Lent Bumps 2012: Day Four Round-Up

Friday marked the grand finale of Lent Bumps for the women, with the Saturday being kept free of racing to allow crews to race the Women’s Eights Head of the River in London. In the bottom division, Catz II earned their blades by going up four from the penultimate place on the river and catching Anglia Ruskin II, potentially saving Clare Hall from spooning.

Interestingly, this marks the only set of non-headship women’s blades this Lents. Wolfson also managed to avoid spoons although Peterhouse II looked to have closed to within about half a length on them by Grassy Corner. Eddies women were also handed their spoons and have ended up in the 3rd division.

Further up the charts, Girton managed to hold off a quick-starting Maggie II with a gutsy row. Maggie closed all the way to Ditton and got a third whistle on the reach but then faded as Girton pushed away to finish well outside station. Murray Edwards bumped Churchill at Grassy to move into sandwich boat position and proceeded to chase Peterhouse yet again.

King’s annoying air-horn, which they choose to employ year after year instead of a whistle, confused an umpire who decided to stop the Selwyn/Peterhouse/Murray Edwards triple at the bottom of the division and caused a re-row, although the results were unchanged: Peterhouse bumped Selwyn, finishing up 2 – the same as Murray Edwards.

Further up the W1 division, King’s will be annoyed at their Day 1 mishap which saw them bumped by a weak Churchill and may well have denied them blades. Tit Hall spooned after being caught by Catz, while Queens’ were caught by Caius. Christ’s, after being much hyped in the run-up to Bumps due to a strong result in Pembroke Regatta, finished their week down one overall after being caught by a strong Clare crew today – they will be very pleased to finish up 3 in sixth. The top five crews rowed over, with Downing finishing with plentiful clear water after racing all the way to the finish in style today while Emma behind them held off a strong FaT in a very gutsy row.

The Downing crew celebrate holding onto the headship

The men’s 3^rd division is a criss-cross of crews, with 3 on for blades tomorrow and 6 on for spoons. Corpus have managed to defend their place in the M2 division against Darwin today and will be hoping to repeat this feat tomorrow or to bump Emma II. Meanwhile, Christ’s II will be fancying their chances against Wolfson to earn their blades, while up-3 Downing II and down-3 Fitz will be clashing near the top of the division.

Sandwich boat Selwyn missed out on a bump against Catz, who caught King’s who are now one bump away from their second set of spoons in a row in Lents. Robinson, Christ’s and Girton are all on for blades in the first division, separated by two places each and munching through the crews in between (Magdalene, Emma and King’s). Girton bumped Clare who fought ferociously and gained on Tit Hall, but had to admit defeat at First Post Corner.

In the top half of the division, Jesus, after steadily gaining about a length on Pembroke, benefitted from a crab by the latter and sealed the deal on the Reach. Queens’ rowed over behind FaT after having had overlap yet again – after the finish, the Queens’ strokeman passed out and fell in the water, a testament to their commitment and the fight they put up. This will certainly be a fight to watch tomorrow, and we hope the Queens’ man is ok (reports indicate he is).

Above them, Maggie, Downing and Caius all rowed over yet again and it will be interesting to see how the last day unfolds as Downing throw everything at the men’s headship yet again.

The Tab will be bringing you live updates on Day Five of Lent Bumps from 12.30 tomorrow, and you can see how all the action unfolded today here