Aanya Madhani writes:
The 2011 Women’s 1st VIII met on Saturday 18th September for a 10 year reunion row. We managed to get most of the original crew together including our Cox Usman Iqbal who was remarkably calm and managed to navigate us successfully to the lock and back!
We had fantastic weather for it, 23 degrees and sunny with very little wind so it allowed us to slip back into our rhythm pretty quickly and after a rolling warm up in 4s and 6s, we were in 8s by the time we reached the Green Dragon and Penney Ferry and even managed some “Power 10” bursts and a few games of “Fitz Buzz” on the paddle up to the lock.
Two of our coaches (Phil Cook and Peter Herrick) also graced us with their presence and pushed us to our (much lower than 2011) limits by insisting on a couple of starts and a short piece on the reach on the way back! It was amazing how quickly we snapped back into rhythm to the shouts of “¾ , ½, ¾, FULL!”
It was a fantastic day and thanks must go to Antony Moule for his support in facilitating our use of FCBC equipment. We would also like to thank the current boat club women’s captains Maisie and Emily for welcoming us so wholeheartedly and subbing in at bow (thanks Emily!). Here’s to many more reunion rows over the years and I encourage anyone who can to participate in the Fairbairns race this December.