Hattie Wills, Lucy Cavendish Boat Club President, reports on the 2022 Lent Term Bumps
What a week!
Bumps is one of the most iconic racing formats on the river Cam, and is run by CUCBC (Cambridge University Combined Boat Clubs) once in Lent term and once in Easter term every year. At the sound of a cannon, boats lined up along the narrow winding river begin their race; their goal is to ‘bump’ the boat in front of them before they are hit by the one behind.
Cyclists accompany every boat, screaming support and blowing whistles to signal to the crews how much further they have to go. It’s quite a scene!
Lent Bumps Week began on Friday 25th Feb with the “Getting On” race. While each college’s W1 and M1 are guaranteed a place in the Bumps line-up, it was just our W2 crew who had to compete for their spot. We’d been warned already that competition was fierce this year for fewer places than usual, but nevertheless, they gave it their best, and, to our surprise and delight, succeeded!
For the first time in years, Lucy Cavendish entered three boats into Lent Bumps!
With all three of our coxes also rowing in one of the other boats, the logistics caused quite a headache. However, thanks to the organisational genius of our captains, everyone managed to end up in the right place at the right time, and all our races went smoothly, just about…
W2: Despite being bumped in the first two days by Churchill W2 and Peterhouse W2, on the final two days the crew managed to row over (this means rowing the entire 2.7km stretch without being bumped by the boat behind or bumping the boat ahead), resulting in only a net drop in two positions. The competition this year was strong, and getting on to the race was in itself an enormous achievement for W2. The fact that they did not get “spoons” (the term for being bumped every day, net dropping four places) has made us happier than we could have imagined - well done!!
W1: After a row-over on the first day, W1 entered the second race determined to make a bump. They chased Selwyn W1 for almost half of the course before spectacularly bumping halfway down the Long Reach, with every Umpire cycling to watch the excitement! After greenery-fuelled celebration, they then closely chased Kings W1 up until the finish line over the next two days, resulting overall in two more row-overs and a net gain of one position. Congratulations, W1!
M1: The first two days involved a full distance chase of Hughes Hall M2, resulting in row-overs for both crews. Inspired and determined, they entered day 3 with a flying start, and caught Hughes on first post corner… unfortunately at the exact same time that Selwyn M2, who were chasing Lucy Cavendish M1, also caught up. This resulted in some confusion and caused a lot of headache for the crews, supporters, and umpires, but eventually resulted in a technical row-over for Lucy. Hughes Hall M2 were dropped two positions by the CUCBC, such that they were chasing Lucy the next day. Unfortunately, after three days of exhausting rowing, Hughes managed to finally bump Lucy, overall resulting in a net drop of one position for M1.
For a crew in which nearly ninety percent of rowers had never rowed before Michaelmas Term, using a borrowed boat, we are so proud of them for representing Lucy Cavendish’s first-ever Men’s squad. We cannot wait for Easter term with you all!
We are hugely grateful to everyone who has been a bank-party, cheered on, coxed, rowed in or coached our boats throughout this week, as well as Cambridge ’99 Rowing Club for the continued use of their boat Ernie for the Men’s crew.
It has been a great Lent Bumps this year, and we now have a very exhausted club, but can’t wait to resume training again in preparation for May Bumps (15th - 18th June, 2022)!
W1 Crew: Alice Asquith (Stroke), Clara Green (7), Vittoria Torri (6), Michelle Silver (5), Grace Desouza (4), Monique Johnson (3), Emily Moon (2), Hattie Wills (Bow), Chris Launchbury (Cox)
W2 Crew: Niamh Morgan (Stroke), Alex Nicholson (7), Micah Mugge (6), Maud Tisserand (5), Rosa Matarewicz (4), Katie Wright (3), Emma Slack (2), Matilde Duarte/ Isabel Nimmo (Bow), Emily Moon (Cox)
M1: Chris Launchbury (Stroke), Archie McNamara (7), Timur Rakhimov (6), Zac Surlock/ Aubin Ramon (5), Benedikt Kagerer/ Carlo Bozzola (4), Ben Ward/ Darren Wong (3), Tom Carr (2), Darragh Kelleher (Bow), Hattie Wills (Cox).
Captains and Coaches: Miriam Schaepers, Janka Erdos, Catrin Darsley, Paula Darwin.