On this site:

Home | Contacts | Boat Types | Photos | Safety | Kit Orders | Competition Calendar | Junior Regatta

Links to main MRC Website: Main Site | Contact | Membership

Amateur Rowing Association: [ www.ara-rowing.org ]

2004/2005 News Archive

Maidenhead’s Junior boys and girls win the Victor Ludorum prize for 2nd year running at City of Oxford 2 day Regatta

Maidenhead Rowing Club juniors and veterans entered 17 events over the two day Regatta in Oxford and came home with 11 event wins and a cash prize of £300 for winning the Junior Victor Ludorum prize for the most successful Junior club over the two days.

City of Oxford Regatta had a record number of entries for this years regatta which meant that half of Maidenhead’s junior entries were turned down as the regatta choose to cancel some of the junior events. Ah ha but even this did not hold the juniors back from winning!

Racing on the Saturday was over a 1000m course, which tested athletes ability to cope with steering around two bends at firm pressure. Maidenhead Juniors won 6 events on the Saturday. Winning crews for Maidenhead were as follows:

Event Sat 1000m Crew
J16 1x Matthew Reeve.
N 2x Max Gerrard and Phil Clapp.
WJ14 1x Katie Lion.
WJ16 1x Sophie Delaney nro Ally Brooks.
WJ14 2x Maddie Reynolds & Katie Lion.
WJ16 2x Sophie Delaney & Ally Brooks.

Other results on the Saturday over the 1000m course included Jo Wright who made it through to the final of WJ18 1x and she pushed Drury a GB rower to 2l at the finish line.

On the Sunday racing was over the shorter 500m course. Another full days racing program saw Maidenhead crews race throughout the day to reach the finals. Winning crews from Maidenhead on the Sunday were as follows:

Event Sun 500m Crew
J18 2x Max Gerrard & Philip Clapp.
MXD 2x Ally Brooks & Ray Poulter (UTRC).
WJ12 1x Rebecca Reeve.
WJ 14 1x Maddie Reynolds.
WS4 2x Natalie Trinder & Jo Wright.

Other results on the Sunday included Maddie Reynolds and Katie Lion making it through to the finals of WJ14 2x. In the final Katie fell off her seat, when she got back on they were 1.5l down. Racing hard over this short-course they came back well only to loose by the closest margin of the day 1ft.

Tim Wildbore racing in J16 1x had a good race against Skelton of Windsor Boys School and came in 4l behind in the final.

Jack Rider and Phil Clapp had a very good scull against a Marlow crew in the final of J16 2x and managed to stay within 1 length of this crew in the final.

In Vet C sculls Henry Cremin raced well in the final against Morris sculler from Bewl Bridge. Henry finished 2l down at the finish line.

In Mixed Doubles we saw Charlotte Weeks team up with her brother to compete as a composite Maidenhead/Molesey BC crew. They did well to win their first heat and went out in round 2 by less than 6ft.

Maidenhead’s McCoriston raced well against Claires Court sculler, Hyman who crossed the finish line just 1 length ahead of McCoriston.

In Novice fours we also saw a Maidenhead Veteran four race against a much younger crew who were too strong on the day for this Maidenhead Veteran crew.

This was the final summer regatta of the season for the juniors and the coaches will be working out how many drinks could the £300 prize money provide during the winter season

Another excellent close to the summer regatta season.
 

BEDFORD QUARTS REGATTA

Maidenhead Rowing Club sent a team of boys to the annual Bedford Quarts regatta on Sunday 10th July.

The 600 metre course is set in parkland in the centre of the town which makes it pleasant for spectators and is a fair course for the oarsmen with no other river traffic. The weather was very hot and sunny with a refreshing breeze.

As the name suggests the prizes are quart tankards, much sought after by the winners.

First race of the day was the J14 double of Tom O’Reilly and Simon Lilley against the home club Bedford Star. The Maidenhead boys had a dreadful start and gave away nearly two lengths. They kept their heads however and pushed hard along the course with good technique. Beford Star’s technique became scrappy as the Maidenhead crew put them under pressure and the Maidenhead crew went into the lead with 100m of the race left and they eventually won by a length. In their second race they were up against local home rivals Claires Court crew of Aber and Hyman. Claires Court had a good start and sculled very powerfully to beat Maidenhead by two lengths. Aber and Hyman lost very narrowly to Peterborough in the final mainly due to bad steering.

The second event of the day for Maidenhead was J15 doubles. Once again the double from Maidenhead of Tim Wildbore and Adam Lilley and the Claires Court double of Cremin and McCormack were drawn together. Both crews had a good start and the Claires Court double were neater in blade work. Eventually the power of the Maidenhead crew prevailed and they won by one and a half lengths. In the final Maidenhead were against St Neots who once again had a very neat crew but again the power of the Maidenhead boys prevailed and they won by over two lengths.

Last event of the day and indeed race of the day was a straight final in the J14 boys quads between the Maidenhead crew of Ross McCoriston, Ertan Hazine, Sergey Kleshnev ,Alex Ryde and coxed by Tom O Reilly against a crew from Weybridge who were 8 seconds faster than Maidenhead at Walton Head over 3000m in the Winter events. The Weybridge crew had an illness on the day and managed to get the Norwich single sculler to deputise after his J14 singles final. Both crews went off the start very hard and at high rating around 40 strokes per minute. Maidenhead edged out to a half length lead by 200m and the Weybridge crew were under great pressure. The Weybridge bow man then caught a massive crab and the momentum of the boat was such that the carbon fibre loom of the scull snapped as the loom caught on the rigger with the blade still in the water . Maidenhead were generally unaware of the problem and sprinted to the finish to claim their prize - quart tankards.

Maidenhead Rowing Club Juniors Impress selectors at the Final JUNIOR GB TRIALS
held at Dorney Lake for the girls and Nottingham for the boys

Conditions were very good for most of the junior trials that took place at Dorney lake and Nottingham over the past few weeks.

Final trials Dorney lake - Girls
Maidenhead’s leading female junior, Louise Entwistle competed in final trials at Dorney Lake for a seat in the GB junior squad, trialing for the World junior championship quad or a sculling position in the Coupe de la Jeunesse team. After 3 days of intensive trials Louise was ranked just outside the Worlds squad but won a seat in the Coupe team being selected for the double with Mallissa Petronikolos from Molesey RC.

GB France trials
At the same time as final trials the GB France trails were held. Louise teamed up with Ally Brooks to compete for selection in the WJ16 double. On this occasion they just lost out to Hollingworth Lake RC who went on to win the GB France race convincingly. Both Hollingworth lake girls have also been selected for the Coupe team.

