Press Officer Will Dobson reports on the first racing experiences of this year's intake of ICBC novices at Cambridge Winter Head.
The poor freshers of 2011 probably never thought they’d see 5am on a Saturday morning. Well, maybe after a night out on Friday, stumbling through the door with a dodgy kebab and the promise of a hangover. But 5am is not a time most students ever expect to wake up at. Although this is what greeted ICBC’s latest intake as they prepared for their first race of the season - Cantabrigian RC’s Winter Head in Cambridge. After ten minutes on the coach the novices were straight back to sleep, getting some much needed rest. The seniors, however, were still wide awake as if it was normal; it looks like this is something the novices are going to have to get used to...
Photo Courtesy of Jonathan Fuhrmann
As the coach rolled up the M11, it was a crisp and sunny morning with a thick blanket of fog in Cambridgeshire. We arrived at (what we thought) was our destination, only to find out that someone had given the driver the wrong postcode [Paddy?!]. After half an hour of frantic google maps searches and some skilled reversing by the driver we finally reached our destination, Stourbridge Common.
As we were late [apparently the norm for ICBC, according to the seniors] the first mens boat was quickly rigged and out on the water. They paddled up to the start line, with the first (but unfortunately not the last) crab of the day caught on the way there. The crew started reasonably well, but as they reached the first bend of the meandering Cam, they were pushed into the bank by an VIII who were obviously keen to take out another boat on their overtake. They didn’t recover as well as they would have liked, slamming into the bank again shortly after due to a strong stroke-side [Ed - or a weak bow side?]. Another crab was caught by the author of this article, giving them yet another break from all the hard work. As if their confidence was dented enough, a women’s crew beat them in a sprint to the finish. In the end, they finished a reasonable 189th out of 250 covering the 2.5km in a time of 11:15.
Photo from City of Cambridge RC's Facebook Page
The first women’s VIII were rushed onto the Cam too with everyone a bit apprehensive about the race ahead. Their cox, Kieran, calmed the crew well even though he would have obviously preferred to have a blade in his hands! The crew caught a crab early on but recovered well. After about 1000m, one of the crew’s seats came off the slide completely, leaving her to row arms only for the remainder of the race. They finished well with a time of 11:58 in 227th. Higher up the rankings, the other women’s boat was fairly problem free, finishing 16 seconds ahead with a time of 11:42 in 213th place.
The best performance of the day for ICBC came from one of the men’s novice VIII who finished 128th with a time 10:22. The middle kilometre was done with splits of 1min:52sec/500m - an excellent effort for their first race. The last two men’s VIIIs finished in 173rd and 218th place with times of 11:00 and 11:50 respectively.
In the evening, the novices were out in force in Putney with a few seniors in tow. They started at Wahoo before cruising down the high street to The Railway. Fez were only letting in old gits (over 21) [Press Coordinator Richards disagrees heavily with this assumption that over 21s are "old gits"...], so Clapham was on the table, but eventually they settled for Belushi’s in Fulham. The Captain - who only came for ‘a swift half’ was exhibiting his leadership skills by getting everyone together for Jaegerbombs, leaving him with a hefty debit card bill. ICBC filled the dancefloor (and the tills) into the early hours celebrating the day’s achievements.
Well done everyone and thanks to everyone who helped out on the day.
William Dobson - Novice Rower and Expert Crab Catcher.