Cambridge Autumn Regatta 2009

The last regatta of the season saw the Women’s Squad bow out in fine style, taking the honours in the CRA Eight with two of this crew in the other winning boat of the day, a Mixed Coxed Four. The other crews didn’t fare as well, but another enjoyable day’s racing at Cambridge.

Mixed IM2 4+
A bit of a scratch boat (they’d rowed once together) but a very powerful crew saw off another X-Press crew in their straight final. A good hard race from start to finish saw our crew taking the honours by a length. A couple of firsts as well, with Tim getting his first rowing pot at MKRC after his move from Star and Steph picking up her first coxing pot. The crew didn’t have time to catch their breath before four of the crew had to leap straight out of this boat into the Women’s Eight for the final!

Women’s CRA Eight
The first round saw a comfortable win (four lengths) over X-Press Boat Club, with a strong performance from the crew in their first race together. Crew positions were rejigged from St. Neots, with Helen J taking up stroke duties from Charlene, to allow more conventional rigging of the boat. The final saw Champions of the Thames putting up a harder fight but again the strength and technique of our ladies proved too much and they pulled away for a one length win. Deserved pots all round, all the better as, being a CRA event, it was non-qualifying, so no points! A notable first was Tim coxing his way to his first coxing pot – a good day for him following rapidly on from the Mixed boat. All credit to Jo and Lindy who’d just raced in the winning mixed crew.

This second win allowed Lindy to bow out on a real high before departing to Derby Uni, with two pots from the day. We’ll miss you!

Women’s IM3 4+
A narrow defeat for this crew, losing out by under a length to a Peterborough boat. A good result considering this was this crew’s first race and they had to wait an extraordinarily long time for the race and consequently were very, very cold. This delay was unfortunate as Peterborough had their steering fail at the start and had to row back to get it fixed. I guess the lesson is that if this happens again, go back with the competition and not sit around getting cold.

Women’s Novice 4+
Knocked out in the first round by the eventual winners, Maidstone Invicta. Definite progress by the novice ladies though, tough luck getting such strong opponents in the first race.

Mixed IM3 4-
Yet another new crew combination, with Pierre-Yves making his steering debut in a quad. Despite a good start, against a strong looking Guildford quad, we dropped behind and lack of practice on a river course led us to steer across to the bank. After rattling a few blades on some of the crews heading for the start we then clashed heavily with a double that obviously didn’t feel keeping to the bank was an instruction for them and had strayed into the racing lane. This stopped us dead and, although we got going and sculled very well after this, we were to far adrift and had an “easily” verdict against us.

Vet C 2x-
This was Pierre-Yves’ and my first outing since our win at Peterborough and a combination of lack of outings and a very big and strong crew from Poplar Blackwell saw us drop away (although we did hold them for the first couple of hundred meters) to finish 3-4 lengths down.

Overall
Despite a big entry from the Juniors, a mix up on dates led to the whole lot scratching. Sorry Cambridge!

Very pleasing was the large number of supporters we had, so real thanks to Tom, Barry and Rob for braving the cold and wind to come along and cheer us on!

The organisation at the event is getting better each year – the delays this year were down to “incidents” (such as the Peterborough four losing their steering and a couple of capsizes) and a large number of river craft. Particular mention to the arrogant house boat who “couldn’t hear” calls to stop because there was a race on the course – fortunately the single scullers managed to avoid this moron.

A couple of great examples of coxing muppetry illuminated the day – one junior coxed quad so busy chatting amongst themselves that they ignored all the marshals and umpires telling them to keep in but award of the day was the eight at the end of the day. Despite two eights coming down the course their cox thought the appropriate line was 90 degrees to the bank! Fortunately, he managed to just get out of the way – just as well it wasn’t a close race as the losing crew had to switch lanes. The idiot then, despite being told to keep in, let his stern drift out again, right in front of the next race. His excuse – he didn’t expect there to be any races on the course….