GB France trials in Nottingham for the boys were carried out in rough conditions. Max Gerrard and Phil Clapp found it difficult to perform in such conditions and could only manage to finish in fourth position on this occasion.

GB France match
Louise was selected to represent GB in the GB/France match in a single as a result of being the fastest single sculler in the GB squad at WJ16 level. This match against France took place on Monday 11th July in Nottingham and Louise did well to beat the French National sculling champion by 2 lengths. The overall GB team ended up losing 7 – 5 to the French team who were mainly made up of National Champions who competed at the French Nationals earlier in the month.

Final trials Nottingham boys
The final trials for boys was held in Nottingham a week later for the top junior boys in the country. Sam Ashburner was pre-selected for GB seat trials and Dave Jones was asked to compete in the race-offs for a place in the final team. Dave had to race off against 8 scullers and had to finish in the top 2 places. Dave won the race offs and went through to the final seat trials for a place in the GB team. On day 2 Dave came down with an illness and was instructed by the GB doctor that he could note compete anymore at final trials. He had to wait until the end of the week to find out his fate by the Chief GB selector. Meanwhile Sam Ashburner continued to successfully carry out seat trials and had his goal set on reaching a place in the World junior rowing team. As events worked out he just missed out on a place in this squad but Sam was pleased when it was announced that he was selected to represent GB in a double scull with Carl Delanney at the Coupe de la Jeunessee to be held at Dorney Lake on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st July. Dave Jones was relieved to be given a place in the same team as the spare man sculler.

Several coaches have assisted these athletes over the years and it is pleasing to hear that two coaches from Maidenhead - Tom Jost and Billy Brooks have been selected to coach GB crews for the Coupe and GB France match. Jost was selected to coach the GB boys Coupe quad and Brooks was selected to coach the GB girls Coupe double scull.
 

Maidenhead Juniors Compete at Egham Regatta

Maidenhead Rowing Club's junior novice and intermediate girls sent a large entry to Egham Regatta on Sunday 26th June. The 650m course contained a difficult bend at the end which resulted in several steering incidents near the finish. Maidenhead came away with one event win and picked up valuable experience for the rest of the girls, most of whom had very little previous race experience.

Mixed (i.e. for boys, girls, or mixed crews) J12 coxed quads
The Maidenhead crew of Henrietta Jenkins (stroke) Felicity Young, Emily Webster and Chesca Knowles coxed by Emma Sanerkin raced an all-boys crew from Eton Excelsior in the first round. Despite catching a crab near the start, the Maidenhead girls sculled strongly, beating their opposition by a convincing distance. In the second round in a nail-biting race, with both crews side-by-side all the way down the course, they lost by yards to a mixed crew from Upper Thames. Before the race, the Upper Thames crew had complained it wasn't fair because Maidenhead had no boys in their boat!

Women's J12 Single scull
Rachael Aldridge gamely agreed to race in this event in only her third or fourth ever outing in a single. For the first half it was a close race against Venables from Upper Thames. Rachael had just started to pull ahead when she crossed the line of buoys and had a clash of blades with another sculler rowing up to the start. She didn't let this put her off and fought back although her steering problems continued causing her to lose narrowly. A really determined and somewhat traumatic first race.

Women's J 12 Double scull
The more experienced Maidenhead double scull of Fifi Bevan and Lexy Dobson dominated their event beating Guildford in the first round, Molesey in the semi-final and Eton Excelsior in the final, all by convincing distances.

Women's J 13 Single scull (2 Maidenhead entries)
Hannah Shimmin had a good row against Poulter from Upper Thames in the first round but Hannah's steering was a bit awry and she was impeded at the end by Poulters boat. No penalty was given, so unfortunately Hannah progressed no further in the competition. Also in the first round, Lucy Brockwell had a good start against Gould from Tideway Scullers but Gould was just too big and powerful for her.

Women's J14 Coxed Quad
The Maidenhead crew of Aimee Broadbent, Emma Sanerkin, Georgina Morgan and Bethany John (in her first ever race) coxed by Emily Webster raced really well against a far more experienced Henley RC 'B' crew. Despite a fighting performance and really good steering from the cox who took full advantage of the inside of the final bend, they lost by 2 lengths.
 

Weybridge Ladies, Sunday 5th June - One win

Sunday 5 June 2005,  Weybridge Ladies Amateur Rowing Club ran a lovely regatta for women and young ladies up to WJ15. The course is 950m upstream on the Desborough cut and mainly straight. Although rain was forecast, the weather was kind - a mild breeze and sunny spells.

Maidenhead had a mixed Junior and Adult representation. There were three girls competing in the WJ13 events: Emma Kerns, Carmel and Fifi Bevan.

WJ13 2x
With 24 crews entered in this event, the organisers split the field into arbitrary "A" and "B" events (the only criteria for the split being to try and keep crews from the same school or
club apart as much as possible: there were 8 LEH doubles and 5 Headington doubles amongst the 24!!)

Emma and Carmel have previously enjoyed some success together as WJ12s, but haven't competed together as a double for about a year (they had their first "reacquainting" outing as a double last week).
With Emma stroking and Carmel steering at bow, they moved easily through the heats, comfortably beating crews from Kingston and Henley, before meeting Headington "A" in the final.  Fittingly, this was the best race of the event, with both crews sculling neatly and powerfully.  In their previous races, Maidenhead had enjoyed the Middlesex station and had hugged the advantageous inside of the bend; in the final, they were drawn on Surrey and had to contend with the outside bend.  Unfortunately, once the Headington crew got their nose in front in the last third of the race Emma and Carmel could not claw their way back and Headington won by 1 and a half lengths.

WJ13 1x
Again, the field was arbitrarily split into "A" and "B" events - which fortunately meant that the Bevan girls didn't have to compete against each other.

Younger sister, Fifi - only 12 less than 2 months ago, acquitted herself very well against a field of seemingly genuine WJ13s to reach the final.  In her first heat, she comfortably beat Perkins of LEH by some 3 lengths.  In her semi-final, she beat a strong sculler from Staines (Williamson) by just over a length.  The final of this event pitched Fifi against Hatton from Lady Eleanor Holles School who looked like she should have been competing in the Senior 3 event!  Fifi pushed this young lady all the way down the course, drawing great applause from the banks as she upped her rate and put in a strong challenge in the last 75 metres, finishing just 1 and a half lengths down.

In the other WJ13 1x event, Carmel had an easier time of it, beating Bruce from LEH and Unwins from Staines easily.  In the other half of the draw was Wedlake from Walton, who has been a difficult (and unbeaten) opponent on previous occasions.  This time, however, Wedlake scratched in her semi-final and Carmel therefore faced a sculler from Weybridge (Owens) who was unable to match Carmel's technique and power, Carmel won "easily" again, to collect a very nice medal!

