Marlow Spring Regatta

On Saturday 30th April, GMS’s first regatta of the season for the whole GMSBC squad took place. It was a glorious spring day on the Thames, which made for great racing and an enjoyable time for all.

The regatta is organised in three waves allowing rowers to compete in a number of events over the day. GMSBC managed six wins and was competing in a lot of finals. Most rowers raced in two different events, giving them a fabulous competition experience. It was exciting to see so many Year 8 rowers out for the first time,  in side by side racing, competing so well.

All crews performed well. The top Boys’ Quad won their event in fine style.

Year 9 raced in Quads and Doubles, racing in two separate waves. The girls looked very competitive and had some excellent races. The boys came 1^st and 2^nd in their Doubles, going on to on to win the Quads as well.

Our Year 10 Quads all made their finals but came second in the three finals.

In Year 11, sadly one of our girls’ crews had been scratched due to lack of opposition, so they only had a Fours race late in the day. While they raced hard they have not been sweeping much in recent months so were not really in contention.

The Boys’ Four was in fact the first race GMS competed in, they were in a straight final against Shiplake, which they won comfortably. The same boys became a Quad and a Double, racing extremely well with Danny Pressling and Jack Clark winning an impressive heat to come a close second behind a Borlase Double in the final. A similar fate befell the Quad.

The Sixth Form Boys’ raced in the Open Doubles and Open Eights. (They were disappointed one of their events was cancelled.) The Boys’ Double won their event in wave 1 comfortably.

The Sixth Form Open Eight were lined up against Shiplake in wave 2. On the last encounter at the Schools Head, Shiplake had been a little faster than the GMSBC Eight, so it promised to be a tough race. A better drilled Shiplake Eight had a good start taking an early half length lead. The GMSBC Eight, remained disciplined and settled into a fast pace; by half way GMS was closing down Shiplake’s early lead. Although we looked the faster crew, it was impossible to tell from the perspective of 150m back whether they would overhaul Shiplake in time. A first-class win by ¼ length to GMSBC was met with excited approval back at the rafts.

Mr Murison says of the combined results of Marlow Spring Regatta and the Junior Sculling, “Four national medals in the first week of term is a fantastic start to the term. I am not sure I can quite believe it.”

It’s absolutely fantastic and huge congratulations to everyone.