After an exhilirating Summer Eights week, Magdalen’s men and Teddy Hall’s girls retain their respective positions at the head of the river. However, both boats were made to sweat in order to keep pole position, pushed
to the limit by faster crews bearing down behind them. In the men’s first division Pembroke came desperately close to breaking Magdalen’s four year grip on the headship, testing them on all four days of the
competition. The battle between the two crews was at its most intense on Friday: Pembroke came to within just a quarter of a length of their rivals as the boats emerged from the Gut.
But despite Madgalen’s men’s captain Louis Rooney admitting that Pembroke were, “undoubtedly quicker than us”, the men in pink seemed unable to find that extra burst of energy they needed to overhaul their rivals. The same drama was played out in the women’s top flight, where Teddy Hall barely fought off the advances of the rampant Christ Church boat just behind them.
Her team bolstered by the presence of Dutch international rower Jenny van Dobben de Bruijn, Christ Church captain Sarah Tiller was justified in claiming that her crew were “faster right through the week” than their rivals. But despite this advantage, those extra seconds of acceleration which might have made up the ground on Hall proved elusive.
There was no change in the order of the top three boats in either competition, and the ability of the crews to hold on to their positions testified to the quality of the rowing on show last week. But elsewhere, the action was frenetic, spectacular gains and losses precipitated by fierce competition lower down the first divisions. Oriel’s male crew partially made up for the humiliation of spoons last year. Starting strongly in the early stages of each race, they made immediate inroads into the division, overhauling St Catz on the first day of eights before
securing a bump on Christ Church on Friday. Running Balliol close on the last day of racing, they did not have quite enough speed to win another bump, but will surely be delighted to have restored college pride with a respectable fourth place finish.
Lower down, the make up of the women’s first division changed dramatically. Somerville, Wadham and Osler Green all exchanged places over the course of the week, underlining the intense competition which characterised their dog-fight in the middle of the table.
Worcester were the big winners in the men’s competition, powering their way up into the top division with bumps on the first three days of competition. With impressive technique throughout, the crew compensated for a lack of big name rowers in the boat. Indeed, Worcester were simply too quick for their rivals Trinity and Wadham in Division II as they made the move up into the top flight at the second attempt on Friday.
Balliol proved to be the surprise package of the women’s division with bumps on Catz, Magdalen and New College allowing them to leap up the top flight. Not satisfied with simply winning their blades, they moved up an astounding seven places in four days, courtesy of a spectacular overbump on St Hilda’s on Thursday. Again it was good performance in the starts which brought Balliol’s success.
Power through the water in the early stages allowed them to overhaul most of the crews ahead of them long before reaching the final stages. The week proved to be a disastrous one for New College Boat Club as both their men’s and women’s first eights felt the force of bumps from other crews. Successively caught by Keble, Teddy Hall, Hertford and Worcester they suffered the ignominy of relegation to the second division, only narrowly avoiding spoons by escaping Wadham’s challenge on the last day. The women, however, were not so lucky: bumps on every day of racing sent them crashing down the first division into 9th place. Their captain, Kelly Smith, acknowledged that they “simply lacked the sheer size and strength” necessary to compete at the highest level.
