When I joined Cambridge last year I was ready to cox again. After a Gap Year my previous assertion, that I made during my 3 years coxing the 1st VIII at Monkton that I would never cox at university, had been forgotten and I couldn't wait to get back in a boat. However something I was not ready for was the Oxbridge tradition of Bumps.
My first term passed with me being placed as the cox of the Men's 1st boat for my college, Homerton. The Lent term however then came along and all focus was now on the impending Lent Bumps. I was suddenly faced with the prospect of entering a four day competition where I would have to go against one of the golden rules I had always held as a cox; do not hit other boats. The nature of bumps is exactly as it sounds. You are required to try and make contact with the boat in front of you. The entries into bumps are split into divisions, each with about 17 boats in it. Each division gets to row once a day over four days. You have a starting order and each day you and your division line up at the bottom of the course, in that order, one behind the other, a boat and a half length apart, the cox holding onto a chain to keep them in place. A cannon goes off four minutes before the start of the race and it is then a count down until the start. A countdown which I'm pretty sure anyone that has done bumps will remember. At forty seconds to go you are pushed out to from the bank. At 5 seconds the countdown stops and all the boats sit in a line, at frontstops, waiting for the cannon to tell them to go. This process created nerves for me which I never knew I was capable of feeling about rowing and it was a huge effort for me to do my job and try and keep the crew calm.
When the cannon goes off it is then a question of 'bumping' the crew in front of you before you get to the end of the course, which is about 3km. To bump means either getting your bow ball in line with the cox in front of you or making contact in someway. Once this is done you finish and the following day you start in the place where the crew you bumped or were bumped by were. If you don't bump or get bumped but finish the course then this is called a row over and you stay in the same place the next day.
The Lent bumps for me were amazing. The adrenaline that occurred for the first few minutes after the gun meant that I could never really remember what had happened for that time. It also meant forgetting other rowing rules. Once you bump someone you have to stop the boat and get out of the way as soon as possible. This means completely stopping a boat that is going at full race pace instead of the usual winding down. You start each race not knowing how long you will row for, one time we bumped in 18 strokes, another time we rowed the whole course. During our four days we bumped three times and rowed over once. A good result but it did mean we could not claim the coveted award of 'blades' which you receive if you bump four times. My father, for the whole of his life, has been a ball sports player and most certainly not a rower. However while at Cambridge he rowed for a term and got a blade. I was therefore determined not to leave Cambridge without one, being the rower of my family.
The opportunity for this came in Mays [Summer Term races, held in June - Ed.]. Our first two days we bumped comfortably. On the third day we were sitting behind a St. Edmunds boat which contained seven men who had either been in the Blues heavyweight or lightweight squads. Although they had not really trained all term these were supposedly some of the best rowers in Cambridge. We ended up in a three boat chase with us at the back chasing the St. Edmunds boat and them chasing Corpus Christi, in front of them. We had expected them to get this crew early and so to be forced to go for the crew a few places ahead of us or row over. However they did not. They pushed but the crew held them off. And so we pushed, every single time they did. The Cam is notoriously narrow and windy and my role of steering has never been more crucial as I had to negotiate us round corners that would get us closer to the crew ahead. This situation lasted nearly the whole course. But 200m before the end we nearly had them and once we had overlap I managed to steer so that we made contact and hit them. The immediate aftermath of this was amazing. I can remember looking to the bank and watching my coach throw down his bike and go dancing down the tow path. The boys were exhausted but elated. The blues were exhausted and beaten. Someone asked who we bumped and as we rowed away was heard to say to his friend, 'Did you hear who Homerton bumped? They got Eddies!
However, we still had one day left and had to settle to focus on that. It duly arrived and my nerves were taken to a whole new level. We knew we had angry blues behind us and Corpus who had shown strength we didn't realise they had in front of us. We went off and to my surprise the boat behind us was not a threat. However Corpus went off strong and quickly closed in on the boat in front of them. After a few minutes they looked like they had nearly got them and we still had a way to go. At this point one of my coaches called that we had to go now; it was now or never. We had a push planned which we had practised over and over again and I had used the previous days but now I had to call it on the biggest, most difficult corner (Grassy), of the Cam. It is rare that things you practise in outings go perfectly in actual races but this push turned out to be the best push we had ever done. Something clicked and we surged round the corner just as the crew Corpus were chasing pulled away. It was then a matter of time as we came onto the Plough reach, which is where most spectators go to watch. This time was no exception and it was heaving with people. The gap closed and closed and we got them half way down the Plough reach at the point where all the Homerton supporters were sitting.
It was elation like nothing else. The icing on the cake being that my Dad had come up as a surprise and managed to stand at the right point to see us claim our blades. The whole way that it had happened had been so perfect it was like something out of a film. The bumps had already shown themselves to be one the most amazing rowing experiences I have ever been involved in but I had never had such success in one these events until now. I have been talking about those last two days ever since, to anyone who has ears. Now back at Cambridge for my 2nd year we have two guys from that Mays crew back so have a lot of work to do, but I now know exactly what bumps requires and already cannot wait for the Lents to come round again.