Emma Novice Regatta

On Sunday we got up quite late - James had been out til the wee hours at a friend's stag do, involving viking costumes and cocktail making, and I was tired out having rowed in two races the day before.

When we woke up we noticed that the river was full of rowers dressed in silly outfits, and we remembered that it was Emmanuel College's annual Novice Regatta that afternoon. So we walked out to the Long Reach to watch. Novice rowing is brilliant fun to watch, they have so much enthusiasm but so little experience that things can go very wrong and cause spectacular results! Added to this, they were all dressed quite colourfully in crazy costumes. The best one we saw was a boat full of gondoliers coxed by a Venetian masked lady with a bunch of roses tied to the bow!

They were racing side by side, with novice coxes, so there were lots of blade clashes and boats slewing into the bank. No-one was hurt at all but many were dispirited to see their several length lead disappear as a result of a coxing error or a crew-mate catching a gigantic 'crab' and losing control of their blade.

Clare Hall and Trinity Hall as reindeer and cats