Victory On The Cam

Imperial College rowers descended on the river Cam last Saturday for this year’s Cambridge Winter Head with encouraging success in what was, for many, their first rowing race. The 2.5km distance was a time trial with crews set off at intervals to try to be the fastest in their division.

In spite of getting up long before the sun, the women’s novice eight was on top form as their ‘machine’ took on various Cambridge and London colleges in a dominant fashion. With enough time to admire the scenery (and repaint the hull too), they spectacularly creamed the entire field, finishing a whole minute and ten seconds ahead of Pembroke College, the second-place finisher.

The men’s experienced novice eight took sixth place in a race with the frontrunners split by seconds, finishing just nine behind the second-place runner. Meanwhile, the two beginner novice eights took promising second and fourth places, the ‘A’ team finishing just five seconds behind the winners and the ‘B’ team over fifty seconds clear of the rest of the field.

In the student Senior-4 Four event, the men took second place losing out to Magdalene College, Cambridge by a small margin but finished well clear of the rest of the field. The women’s student four had enough time for elevenses, easily seeing off Peterhouse College to win their event.

The men’s ARA ‘senior 4’ eight were flying that day, finishing well ahead of Winchester College to take the top spot in their division and disturbing Cambridge with a sonic boom as they put in the second fastest time seen on the river all day.

As it is the first race of the season, all of the rowers would like to thank our coxes, who steered us all the way as well as motivating us without turning the air too blue - we hope all of those early morning outings were worth it. Thanks also to Stu, who looks after the boats so patiently, even when we attack the trailer with their rudders.

The novices would like to thank Ian, Roger and Tom, who have tirelessly coached us for six weeks (even if they may have ‘real’ jobs or PhDs) and who energetically cheered us on near the finish, fuelled by KitKats, sandwiches and half a burger stand. Last, but very definitely not least, we would like to thank Bill, who made us get up at ungodly hours, get wet, do things that could only be described as masochistic and who got us hooked.

For the novices, the weekend’s event, their first, bodes extremely well for the Allom Cup on Saturday 23rd November. The Allom cup is primarily for Beginner novices and is on home turf/water too; it can be viewed on Eurosport and Sky Sports 2 with extended highlights later on ITV…. or you can wander down to the University of London boat club at 10am and see IC novice rowers take on the rest of UL (and win). You can then read about it here next week.