Maidenhead Rowing Club sent along a group of 17 Junior Athletes (5 boys and 12 girls) to compete at Gent International Regatta held over 2 days Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th May 2005. This event was all about raising the bar and competing at a higher level International event and to gauge how good our juniors are on the International scene.

Maidenhead Junior athletes performed extremely well and ended up winning 3 Golds, 2 Silvers and 5 Bronze medals. Plus in some of the events our junior crews beat National squad crews from the UK and other countries, which was very pleasing to see.

Gent International Regatta attracts some of the top competition in Europe and is a real test of performance measured against leading clubs and National squad crews within Europe.

The racing was held over a mult-5-lane 2000meter course. Conditions were tough for competitors with strong winds causing white horses in the middle of the course and rain at times.

Most events had in excess of 20 crews so the racing was timed. You had to win your heat in a fast time to stand a chance of winning a medal.

Summary of Maidenheads wins are as follows:

WJ12 2x (5 crews) Gold - Rebecca Reeve and Fifi Bevan.
WJ14 1x (37 crews) Gold Alice Ancora, Silver Rebekah Kerns, Bronze Katie Lion.
WJ14 2x (20 crews) Gold Alice Ancora and Rebekah Kerns.
WJ18 2x (54 crews) Bronze Laurian Pepper and Jo Wright.
WJ18 4x (9 crews) Bronze Aimee Campbell, Natalie Trinder, Laurian Pepper, Jo Wright.
MJ14 1x ((47 crews) Bronze Robert Ashburner.
MJ18 4x (31 and 16 crews) Bronze and Silver – Sam Ashburner Composite GB squad crew.

The UK regional finals were held at The National Watersports Centre, Nottingham on Sunday 17th April. Maidenhead had 5 crews selected to represent the Thames Upriver region at these UK Regional Championships. Twelve regions competed for overall best region.

The racing was held over the multi-six-lane course and held over 1500m. Conditions were initially very good for the heats, lots of sunshine and little wind. In the afternoon the wind got up for the finals which made racing more difficult, especially getting aligned at the start with a strong crosswind.

Maidenhead’s 3 top crews from the Advanced girls section provided a demonstration of how to scull well. All 3 crews led from the start and won both the heats and the Grand finals in style and by convincing margins in the range of 4 to 8 lengths. This was great to see as they were tested against the top crews from each of the 12 regions. Each event held a Petite Final of six crews and a Grand Final of the fastest 6 crews. The fastest six crews in the heats went through to the Grand Finals.

The advanced junior squads are benefiting this year from the boats supplied from their new sponsor Eddie Murphy, CEO of Global Currency Exchange.

This is Maidenhead Rowing Club’s best team performance to date at this Junior Inter-regional high-level event. Winning any of these events requires you to race and win against the top crews in the country. Maidenhead Rowing Club crews were seen as one of the top performing clubs of the event.

JIRR Summary of Results

WJ14 1x Carmel Bevan, despite being one year under-age for this event. Carmel achieved a
place in the Grand Final after finishing 2nd in her heat. Carmel finished in 5th place, 8mins 7secs in the Grand Final which was a very good result.

MJ14 1x Robert Ashburner, also one year under for this event. Robert achieved a 4th place in
his heat to qualify for a place in the Grand Final. Robert raced well in the Grand final to
challenge for 2nd place – had to settle for a good Bronze medal in a time of 6mins 52secs, just 2 secs off silver.

WJ16 2x Louise Entwistle & Ally Brooks, expected to be pushed by a pair of GB squad athletes but this did not happen – they had clear water at 500m, won their heat in convincing style and then went on to a 3 length win, 6mins 11secs in the Grand Final – a good Gold medal.

WJ14 2x Rebekah Kerns & Alice Ancora Won the heat in convincing style, some 5 lengths from Tideway Scullers. Went on to do the same in the Grand final and won in a time of 6mins 35secs and by 5 lengths. This was a second Gold as they were both in the WJ15 winning quad.

WJ15 4x+ Katie Lion, Rebekah Kerns, Alice Ancora, Aimee Campbell with cox Lizzy Gerrard. Won WJ15 quad heat in style again leading from the front. Sculled better in the final after making a couple of adjustments to their loaned boat – won the Gold medal by 4 lengths from Dame Alice Harpur in a time of 6mins 10secs.

A record of another sort was set by Sean Kerns and Billy Brooks who left for this Nottingham event at 5:00am in the morning and finished unloading boats at the club just before midnight!
Our thanks go to Reading Blue Coat School who very kindly loaned us the use of their lightweight coxed quad for the WJ15 girls.
 

The regional trials were held at Dorney Lake with a view to selecting the fastest crew in each event to go ahead to represent the region at the Inter Regional Championships at The National Watersports Centre, Nottingham in April.

The racing was processional and over 1500m, divided into three divisions. Conditions were good, the sunshine and heat from Saturday stayed away (sadly for the spectators), it was dry with a mild wind.

Maidenhead entered 13 crews in 11 events and had six first places and 5 selections. Some of the entries were literally last minutes as other crews dropped out.

Summary of the 6 Winning crews - which resulted in 5 selections due to some events being too close to allow doubling up at the Inter Regional Championships finals planned in April:

WJ16 1x Louise Entwistle - Won the WJ16 single trials.
WJ15 1x Ally Brooks - Won WJ15 single trials.
WJ14 1x Carmel Bevan - Achieved selection, read details below.
MJ14 1x Robert Ashburner - Won J14 single trials.
WJ16 2x Louise Entwistle & Ally Brooks Won WJ16 double trials.
WJ14 2x Rebekah Kerns & Alice Ancora Won WJ14 double trials.
WJ15 4x+ Katie Lion, Rebekah Kerns, Alice Ancora, Aimee Campbell with
cox Lizzie Gerrard. Won WJ15 quad trials.

The first division was for quads and fours. Maidenhead had two entries, WJ15 4x+ and WJ14 4x+.

The WJ15 winning crew was Aimee Campbell, Alice Ancora, Rebekah Kerns and Katie Lion, coxed by Lizzie Gerrard. Two members of this crew (Campbell and Ancora) were part of the WJ16 4x Schools HOR winners and the WJ15 4x+ Schools HOR winners. They had a good outing and were winners of their event and achieved selected. Their time was 6 minutes 14; Molesey were a close 2nd with 6 minutes 18.

The WJ14 4x+ crew was one of the last minute entries, made on Friday night/Saturday morning. It is a very new combination, this being only the second time the girls have rowed together, the first time they won at Weybridge. The crew includes two WJ13s, an experienced WJ14 and a novice WJ14, Anna Campbell, Carmel Bevan, Maddie Reynolds, Aimee Broadbent and cox Fifi Bevan. The girls were in a borrowed boat and the cox found it a little strange to steer. Nonetheless they had a good row, and finished a good second with a time of 6 minutes 45 just 5 seconds behind an established Marlow crew who won with 6 minutes 40.

