Boemo Group May Bumps Report 2025
- Admin
- Jun 26
- 2 min read
Bumps is a type of rowing race unique to Oxford and Cambridge designed so that a large number of crews can take part on a narrow stretch of river. Boats line up end-to-end, a cannon goes off, and the objective is to catch (by "bumping", often literally) the boat in front of you before you get caught by the boat behind you. When one boat bumps another, they swap positions in the following day of racing. Over time, the aim is to work your way up to the top. Crews that bump up four days in a row are said to have earned their blades, while crews that get bumped four days in a row earn spoons. This year, we had an impressive one-third of the lab participate in May Bumps 2025 and we're very proud of our students for balancing their research with other pursuits (sporting or otherwise).
Pauline
Pauline rowed for Peterhouse W2 and, impressively, has never been bumped in her rowing career. Her boat had a stellar year and moved up four places. A whopping three of those places were gained on Wednesday with an overbump on King's W2, and they went on to bump St Catherine's W3 on Thursday. They then rowed over (didn't catch the crew ahead but didn't get caught by the crew behind) on Friday and Saturday to move up an extraordinary four places overall. Unfortunately, the fact that they didn't bump each day meant they were ineligible for blades, but still an absolutely outstanding result.
Katy
The boat club of St John's College is called Lady Margaret Boat Club, and Katy did exceptionally well with Lady Margaret W2 who occupy a very high position on the river at the boundary between Women's Division 3 and Division 2. After bumping Trinity Hall W2 on Wednesday, they were in the unenviable position of having to race twice each day (for the whole course) on Wednesday and Thursday in some very warm weather. This almost certainly played a role in them ultimately getting caught by the strong crews of St Edmund's W1 and Downing W2 on the Friday and Saturday, respectively. However, they still had a fantastic result overall with loads to be proud of and they stayed at their very high position on the river.
Mike
Both of our students did very considerably better than Mike, who comes out of retirement every year to row in the St John's fellows' boat. Despite our best efforts, our academic credentials failed to intimidate the students into submission, and it's entirely possible that the students were hungry for revenge after we set some quite difficult exam questions. We felt that we had a good row but still failed to go quickly enough to qualify for bumps. What we lacked in speed, we made up for in good cheer with a very nice BBQ at the master's lodge. There's always next year!
For other lab sporting successes, you can read about Sarah's squad beating Oxford in the university yacht race and alumna Annie playing university rugby against Oxford in the Jaguars match.
