As the Lent Term went on and the 1st VIII was taking shape, it was hard to form a regular four as members were being swapped between the eight and four, but it was clear that the four and the eight were working towards the Schools Head. Andrew Bryce and John Quayle had a good start to the term rowing in a pair and the four, even beating some of the 1st VIII on ergo tests, but they left us before the Schools Head to play Rugby 7's. The four had to be made up of all available senior squad oarsmen who were not in the eight. With about three weeks to go until Schools Head there was the problem of the differing times of games sessions, which meant there would be few chances to row as a crew. Under the expert coaching of JMB the crew improved and, with help from Avon County coach Chris Hopper, new concepts were introduced. The crew were now ready for anything, except waves, which is not too good if rowing on the Tideway.

On race day the crew consisted of Joel Jameson, at stroke in only his third or fourth race ever, Joel Chase at three, who found the boat did not fit him, David Wiles at two, who, not being the biggest chap, could have done with some of Joel C's extra body mass, and then Dan Whiting at bow, who weighed less then the cox, James Binns, who became known as 'Pie' and also could have done with a larger boat.

Rowing down to the start the cox-box ran out of power and, because our boat was a front-loader, we could not hear our cox's commands. We started our build-up to cross the start line and after ten strokes into the race we had taken the stern of the opposition's boat. We overtook and started to gain on the next crew. We caught up and overtook the second crew, rating 26-28 down the whole course. The crew did not get to take it home at the end of the race because the cox was inaudible - this may have lost us time.

Anyone who has rowed for Monkton on the Thames and boated at Emanuel School boathouse will know it takes ten minutes to row down to Putney and forty minutes to row back, which is very boring. To pass the time we challenged a Henley girls quad to races and lost alarmingly (more than once). It was David Wiles' birthday so the rest of the crew decided he should get wet. Then the crew found out via mobile phone on the way home that we had won our event which meant that James, our cox, had to get wet back at Monkton. The crew won by seven seconds over a good crew from Abingdon, a fantastic result considering three members of the crew were J16's rowing in a J18 event. A fun row with the bonus of a medal at the end of it.

Dan Whiting