Allom Cup 2014 Race Report

On a gorgeous November day, RUMSBC took to the tideway once again to prove how great we are and win some medal medal medals. With a long day of racing and six categories entered, RUMSBC finished with an impressive four out of six crews in the final and won two medals in the Men's Novice and Women's Senior Categories. All in all, a successful day!

Women's Intermediates & Seniors

It was a great day of racing for the whole of the women's squad! The W2 were up first in their semi final against George's. As in training, the crew had a very strong start and pushed off George's to gain the lead by half way! However, with George's making a big push off the halfway mark, they slowly crept up so that by the finish line they were just ahead, winning by a canvas. A good race nonetheless, it left our w2 determined to gain that 3rd place spot! They carried this out with power and precision to beat ICSM by a clear 4 lengths in the women's intermediate B final! A great result

With only 3 crews entered into the women's senior category, W1 found themselves entered straight into the final! Having narrowly missed out on medals the previous year, they were determined to make this their one and only race of the day. Despite some pre-race nerves and little time to warm up beforehand, a solid start led into a powerful race with our cox Leah reminding us of just how close we were to getting medals to provide us with the fuel to push through the last 100m and gain victory against ICSM! Which meant only one thing, MEDALS!!!!

Overall it was a great day for all the women, fantastic racing and a very proud captain!!

Special mention goes to Leah Rosenbaum who saved us from what could have been a coxing nightmare by brilliantly coxing both women's crews this weekend, as well as supplying RUMSBC with the most incredible rocky road!!

Joy Schmidt - Women's Senior Captain

Men's Novices

Following last week’s disappointment in the Novice Sprints our crew were determined and motivated to make amends and prove that we are the best UH novice team. Our first race brought us up against ICSM and began suddenly with us neither aligned nor all at forward stops. Despite our poor start, which has become somewhat of a tradition, we motored through and soon reached our dominating stride to win by half a length and contribute to the rout of Imperial. Buoyant after this victory we readied to face Queen Mary. In a similar fashion to our Novice Sprints semi-final, we powered through this race to win by a comfortable 2 lengths. Delighted, we now had a chance to prove a point and win the final.

In what we thought would be our final race our confidence levels were high having beaten RVC last week. We knew we could beat them; however, they sought revenge. The Vets had a great start like last week and we were instantly half a length down. We persevered through this to pull it back at the finish line in which neither team could tell who was victorious. A marshal soon approached us yelling, “RUMS, you won by half a canvas!” Roaring and cheering we knew what it felt like to be winners… or so we thought. Upon landing we were greeted with the shock that we lost. Demoralised, we trudged off to the changing room to get back out to support the other crews. Once dressed we were told almost immediately to lycra-up for a re-row. Following a large sigh at having to change clothes we were soon psyched up to avenge Captain McLay’s narrow defeat to the Vets’ FIRSTS. Neck and neck at first we knew we had to push and put some water between the Vets and us. Driven solely by the will to give Beth the bow-ball she had so greatly deserved we rowed past them to clinch the bow-ball at the finish line. This time there was no doubt that we were the victors and the feeling of victory was so much sweeter. On the way back Radio Dilworth was at full blast with Shake it Off sang by our cox, arguably the perfect song before being chucked into the Thames. With everyone in the Dilworth’s first RUMS medal around our necks we felt it was well deserved and down to the superb work of Tom, Simon and Beth. Thank you guys!

Matt Kinsella - Novice Boy


I learned two things on Sunday, that the boys have a shockingly poor start (I promise we will work on that), but that they also live by the mantra that it's not over until it's over. Well deserved medals boys. Let's hope they don't get fat over Christmas so we can win some more next term!

Tom McLay - Men's Novice Captain

Women's Novices

After a good outing the day before, we were feeling ready to give it our best out on the water. Although we got off to a far from perfect start, we left ICSM trailing behind in our first race with a solid win. With all pre-race jitters out of the way we rowed a strong race against George's to put us into the final against Royal Holloway. With victory tantalisingly close and some perfectly in time squatting sessions to Taylor Swift to keep team morale high, we were feeling positive for the final and gave it our absolute all. Nevertheless, a slightly shaky start and a few timing issues meant we were slightly behind. However we can all agree that our determination to crawl our way back from a significant margin (with the help of Kit's motivational screaming) is something to be very proud of and we finished with only a boat length between us. With an extra few metres or so I'm sure we would have had them! Semi finals at Novice Sprints, final at Allom cup - Winter Sprints will hopefully see us be victorious!

Nadia Eden - Novice Girl

Men's Intermediates & Seniors

It’s always slightly nerve-wracking when you’re rowing in the first senior sprints of the year. It’s cold, it’s competitive: it’s Allom Cup. With UCL ordinarily invitational only and completely out of the way on tour this year (where they actually row- who knew?), there was a feeling of quiet optimism amongst the men’s seconds crew. And it was well justified. Despite boat and coxing alterations the crew are arguably the fittest for some years now, and with Mike Foxall-Smith in the stroke seat, we were given an excellent rhythm and ratio to follow. He cooperated well with the great and ever improving Beth Welch who generously devoted us time away from a heavy UL training regime. Winning our first sprint against St George’s was just the beginning. Having had a by to the semi final, ISCM were up next, and two of us were particularly nervous. I think it is fair to say that not many grudges are held between medical schools, but I know Sam Jackson and I had been waiting some years for the chance to beat the ICSM seconds crew. That we did it, after racing once already, and by some margin against their fresh team made it all the sweeter. And they lost graciously - what more could you want in an opponent? So it was now the final - RVC 1sts. I hear you ask, dear reader, why we were racing a firsts crew. I too wondered this, since their second crew had also been knocked out of our category earlier, and learned that the rules of an intermediate category had changed this year so that any crew without BRA points could enter. RVC firsts were the only firsts crew on the day to shrewdly take advantage of this change. Whether other teams knew, and decided not to do the same, is for speculation. These are merely the facts as I understand them, and unfortunately it is a fact that we came second too. In any case, it has been a pleasure to lead such a committed group of men for the last six weeks, and to have become the fastest UH seconds crew on the day. Oh and we settled a grudge. But do we now bear another?

Charlie Hensher - Men’s Seconds Captain

Unfortunately it was not M1's day. With their first race against George's, they set off with a strong start and a good rhythm but it just wasn't quite enough and they lost by half a length. Into the repechage they went against Royal Holloway. A competitor that we never know much about due to them not rowing from UL Boat House so certainly one not to be underestimated. Again the men tried valiantly to claw their way back but it wasn't to be and the result was a win for RHUL by a length.  

Of the day Men's Senior Alex Captain said;  "We sat in a boat and pulled hard at an oar each... Not hard enough to win though. There was a sub. He was good."

With some of the fastest erg times RUMSBC has seen this is a good, fit crew. Let's hope they can turn their luck around post Christmas.

Special Mentions

Charlie Middleton for gallantly subbing in to our Men's firsts. Any time you fancy rowing for us full time Charlie let us know! 
Tom McLay for subbing in to our M2 crew under short notice as well as leading his Novice's to victory.
Leah Rosenbaum and Beth Welch for coxing (and coxing our two winning crews as well!) during our period of coxing shortages

All in all, a great day for RUMSBC. 

Allom Cup was our last race of 2014 and we are looking to the new year with determination and confidence as we know that when we put our minds to it, we come up Medals. RUMSBC are currently top of the UH and UL leader board with 26 points. Let's hope that come January that gap between us and the next team will only increase.  As Jerry said of one of our wins, "Time for a bit of sex on the Middle side". 

2015, RUMSBC are coming.