Summer Eights

This week it has been Summer Eights - the big college rowing event of the year and it still gets me so excited!  Bumps racing is in concept very simple - you need to bump into the boat in front - but there is so much technical and controversial stuff in it that I don't think it can fail to get you intrigued!

I went down on Wednesday after school and saw the last divisions.  Don't think I had ever seen the later divisions on the first days as if I had gone down I would have seen the Hugh's boats which wouldn't have been in the latest divisions.  It was lovely sunny weather, just as Eights should be.  We walked down to the start and gradually back again on the tow-path side - buying ice creams at the ice cream van by longbridges.


(There was this notice up a coot's nest on the riverbank)

Thursday didn't make it to the river by had dinner with a friend who was rowing in Eights and so got a great fill of the boaty gossip!

Friday rushed down after school to see her race at 5.15pm.  Well I was just about on the boathouse island when I heard over the tannoy that they had already bumped right up at the start of the race.  The course is something like a mile long and you can't see the while stretch at one time so it's tricky deciding where you want to watch from!  Congratulated her and hung out by her boat house with pimms and we ventured to another boat house for a bbq burger - delicious!




Then came Saturday of VIIIs and the weather changed :-(

We have started a tradition where we meet with some family friends to have a picnic by falcon boatclub.  Different people have made it to the racing in different years and the picnic has gradually grown in extravagance.  I was going to cycle along the river and then walk the rest (no bikes allowed on Saturday of Eights along the race course).  But looking out my window, it was raining pretty hard so car it was, with umbrella and all!  I was the first to arrive and just made it out to see the first division of the day row past, Mens Div VII.  Saw some good collisions and titled at one cox who put up a flowery umbrella after his crew bumped out!   Dash back into the car to escape the rain before the next race, and also to eat a slice of the blueberry buckle I had made that morning - totally made the whole car smell delicious - impossible to resist!

More people started rocking up:  Mum and sister, colleague from school, family friends (minus one daughter in Borneo) and a couple who were friends of our friends and we had met sometimes before.  They were the heroes of the day as they brought a pop up gazebo which saved us from the rain and a table for us to put all the food on. I was slightly embarrassed by the opulence of the picnic, but in truth probably kind of proud!  and it was enjoyed by all.

Hysterics at the quails eggs - and don't forget the celery salt.

 

Happy Birthday to you!  

We wandered along over the bridge to the start for one division and made it on to the Isis Tavern to try and use their toilets.  It ended up a comedy of errors for me, as I felt compelled to buy a drink so ordered an orange juice and then found out I didn't have my purse.  So my name was put down in a book and I was going to have to come back in an hour.  Fortunately my sister (having been to the toilet) paid for it.  We all took a sip from the communal beverage!

It brightened up for a bit and we sat out on the raft next to the river.  I had a lovely time getting to explain all the boaty lingo and even persuaded them to read the glossary of bumps racing that I find hilarious.  The explanation even went as far as a re-enactment using four umbrellas (we named them appropriate colleges based on blade colours) for overbumping in Eights, and even then in Torpids!  I love my geeky boaty life, can slip back into it so easily.

 

Lots of cuteness on the river.  We became closely acquainted with four ducklings and also saw these swans and cygnets.  The momma and dadda hissed a plenty at us.  I found it so unbelievable cute when two got on their back.