Sunday Round-up

Saturday's 4-point gap is now a 1-point gap. Three of yesterday's top five are gone from the top six, and three new players have climbed in. Grum. is still leading — just.

The standings — a reshuffled top six

Yesterday's #2 CLURRACKS and #5 BFWBeluga both fell out of the leading six.

What Sunday actually was — eight finals, four decisive

Two results delivered for everyone (Reading A in the Open Championship 4x at 83.76%; Edinburgh in the Women's Beginner 4+). Two races went to picks nobody in the top six had — Nottingham took the Open Beginner 8+ at 6.17%, and Birmingham (Kathryn Mole) won the Women's Championship 1x at 8.33% with the room piled onto Reading E and Reading A. The whole leaderboard reshuffle was decided on the four contested championships in between.

Each of the three new top-six climbers got three of those four right. Grum. got two. Chadland and fergusmainland got one each. That's the climb, in one paragraph.

How three new players got in

Saturday's preview flagged the Open Championship 4+ as "the killer detail" — none of the day's top five were on the favourite, Brookes A. They went London / London / Durham A / Newcastle / Newcastle. The article said: if Brookes A win, the entire chasing pack takes the same null result and Grum.'s lead is preserved. Brookes A won. Saturday's chasing pack did take a null, but three players who started the day outside the top five had Brookes A in the 4+: pgvortextips, Lewis N, and rowenaprice. All three caught the same race the lead group missed together.

From there each climber added a different second contested call:

• pgvortextips went 3-from-4 — Cambridge in the Open Champ Lwt 4- and Brookes A in the Women's Int 8+. The miss was Cambridge in the Women's Champ 8+ (London took it). Net: into 2nd, one point off the top.
• Lewis N also 3-from-4 — Brookes A in the Women's Int 8+ and London in the Women's Champ 8+. Missed only the Open Champ Lwt 4- (Durham A; Cambridge won).
• rowenaprice also 3-from-4 — Cambridge in the Lwt 4- and London in the Champ 8+. Missed only the Women's Int 8+.

Different routes, same result. Three players each landing three of the four races where the room was split — and where yesterday's leaders were split the wrong way.

How Grum. held it (just)

Grum. picked London in the Open Championship 4+ and didn't get the gift. They also picked London in the Women's Intermediate 8+ and lost that to Brookes A as well. Both calls were the same shape — back London for the upset, watch the favourite roll over them.

What kept the lead alive was the Women's Championship 8+ — the biggest toss-up on the Sunday card, four crews within 5.3 percentage points. Grum. took London (16.24%) and London delivered. pgvortextips was on Cambridge (wrong). Chadland was on Brookes (wrong). The Open Championship Lightweight 4- (Cambridge) added a second contested win on the day. Two contested wins from four when the climbers all had three is just enough to keep the lead — and only just.

Chadland and fergusmainland — held in, narrowly

Chadland (+149) caught the Women's Intermediate 8+ but missed the other three contested calls — Open Champ 4+ (Newcastle), Open Champ Lwt 4- (Durham A), Women's Champ 8+ (Brookes). Three contested misses on the day.

fergusmainland (+143) hangs on at sixth level on points with rowenaprice — both on 454. The Women's Championship 8+ (London) is the one race that kept them from dropping out of the top six entirely.

Two contrarian winners nobody had

The day's two unforeced misses across the whole top six:

• Open Beginner 8+ — Nottingham (Arthur Bindemann) at 6.17%. The preview called it "most evenly split race on the Sunday card", with the leading call (Brookes) at 14.57% and six crews inside the top 14. Grum. took Sheffield. The other five all took Queen's. Nottingham took the race.
• Women's Championship 1x — Birmingham (Kathryn Mole) at 8.33%. Reading A was the 49% favourite; Reading E the 16% counter. Five of the top six were on Reading E. One was on Reading A. The contrarian-and-correct call sat unspent.

Two contrarian wins, neither caught by anyone at the top of the table. The points went to whoever lower down the leaderboard found them — meaning the gaps in the lead group are tighter tonight than they would have been if either of those races had gone form.

Monday — what's still in play

The lead group disagrees on most of what's left:

• Open Championship 2- — five of the six on Newcastle (Gwilym Johnson). Chadland alone on Durham A. If Newcastle hold, Chadland slips a place.
• Women's Championship 4- — three-way split. Grum., pgvortextips and Chadland on Durham. Lewis N on London. rowenaprice and fergusmainland on Oxford. Maximum fragmentation.
• Women's Championship 2x — also three-way. Grum. and rowenaprice on Bath. Chadland, Lewis N and fergusmainland on Reading A. pgvortextips alone on Reading B.
• Open Intermediate 2- — Grum. and rowenaprice on Newcastle A. pgvortextips alone on Bath A. Chadland, Lewis N and fergusmainland on Durham A.
• Open Intermediate Lightweight 4x — five of the six on Reading A. rowenaprice solo on Nottingham A.
• Women's Beginner 8+ — three on Edinburgh, two on Surrey, one (Lewis N) on Queen's.

A 1-point lead doesn't survive that level of disagreement. Six players inside 19 points of the top, six unsettled finals, every one of them with a fragmented field. Whoever calls Monday's contested championships wins it. Grum. has the lead. Five other players have a route to taking it.

SuperLeague: A coin-flip on the women's eights

Late Sunday afternoon Edinburgh were top of the squad table at 1,965 — sixteen points clear of Durham, riding the two Edinburgh home wins (Women's Beginner 4x and Beginner 4+) plus a strong morning. The Women's Intermediate 8+ and Women's Championship 8+ were still on the water.

Brookes A took the Intermediate 8+. London took the Championship 8+. Edinburgh members had been backing their own crew in both. Brookes and Durham members hadn't.

Edinburgh dropped out of the top five entirely. Brookes climbed from #6 to #2. Newcastle hold the top across both days of racing — but the cushion is just 11 points to Brookes.

Birmingham's appearance is the surprise. Perhaps driven by Birmingham (Kathryn Mole) winning the Women's Championship 1x at 8.33% — the contrarian race nobody at the top of the individual leaderboard caught.

For Monday — 78 points top to bottom. Newcastle vulnerable, Brookes one good final from the lead, Durham within range, Reading needing a rebound, Birmingham hoping form holds.

The SuperLeague title is genuinely fluid heading into Monday — and "fluid" is the right word for a day when Edinburgh sat top of the table at tea-time and dropped out of the medals before bedtime.

Good racing tomorrow.