Lent Bumps 2012: Day One Round-Up

The first day of Lent Bumps started off explosively, with everyone except the men’s first division racing. The first race of the day, the men’s 4^th division, saw a bizarre incident in which Christ’s M3 overbumped Emma M3 despite the crews between them not bumping. Pembroke M3 and Sidney M2 were awarded technical rowovers, leading to the unusual result.

The unusual overbump as it appeared on Cam FM’s bumps chart

The women’s bottom division saw more standard bumping action, with Downing, Tit Hall, Girton, Anglia Ruskin and Catz 2^nd boats making their first bump.

The M3 division had bumps aplenty as well, with only five boats rowing over. That included Anglia Ruskin’s first boat who, as sandwich boat, managed to make their way into the 2^nd division by bumping Eddies down into the 3^rd division. Ruskin have been training in Earith rather than the congested Cam, which College crews aren’t normally allowed to do.

The men’s 2^nd division also saw the first re-row of the year; LMBC M2 were within a canvas of Jesus M2 who in turn were overlapping Sidney Sussex M1. As the three crews raced into the gut, Sidney encountered carnage as FaT M2 had just bumped Downing M2; the Sidney cox was forced to stop, with Jesus stopping behind them thinking that there was a holdup. Maggie took the opportunity to bump Jesus, but a re-row was eventually called by the umpires. Unfortunately for Sidney, they thought they had escaped because Jesus had not actually bumped them and continued racing, only to be told near the finish that they would have to re-row. The decision turned out to be justified as another very close race ensued with Sidney eventually losing out to Jesus, who had Maggie hard on their tail again.

On the women’s side, Sidney were more fortunate and bumped a faltering Fitz. Near the top of the second division, Murray Edwards began climbing as most had expected. At the exit of grassy corner they bumped Girton who, despite a strong start, did not make much ground on Peterhouse. Somewhat unexpectedly, Churchill women (who were rowing in a boat borrowed from Selwyn) bumped King’s while Maggie failed to catch a weak-looking Newnham first boat. For Caius women, hailed by some as the fastest women’s crew this term, the first day’s racing did not go to plan; Clare escaped them by bumping Tit Hall in the first half of the course. It will be interesting to see how the middle of the women’s 1^st division unfolds over the week, with Jesus a major unknown.

The top of the W1 division saw few bumps save that of Christ’s on Queens’ – but the top few crews made a good fight out of it. First and Third got a whistle on third-placed Emma, who made good ground on Pembroke and finished just a third of a length behind them. This was preceded by an agonising reach where Emma gained and lost ground on Pembroke repeatedly.  Pembroke, off to a quick start, held station with Downing for the first minute or so of the race before slowly losing ground, with Downing never looking under much threat.

Anything may happen here over the course of the week, and it would not be overly surprising to see the top four crews continue to row over. The only threat to that comes from the quick Christ’s crew who, now in fifth position, will be looking to bump FaT tomorrow.

See how the action unfolded in real time with our live updates here