Well, the Bumps are over for another year. I must admit when I woke up this morning and thought "I don't have to row today", I felt pretty happy. So how did they go?
Our starting position on day one was behind another boat from the same club, (Our Great Rivals, henceforth known as Julie's boat). I should explain that the rivalry is (almost) entirely amiable, and many of us in the two boats have rowed together in the past. Our club happened to have two places together in the second division, and Julie's boat were ten seconds faster than us in the getting on race (timed race just before the Bumps), so they were given the lead position.
On the first night they bumped before we could catch them, and we rowed over, pursued all the way by a boat from St Radegund's, which was actually overlapping us for much of the course but failed to touch. So that was very exciting.
On the second night, we bumped the boat that Julie's boat had caught on the first night, and they bumped again. Here are some photos of us getting the bump - last photo on page 1, first four on page 2. I'm at number two in the orange and black - sorry about the frightful facial expressions!
http://www.jetphotographic.com/browsephotos.php?id=6341On the third night we bumped the boat that Julie's boat had bumped on the second night, but they failed to bump.
So picture us last night, back behind them again, and knowing that we had failed to catch them on the first night. We tried our best, but although we caught up half a length on them (the boats start 1 1/2 lengths apart) we didn't make up any more ground. So we both rowed over. Which, I suppose, gives us hope for next year!
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