National Schools Regatta

Great Marlow School Boat Club (GMSBC) won TWO GOLDS at the National Schools’ Regatta – this is a regatta featuring the very best of school rowing crews. Most of our GMS crews finished in the top twelve: a marvellous achievement.

Mr Murison reports on the school’s performance in the National Schools’ Regatta, at Dorney Lake.

“The Bank Holiday weekend marks the main event for Junior Rowing with the National Schools’ Regatta. This is a three-day regatta, held at Dorney Lake with around 150 schools and clubs competing and over 5000 athletes involved. The marquees and gazebos from many of the attending clubs stretch for over a kilometre along the banks of the lake, and the fluttering flags and colourful tents make a great spectacle.  Great Marlow School Boat Club ended 8^th in the medal tables and at the top of co-educational schools.

Friday

The flags fluttering was perhaps a little romantic, they were flapping to rigged in a steady ENE 15-17 mph cross headwind. One of the constraints of rowing is that it is an outdoor sport and is subject to prevailing weather conditions. To be specific, in this instance, the advantage of being in lane 1 versus lane 4 or 5  was at least 10 seconds over the race. Hence the time trial at the beginning of the day was crucial in terms of winning the best lane for the final.

Our Year 9 Girls’ Quad: Bea Radnedge, Kayla Sillito, Bea Spence, Natasha Pendlebury and Lucy Platt were first to go. They are definitely one of our best crews and have consistently been up there earning medals. A good time trial saw them close the gap on Henley to just over a second, which demonstrated their continuing improvement. However, there were two crews from further afield, not come across before and NSR ,who were also right up at the top of the time trial.

This meant that the GMS girls ended 4^th in the time trial, less than two seconds behind first. In the final, while they had a great race, they could not overcome the lane disadvantage. These four crews lead the rest of the field by a margin, but as must happen one missed out on the medals and this time it was GMSBC. These girls have had a fantastic season and I am sure that there will be further medals for them down the road.

The Year 9 Boys’ Coxed Quad came next. They have had quite a few changes over the course of this season reflecting the encouraging size and depth of the squad. However, the main target was to improve on their 12^th position from the spring long-distance nationals. They had a good time trial with an 11^th ranking and given the prevailing crosswinds maintaining that ranking was a solid result in their final.

Year 10 Girls’ Four of Isabel Berger, Chloe Wilson, Chloe Sheppard, Natalie Quinn and Elise Whyte have been looking very tidy in training and particularly as a light crew coped well with the tricky crosswind in the time trial. They had a great race in their  C Final to come 2^nd and made a significant move up in the rankings from March.

Last, but not least, was the Year 10 Boys’ Crew of Luke Reynolds, Connor Quann, Will Allen, Haashim Ahmed and Alexander Eldridge. They set off in their time trial at an aggressive pace and within a minute had overtaken Westminster School ahead of them. Lifted by this they maintained a high rate and stormed down the track. When they came off the water it appeared that they had beaten their nearest rival by 6 seconds; however, it became apparent that many times were messed up and so we had to temper enthusiasm and wait for a more sensible set of results. This took over an hour and when the results emerged, we were in 3^rd place, 1.5 seconds off first. Now having seen how the lanes favoured the higher ranked crews this looked like we were odds on for a Bronze medal. It was just what the conditions dictated, the lower the lane number the easier it was, and final after final was won in lane 1. Well, someone forgot to tell our Years 10s this. From the first five strokes they had their bows in front and by 100m they had a third of a length on second place. Our parental support at the GMS camp was at 300m gone, and just ahead of this, the crew pushed, somewhat earlier in the race than might be considered usual. Cheered on by enthusiastic GMS supporters they opened up the lead to 1 length and from then on, with teammates sprinting down the lakeside path screaming encouragement, they moved, stroke by stroke, to a more commanding lead. They came home a couple of lengths ahead of silver and secured our first Gold at NSR since 2016. The coach of the Silver Medal crew turned to me and said, “Where did that come from”. I just grinned.

