Race Reports 2007 - 2008

Peterborough Summer Regatta – 6 wins

 Dave Fenwick, Tom Wei, Plouto Evlogimenos and Tom Bott (with Tom Baker coxing) won the N4+ final to lose their novice status.  As their race on the Sunday wasn't until 13.15 the next day, a good deal of celebrating and quite a few beers were had at the infamous Peterborough party.

 Unfortunately, the status change meant that the novices were now S4 and the first race was at 9.20.  Oops.  They had also lost their bow man and cox and had been entered into S3 8+ crew as well.  The experienced Matt Croot stepped into the bow seat and Henry 'slightly heavy for a cox' Lawrence filled the coxing position.  Not having had breakfast and feeling slightly the worse for wear, there were rumors of a plan to come third so the crew could just go home and get some proper sleep.  A shaky (and slightly nauseous) win in the heat was followed by much needed greasy food and rehydration whilst waiting for the semi final.  Another unexpected win in the semi final and a win in the S3 8+ heat meant that they were now in the S3 8+ final at 18.05 and the S4 4+ final at 18.28.  A little close for comfort.

 The Lea S3 8+ made a good start in the final but Thames RC proved too strong, the Lea finishing a respectable 2nd.  Still out of breath, the 4+ crew rushed round to the lake, boated and rowed up to the start.  The start was not the best and they were quickly half a length down on Leeds RC.  With 250m to go, Henry called for a push and brought the rate up two pips.  The gap began to fall and Henry was soon calling off the Leeds RC positions as they were being clawed back.  "We've got their 2 man, give me their bow…..now we've got their bow man...".  Then the 100m to go call went out and the crew pushed for the line.  A quick series of beeps from the umpire's cabin but no clear result.  The crew all turned around to ask Henry what had happened. 

 "We won."

 No one could believe it but the tannoy soon confirmed the result.  A great end to a really enjoyable weekend.

Other wins over the weekend included the S1 4+ (John Sharpe Trophy) and WS3 1x on both days.

Sudbury International Regatta – 9 wins

 A lack of novice level opposition meant that the N4+ had to race at S4 for this regatta.  Winning both the semi final and final by two lengths they managed to pick up their first pots of the year.  As there were only 3 boats competing, the race was non-qualifying and their novice status remained to fight another day.

A wide array of wins from all sections of the club including the Men’s Sprint 8.

St Neots Regatta

 Solid wins in the heats and semi finals put the men's N4+ in a good position to lose their novices at their first regatta.  A bit of trouble in the tricky corner left them half a length down with a 200m but a much faster finishing speed brought them almost level by the end of the course.  A loss by just a foot.

National Championships

Congratulations to the junior girl’s squad who came away with 3 silver medals.  Ruth Courtney in WJ14 1x, Lottie Hudson in WJ16 1x and Lottie and Lizzie Panton in the WJ18 2x.

Henley Royal Regatta

Henley was a painful experience for the Wyfold four . We were bemused to find that the stewards had not seen fit to put us in the draw as a selected crew although they had selected Grosvenor and Tyne, both of whom we had beaten in straight races only four weeks earlier. We were drawn in the first round against another selected crew from Germany about whom we knew very little. As it turned out they were as bemused as us by their selection and we were able to record a win and an easily verdict on the Wednesday along with the fastest time of the day in the Wyfolds.

Thursday saw us drawn against a rapidly improving Thames combination who clearly fancied their chances. They gave us a hard race all the way down the course but we went over the line first with just under a length of clear water. Once again we recorded the fastest time of the day in the event.

On Friday we were the first race of the regatta with an 8:30am start. Conditions were perfect with no wind but there was a significant stream. The Evesham crew we were racing were juniors who were very neat but didn’t quite have the power. We won with an easily verdict, taking the rating down to conserve our legs for the race on Saturday. Even so we only missed setting the fastest time of the day in the Wyfolds by one second.

Saturday saw the return of a very strong headwind that freshened all day and by mid afternoon was blowing straight down the course at 40mph. We weren’t unhappy about this as the London crew we were racing were a lightweight crew and although we were no monsters this definitely gave us the upper hand. Confidence was high as we rowed down to the start. The strength of the wind became apparent as soon as we span and started doing our warm up bursts, but we knew it would be the same for the other crew. The race started well, better than we had expected. London had some steering issues at the start and by the end of the island we had the best part of a lengths lead. We were racing on Bucks into a strong stream but still managed to open up a lead of a length and a half by the Barrier. The wind was gusting very strongly and we were being warned by the umpire to move out of the middle of the course. Just past Fawley and particularly strong gust practically stopped all forward progress and shoved us onto the booms. London needed no second invitation and pounced on the opportunity rowing past whilst we attempted to shove off.

This was an inglorious end to a glorious season and no doubt in time a perspective will evolve but at the time of writing that has yet to happen, particularly for me since I was steering.