Division two was the doubles and pairs’ division. Our first boat was Max Gerrard and Matt Best in the MJ16 2x. They were a very close 3rd just 7 seconds behind the winners Molesey. Molesey recorded 5 minutes 51 and Maidenhead recorded 5 minutes 58. The next boys to come down were Matt Reeve and Sam Prosser in the MJ15 2x event. Again it was a very close result but Maidenhead just lost out to Walton by 4 ½ seconds! Walton recorded 5 minutes 57 and Maidenhead finished with 6 minutes 2.

The girls also had two doubles. Louise Entwistle and Ally Brooks were entered as the WJ16 2x, with Ally rowing up a year. The girls had a very clear victory with a margin of 44 seconds.. This was the second Maidenhead crew to be selected. The next girls’ double was the WJ14s of Rebekah Kerns and Alice Ancora. They finished winners with a time of 6 minutes 52, a sizeable margin of 29 seconds over Sir Wm Perkins in 2nd place. Even though both girls had already been selected for the WJ15 4x+ they were allowed to double up and were selected for this event too. This was the third Maidenhead selection.

The third and final division was devoted to the single Scullers and Maidenhead had 7 entries.
Philip Clapp came 3rd in a very close MJ15 1x event. The winner was Hockley from Marlow with 6 minutes 20, followed, in second place, by Towne of Windsor Boys with 6 minutes 23 dead, and then Phil came third with 6 minutes 23.8.

Rob Ashburner won the MJ14 1x event with a lead of 8 seconds over Jordan of Walton. Rob’s time was 6 minutes 57. Rob was the fourth Maidenhead entry that was selected to go onto the finals.

Although Louise Entwistle won her WJ16 1x by a comfortable 30 seconds, the selection went to Arnold of Henley because Louise had already been selected for the WJ16 2x and she and Ally decided they would rather concentrate on the double..

It was a similar story for Ally Brooks in the WJ15 1x event. She won by by 3 seconds with 6 minutes 59 but because she too was already selected for the WJ16 2x the event selection passed to the second place girl, Delaney from Wallingford.

Our last event was the WJ14 1x. There really was a last minute entry for this as Rebekah Kerns filled an empty slot just 10 minutes before the race. Our other entries were Katy Lion, Maddie Reynolds and WJ13 Carmel Bevan.

The race was won convincingly by Wedlake from Walton, who is also a WJ13. She had a time of 7 minutes 17. But as she had already been selected for the WJ15 2x the selection passed down to 2nd place, Rebekah Kerns 7 minutes 20. However Rebekah was already selected for the WJ14 2x. So selection passed to third place, Katy Lion 7 minutes 22. But Katy is selected for the WJ15 4x+ so the selection passed down to the 4th place, Carmel Bevan 7 minutes 36. Maddie Reynolds finished 5th with 7 minutes 43, Maddie had lost some time due to being boxed in by a slower sculler ahead who wouldn’t pull over and a faster sculler behind who had already pulled out to overtake. This was our fifth event with a Maidenhead selection.

Our thanks, as always go to the trailer drivers, Billy and Roy. Thanks to Marilyn who was busy filling out the last minute entry forms at the side of the Lake. Also thanks to Dorney boat club who lent us one of their quads.

 
Maidenhead Rowing Club’s 3 Junior Crews perform well at the Schools Head Held in London on Monday 7th March 2005

Maidenhead Rowing Club entered three junior crews in this years Schools Head of the river race held over the famous Chiswick to Putney 4.25mile course.

This annual Schools Head attracts all the top rowing Schools in Great Britain and is a true measure for club and School crews on how they are doing compared to all top Schools and Clubs.

Once again Maidenhead Rowing Club finished with some brilliant results. This year there was no J14 or J15 quad sculls events so both Maidenhead girls crews had athletes who were rowing up either one, two or four years!

Despite giving away so many years the junior girls still managed to win the JW16 quad sculls event by a respectable margin of 23 seconds. Three of this crew (Ally Brooks , Alice Ancora & Aimee Campbell) won the WJ14 class last year and despite these three crew members being under age for this J16 class, they still managed to win at this higher age group and in convincing style with Louise Entwistle on board. From the start this young Maidenhead crew went off at a fast pace rating 36 for the first minute and settled down to 33 for the main part of the race. Between Chiswick Bridge and Barnes Bridge the Maidenhead quad overtook two WJ16 8’s and continued to overtake a further 2 eights as they sculled strongly to Hammersmith Bridge. From here on the crew worked hard on the catches and in the water and managed to real in and pass two boys fours. Steering a good course this young fit crew managed to step on the accelerator for the last 1000mtrs and finish the course in a fast time of 20mins 31seconds to take this J16 quad title. In second place was Evesham Rowing Club 20mins 53 secs, 3rd place was Northwich RC in 21mins 17secs.

Maidenhead’s WJ18 quad scull (Natalie Trinder stroke, Jo Wright, Laurian Pepper, Rebekah Kerns steers) also did extremely well to finish in 5th place, especially taking into account that most of the top 10 crews at this age group had GB J18 candidates on board looking to impress selectors. All credit to this Maidenhead crew as they had one J14 on board who steered the course well. A similar race plan to the J16 crew this crew attacked the course from the start and raced well overtaking 4 or 5 quad sculls over the length of the course. This 5th place finish was a credit to the consistent endurance training all these young athletes have worked so hard at. St Neots won this WJ18 event in 20mins 12 secs, 2nd was Latymer School in 20m 20secs, 3rd was Kingston GS in 20m 39sec, 4th was Canford School ‘A’ crew in 20m 41sec and 5th was Maidenhead in 20m 45secs.

The boys J16 quad sculls crew is a new combination which is showing continued improvement after each outing. In a hotly contested J16 event the Maidenhead boys of Phil Clapp, Max Gerrard, Matt Reeve and Matt Best sculled well over the course overtaking a number of crews and finishing in 4th place in this J16 division. Tiffin School won in 18m 50secs, Henley RC 2nd in 18m 58secs, St Leonards 3rd in 19m 09sec and Maidenhead 4th in 19m 10secs.

Dave Jones and Sam Ashburner raced in the J18 quad sculls for Sir William Borlase School and finished in joint first position having to share the honours with Windsor Boys School.

Maidenhead Rowing Club juniors continue to impress at the JUNIOR GB TRIALS held in Boston Sat 19th and Sun 20th February

Conditions were very challanging for both days of trials. On the Sunday it was further complicated with blizard conditions and large snowflakes falling, making visibility difficult at times. Both days were compounded with a roaring tail wind making significant waves.