Results and Photos

Results on line at the Cambridge 99 website

Photos on line at the MKRC photo site, including some extra ones from Barry Rivett

Warwick Regatta 2009

Not sure but this may have been our first appearance at the Warwick Regatta. Anyway, whether it was or not, it was a well worthwhile day out. Not only was it such a nice regatta, well organised but very laid back, the women returned to their winning ways, taking home pots for the IM3 4+. The other two boats (a J16 1x and IM3 2x-) didn’t fare as well, neither getting through to the final.

Womens IM3 4+
A new combination today, with Jo stroking, Paula, Steph and Lou making up the crew, with yours truly coxing. First race saw a good start, holding Evesham A to around halfway before a good push saw us draw well clear to finish with clear water and bag three points. Second race pitted us against Evesham B (although it looked like their top crew); a closer race this one with us pushing away at the end to win by a third of a length (seemed more and was given as a full length initially). This gave us one point and, being unbeaten, put us into the final. This was to be against the Evesham B boat again, who had finished runners up in the group. Another good, close race but the same power at the end of the race saw us win again, by an increased distance. Unfortunately, the Evesham crew then objected, claiming we had taken their water and forced them off line. The umpires disagreed and overruled the objection (not surprisingly as I hadn’t received any warnings on the course) – however, Evesham then appealed this decision and it was only when they were told fairly curtly that this second appeal had been overruled that we were able to celebrate a hard fought and deserved win.

IM3 2x-
Tim and I’s first competitive outing in the double wasn’t a great success. First race saw me confuse the edge marker buoys for the centreline ones and make an unplanned inspection of the reeds. This rather gave the opposition crew from Ross an easy ride! Second race wasn’t much better; we knew from practice that we tend to pull to stroke side and we managed to scrape the stroke side bank – despite starting on the other side of the river. Another easy win for our opponents from Leicester. Needless to say, this was not enough to put us through. Back to the training to try and sort out our pull.

J16 1x
John was unfortunate to come up against a very good sculler from King’s School Ely in his first race, losing by a couple of lengths. His second race was much closer, with him losing by just two feet – this may have been better had John had more than just 40 minutes between his two races.

Overall, a really good event and one that we’ll add to our list for next year, for sure. One of the highlights has to be sitting on the start line and looking up at the imposing battlements of Warwick Castle; it really is that close. A challenging course but a good, friendly event.

Results at up at Warwick Boat Club but these show the winners only.

Photos now on line at the usual place, mkrc.fotopic.net

St. Neots Regatta 2009

I guess it shows how far we have progressed, especially the Women’s squad, that coming away from St. Neots without a single win feels really disappointing. There were some very good races and close finishes across both days plus a really good social evening on the Saturday but not a successful week-end overall.

Saturday
First crew out was the Womens IM3 4+. This was a slight change from Bedford with Yemin replacing Charlene (both availability and points!) and they went out (most surprisingly!) in the first round to the Broxbourne crew they had beaten the previous week. Broxbourne went on to win the event – typically, ours was the closest race they had all day. Next up was John Cunningham – no, not JC in person but the boat, racing with a Mixed IM2 8+. Despite a TOTAL lack of practice they gave Lea a hard row, losing by just one and a third lengths over the 1K course. Some very interesting comments from the marshals about it being unusual to see John’s name on anything other than a bar tab….

Following this was the biggest mismatch of the day. Having entered our Vet C quad and agreed to switch to IM3 if no competition, we were not impressed by finding we were racing instead at IM2. The race would have been a walk over for Star even if we hadn’t had two boat stopping crabs. Our annoyance at this was then compounded by not being entered at IM3 on Sunday although there was opposition. The whole draw process was a complete joke – wake up SNRC and join the 21st century and use OARA! As it was, we might as well have not raced it was so one sided.

