Queens Ergs

In what was a notably well run event, Queens’ annual indoor rowing competition put the novices through their paces. Despite there being problems in recent years with technical difficulties, this year’s event went off without a hitch, providing a perfect environment for fierce competition.

Queens’ ergs are one of the best opportunities this term to size up the different novice squads available on the Cam, providing some interesting figures to put along side race results. Given the relatively short amount of time that novices have been rowing by this point, race results are sometimes taken with a pinch of salt. As some crews come together much quicker than others, an early lead in novice boats can be very quickly lost. One thing however which doesn’t change too much though, is just how Big those novices are, and the best way boaties know how to test this, is with an Erg Test.

Clare M1 weren’t about to let aerodynamics get in their way

On the men’s side of the event, the novices 1 category was won by Clare with a formidable average split time of 1:28.9 beating off a late push from Jesus who came in second with 1:29.9, only 8 seconds behind. The fastest time of the night though went to Matt Wyman of St Edmunds NM1 with a split of 1:21.6, which was only beaten by one member of the Peterhouse senior team.

One Fresher encouraging her team to come first

In the women’s events, Churchill won the 1^st boat final resoundingly averaging 1:50.4, including a frankly threatening split of 1:40.3 from a Ms Stacie Powell which would put her at 458^th out of 680 on the novice men’s ranking. Second place Catz put in a strong showing but were almost 15 seconds behind, giving a clean win to Churchill.

The determination was palpable

That wasn’t it for the night though, just before these 2 finals had been played out in all their glory, there had been a more light-hearted affair. The mixed senior event is billed as a chance for novices to see the seniors sweating it out against each other and see what the end game is all about. Not normally included as a serious part of the schedule on most training programs, it never the less provides another opportunity for the seniors to square up against each other.

Willing their man on

Coming home with an average split time of 1:33.2, it was Caius who took the night in the end, beating second place Selwyn by 14.4s. Whilst the Caius team as a whole put in a solid performance, it’s worth giving a special mention to one Melissa Wilson who clocked in at a startling 1:36.9, leaving the men with little more than to just row over to bring it home.