These trials were carried out over a 5000m head course. This is the second round of GB trials which has now reduced from 160 to 50 boys and girls athletes.

It is fair to say that the Maidenhead athletes were tested in conditions they were not accustomed to but this did not stop them performing - and performing they did!

Sam Ashburner won the prize for ‘best performance’ of the day, on the Saturday in the rough conditions, just 250m from the finish, Sam caught a crab and his rigger broke, causing one scull to pop out of the gate and float away! Leaning to the side where he had one scull still attached to a gate, Sam managed to balance on one scull whilst other competitors sculled past, hitting Sam’s sculling blade that floated off down the racing line. Sam did well to keep dry until the rescue launch reached him.

Other Maidenhead Junior Performances on the Saturday were as follows:

The Junior Girls had 47 athletes competing in J18 single sculls. Louise Entwistle J16 finished 10th, Natalie Trinder finished 21st and Ally Brooks J15 finished 27th.

Matt Best competed in J16 boys and finished 6th on the Saturday in this category, only a few seconds separated these scullers.

Dave Jones did not have his best scull on the Saturday and finished 10th in the J18 mens division out of 36 scullers.

On the Sunday members of the junior squad who performed well on the Saturday were put into doubles and pairs.

Louise Entwistle was put into a double with Emma Steel of Durham RC and they sculled the course well to finish is 2nd place, just 8 seconds behind the winning double of (Hills St Neots and Cotterill Wycliffe).

Natalie Trinder and Ally Brooks competed again on the Sunday in singles and finished in 5th and 8th positions out of 13 Junior Women scullers.

The junior mens sculls was reduced to 17 on the Sunday. Dave Jones had a much better scull and finished in 1st place, Sam Ashburner borrowed a boat and did well to finish in 6th place, Matt Best moved up to J18 level and came home in 16th place.
 

Henley Junior Head Results 12th February 2005

The Henley junior head is upstream on a 3,300m course from round the bend, below the Henley Royal Regatta start to just past Phyllis court. The entry was split into 2 divisions with the girls' quads mainly in the first division and the boys quads mainly in the second division.

Maidenhead's top finish for the day came from the boys J15 quad who finished 2nd just behind Windsor Boys School. A rare NO wins for Maidenhead!

The weather was awful. There was a strong cross wind which had the Leander flag pointing straight towards Crazies Hill, plus there were gusts as well. The river seethed with white tops every time a gust came, and crews were seen to stop virtually dead in the water.

Girls Crews

Maidenheads Intermediate Girls entered 2 crews in the WJ14 4x+, both had under age members.

The first crew was Carmel Bevan (racing a year up, she had already done the Maidenhead internal head that morning), Emma Kerns (racing a year up), Harriet Ingal, and Aimee Broadbent with Jasper van der Valk as cox. This was Aimee's first ever external race. The girls rowed well and kept their timing and length all down the course. They finished 4th with a time of 15mins 54 sec behind Claires Court in third position with 15mins 9 , Headingly A in 2nd with 14 mins 6 and winners LEH with 14 mins 10.

The girls second crew was even younger. It was Fifi Bevan,(racing up 2 years), Lexy Dobson (racing up 2 years), Rebecca Reeve (racing up 2 years), Lucy Brockwell (racing up a year) and cox Jack Beaumont. This was Jack's first race as cox. Again the girls rowed well and finished well.....but they were generally agreed to be the noisiest crew on the course. One can't help thinking that if more of the effort put into chatting and arguing had been directed to rowing they may have done even better. And poor Jack may not have got out of the boat so hen pecked!

That said, they finished a very worthy 6th with a time of 16 minutes 49secs having overtaken Marlow on the bank-side after Marlow refused to move into the stream.

Both coxes did an excellent job and kept the crews far enough out from the bank to ensure they weren't beached......as happened to Marlow (after Maidenhead B had overtaken them) and Borlase.

It's interesting to note that there has been an improvement in the time for this course, even given the awful weather, of about 3 minutes since the same event last year.

1. LEH 14.10
2. Headingley A 14.26
3. CC 15.29
4. M'Head A 15.54
5. Bideford 16.44
6. M'Head B 16.49
7. Headingley B 18.24
8. Borlase 18.24
9. Marlow 18.27

Boys crews

Two Junior Men’s crews were entered for this head.

The MJ15 4X of Marcus Clover, Tim Wildbore, Sam Prosser and Matt Reeve with Rebecca Reeve coxing came second in a time of 12m 12 seconds, just 11 seconds behind Windsor Boys School. The Maidenhead crew rowed well and kept their cool in a melee of 5 or 6 crews fighting for the same water in the final stretches. This was a good result.

On their first outing together, the promising MJ14 4X crew of Alex Ride, James Henderson, Matt Powell and Robert Ashburner coxed well by Carmel Bevan, came 4th out of six crews despite one insecure footstretcher coming adrift just after the start of the race, and the collection of a couple of the crabs readily available on the rough waters.”

The Advanced Maidenhead boys and girls missed out on Henley this year as they were busy carrying out training in singles. 7 junior athletes have been invited to take part in stage 2 GB trials next weekend. This GB junior trial is now down to the top 50 boys and the top 40 girls in the country.

Maidenhead Junior boys had a excellent day at the Oxford Schools Indoor Rowing Competition on Sunday 6th February. The competition organised by the Hinksey Sculling School and The Dragon School attracted a high quality field with competitors coming from many of the leading schools and rowing clubs in the Thames Valley including Windsor Girls School, Wallingford Rowing Cub, The Dragon School, Hinksey Sculling School, Headington School, St Edwards School and Reading Blue Coat School. A full program of highly competitive racing took place from 9:30 in the morning through to 2:15 with both individual and relay events.

Maidenhead Rowing Cub were represented by Timothy Wildbore, Bradley Halloran and Jack Beaumont. Timothy Wildbore in his first full season of competition was in the highly competitive under fifteen boys event with seventeen competitors . The race over five minutes was against many boys that have been rowing for several years. In a close fought race, Timothy was always in contention for a medal with a very mature row finished a very credible fourth place, missing out on medal by only ten metres finishing with a distance of 1,353 metres. Bradley Halloran raced in the boys under thirteen event which was raced over three minutes. Bradley raced very well in a large race with twenty-one competitors. With a very aggressive performance, Bradley raced strongly and was also unlucky to miss out on getting into the medals finishing in an excellent 5th place with a distance of 717 metres. Jack Beaumont completed the day on a high note winning the boys under eleven event which was raced over two minutes. Jack took control of the race from the first stroke and led the field. There was a strong challenge from Pagal of The Dragon School during the closing stages of the race with Jack managing to find enough energy for a last second sprint to take the title by one metre recording a distance of 479 metres.

