Veteran Fours Head 2009

And I thought the Pairs Head was a long way! Out on the Tideway again today, for the Veteran Fours Head in the Quad, rowing at Vet C. Really nice as we started at number 7 so didn’t have to wait around too long for the start.

In stark contrast to yesterday, the weather was clear, bright and sunny and virtually calm (the Fours Head yesterday was cancelled because of high winds and heavy rain). There was a very strong stream running (with lots of alarming sized debris) which made keeping station at the start “fun”. Although we’d had to rejig the crew yesterday, with Tim coming in for an unwell Simon, the race went very smoothly. Results now up and we came 5th of eight in Vet C, and a creditable 61st overall. Really pleased, especially as two of the crews in front of us were composites and three were Tideway clubs.

We did lose some time as two boats (London and Thames, who should know better) left us nowhere to go coming off of Hammersmith bridge, causing us to virtually stop, to avoid ramming the marshal. Otherwise, no mistakes and a clean row.

Rowing back is sheer hell though. Four and a bit miles at race pace, then the same back again, this time against the tide. Must be mad but despite this really enjoyed it (although the alcohol now is numbing the pain) and we’re already talking about the Eight’s Head!

Photos on-line at the MKRC Photo site, with race results now up at the Vet Fours Website

Bedford Autumn Fours & Small Boats Head 2009

Bit of a funny day, really. We came away without any wins (unusual) but with most of the crews happy with their rows and no real sense of disappointment. For the Womens’ squad, it was very much a case of mixing and matching, with a total of three IM2 4+ and two IM3 4+ boats going out. It also saw the Vet Quad and Double back in action plus a début for a new pairing of Josh and Paul as a Novice double. After some time out, the Juniors were also present, putting out four boats.

W.IM2 4+
Three crews out in this category, showing the increasing standard and depth of the Womens’ squad. The top placed crew came second, beaten by the St. Neots crew they’d pushed into second the previous week by just eight seconds. The other two boats finished 9th and 10th of the ten entries but still posted very respectable times.

W.IM3 4+
Third and fifth for the two boats at this level, although the winning Cantabs crew were clearly ahead of all of the other crews.

Nov 2x-
First time out for Josh and Paul saw an encouraging performance which put them fourth overall but the highest placed club crew. They even prevented the dominance of Bedford School taking the top four places, despite a couple of close encounters with hard stuff on the edge of the river…

IM3 4x-
Rowing at IM3 rather than Vet C, a good (probably best to date) performance by the Quad put us third of four, although the winning Bedford School crew were streets ahead. The quad sat midway between the two Guildford crews, again showing progress, just three seconds behind the crew in second place. Big plus – we were the fastest MK crew of the day!

Vet D 2x-
Initially disappointed when we looked at the results as we were last of four, but then realised that no handicapping had been applied (and the category was Vet B-D), we were only eight seconds or so behind Paul and Josh AND we beat the juniors, so not so bad after all. Don’t know about Steve but I was absolutely shattered at the end of this one (my second and his third race of the day)

Mixed Vet C 2x-
Only the second outing for Steve and Clare and a reasonable time, finishing second behind St. Ives. No steering dramas today, either!

J18 2x-
Ryan and Tim still learning the ropes, so no surprise that they finished well down, especially after a couple of unscheduled stops. Much more to come from them, I’m sure

J18 1x
Three of the juniors out in this category, with John and Tim showing a big improvement, placing in the middle of the division. Ryan’s put in a good effort but his lack of race experience left him trailing the others

Results, inevitably, on-line almost immediately, are at Bedford RC

My photos from the day now loaded as well at the MKRC Fotopic site

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!

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….

Bedford Spring Fours & Small Boats Head 2009

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

Evening training again!

A combination of clocks going back and a nice day allowed us to escape the “joys” of circuits last night and get in our first water session in the evening this year. Nice to see so many small boats out, a four, a dobule and no less than four singles. Mind you, spotting the singles (and our “stealth” double – see pictures to see what I mean) in the gloom at the end was quite challenging.

A good extra session ahead of Bedford this week-end, allowing Will and I to get out in the double AHEAD of the race (not like usual) and Steve to dust off his single.

Can certainly tell it’s coming up to the Easter break as well. Suddenly our ranks are swollen by the (very welcome) return of the tax dodgers.

For info really, if you’re reading this and aren’t a member but would like to learn to row and/or scull, MKRC are running our first ever “Learn to Row” course, starting tomorrow morning. So, if you fancy a go, e-mail bob@mkrowing.org or just pitch up.

Bedford Autumn Fours & Small Boats Head

A great day out at Bedford in the warm autumn sunshine was topped off by the first ever MKRC Junior win!

Kieran and John took the honours in the J16 2x, posting a respectable time of 7:42 to beat Bedford Modern School by six seconds.

We had quite a few crews out today, a couple of Womens 4+ boats, three senior doubles and the (now usual) good showing from the juniors. The doubles were quite tiring as three of us (Steve, Pierre and I) mixed up, doing two races each. Steve and Pierre won this particular battle, followed by Pierre and I and then Steve and I. Pierre and I had the fun of being chased down the river by Kieran and Salv – good motivation to keep going and we beat them by miles (well, two seconds – but we did have an encounter with a bridge and Pierre did stop to beat up a swan, en route). I don’t know about Steve, but I was really feeling this by the end, after yesterday’s little outing on the Tideway!

John’s good day was complete when he won the fight between the J16 singles, seeing off Kieran by just one second. The two Women’s fours were remarkably consistent, just two seconds between them.

As ever, the results service and organisation were brilliant.

Photos now on line as well at mkrc.fotopic.net