Final race of the day was Steve and I in the Vet D 2x. Racing against the losing finalists from Henley Vets was always going to be a tall order but we were pleased with our row, even though we lost by a couple of lengths.

Following the day’s racing we retired for a few beers and a barbie (one of dozens, despite the insistence that no clubs were to have a barbie – there was a haze of smoke hanging over the field!)

Sunday
So to the 500m sprints on Sunday. The first boat out was the Womens Novice 4+. Despite being drawn against Barnes Bridge Ladies, their opposition was Doncaster. Apparently, the event was re-drawn as one crew had scratched the previous evening, so we were moved – only for another crew to scratch leaving us disadvantaged. And I thought draws were fixed and if a crew scratched that was your good fortune. Anyhow, our novice women rowed a stormer, despite being off line at the start, to come through for a win. Next up was (can’t figure this out) Barnes Bridge Ladies. A real disappointment here, as one of the crew caught a boat stopper when they were leading comfortably, handing the race to BBL on a plate. A real pity as they looked well on top and who knows where they would have finished.

Second crew of the day was a Mixed Quad, with Steve and I being joined by Clare and Bex. Seeing as we had never rowed as a crew before, losing to Doncaster by a length wasn’t bad!

Next up was what was described by the race commentator as the Women’s Blue Riband event – the IM3 8+. Really, really nice to see us able to put out a ladies eight – and a very strong one at that. They had Maidstone Invicta in the first round and once they settled and got the power on, rowed through the other crew for a comfortable win. The final saw an epic race, again with Barnes Bridge Ladies. Steve and I had a grandstand view of the finish of this one, having just boated for our Vet D 2x race. The boats were pretty level over the last 100m, with both crews clearly giving it everything. BBL had just enough though, pipping our crew by just a third of a length. Credit to the BBL crew, they had only de-noviced the previous day and look like a class act – very gracious in victory as well.

Steve and I had a re-run of the previous day’s race, against the same Peterborough pair. Whatever the reason, it just didn’t come together and we wound up losing by a bigger margin over 500m than over 1000m the previous day! Oh well…

Photos on-line at MKRC Photo site but no results from SNRC yet.

We do like St Neots week-end but this year was, I’m sorry to say, an organisational shambles. Our Novice 4+ was “missed” from the Saturday draw, the quad bumped to IM2 without consultation and dropped from IM3 on Sunday and many of our boats just dropped completely. By the way, we are still waiting for a refund on these events – as a small club, we can’t afford to subsidise big clubs like SNRC and will have to think long and hard about racing there next year.

Bedford Quarts 2009

Another regatta, another win for the Women. Despite losing Lindy (back to Zimbabwe for a holiday), the Women’s squad showed their strength in depth as Paula stepped in to win another event. They had to do this the hard way, being the only crew of the five in their category that had to row three times. First up were Star Club – a good start and the first push saw our crew well clear and able to sit on Star through to the end, winning by three lengths. The second round pitted them against Bedford; a poor start this time saw the girls behind but a hard push saw them row clean through Bedford, this time to win by a length and a three quarters. Their opponents in the final were Broxbourne; again, a strong start saw them pull away steadily (despite being hit by a huge gust of wind by the weir) to run out overall winners, this time by two lengths.
A hugely well deserved win, to take home those huge Bedford Quart pots plus a point all round.

Our other crews didn’t do as well, though. Steve and I were totally outclassed in the double being beaten easily by Cambridge. Although de-novicing at Peterborough was great, my extra point now puts us at IM2 if there’s no Vet events and we just aren’t up to that level.

The Quad also lost, this time by one length to Lincoln. This despite it being a fairly scrappy row with a new line up – Pierre-Yves was away, so Tim stepped in (for his first competitive row for MKRC) at two with me moving to stroke.

Results are on-line at Bedford RC site and my photos at the MKRC fotopic site

Henley Veterans 2009

Great day out yesterday, although neither of our crews made it past the first round. Definitely an experience worth enjoying, racing down the Thames with all the barriers in place and the marquees out. Just a pity that the Vets don’t get to race right down to the HRR finish.