Frances Houghton, a member of the silver medal winning women's quad scull at the Athens Olympics presented the prizes and inspired all of the young girls and boys during the event by signing autographs and letting them hold her Olympic medal.

The Maidenhead MJ15 quad of Matt Reeves, Sam Prosser, Adam Lilley and Marcus Clover coxed by Jasper van der Valk  scored an impressive win at the Hampton Fours’ and Eights’ Head on 29th January. Despite colliding with another crew they came home in 9 m 52s - 17 seconds ahead of second boat Claire’s Court A.

The Maidenhead MJ14 quad of Tom O’Reilly, Matt Powell, James Henderson and Robert Ashburner coxed by Ross Mc Corriston came third in the MJ14 category in a time of 11.05 behind crews from Reading Bluecoats, and Latymer. The boys sculled well in this first outing together.

The Intermediate girls, rowing up a year, finished 5th out of 12 in 11min 23sec. They were a little disappointed but pleased to see that they had beaten the CC WJ15 4x+ entry by 51 seconds. The Maidenhead girls were Anna Campbell, Carmel Bevan, Maddie Reynolds, Lucy Brockwell, cox Fifi Bevan.

There were 184 entries in this prestigious event including 70 eights and octuples. River conditions were good for the race but the crews had long waits in the cold, damp weather and did well to maintain good morale.

This event had its ups and downs. The up was definitely the free rowers' teas, with home made cakes. The downs were the hanging around from 11am until gone 3pm to boat. Apparently, racing was halted at one point to accommodate a large barge making its way,slowly, down the centre of the course and this coupled with a record entry of nearly 200 meant things took much longer than planned.

Thames Valley Head is run by Marlow Rowing Club and held at Dorney Lake over a 1900mtr course. This event was held on Sunday 23rd January 2005. Racing was offered over 3 divisions and this is an early opportunity to try out different crew combinations under a time trial format. This is exactly what Maidenhead did and as a result they came away as probably the most successful club at this head by winning no less than 12 events – a truly excellent club performance.
.
Sunday was a gorgeous blue-sky sunny day with a fearsome chill which got worse as the wind got up in the later morning. With so many club wins the reporter(s) had to wait until the result sheet was published on the internet to confirm all the results.

Maidenhead had a large number of entries, 31 out of the total of 139, or over a fifth of the total entry. Out of those 31, 3 had to sadly pull out due to illness and from the remaining 28 entries we had:

Intermediate Group Girls

The girls from the Intermediate group did themselves proud. Carmel Bevan and Maddie Reynolds were part of the winning WJ14 4x+ crew racing with Rebekah Kerns and Katie Lion from the Advanced group, who just beat Marlow by a second. The normal WJ13 quad (Anna Campbell, Carmel Bevan, Emma Kerns and Lucy Brockwell.) managed a decent 4th place just 20 seconds off the winning time and ahead of a whole gaggle of Lady Eleanor Hollis crews.
Anna Campbell and Carmel came 2nd in the WJ14 2x event, with Emma Kerns and Anna coming in 6th. Lexy Dobson and Fifi also took part in this event and came last in 7th place, but this was still an encouraging result as they were rowing 2 years up and were only 34 seconds off the winners.

Veteran Crews

There was a bit of a battle between the Vet crews with Billy, Orlando, Phil and John Rayer beating Sean, Huw, Simon and Roger into second place. Both Maidenhead crews finished well ahead of Marlow who finished in 3rd place. Next time you see Sean be sure to ask him how his friends the buoys are..then cover your ears for safety's sake.

Advanced Girls

The advanced girls were set to row a junior 18 eight but had to make last minute crew change as one crew member was ill. Chrissie Wright who was planned to cox the eight moved into the bow seat and Laura Lion stepped into the cox’s seat and won her first medal of the 21st century! This was an excellent first competitive outing for the eight who ended up being the fastest womens crew of the day. The crew was Chrissie Wright bow, Aimee Campbell 2, Charlotte Weeks 3, Natalie Trinder 4, Laurian Pepper 5, Louise Entwistle 6, Jo Wright 7, Ally Brooks stroke with Laura Lion as cox.

The Advanced girls also went on to win WJ18 quads in a composite with Marlow, Laurian Pepper, Jo Wright, Steph Mottram and Natilie Trinder.

Ally Brooks and Louise Entwistle went on to convincingly win both WJ16 2x’s and WJ18 2x’s.

Advanced Boys and Tom Jost’s Group

Good wins came from the Elite quad combinations which resulted in a Maidenhead 1,2,3. The Elite coxless pair of Sam Ashburner and Dave Jones did extremely well to win in this switch to rowing boat type. Dave and Sam also won the MJ18 double sculls in a time of 6:49secs, 7 secs ahead of Upper Thames RC. The j18 quad were unlucky to loose to Upper Thames by 0.7sec but finish in a faster time than Elite quads. Gerrard and Best did well to win the J16 double sculls with Maidenhead crew finishing in second place.

Intermediate Boys Group

This J15 boys quad of Mathew Reeve, Sam Prosser, tim wildbore, adam lilley cox Jasper Van der Valk did well to win this division finishing 6 seconds ahead of Claires Court School who came home in 2nd place.

Another excellent win came from Sam Prosser and Mathew Reeve who won their division by 7 secs from Ardingley with Claires Court in 3rd place.
 

Maidenhead Rowing Club Juniors win a Grand Prize at Bedford Biathlon

Pictures

Maidenhead Rowing Club sent along 14 junior athletes (7 boys and 7 girls) to compete in the Bedford inaugural Biathlon organised by Bedford Modern School on Sunday 16th January 2005.

The event offered athletes an opportunity to compete on the ergometers followed immediately by a run.

For the J14’s and J15’s this was a 3000m ergo and a 3000m run and for the J16 and J18 athletes this was a 5000m ergo followed by a 5000m run. This was a very challenging task for all competitors learning how to pace the ergo and manage the immediate transition from the ergo to the run.

A Grand prize of a new Concept 2 model D ergometer was the prize to be awarded to both the top boys and top girls team from the school/club with the fastest cumulative time for four competitors, with one competitor from each age group (J14, J15, J16, J18). Maidenhead competed for both the boys and girls team prizes and came away with some excellent individual boys and girls performances. In the team competition the boy’s team came third and the girls team won by a very convincing margin.

The total biathlon time recorded was from the start of the ergometer piece to when the athlete crosses the finish line of the run.

Maidenhead Rowing Club overall results were impressive finishing overall winners and in some case 2nd in age groups.

