Weekend Rowing Round-up

Cambridge Women take gold at BUCS, while Caius continue to look good for May Bumps.

Caius rowing Cambridge University Lightweights college rowing may bumps Women's rowing

Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club won gold at BUCS this weekend, while the Lightweights won bronze in a closely fought race.

Meanwhile back on the Cam, Caius continued their dominance from last term, convincingly thrashing the competition.

In a row which seven-seat Fay Sandford described as ‘absolutely brilliant’, CUW won the Women’s Championship Eights race, beating Oxford Brookes by 2.6 seconds. After finishing 10th at Women’s Head of the River in March, and winning today, they will surely feel they have avenged boat race defeat this year.

CULRC picked up the bronze in the Lightweight men’s category, losing out in an extremely close race to Imperial (by 2 seconds) and Nottingham (by 0.5 secs).

These results, in ‘oceanic’ conditions, continue to prove that Cambridge University rowing offers more than simply the traditional favourite, the men’s boat race.

Saturday’s Head of the Cam, run by Chesterton RC, provided the first real test of speed of May term for the college crews. Raced over the bumps course, this event was a chance for many of the clubs at the top of the bumps table to test themselves against each other.

Speculation has been rife so far this term as to which crews have enjoyed the addition of Blues rowers, and what influence that would have on respective speeds.

In a performance even more dominant than many of their successes last term, however, Caius proved that even with only one trialist returning they are still the crew to be reckoned with, as they finished in a time of 8:28 while Downing and Pembroke – both in the top five of the table – finished a distant 16 seconds behind.

Although Pembroke will be encouraged by the fact that they beat by FaT (who they will be challenging on the first day for headship) by 11 seconds, their returnees will need to gel quickly with the crew if they are to escape Caius, who start in third.

St Catz have picked up some speed since last term, finishing 4th in 8:51, four seconds in front of FaT. Queens’, who will be chasing Catz, were way off the pace, finishing in a time of 9:08.

Peterhouse men and women both won the respective college 2nd May’s divisions. Indeed, their men would have placed joint 4th with Catz in the first division on an impressive day for the club. They will be worth watching out for over the next few weeks as bumps approach.

Downing W1 continues to be the women’s crew to follow, beating Pembroke by 14 seconds. Queens’, LMBC and Churchill all made up the top 5 of the women’s first division, though considerable time differences separated these crews.

Elsewhere, Wallingford Regatta provided an alternative to racing on-Cam, as crews travelled down to the 2012 Olympic Course at Dorney Lake to race clubs from across the country.

Fitz failed to make it to the IM3 final after encountering rudder issues at the start, which were further exasperated by strong winds. Meanwhile, LMBC were the fastest of all Oxbridge colleges present, although missed out on racing in IM2 after heavy winds caused officials to stop racing due to dangerous conditions.