Lent Bumps: Day 1

Lent Bumps started yesterday: after months of early morning training the teams finally headed to the river to show what they could do.

The main news of the day came in the Women’s competition where Emmanuel now heads the river in W1 as they bumped the First and Third boat in today’s racing. This completes their incredible two-year surge move from fourth place before last year’s event.

Close racing all day!

There was more excitement in the women’s W1 event with both fourth place Christ’s and sixth place Jesus also bumping up to put a lot of pressure on the teams that were bumped today. This will ensure that the top of the table will be very interesting for the next few days. Queens, Peterhouse and Girton also made bumps in the W1 division.

Lower down the women’s categories there was more frantic racing with lots of bumps in all divisions. One of the best moments of the day was a double bump by St Edmunds W1. Their bump to become the top boat of the W3 group meant they were the sandwich boat in the W2 race, where they then bumped again to move into the W2 division. This is huge for the team, who have now moved up to the next division for tomorrow’s (Thursday’s) racing.

A really competitive day

In the men’s races there was just as much competition. However it was not at the top, where the top three teams all rowed through to maintain their position, which means Downing maintain their position at the head of the men’s field. The battle between Downing and Caius will dominate the top of the men’s race for the rest of this year’s bumps.

The highest bump was made by Pembroke, who started the day in fifth before bumping Lady Margret to move up into fourth place, where they will challenge Jesus tomorrow for third place. Bumps were also made by First and Third, Peterhouse, King’s and Robinson in what was a very exciting end to the day’s racing.

An exciting first day of racing

Further down in the men’s category there was another double bump made by Fitz, which resulted in their move from division M2 to M1. This is a huge boost for the College.

It is too early to speculate on which crews could be awarded spoons and blades, but after the first day Fitz hold the lead in the race for the Marconi Cup with 12 points as three of the four Fitz boats rowing today managed to bump up, with one crucially getting a double bump. Darwin closely follows them on 9 points, also with three bumps from four boats but without the double bump.

The race for the overall cup will heat up over the course of the week.

A great start from Fitz puts them in a great position to take home the trophy this year.