Anyhow, our two boats…

Steve and I were in the Vet D 2x-, drawn against Nemesis. This is the crew that beat us soundly at Cambridge earlier in the season and posted a faster time at the Nat Vets (although in a different category). So, we were under no illusions that this would be a hard one. Despite a good start, we were still beaten away and by the half-way stage were around 1 1/2 lengths down, but still keeping in touch. Over the second half we put in a huge push and clawed back half of the deficit, to finish just 3/4 of a length down. Knocked out but not despondent as we’d given them a hard race and showed a huge improvement from earlier in the year.

Our other crew out was a Womens Vet B 4+, with Charlene, Helen, Paula and Becks, with Jo coxing who drew an unknown quantity in Nottingham RC. Again, a good, fast start but just beaten to it by the other boat, who had problems with their line, getting a warning for heading into our water. This slightly unnerved our crew, upsetting their rhythm and they were trailing by around 3/4 length at the halfway point. Nottingham then pushed away over the second half, finishing (officially, but it didn’t seem like it) 3 lengths down. Again, they weren’t too upset as they felt they had rowed well and just came up against a faster crew.

So, no return trip for second rounds today, but definitely worth taking part. The ladies just missed out (by one race) of having a certain Sir Matthew Pinsent umpiring their race and it was really nice to see him putting back into the sport, umpiring and marshalling and boat checking. Good on him!

National Veteran Rowing Championships 2009

Sunday 14th June saw us take part in the National Veteran Rowing Championships for the first time. A big day for the progress of the club and especially for the crews taking part.

Women’s Veteran B IM3 4+
A relatively slow start saw the women’s crew (Helen J, Paula, Becks and Clare, with Steph coxing) lagging behind by some two seconds at the halfway stage. They then staged an amazing fight back, pulling back on Eton Excelsior with every stroke, with neither crew being sure who had won the event as they finished. The Eton crew got the verdict, but by an agonising 1/2 second (later given as 1/3 second!). A truly determined comeback that must have given the other crew a very big scare. Disappointing not to win but a really impressive performance to finish second.

Men’s Veteran C IM3 4x-
Another fast start in the quad saw us in early contention. Unfortunately, lack of race practise caught up with us and we suffered a few poor strokes that dropped us well off the pace. Good experience but probably a bit too soon for us as a crew.

Men’s Veteran D 2x-
Courtesy of Pierre-Yves’ and my win last week, Steve and I had to switch from the Vet D IM3 category to the much more daunting Open Vet D. This also compressed our racing time – leaving us with just 27 minutes between the quad and the double! Still, we had a reasonable start keeping with the other three crews for the first couple of hundred metres. By halfway, we were trailing but a good second 500m saw us pull clear of Twickenham, to finish third overall. Well pleased with the result! Many thanks to the women’s crew who helped with our rapid swap – couldn’t have done it without them

See here for results

Star Regatta 2009

It’s that time of year with events coming thick and fast. This week-end saw us competing at two separate events, the local Star Regatta on both the Saturday and Sunday and, for the first time, the National Veteran’s Regatta on Sunday (new post to follow).

Star Regatta saw four wins over week-end, two on each day. Showing a major step up, three of these were from the Junior squad.

Saturday

Both of today’s victories came courtesy of the Junior squad, with wins in the J17 1x and J17 4x- categories. The only two (disappointing turnout) senior crews both lost their straight finals. Steve and I lost (at IM2 2x-) to two huge “kids” from St. Paul’s School, by seven seconds (which we thought wasn’t bad as we were about three times thier age!) while Paul and Nick lost out to a very strong Star boat in the IM2 2- category.

As well as the Junior wins, John also managed to capsize while leading his final, having won two rounds to get there!

