What a day!
We began the day with an earthquake (5.2, epicentre in Lincoln, which is just north of us) which was the largest one in England since 1984. The BBC say that one is expected every 10-20 years, so it was about time for one. We were awakened by the shaking - it was only about 10 seconds - I thought it was a Geoff shaking his legs out in bed, then when I was more awake, I thought it was a large truck. Geoff thought it was an earthquake and my response was, 'no! they don't get earthquakes around here, it's too flat!' I stand corrected and still don't know what my reasoning was. As far as earthquakes go, it was no big deal. Someone described it as a very 'English' earthquake and I'm not sure why. I've amused myself by thinking of reasons. The top three are: 1) the earthquake waited politely, in a queue of some kind, before going, 2) the earthquake apologised profusely for the disturbance it caused, 3) while a stir was caused, it didn't hurt anyone. I'll have to look into that, as it has piqued my curiosity.
The other excitement of today was day 2 of the Lent Bumps. 'Lents', if you will. Yesterday, the lower divisions competed, and today, the top men and women's divisions competed. Trinity First and Third were Head of the River for Lents last year, and so started the races in front. They successfully rowed, unbumped, and will begin tomorrow's racing at the front again.
A quick bumps tutorial: boats line up in order of finish from the previous year. They are separated by ~90 feet, I think, and there are three cannons that go off at 4 minutes before, 1 minute before, and at the start. They are little cannons, but the bang scared the bejeezus out of me today, as I wasn't expecting it. Each crew has a bank party that rides alongside to cheer them on and to tell them whether another crew is gaining on them. Someone usually has a stopwatch which they synchronise with the first cannon, and the countdown begins. When the second cannon goes, the boats are pushed out into the middle of the river using poles and the coxswain holds onto a chain that is attached to the bank. Both the pole and the chain help maintain the distance between boats. Once the third cannon goes, the coxswain drops the chain, the rowers begin the start phase, and the mayhem begins.
Each boat has 2 objectives: to physically bump the boat in front of them and to avoid being bumped from behind. Once contact has been made between two boats, the coxswain of the bumped boat puts up their hand to acknowledge the bump and both boats must clear the river immediately so that the boats behind them can continue to race, if they haven't already bumped. The boat that made the bump (the bump-er) moves up a spot in the order of boats and the bumpee moves down a spot. With the following day's boat order established, the races continue until the end of the week. The bump-er rowers, while they are pulled over to the side of the river and don't have much to do, decorate themselves with greenery, which harks back to the days when boats were decorated with garlands (and flowers?) after a bump was achieved. This lets spectators know whether a boat bumped or was bumped/maintained their position.
I was following the First and Third boat, and Jesus was following behind. The Jesus coach seems easily excitable and unfortunately can't do two things at once (very well). He was concentrating very hard on yelling at his crew, and didn't seem to notice that he was all over the towpath. At some point, he was behind me, and steered straight into me, nearly knocking me into the river. At that point, I exclaimed, 'Jeezus!' not realising just how accurate I was. To his credit, he said, 'sorry sorry sorry' as he rode by and bumped me again before we were clear of each other.
I think that - with the little cannons and the excitement of it all - bumps are much more exciting than any kind of racing I've ever seen!
Updated: Wednesday, 27 February 2008 9:27 PM GMT
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