Caius In Good Shape At Pembroke Regatta

Caius M1 and Downing W1 continued their success on the river in the last event before the Lents, proving that they are the crews to watch out for come the first day of bumps.

The side-by-side knock-out 1.1km regatta from the stump to Peter’s Posts gave the opportunity for crews to practice their composure in a race situation one final time before bumps, as well as providing good indicators of relative speeds.

The victorious Caius boat in action

In the M1 division, Caius once again proved their strength, comfortably beating Downing, who have performed consistently this term, by 2.5 lengths. Caius looked unstoppable, and will go into bumps confident of moving up from 5th.

LMBC (St John’s), made the semi-final, losing to Caius by one length amidst blade clashes. Their captain was, however, happy with his crew’s performance, stating: “with three of our VIII having smashed the 7-min mark on recent 2km tests, we knew we had the firepower needed to give Caius a good race.”

Churchill unexpectedly demonstrated speed, beating Catz in the first round to make it to the semi-finals, before Downing showed their power to dispatch them by 1 length.

With none of Pembroke, Queens’ or Jesus rowing, there is still room for some surprises come bumps, as these crews look to improve on the speed they have built up over the last few weeks.

Once again it was the failure of both headship crews to perform that was the story of the day. Both FaT M1 and W1 crashed out in the first round, to Girton and Tit Hall respectively.

There is only a week and a half to go ‘til Lent Bumps, and as the organisers commented: “it will be interesting to see if they can turn it around.” Despite having the ‘headship advantage,’ the speed of the boats behind them suggests a fall is likely.

Downing once again won the W1 division, beating Christ’s, Caius and Emmanuel in the process. With their smallest winning margin being 1.5 lengths, they were not troubled all day, and will no doubt be preparing for their attack on the FaT headship.

Newnham were not, however, there to show their form, but starting at 13th in the bumps, this will be of little consequence to the headship contenders.

Newnham W2 beat Emmanuel in the final by 1.5 lengths to take the W2 title. All of their other wins being ‘easily’ verdicts, they will go into bumps confident of progress up the ranks of division 3.

Despite dominating the M2 division so far, an injury-hit Downing fell at the first hurdle, losing to Kings. It was Caius, however, that continued their club’s success in the men’s races, beating a strong Pembroke M2 by ¾ of a length.

In the lower divisions, Queens’ M3 charged to victory, their only real opposition coming from Pembroke. Meanwhile, LMBC won the W3 division, making the most of an interesting Newnham decision to take on a barge.

The regatta stood out among Cambridge events as being particularly well run, and with online results appearing minutes after the races had been completed, this event will surely remain a popular form of preparation for lent bumps. The organisers stated that, despite mix-ups in the morning, and the difficulties in attempting to time the racing, it was a “great effort from everyone in the club.”

It will be Caius and Downing then who will take most confidence out of Saturday’s racing. The strength of these clubs produced expected results, but with just over a week until bumps, every crew will be putting in final preparations for their assault on the bumps tables.