M1 – 3rd College Eight (0.53 secs behind FAT and 8.15 secs behind Queen’s)

With a typical Downing race plan of go off hard and keep going the whole crew knew that the race would be hard but, following a great last week of rowing in which the boat came together and developed more speed than ever before, hopes were high that the gap to Queen’s that showed at the Winter Head had been closed and Downing would once again be head of Fairbairns. The rate climbed to 42 through the line as all eight rowers drove the boat on together and having rhythmed just before the Boat Club the crew surged on past the supporters on the hard.  With the stream rushing on, the boat moved quickly through the corners and heading through the straighter middle third of the race, all strived to set up the long chunky rhythm that had served so well in the Winter Head against KCL.  This allowed us to eat up the distance and very soon we found ourselves at the Plough, starting to take the speed
up through the last few corners.

With Men’s Captain, Ben Goodchild in the cox’s seat driving the crew out of every corner together, the crew began to feel the presence of Caius who we had closed on throughout.  As the ‘empty the tanks’ call came and the crew rallied for the last twenty strokes of term the boat flew across the line following the quickest race that the crew could hope for following the illness that has decimated the squad.  Although the result was not the win that everybody had hoped for, the gap on Queen’s has been closed over the last fortnight and Downing remain one of the quickest crews on the Cam.  Thoughts are now on the training camp in Biarritz in January at which a strong squad will train before term and on to Lents where with Felix Wood returning from injury to further bolster the squad, hopes are high that the headship could once more be Downing’s with only First and Third standing between us and success.

M2 – 6th College 2nd Boat

This year the second crew was completed by 4 returning rowers from previous years on minimal training this term.  Having had a grand total of zero outings as the racing crew, all eight guys went out to prove that they had the necessary skills for this to not hinder them.

Despite technical problems with the foot plate in the 6 seat, the crew had a great race and finishing 35th overall put to shame many crews who had trained for longer!

M1 IV – 5th College IV

Following the success of the VIII, the stern four jumped quickly into a four to race again.  Having never rowed in this combination, the race was done on 3 minutes of time rowing as a crew.  As such, despite the large amount of power in the boat, rowing off the start was far from pretty and the cheer from the hard only resulted in some over enthusiastic drive phases!
Fortunately, passing King’s boat house the crew found a new level and began to row together and as a result the boat began to move.  As we came through onto the reach, we realised that this crew was not going to win by rowing prettily and the cox gave the call to use all available power.  This carried us down the reach at speed and as we entered Ditton Corner, the rate began to increase for the finish.  We crossed the line having enjoyed the race but definitely felt it physically in what was a tiring and difficult row following the VIIIs race.