who I'm pretty sure were close at First Post. I have enough spare brain to wonder what might happen tomorrow if we row over and Tabs 4 go up... but then we're coming round FP - very tight, I have enough spare to glance left - and get a shouted length-and-a-quarter and things are looking up. Soon after that we get a whistle, and then we're on Plough reach and it feels like two then three whistles come quickly. At / after Ditton we're on overlap and that doesn't last long. Yay!

We are (L to R): me; Ralph Hancock; Shuowang He, Conor Burgess, Will Miller, Harry Bulstrode, Alistair Goodman, Adam Townson, Jon Hatchett. Photo: Simon Emmings.

Day two: row over

GPS. Day two was somewhat less nervy. We again chomped people up getting to the start, and Will was calling 1:46 as we paddled down FP. Our Plough start was fractionally faster than yesterday. Our proper start was good, and again we got no whistles before FP, which didn't worry us. We were on one whistle past the Plough, maybe two round Ditton, then three on the Reach and perhaps overlap... but achingly we didn't close and Xpress got away, though we chased to top finish. It was rather bumpy in the wash; perhaps we didn't handle it perfectly.

Ahead of them, City 2 got Nines 2; so we can hope that tomorrow Xpress too will suffer wash.

Days three and four: row over

Alas, we didn't get Xpress. We were tantalisingly close on Thursday (GPS) but not so close on Friday (GPS). We again followed Wednesday's pattern of being on station until Ditton and then closing, but not quite enough. On Thursday Nines 3 closed to perhaps half a length at the Railway bridge; they got taken down by City 3 on Friday down the Reach; so perhaps just as well we didn't have a fifth day.

Post-bumps assessment

We were good, and judging by the GPS traces about as fast as my best, which perhaps surprisingly tends to be 2018, and sometimes 2013. Unlike previous years, when by bumps time I felt we'd trained quite enough and it was time to get on with it, this year we clearly hadn't had much time to tune ourselves up, and I think this held us back. We did some of the fastest steady-state paddling I've done; and the fastest practice starts (just below 1:19); but our race-pace wasn't quite up to it. And yet, overall, we're back up to 9th, and bumps was fun.

Refs

* M1 Tuesday 18th July. Footage near Osiers by PaulS: yes, Tabs 4 were rather close to Nines at FP. They'll be disappointed to have missed that.