Alex Deighton

UH Bumps 2019

The first day of bumps delivered a solid performance from both our Men's 1st VIII and our Women's 1st VIII who produced strong row overs to hold their positions at 2 and 4 respectively, albeit with some drama involving a cruiser boat leading to the women's second race being abandoned just before Kew Stone Bridge. The second, and final, day of bumps started off strongly with M1 holding their position in another row over and a crew made up of members of the rugby team managing to bump LSE's 1st VIII. Next in the women's race, W1 were unfortunately bumped down by SGH's 1st VIII, leading them to finish the weekend at position 5. In the men's final race, M1 produced yet another strong performance, holding their position confidently behind the non-UH eligible KCL 1st VIII. This result allowed them to take the UH Headship for the first time in post-merger history, 16 years after the BL women achieved the same feat. The last time this position was held pre-merger was 26 years ago by The London men in 1993. Unfortunately the rugby crew were bumped down by LSE 1st VIII in the final race and finished the weekend where they began, the did however take the coveted prize of best fancy dress.

For the first time in its post-merger history and 16 years after the BL women achieved it, the men have won headship at Bumps - 26 years after The London men last did so in 1993

M1 Bumps 2019.JPG

Merger Cup 2019

Women’s team

The racing conditions for the fresher women’s race were not ideal and so the QM women pulled ahead at the start of the race as one of our women crabbed off the start. Determined not to let them pull ahead, we stopped and started again. This start was much cleaner and had a lot of strength behind it, allowing us to build the rate up. With QM women ahead by around a length, our fresher women put up a good fight and maintained good technique through the race and kept calm. This allowed them to gain on the QM women by around 1/2 a length but unfortunately they did not manage to overtake QM. They showed determination and grit through recovering at the start and hopefully they will come back take the win over QM next year.

Men’s team

Both university’s fielding a strong fresher boat this year the competition was always going to be tight. Racing back toward the boathouse both crews were largely level the entire way with QMUL having to take a wide berth around a buoy. In the final few hundred meters the boys found their grit and pulled ahead by half a length to take the win as was hoped for.