Lent Bumps – a rollercoaster week on the river

  • 22 March 2023
  • 2 minutes

Caius Boat Club Captain of the Boats, Emma Radford, reports on an eventful Lent Bumps, which featured inclement weather, cancellations and success, particularly for M2

This year we faced not only other crews chasing us down the course, but the excitement of rain, snow, raised river levels and the disappointment of cancelled days. The 2023 Lents Bumping Campaign was the campaign to remind us the importance of luck as well as skill in Bumps. However, despite this Caius fielded six competitive crews in the week that remained cheery. A special mention goes to W4 who were the fastest non qualifier on the Cam which bodes well for Mays.

In the first division we saw M1 rowing over second on the river chasing a strong Maggie crew down the course. W1 looked strong rowing over for two of the three days. They ended up sixth on the river due to an unlucky bump on the Thursday when having to hold it up and restart midway down the course due to chaos ahead.

A special shout-out and massive congratulations goes to M2 who despite the odds came away with blades having bumped four times in three days of bumps. This is now the first Caius M2 in Division 1 since 2005 and marks a successful moment in history for CBC. W2 faced challenging competition and were bumped by Wolfson W1 on day one with a strong row over the next day. Unfortunately, the cancelled Friday and Saturday racing hindered their revenge bump.

M3 faced tough competition from Emma bumped on day 1, before going onto to nearly get an overbump on day 2 getting two whistles on Selwyn M2. W3 were set for blades, looking strong and bumping on the first two days, cancellation of the last two days left them hungry for Mays.

Despite the disappointment of missed days, everyone remained cheery and enjoyed celebrating the hard work the club has put into this term. You could feel the excitement at the prospect of Mays and the sunny weather next term.

Emma Radford

Captain of Boats 2022-2023

Lent Bumps took place from Tuesday 7 March to Saturday 11 March 2023. Full results on the Cambridge University Combined Boat Clubs website.

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