Top four for the 1st VIII
Still haunted by the trauma of hypothermia from last Pembroke Regatta, the 1st VIII layered up ready to take on their first regatta of the term. In spite of their many many layers, it turned out to be quite warm and they soon had to de-kit to avoid heatstroke!
Fuelled by adrenaline and a lot of caffeine in the bows, resulting in the questionable decision from Katherine to wear her visor backwards to race, we rowed up with an impressive and very chonky steady state. While marshalling, Bow 4 made the most of the sunshine and laid back, relaxed, and enjoyed the calming sound of bank parties screaming and blades clashing.
In our first race, we smashed Eddies W1, taking the rate right down at the end to save our legs!
The second race was much tougher but we prevailed to dominate Caius W1, asserting ourselves as a force to be reckoned with.
Unfortunately, we could not match the speed of Jesus in the semi-finals, but did close the initial length of water they had opened up. Overall, placing in the top 4 was an incredible achievement. Bring on Bumps!!!! YEAH NEWNHAM 💙💛
A win for Newnham’s 3rd VIII
Admittedly, it was a dodgy start to the day, as not only did we take the 1sts racing numbers instead of our own (just channeling our fave headship crew’s vibes I guess??), but we furthermore mildly avoided chaos when Maureen was about to pin Milli’s number INTO the inflatable part of her life jacket, instead of on the straps, as any normal person would do.
The first race was against Medwards W2. Lovely crew, although we sadly didn’t get to see much of them as they were approx 5 boat lengths away from us for most of the race.
Incarnating the very image of elegance and poise, we nearly crashed into the bank and got our bow ball stuck in the mud whilst trying to spin behind Caius in prep for our next race, but thankfully, Rhiannon and her bright triangular patterned leggings were there to save the day, pulling us into the bank.
Caius was a much tighter race, but by staying chonky and hip-thrusty all the way through, we eventually glided past the finish line victoriously, smiling and pretending for 2 secs that we weren’t actually dying when the finish-line photographer caught our faces and undoubtedly fully coordinated movements on camera. Right before the end, lots of male-originated “YEAH NEWNHAMMs” could be heard, be it because of their undying love for NCBC or their non-love for the black and light blue blades. Either way, it’s a win for us.
Final race – *cue dramatic music* – which pitted the Yellow and Blue Gryphon Queens against the college that calls itself Queens. It was our first time rowing on meadow side, so the wind was blowing a bit stronger and not heading our way, but this didn’t prevent us from blowing everyone else away.
Thanks to Milli’s innovative new coxing techniques (randomly shouting out “SLAYY!” in between strokes and not breathing for the entirety of the race), we power-tenned it out til the end, and claimed our title as the fastest W3 on the Cam.
Can’t wait to now channel our inner Sharpay Evans and Bump Bump Bump, Bump (our way) to the top in 2 weeks! KEEP ON SLAYING NEWNHAM 💛💙
– Maureen Bartsch, 2 seat