Saturday

The new format of the regatta meant that this was a quieter day than historically, as most championship events ( J18 top crews) were spread over two days.

First off was our Year 11 Boys Crew, who have already picked up a Gold and Silver at Junior Inter-Regionals in the Four and the Eight, plus an impressive win at Wallingford Regatta. They looked very good in their time trial and came in eight seconds ahead of second-placed Westminster School.

The second Senior Quad was next. In fact, this was mainly a Year 11 crew, with Joe Cogan as steersman and leader of this group at the bow, stroked by Adam Thorskilden. Leo Chapman was there at three, having returned from a five-month injury break. Billy Davidson was at two. Their target was to make the top 12, to race in the B final and it was an impressive result that they did just this.

The last time trial was our top Boys’ Quad who have had an exceptional unfortunate run into this championship. Every one of them has been ill in the last 10 days, with Owain Meredith at two, so ill that he could not race so Lucas Gray (Year 11) stepped up to take his place. The new format meant that the top eight from the time trial went straight through to the semi-finals and everyone else to the repechage. Given our lead, I was not expecting an easy ride through and we came 13^th in the time trial (TT).

In the repechage, late in the afternoon, we had lane 2 with the first two crews going on to the semis. Despite the crosswind disadvantage, the boys executed their race plan very well and won in the fastest time of all four repechages. Despite this, the vagaries of the drawing system gave them the worst lane in the fastest semi on Sunday, but more later.

Saving the best for last, the Year 11 Boys’, Rafael Quinn, George Spencer, Ethan Hunt, Sam Terret and Monty Todd went up to the start for their final clear favourites. Westminster in lane 2 tried to stay with them and almost paid for this by only just keeping hold of the silver medal, but the result was never in question and they came home impressively dominant for our second Gold medal.

Sunday

Time for our girls to shine and the Year 11 Girls’ Quad of Charlotte Greening, Abi Forgenie, Poppy Spence and Sophie Wharfe was up first in a very competitive field; their 8^th position in the time trial earned them a good lane for their B final. They had a great race, keeping calm when pushed by the 9^th and 10^th placed crews and settling into a solid rhythm. By 1000m they were up on their lower-ranked rivals but still over a length down on 7^th placed Walton who also had the best lane. Credit to the girls, they pushed hard and as they passed the GMS tent (700m to go) they were moving well and closing the gap on Walton. Over the last 500m they were within 1/3 of the length of taking the lead but Walton found enough to hold them off.  A great race and coming 2nd is an impressive step up from last year.

The top Girls’ Double of Erin Huddleston and Amelia Eldridge were somewhat untested but had a very solid time trial to make it into the semi-finals. Having had little water time this term, due to river levels, they were slightly conservative off the start leaving them with work to do, but a long powerful rhythm set up by Erin saw them establish a good underlying boat speed and despite numerous pushes and upping of the rate from their nearest rivals, they rowed through to earn a good lane in the B final. Their final was somewhat a repeat of the semis in that they were down going through 500m but their basic stamina saw them move through the Nottingham crew in lane 3 and secure a well earned 10^th place overall.

The last race of the day was the top Boys’ Quad. They had been mysteriously given a poor draw in the semis so could not earn their way into the A final but had secured lane 3 for the B final. Given the strong cross wind, it seemed likely that this would be their ranking but in a tight race between lanes 1,2 and three the lead was constantly challenged. With 500m gone GMS was in 6^th place but a push at 750m brought the quad up to the leading two crews and at halfway we were in second place. Again, the GMS supporters team at 700m boosted the boys with their enthusiastic shouts; their planned push took them to the front, which was a huge achievement against the lane bias. Going into the last 500m they kept the lead but with two lanes disadvantage Trentham in lane 1 just crept through to take the win.

The last day did not produce medals but the racing of all the crews bodes well for Henley Royal Regatta and all the crew should be proud of the quality of their racing at this top level.”

Well done to all competitors: we are proud of you.