Maidenhead Regatta: Success Rate 4 of 5-Fabulous

Sunday 19th May was a successful day for GMSBC at the Maidenhead Junior Invitational Regatta.

This regatta is organised as a knock out competition, with repechage for first round losers: events typically have two heats, a semi-final, and final.

GMSBC took five quads from our Year 8 and 9 rowers. The Year 8 boys crew had some fairly substantial looking opposition in both their races but still made it to the semi final. The other four quads all raced in their finals.

The Year 8 girls produced another impressive days racing, beating two Headington crews and a Guildford RC crew on their way to the final against arch rivals Henley rowing club. Last time out, they lost to Henley on a surprising verdict of two feet, so the girls were keen to reverse this. The race was a close one, but Henley put on a stronger performance this time and won by just over one length.

The Year 9 girls also experienced some great racing. The crew in fact had Christina Baxter, from Year 8, in the bow seat, so their tight racing throughout the event, to make it all the way to the final, was a great achievement.

The Year 9 boys B crew had a particularly impressive day. This crew of Freddie Parr, Harry, Dylan and Stevie Jameson, coxed by older brother McKensie, obviously had two, not so enormous, Year 8 boys on board. Their first race against Canford school was won comfortably, but after that the competition was a bit tighter. Their eventual defeat in the final by a couple of lengths to Henley was the end of a great event for this crew.

Finally, but not least, the Year 9 Boys’ A crew, looked impressive throughout their races. They were in the first race of the day at 0830 and the penultimate race of the day at 17:15. At 17:14 they lined up against Henley Rowing Club. Nerves were high, given two crews had already been beaten in the finals by Henley.

The boys flew from the blocks, with an impressive start and very quickly were pushing their bows a few feet ahead of Henley. For the first half of the race, the crew inched out to 1/3 of a length up, but then as they pushed for the finishing line their hunger for victory saw them move steadily ahead: the finished a full length ahead of Henley in the last 30 strokes.

Four out of five crews making the finals and one outright win was a very successful day for GMSBC