A bit of a mixed day over at Bedford yesterday, for the Spring Fours and Small Boats Head. Somehow, Bedford RC managed to conjure up a really nice spring day, bright and sunny and virtually no wind. The river conditions were pretty near perfect, flat with very little stream running.
We put in a gratifyingly large entry, no less than sixteen crews being entered. These came from all the squads and had a good mix of sweep and scull, singles, doubles, pairs and fours.
Top results of the day came in the Women’s Intermediate 3 Coxed 4s. Not only did we win the category, but also came second, sixth and eighth (out of ten entries). Really good stuff, illustrating the strength of the ladies squad. The other results were:
IM2 4+ 6th (of 11)
J18 4x 5th (of 5)
J16 2x 4th (of 6)
IM2 2- 3rd (of 4)
J18 2x 4th (of 4)
VetD 2x 3rd (of 5)
J16 1x 5th and 7th (of 11)
VetD 1x 3rd (of 4)
J18 1x 8th and 9th (of 9)
Nov 2x oh dear….
Overall, pretty good and showing some good progress by the various crews. The Junior results look a bit disappointing in some events, but these crews included a couple of guys in their first ever events, so not unexpected. The IM2 4+ crew may have rowed together once before but I wouldn’t swear to it; certainly Rick hadn’t been in any boat for about six weeks, so their row (which they described as “chunky”) was pretty impressive.
The Novice 2x of Will and I failed to finish the course. In fact, we didn’t get past the first bridge… and found out the hard way that a bridge is an awful lot harder than our boat. I managed to get the line all wrong and we hit a pillar at race speed; this resulted in a very interesting new shape for my bowside rigger and left us limping back to Bedford Rowing Club to get out and carry the boat back to the trailer park. Not a good race. And on my birthday too.
Double rigger after losing argument with bridge
A special mention for Jo – having put in two hard races she then stepped in for a third when Terri was unable to row through injury.
As usual, Will Everitt at Bedford has excelled himself and the full results are already online here. My photos are also now on line at mkrc.fotopic.net and for the juniors at mkrowing-juniors.fotopic.net
