Seven Wins: Promising Start to Regatta Season

Over the last two weekends Great Marlow Boat Club (GMSBC) have competed in four regattas. Wallingford, Marlow Spring, Bedford and Avon County.

The crews have generally performed well and the club has picked up a number of outright wins on both weekends.

At Wallingford, raced at Eton Dorney over 2000m, our top boys quad competed in the Challenge Quads for elite adult crews, and came a brilliant 5th. There was only one other junior school crew, who just beat them into fourth place. The Year 11 girls competed in their Eight also reaching the final, where they came also came 5th. They were just half a length behind Surbiton High School, the fastest school crew, and, satisfactorily, well ahead of St Pauls Girls.

At Marlow Spring, the day began with a challenging start for the Year 8 girls, with a heat against Henley Rowing Club and Headington School, probably the top two girls clubs in the country. However, as the finishing line was crossed, Headington were someway behind and Henley slumped with heads down, believing they had lost. Sadly, a combination of our girls misjudging the finish line, and a slight stagger, gave the verdict to Henley by 3 feet. A truly impressive first race for these promising young rowers and the coaches expect good things in the future.

Shortly after this, the Year 9 boys were also involved in a very close race. Sadly, again they were the loser by 3 feet. Weybridge, the victors, went on to win the event easily.

In the middle of the day, GMS’s older, more experienced crews faired somewhat better: the Girls Eight won the Open Women’s Eights. The Year 11 boys won the J16 Coxed Fours and the very strong Year 10 Boys Eight won comfortably. Their heat against Borlase produced the usual local Derby rivalry, but it was a reasonably comfortable race for our team.

The second weekend saw the club spread to either side of the country. The senior crews from the club went to Bedford, where the Year 10 girls, the Sixth Form boys and the Year 11 boys all won races. The Year 11 boys were doubling up in both Fours and Quads. In the fours, they won their first race, but next faced a very powerful South African crew, who put an end to that competition for them. In the Quad, however, they won the event outright, the club’s first win at this regatta for some years.

At Avon County most of our rowers won at least one of their races; the squad had an excellent days racing. Our Year 8 girls showed their power racing in the Year 9 Octuples event and beating Pangbourne College in the final easily. The Boys’ Octuple, which was composed of both Year 8s and Year 9s did very well to win their first race in the Year 9 category. Also from that crew, the J14 double of Oli and Noah, won their event. Finally, the Year 10 Eight won for a second week running. Their final was an exciting race against Monmouth School, where they came from ¼ length down to win by ½ a length.

Seven wins from two weekends is a great start to the season, as crews now buckle down in preparation for the Nationals over half term.