Summary of results were as follows: 

Girls Grand team prizewinners were:

Alice Ancora J14                11^th place
Ally Brooks J15                  1^st place
Louise Entwisle J16           1^st place
Laurian Pepper J18            1^st place

All competitors from Maidenhead did extremely well at this event and it was pleasing to see the juniors all finish in strong positions.

Pictures

Maidenhead record two wins at Walton Head

This is a popular head for doubles, singles and pairs. There were 453 entries over four divisions. The course is 3000m downstream but on Saturday there was hardly any stream.

There are a couple of danger points along the course. One is just after the boats have cleared the rickety bridge by the end of the island, if they keep going straight then they may well find themselves on a collision course with either other scullers going up to their boating points or even going up to the start for the next division, or with pleasure boats moored, up to three deep, on the far bank. During the first division we witnessed several collisions and near misses here, some of them quite aggressive. The other danger point is the finishing straight where the river narrows down and so boats are forced to get much closer together. Again several bad tempered collisions were seen. Thankfully none of the collisions involved Maidenhead boats.

With most of the junior squad training for Burway head next weekend we had quite a small entry for the juniors, just five in total. They were; two entries in the WJ13 1x, Emma Kerns and Carmel Bevan; two entries in the WJ12 2x, Fifi Bevan/Lexy Dobson and Emily Webster/Rebecca Reeve – although Fifi subbed in for Rebecca who was suffering from a cold; one entry in the WJ13 2x, Hannah Shimmin/Lucy Brockwell.

The conditions were very good, no stream, no wind, no rain, good visibility and not very cold.

Lexy and Fifi were in the WJ12 2x in the first division. As they came past the bend they looked really good and put in a final blast down to the finish.

Carmel and Emma were also in their singles in the first division and came along soon after the double.

In the second division Emily joined Fifi in the WJ12 2x.. Although this pair haven’t rowed together very much they had a good row down without incident.

For the third division we had Hannah and Lucy in the WJ13 2x, which is a new pairing and due to illness last week the girls had never partnered each other at all before …even in training. So they had a quick get to know each other session on the way up to the start and seemed like old pals on the way back down.


As well as the juniors Karon Phillips and Sarah Archibald were also entered.
Unfortunately, on the day, Sarah had a cold and withdrew from her events.
Karon competed as WN 1X in the first division and then as a WVD 1X in the third division.

Many thanks to all the parents and especially to Sean who dragged himself out of bed after a late order to carry some boats over.

Maidenhead Rowing Club win two first place medals and one 3rd place at Hampton Small Boat’s Head

Maidenhead Rowing Club juniors put up some excellent performances at Hampton Small Boat’s Head held over a downstream 3000mtrs course on Saturday 27th November.

This small boat’s head attracted the top junior Schools and Clubs from across the UK. Most of the singles and doubles that entered at J18 level included GB potential athletes aiming for GB selection.

With the standard so high it was good to see Maidenhead Juniors competing well and winning against such tough opposition.

First win of the day came from Louise Entwistle who not only won WJ16 singles sculls but did so in a time that placed her in 2nd overall position at WJ18 level, ahead of some GB Junior athletes.

Second medal win of the day was a third place medal awarded to Ally Brooks who had a field of 35 scullers to contend with. Maidenhead entered 4 scullers in this event and all finished in high positions, see results below.

Third win was a first place medal to Louise Entwistle and Ally Brooks who teamed up to race again in the afternoon division in WJ16 doubles. This double won its WJ16 division and finished a very credible 3rd overall in the Womens double sculls category.

Natalie Trinder and Jo Wright raced in WJ18 double sculls and did extremely well to finish in 2nd place in this division and 4th fastest double overall, just behind Louise and Ally. This was a good result for two Maidenhead doubles to finish in 3rd and 4th overall positions.

Laurian Pepper also had a very good scull and finished in 3rd place in the WJ17 sculls category.

Maidenhead crews finish positions and times are as follows:

1. WJ16 double sculls Louise Entwistle and Ally Brooks finished in 1st
place, 10mins 13secs.

2. Wjun double sculls Natalie Trinder and Jo Wright finished in second place, 10mins 20secs.

3. MJ15 single sculls Matthew Reeve, 6th place, 10mins 45secs.

4. WJ17 double sculls Charlotte Weeks and Laurian Pepper, 8th place, 10mins 47secs.

5. WJ 16 single sculls Louise Entwistle, 1st place, 10mins 49secs.

6. WJ15 double sculls Rebekah Kerns & Alice Ancora, 4th place, 11mins 0secs. These girls are racing one year above their age group.

7. WJ17 single sculls Laurian Pepper, 3rd place, 11mins 12 secs.

8. WJ15 single sculls Ally Brooks, 3rd place, 11mins 16 secs.

9. WJ 18 single sculls Natalie Trinder, 7th place, 11mins 19 secs.

10. WJ15 single sculls Alice Ancora who is only WJ14, 5th place, 11mins 41secs. Excellent result.

11. WJ15 single sculls Aimee Campbell, 6th place, 11mins 44secs. Very good result.

12. WJ16 single sculls Charlotte Weeks, 8th place, 11mins 47secs.

13. WJ15 single sculls Katie Lion who is only WJ14, 20th place, 12mins 30secs. This was a good result against a field of 35 older WJ15 scullers!

Maidenhead Rowing Club impress at the junior GB sculling trials held in Boston

On the Saturday we sent along our top 8 junior scullers (4 boys and 4 girls in the J18 and J16 GB trials) to compete against the top junior scullers in the country and gain an individual ranking from the GB selectors.

This Early Id Sculling trial was held over a 5000mtr course in Boston, conditions were very good for the athletes albeit a little on the cold side.

The boys J18 section raced over the course in the morning with the girls J18 and boys J16 racing in the afternoon division. Maidenhead juniors came away with some outstanding performances and the likely-hood that several of our young athletes will be selected for GB teams in 2005.

David Jones finished in 19:00secs, 3rd place overall and Sam Ashburner finished in 19:27secs, 13th place overall which was an excellent performance from both Maidenhead boys against the top 200 juniors in the country.

In the afternoon division the junior womens squad also came away with some high placings. Louise Entwhistle still only J16 did well to finish in 22:12secs, 9th place overall, Natalie Trinder also finished high up in 22:33secs, 14th place, Jo Wright finished in 23:11secs, 45th place and Laurian Pepper finished in 23:13secs, 50th place. These results were against the top 137 junior women scullers in the UK, so a good performance from all the Maidenhead scullers.

Our J16 boys raced in the J16 event and of the 78 entries Max Gerrard came home in 20:57secs, 10th place and Matt Best finished just behind in 21:02secs, 14th place. Again Maidenhead scullers finishing in the top 20% of scullers at this age group.

