Michaelmas 2011 has arrived, bringing with it a major changing of the guard in the Corpus rowing brigade. Sadly we lost the majority of the blades-winning Mays M1, some to pastures new, one to injury and one to trialling for the Blue Boat – but in came a pleasantly large mix of experienced and not so experienced oarsmen from across the continent.
The first half of term has been a challenging one, where the men have attempted to gel together a large number of people who have never rowed together before and vastly different experience levels. Cantabrigian’s Winter Head was the first race for the new look crew, which had taken on a decidedly international flavour – its members coming from as far afield as Holland, France, Portugal and the North. It was this crew that cruised down to the start to join the chaos that was the overfilled marshalling zone.
The race was one filled with positives (that shall be dwelt on by all concerned at great length) and one minor downside (that shall be quietly ignored). A strong start saw the boys settle into a solid rhythm set up by new-boy Street and anchored by the boat club’s deity, Herr Ham. Gutsy rowing compensated for a lack or water time, but sadly the cox’s winning streak had to come to an end somewhere.
All in all, a worthwhile race and it remains to be seen what the boys can pull together in the remaining few weeks until the Fairbairns Cup.