Bobmore Lane, Marlow, Buckinghamshire SL7 1JE
Telephone - 01628 483 752
Company Registration No.07690054

Marlow Regatta at Dorney

GMS had two crews entered into this top class event; our Year 9 Octo, and the Boys’ First Eight. The Year 9s had a solid time trial and yet again made it into the A final, amongst a field of major independent schools, which was a great result for this crew.

The Senior Eight were against an impressive array of top crews and, having been working hard on their rhythm since NSR, were keen to see if they had moved up the rankings. They came 5th in the time trial, five seconds off the fastest crew, Hampton.

For once, Dorney was enjoying a steady tail breeze making for fast, and most importantly fair, conditions.GMS lined up in Lane 5, right beside Hampton in Lane 4.

The crew were under instructions to row their own race, stay relaxed and let the boat run, not to panic if they were down a bit and then execute an effective wind over the last 500m.

The boys took the “relax” bit too literally at the start and, sadly, were ¾ length down on Hampton after 15 strokes, also Norwich, who had jumped out the blocks at an extreme pace, had clear water on GMS on the near side, by 250m gone.

However, the boys remained relaxed, rowed powerfully and to their rhythm. All the crews were moving at very similar paces with little movement relative to each other though the 500m mark.

At that point, the exuberance of Norwich at the start began to bite: gradually the field reeled them in and, ever so slowly, a few inches each stroke, GMS crept alongside Hampton. With 500m to go GMS were still 6thplace but not as far back from Hampton as they had been.

The crew began to wind the rate up and make serious gains on all the opponents. In what was a blanket finish, GMS had overhauled Hampton right next to them, but could not quite catch Westminster on the far side of the lake, who had slipped out ahead earlier.

Their time over the second 1000m was the fastest of all the crews, some three seconds quicker than Hampton, and (but for a sleepy start), they would have come home the winners.

Highslide for Wordpress Plugin