More hot bumping action

I had such fun watching the last three divisions today that I'm going to bore you with yet more rowing. First, here is Corpus M1 (hello Rob!) catching Christs M2 (note cox's hand half raised in the process of acknowledging the bump) to cement their place in division 2 and their hopes of blades tomorrow. Pembroke II look on in admiration, having bumped the brightly coloured Darwin.

What you can't see in this pic is the rain, which got even worse for W1 and then eased just a fraction for M1. So I spent a lot of time hiding under the motorway bridge. One crew - the one at start 7 - gets lucky and can shelter under the bridge while waiting; they also get a millisecond advantage by being next to the cannon, and the disadvantage of being deafened.

I don't have any action shots of W1, but here (in honour of me cowering under the bridge) is Jesus's first stroke off the start:

a bit too much water swirling around and they haven't agreed what angle to finish to.

And lastly, to M1. Here we see, disappearing smartly around the corner, Caius as head, followed at a respectful distance by First and Third, being hotly pursued by Downing...

...who caught them a little while later. So we're all set up for tomorrows finale when Downing (+3 so far) get their chance at Caius which would be revenge for Lents. But my money is on the latter (or would be, if I could find anyone to take it). Catz caught Pembroke just after the Plough I think (not a great pic but the massed ranks of umbrellas is a clue to the rain) giving them +3 and Pembroke -3.

But the True Grit award goes to Fitz, for surviving the entire Reach with Magdalene only inches away, before finally pulling away despite Magdalene getting a much better corner under the railway bridge:

And such fun for them: they get to do the whole thing again tomorrow.

Update: The next and last day (saturday)

Caius rowed over as head. I'd decided to go to Ditton corner (knowing it was saturday, and hence crowded, so I couldn't cycle) where I thought the action would be, if anywhere. But as expected, the action wasn't. Caius looked very comfortable and very powerful.

I case you're wondering, stroke isn't looking at me, or anyone else on the corner, nor is it a tic, he is looking at the ratemeter. Downing looked good too, but were ~2 lengths back. Then a big gap (Catz having completed F&T's misery) before Pembroke. Queens were lucky / did well to escape Fitz, who were very close at the top of the reach (not sure where Magdalene got to, but there was no re-run of the mighty duel of yesterday).

But to finish off I'll leave you with Churchill W1 after picking up their laurels, framed in the beautiful late light against a threatening sky.

Refs

* Me, yesterday