Sunday

The wins today came from Salv at J17 1x and the Mixed IM3 4+ crew. Again, far more junior boats out today (although us Vets were up at Nottingham). The Mixed crew was almost the ultimate “scratch” crew; two of the crew had never met before, they had to borrow blades (thanks Nicky at Star for sorting this out) and use three seats from the Junior’s quad plus one borrowed from Bedford School! Still despite this, they clearly gelled as a crew and dominated their final to pick up the nice Star medals.

Results already on-line at Star Club

Peterborough Spring Regatta 2009

Following last week-end’s glorious weather at Dorney, for the Met, the Peterborough Spring Regatta took place in more typical British Spring weather. Cold, grey and wet, especially Sunday. Still, the racing more than made up for it, with some excellent races on Saturday, culminating in two wins on Sunday.

Saturday

First up were the Women’s IM3 4+ crew (Helen J, Paula, Becks and Clare with Lindy making a coxing début). Despite a very early clash of blades with Parr’s Priory they kept their nerve to finish second and secure a place in the repêchage. Next up were the Men’s IM3 4+ crew, a first outing together for Henry, Will, Dan and Pete, Karen coxing them. This was a really exciting race with a the guys making an incredible last charge to force a photo finish with Norwich – that last effort was worth it as they took the heat win and progressed to the final.

The W.IM3 4+ crew were then back in action in their repêchage, but were dropped to third place behind strong crews from Broxbourne and Trafford. Quite a hard race for the spectators with both us and Trafford in virtually identical black/green kit!

In the IM3 4+ final, the guys trailed in last – still, a good showing in their first race together (especially as Dan was trying so hard he came off his seat!).  Lots of potential here.

The last races of the day were the IM3 4x- boat (Pierre-Yves, Simon, me and Steve); a good start kept us in contention early on but we fell away in the latter stages of the race to finish last in a straight final. This race also took the edge off of Steve and I who raced just 40 minutes later in the Vet D 2x-, again trailing in last. Our final crew of the day were Nick and Paul as an IM2 2- pair, finishing second in their final (OK, only three boats and one was disqualified, but they were second!

No wins today but some very good performances, especially from the men’s four.

Sunday

Another Women’s IM3 4+ crew out today, this time the crew that finished fourth at the Met, Charlene, Jo, Lindy and Steph, with Paula making her coxing bow. Quite a surprise for some of the crews from yesterday as they thought it was the same boat (especially one Uni crew overhead saying they had an easy run as they’d beaten MK the day before…). This crew just blew away the opposition in the first round, finishing very clear of the others to move through to the semi-final. Putting down a marker, they were the only crew below 2 minutes in this round.

The second round race was pretty much a repeat of the first; dominating the race from the start to finish at least a length clear of second; again, the only boat under 2 minutes in the semis, this put them into pole position for the final.

Pierre-Yves and I took advantage of a break in our crews racing to get out for a quick practice session. We figured this was a good idea as we’d not raced together before and hadn’t been out in a double together for many months. A good session with quite a few starts thrown in – this was to pay dividends later.

We returned to the course to go out in the IM3 4x- crew that had raced the previous day; another good start saw us in early contention but our lack of race practice as a crew showed and after a couple of mistakes we dropped back to third. This was good enough to see us through to the final though, the first time we’d not finished last so another indicator of progress.

Straight out of the quad and into the double saw Pierre-Yves and I going off as a Vet Novice 2x-. The practice really paid off as we hit an almost perfect start which took us a couple of lengths clear. We were then able to sit on the other crews through the race, finishing first easily. A very nice feeling, watching the other crews trying to hunt us down – not been there before!

Just 40 minutes to recover and Pierre-Yves and I were back in the final of the VN 2x-. Another great start put us in the lead, although Beccles pushed us very hard over the first 200m we powered away to win and de-novice. Pretty proud of our time as well, at 1m 52s in the final. A really great feeling coming through the last 100m knowing we’d got this in the bag (barring any coconut related incident).