Maidenhead Win two Silver Medals at the Indoor Rowing Championships

On the Sunday Maidenhead had a fantastically enthusiastic turnout for this year's indoor rowing championships, there were 18 entries altogether young and, erm, well not quite so young.

There were some slight differences to the format this year. Firstly the under 16s didn't have to do a full 2K, they raced 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, etc. according to their age. And secondly all the ergos were connected to the scoreboard and with a staggered start that meant competitors could see where they were in relation to people in their row and an adjacent row. This last innovation actually made it harder for spectators to determine who had finished first.

With the over 40s women. Karon Philips came second in her event out of 13 with a time of 7.46. First was Anna Bailey (again) with a time of 7.25.

Then there was Maggi's event, and well at least she finished it, coming 6th out of 14 with 8.10 against the winning time of 7.42.

We had three entries in the WJ12 event; Rebecca Reeve, Fifi Bevan and Lexy Dobson. They had to row for 2 minutes. Out of 25 entrants, Rebecca was 4th (by 6 metres, shame) with 471m, Fifi was 6th with 458m and Lexy was 8th with 450m. So all 3 girls were pretty close to each other. The winner, Gemma Haseldine from Team Tri managed 498metres.

For the WJ13s we also had 3 entries; Carmel Bevan, Anna Campbell and Emma Kerns. They had to row for 3 minutes. Out of 80 entrants Carmel came 12th with a distance of 718m, Anna was 13th with 717m and Emma was 15th with 712m. Again all 3 girls were pretty similar.
The winner of the event was Ruth Wyhman from Evesham with a distance 782m.

Rob Ashburner was entered in the MJ13 event which also had to row for 3 minutes. Rob finished 11th out of 82 with a distance of 796m. Daniel Ashworth of TSS won with a distance of 885m (Anna remembers him as the boy who rowed into the side twice)

For the WJ14 event we once again had 3 entries; Rebekah Kerns, Aimee Broadbent (a fairly new member currently in the beginners group) and Maddie Reynolds. These girls had to row 4 minutes. Out of the 77 entrants Rebekah came 6th with 1032m, Aimee came 19th with 974m and Maddie came 22nd with 966m. The winner was Laura d'Urso from City of Derry BC with a distance of 1076m.

Matt Powell came 5th out of 69 in the MJ14 event with a distance of 1139m, the winner was Chris Johnsone from Warrington RC who pulled 1204m.

Aimee Campbell was our entry in the WJ15 event. The athletes had to row for 5 minutes. Aimee came 6th out of 61 with a distance of 1287m against the winner, Emily Harrington of Peterborough with 1341m.

For the MJ15 event again we had 3 entries. They were Phil Clapp, Matt Reeve and Timothy Wildbore. Phil came 2nd out of 107 with a distance 1508, Matt was 8th with 1455m and Timothy was 46th with 1318m. The event was won by Don Page of Prince William School who raced 1513m.

Finally, Finbarr Bevan entered as an MJ18 lightweight for Maidenhead. He failed to do a PB but still came 10th out of 52 with a time of 7.04 for 2k. The winner was Bob Hewitt of Scarborough RC with a time of 6.33.

Well done to all competitors and their chauffeurs.

Maidenhead Rowing Club Juniors win 2 Golds and 2 Silver medals at Pangborne Junior Sculling Head

Maidenhead Rowing Club juniors competed at Pangborne Sculling Head on Saturday 6th November 2004 and came home with two event wins and two second places.

Maidenhead Intermediate girls competed over the Short Course 1750m downstream. Three entries from this squad resulted in two golds and one silver.

This event held at Beale Wildlife Park just past Pangbourne. There are two things to remember about Beale WP, one for the scullers and one for the spectators. The rowers need to notice that the race is downstream rather than the usual upstream, so they can stay in the middle of the stream. The spectators need to remember that the towpath and the gateways to the towpath are very very muddy and wellies are a must.

A big thank you to both Roy Prosser and John Truswell, without them we wouldn't have been able to get the trailer over there. As Roy was working he kindly, and trustingly, lent his car to John. John did the towing using Roy's car, which is quite a brave thing to do.

The conditions were good, minimal wind, not too much stream, a little bit cold when sitting around.

Girls Results:

All the Intermadiate girls were in the short course division starting at 12 noon. We only had 3 entries for various reasons.

There was quad entered in the WJ13 age group, Lucy Brockwell at bow, Anna Campbell, Emma Kerns and Carmel Bevan and we were able to coax Anthony Toma from Claire's Court into coxing for us. They set off nicely from above the start and looked good all the way down, overtaking two other quads on the way. They thought they'd done quite well when they got off but were just a bit worried about a Tideway crew who were following them and which started celebrating a win as they passed over the finish line.

When the official times came out it was Maidenhead 6.53, Tideway Sculler 7.04. So we won the gold by 11 seconds and TSS got the silver.

Then we had Lexy Dobson and Fifi Bevan entered in the WJ12 1x event. Again they both set off well and steered a good course down the middle of the stream.

They overtook 2 boys on the way and finished well. Lexy came in a second ahead of Fifi at 8.21 to 8.22 to take the Gold but Fifi was happy with her time and cheered by the silver medal.

Boys Results:

The boys competed over the longer course and had mixed results at the weekend.

The top result came from Matt Best who won a silver medal finishing 2nd in J16 sculls in a entry of 44 scullers. Locke of Eton college was first in a time of 11.23 followed by Matt at 11.33

Adam Lilley was 13th in J15 sculls in an entry of 26 scullers in a time of 12.43. Several boys were entered in their first head race including Tom O'Reilly entered in J14 sculls who finished 4th from 9 scullers and Ross McCoriston who was 5th in the same event.

Jack Beaumont was a creditable 4th in J11 sculls in an entry of 11 scullers.

Two other boys hit the same unmarked tree and took a swim!

Thanks to Maggi Bevan and John Truswell for supplying the above information.

WJ13 1x
Carmel Bevan, Maidenhead 16.15
Astell, St. Neots 17.03
Lucy Brockwell, Maidenhead 19.57

Brooks and Entwistle win at the Pairs Head London

Maidenhead Rowing Club entered 5 crews in this years pairs head of the river race held in London over a 4000 metre course from Chiswick Bridge to Hammersmith Bridge.

This is a major event for crews to establish how well they are going against other top athletes across the country. Racing conditions were tough, the race was delayed by 30mins due to strong winds. 368 crews entered this event.

Star performance on the day came from Ally Brooks and Louise Entwistle who not only won their WJ16 division by 36 secs from LEH but also beat all the womens doubles in the older WJ18 category. This was an excellent achievement to see this young crew perform well, above their age group, and record faster times than th