The beginning of the summer holidays is always an enjoyable prospect, but sadly like far too many summer holidays the initial excitement of "no school!" gradually wears out.
So, as a result of boredom, being so far away from my friends and a having a keen passion for rowing, I decided to join Cambridge '99 RC. I had initially intended to start improving my non-existent sculling technique. I swiftly realised that this was not going to happen, as the Cambridge City Bumps were taking place the following week.
The club Captain 'Bomber', who had heard there was a keen J15 boy home for his holidays slotted me straight into the senior 3 eight at number seven. With a week to go until the bumps, I found myself in a scratch crew full of very tall post-graduates. Suddenly I found the security my size gave me at J15 level had vanished. I was in a completely different league and felt intimidated, but at the same time driven to prove myself. There was no coach and we trained from our own experience which varied, but the training sessions were mainly headed by Claire our cox. The crew consisted of some very bigoted rowers, who were very critical of my technique. My technique is far from perfect, but the general consensus was that I had disrupted the hierarchy of the boat. I don‘t think they were happy with me being at number seven. Claire helped exculpate me as much as possible, but eventually a pecking order was put in place and I moved down to three.
The training was the toughest I‘d ever experienced, going out at least once a day, if not twice a day, with outings lasting two hours on average. This was a big change from the shorter and less frequent outings I had experienced in the mighty J15 eight, of which the lack of training was usually the end product of our winging and bone idleness•. My attitude had to change quickly, and I soon found myself taking a more masochistic view to training, enjoying long hard paddles up and down the Cam.
The Bumps were soon upon us and we soon found ourselves at the start chained to the bank behind City BC. As the gun went we wound up the rating to near 50. This was very exciting but the cost of this was made painfully clear to me later. After the first 500 metres we settled down to 35. As we passed the Plough, this being a pub on the bank, where most the spectators gather to watch, I hit the wall, to some people's amusement. Having watched the video I admit I did look like a silly nit-wit• as Mr Bewick would say. As we came to the final 500m, City started closing on us, their cox swung them wide to try and get a final swipe at us. The whistles on the bank were blowing like mad as City came painfully close, but as their bow man looked round with desperation we knew we had held them off. I really enjoyed the experience of the City bumps and I am thoroughly looking forward to next summer's races.
Seth Pemberton (J15 VIII - 2002)