Having abandoned Steve for Pierre-Yves, he’d entered as a Vet D 1x in his first solo race for some time. A strong sculling performance saw him come second, still very much in contention with the leader.

It was now time for the W.IM3 4+ final. Clearly their performances had fired up the other crews and DMU flew off the start to hold the lead for the first half of the race. Our girls’ power and strength asserted itself in the second half and they stormed through to take the win with Jo de-novicing at last (15 pots, no points!). Again, they posted a sub 2-minute time – the only crew to break that barrier and they did so in each race.

Our final event of the day was the IM3 4x- final. Very similar to the other races, a good start but fading away during the race.

So, overall a pretty good week-end for the club in general and me in particular! I think I’ve just set a club record as the oldest person to de-novice; I suspect this one will stand for a long time! Sets us up well for the Nat Vets next week (although I’ve just blown our IM3 status!)

Photos on line now at MKRC fotopic site – do check out just how relaxed Pierre-Yves is in both races….

Cambridge Sprint Regatta 2009

After being on coxing duty yesterday at Bedford, it was Steve and my turn to race today. Second visit to Cambridge, and an opportunity to get a check on progress from our first race together at last year’s regatta.

As we were the only crew with competition (the Vet C Quad and Novice Double had to be scratched – thanks ARA, new rules really helping out) we car topped the double rather than trailering. Great fun sticking this great long black boat on top of a Vectra.

Anyhow, I digress. Although we’d had some good starts and lengths in training yesterday, it all went to pot in the race. A poor-ish start left us frantically trying to catch up, which is pretty hard going over 400m. We took time to settle but in the latter half of the race finally got it together and then started pulling back the deficit. Unfortunately, a case of leaving it too late and we lost to the Cantabs/Nemesis Vet D composite double by 1 1/2 lengths.

Taking some comfort from this (my optimistic streak showing through) it was a lot better row than last year. Just need to sort out my starts and we’ll be there!

Definitely an event to make a bigger effort at next year. Lots of mixed events, which don’t attract points for winning, plenty of novice crews as well, so a good “fun” event and a great first race for new members. A nice location, and such fun to watch some of the mayhem at the start!

Results are available here.

Photos now on-line at mkrc.fotopic.net

Bedford Amateur Regatta 2009

Three womens’ boats out today, all rowing at IM3 (shows the growing strength and scale of the ladies squad though). In the inevitable good weather (OK, just HOW do Bedford do this), all three crews had second round races within minutes of each other – as one of the crews joked, just like buses, none for ages then three come along together.

The first crew off had a hard fought, close race, losing to the eventual winners, St. Edwards School (given as one length but I’m certain we had an overlap on them!) – disappointing especially as this was far from their best performance, also not helped by my steering them into a couple of buoys. The second crew off were more successful, beating Champion of the Thames by two lengths before the last boat off also lost out, against the losing finalists from Dame Alice.

In the third round the ladies went down to the Dame Alice crews, this time by (allegedly) 3 1/2 lengths – we were very surprised at this as it certainly seemed a lot closer.

Not as successful as previous events this year but some strong performances. All crews agreed that lack of starts in real events didn’t help, neither did being behind on the stagger.

No photos from me today – coxing in the first race and, hate to admit it, forgot my camera! Well, Steve and I had sneaked in a practice at Caldecotte first thing as we didn’t have to be at Bedford until quite late (made a VERY nice change).

However, some photos now available, courtesy of Charlene’s husband Rob. These are in the usual place, mkrc.fotopic.net

Great to see Bob all togged up in his finery as he attended his first event as an umpire. Well done to him – although a bit miffed he wouldn’t let me have a head start in our race…

No mens crews out – ominously, no competition for either the Vet C quad or the J18 quad. First case of the new rules killing competition?

Bedford Regatta results can be found here