Competition
The highlight of the racing calender for the Oxford College’s rowing clubs are the bi-annual “bumps” races of Hilary and Trinity term, where the object remains to win “blades” and unending glory on our home stretch of river, the Isis.
CCCBC also enters external British Rowing events, competing at the national Head of the River races in London and regattas such as Wallingford or City of Oxford. Some Corpus rowers are also in training with the University squads for their respective boat races against Cambridge, or at home clubs; Corpus colours have therefore been worn to national and international competitions, amongst crews of exceptional calibre.
A Note on Bumps Racing
There are two “bumps” races a year: Torpids, which happens in 7th week of Hilary term and the famous Summer VIIIs, which happens in the fifth week of Trinity. The spectators at Summer VIIIs have been estimated at up to 50,000 people across the 4 days of competition.
“Bumps” racing happens on the stretch of the Thames outside the College Boathouses known traditionally as The Isis. The course (around 2k) runs from Donney Bridge to the Head. The competition runs over 4 days, with the College crews entered in divisions of 12 boats (the first and last boat in every division races first at the head of the lower division, then immediately rows as the 13th boat in the higher division following). On the first day of racing, the boats in a division are lined up behind one other with an even space between each crew. The object of racing is to overlap the crew in front, or (if a beaten cox fails to concede in time!) to literally “bump” into them at speed. This leads to some interesting evasive coxing in close races and often results in the kind of mayhem that makes “bumps” competitions so exciting to watch! If a crew gains a concession or bumps into the crew in front, they drop out of racing. The next day, victorious crews move up a place in the starting line up. If a crew concedes to another or is bumped, they either keep racing (Torpids rules) allowing them to try for their own “bump” on the crews ahead (or continue to be “bumped” by crews behind!) or they drop out of racing (Summer VIIIs rules) with the crew that beat them. The next day, losing crews move down a place in the starting line up for each time they were bumped. In Torpids, unlucky crews can fall multiple places in their division because of one bad race.
The object for any crew is to gain “blades”. For Corpus Christi, “blades” are given out to crews who “bump” every time they race, while avoiding being “bumped” themselves. The overall object of “bumps” racing is to climb the divisions over many years, eventually finishing on the last day of bumps racing as the first boat in Division One: The Head of the River.
