NEPTUNE'S tactic for Saturday's Queen's Regatta paid off in the end although, given the choice, they would probably have opted for a simple win against Trinity rather than have their downbeat pre race forecasts borne out by another senior eights' disappointment.
Trinity crossed the line with a blistering finish, but for the first third of the course it seemed as if they had picked up where they had officially left the race two weeks earlier - behind Neptune.
Neptune's canvas lead at the start had stretched to one quarter of a length by the 500 metre mark and it was looking as though this was what might have been at the Neptune regatta if Trinity hadn't been disqualified.
"We expected them to go for it at the start and then forgot to take it from them," said Trinity stroke Michael O'Connell later. When they eventually remembered. It took just 100 metres of the Castlewellan course to push through Neptune and take a canvas lead.
Neptune's stroke Jim Cassidy, who was sculling in junior championships when one of Trinity's oarsman was being born, summed up the mood after a post mortem team talk. "We had a reasonable start and had a couple of metres on them which we just didn't capitalise on. It felt like we just broke down as a unit. Over a short course like that you can't let them have a sniff and they took back what we had built up in 15 to 20 strokes."
Neptune's coach Peter Buckley later highlighted the middle stage racing as an area they will be working on when he takes the eight to Nottingham for a training camp with the University of London's Imperial College, before racing at the Docklands' Regatta in London.
Neptune's women made their strongest challenge yet to the UCDL eight, which raced with novices Emer O'Reilly and Eithne Tiernan brought in at two and bow. Using a women's eight leased for the race, Neptune got off to the better start and stuck with the UCDL boat, three seats down, when it recovered the lead.
Without Vanessa Lawrenson and Debbie Stack - now racing in double sculls and pairs - UCDL lacked the power in the middle of the boat to make the break and on the line Neptune were only a length behind.
"We are not that far off the pace at the moment," said their coach, Eunan Dolan afterwards. "I don't think that it raced flat out and there may be a soft bit somewhere in the boat. We have a group of 12 women and it's just a matter of finding the proper combination."
Fiona McHenry who returned from injury to stroke the eight and win the novice sculls is likely to retain her seat at St Michael's next week and according to UCDL coach Nick Mahony, the Neptune resurgance comes as a welcome test for his crew.
"Neptune wanted it more than we did and to give them their dues, they are sharper, more powerful and have definitely improved by a length in the last couple of weeks. We are going to have to develop more power if that eight is going to stay together for the championships," said Mahony.
UCD men departed from normal pre race dietary practice, adopted a family sized, fast food formula and then won the novice and intermediate eights that, a day earlier, they had lost along with the University Championship Cup.
In the intermediate S3 race, UCD clawed their way to the front rating at 42 strokes, passing Coleraine, Trinity and finally Queen's in the last 500 metres to win by one third of a length.
In the men's S1 sculls, John Armstrong from Lady Victoria won easily from Jim Cassidy in his first race of the season after an injury kept that him out of selection for the national squad.
Offaly junior sculler Sheila Clavin finished the day with wins in the women's S3 and S1 single sculls. Suffering from tendonitis in her wrist, Clavin took the S1 event from Lagan's Maeve Cunningham by three lengths.
