Boat Club Captain — Dan Jones reports on another exciting campaign for Churchill, whose results both on and off the Cam in the last couple of years have seen the club’s strongest.
“Churchill’s Lent Bumps campaign has been very impressive. With the boats spending most days every week training up to this event the hopes of all the rowers were high as we entered. W1 were expecting to dominate their opposition and M1 were wary of the fast crews around them and expecting pressure, although they needn’t be as the week unravelled.
The first day saw a strong and fast bump by an impressive W1, scaring all of those around them. M1 looked to chase down a quick Clare crew and excellent coxing by Churchill clinched them a bump before grassy corner. The second day both crews were confident and this was seen through another quick bump by W1. M1 were looking to hold off an angry Clare crew and this pushed them on into Fitz, a sandwich situation of 4 boats close to bumping each other went in Churchill’s favour on the reach allowing them to bump Fitzwilliam before they could reach Girton, who were quickly dispatched on the third day.
The final day saw M1 rowing up to the start in more challenging conditions but looking the dominant crew. With Kings we were fighting to be crowned ‘king’ of the combined boathouse and to win our blades. An excellent start and a few ‘hammer’ calls later and our boat smashed into King’s 3 times before we were told we had won our blades, 4 out of 4 and up 9 places in two years.
W1, W2 and M2 put up some heroic performances throughout with W1 narrowly missing an opportunity for blades. With the help of our excellent alumni coaches and Silvia Breu leading the training schedule we managed a very successful campaign and we are looking to dominate in our new boathouse next term.”
— Dan Jones, CCBC Captain
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Photographs courtesy of Mike Moreton