Belgian National Championships (Ghent)

The line up was broadly similar to Saturday and conditions had improved although there was still a noticeable headwind. Once again we proceeded straight from our heat into the final without the need to compete in the repechage.  The race proved to be an improvement on the Saturday albeit with the same overall result of third behind London and Leander. However, we had closed the gap on Leander by a length and were overlapping London over the line. Following the prize giving three of the crew were chosen ‘at random’ for drug testing which involved a long wait whilst everybody rehydrated sufficiently to produce a sample. Cyril won this competition followed by Sam with Richard a distant third. Several litres of water and some beer eventually had the desired result. Once you start you can’t stop though and I had six toilet breaks between Ghent and London.

Ghent International Regatta

We returned to Belgium which seemed to be becoming our second home. There was a very strong headwind and an equally strong entry which included Leander and London. We reached the final and raced well and were lying second at halfway still in touch with Leander and in front of London. However we faded over the second half and finished third, three lengths back from Leander and two lengths behind London who had dealt with the conditions better than us.

Ghent Spring

This was our first taste of 2000m regatta racing after the winter season and came at the end of a week long training camp just up the road in Brugge.  The was a vicious crosswind and although most of the crews were unfamiliar we knew that the Belgium National team, who were the current world champions in U23 lightweight quads, were going to be the crew to beat. As is customary at this regatta rather than running heats and a final the crews were split into two heats and the times would be compared and a finish order for the event decided on the times recoded in each heat. It was therefore down to each crew to race as hard as possible even if there was no crew pushing you along as a crew from the other heat could be going quicker. We were lucky enough to be pushed hard in our heat by an U23 Dutch crew who we beat by five seconds much to the obvious dismay of their coach. We then had to wait to see the time of the other heat which was won by the Belgian crew but in a time which was 4 seconds slower than ours. We had won our first event and taken a quality scalp into the bargain.

Metropolitan Regatta

A slightly different entry greeted us on Sunday. No London A  but in their place a swift Tyne crew and a Visitors Cup bound entry from the Army. Grosvenor were there again to be joined by Molesey , London B and Nottingham.

After the race on Sat we felt we needed a distinct push at about the 800m mark and another at the 1150 m mark rather than a single predictable move at the thousand. We won our heat again and progressed straight to the final. This time our preparation was better and we coped better with the long wait between the heat and final.  We felt that on Saturday we were dragged into a dogfight with London and suffered as a result but on Sunday we rowed our own race with much better results.

The Army went off very hard and had drawn out to a three quarter length lead by halfway but as a crew we could sense that they were faltering. Their steering started to suffer and our 1150m push saw us start to eat into their lead. On the other side of us Tyne were racing hard and were less than a length back at halfway and starting to push on. At 500 to go we started to race for the line, turning the screw and upping the rate every 15 strokes or so. We started to move through the Army and were level with 250 to go and being pushed by Tyne in third. We went up again and got our noses in front for the first time with about 15 strokes of the race left and crossed the line a second up on the Army with Tyne another half second back.

This was a hugely improved performance from Saturday and our most complete race of the year, not just in terms of the result but in the quality and maturity of the row as well.

Saturday

This was to be the crew’s first real test of the season amongst domestic competition and a chance to develop a race plan. We went out hard in our heat to ensure we got straight through into the final with the minimum of effort. We were then faced with a long wait of several hours until the final. We lined up alongside some known quantities in the form of London A and Grosvenor and some lesser known crews such as Univ of Northumbria. We knew this was going to be tough as London had beaten us by three seconds when we last met in Ghent. In the event there was nothing to choose between Lea, London and Grosvenor. London took a very slight lead, maybe a canvas, over the first 250m and this was all that separated us and London all the way down the course. Grosvenor had a slightly sluggish start and we had about three quarters of a length on them in third but they finished very strongly and the three boats crossed the line together. No one in the crews knew who had won and all three crews drifted in the finish area waiting for the umpire’s decision. The final result was London first, Lea second and Grosvenor third with only three quarters of a second between first and third.

Head of the River Race

With a start position of 99  for the first eight and 147 for the second eight, hopes were high for a top thirty spot for the first eight and a top 100 spot for the second eight.

 Conditions were just about as good as they come for the eights head. Preparation had gone well although a back problem for the seven man in the first eight had meant that outings were limited in the couple of weeks running up to the head. This was also the first race for the new boat. Things started badly when boating as we grounded the fin on the bank in shallow water bending it into an almost perfect right angle. We traced the problem to the stroke man who apparently didn’t want to get his feet wet.... The boat was taken out again and the fin adjusted in good old fashioned Lea tradition using brute force and we set off again, arriving at the start nicely warmed up  just in time to get tops off and spin for the race.

 Our start position meant we didn’t really have any crews pushing us so it was down to us to keep our foot to the floor. We soon closed up on the Quintin eight in front who then did a very good job of holding on to us and making us work to get past. At this stage we were drawn into a side by side race rather than focusing on our own rhythm and simply pushing on past. However, we pushed hard at Chiswick and Hammersmith and finally shook off the Quintin eight and overtook a couple of other crews and just caught crew number 94 on the line. The eight were satisfied with the row although generally felt it could have gone better and didn’t really click, witnessed by the fact that we made a slight meal of getting past Quintin. The finish position of 33, just behind Kingston 1 and Thames 1, was just three spots off target in a time of 18mins 37.54 secs. Three seconds quicker would have given us a top 30 spot and smiles all round but on reflection we were happy with the result which was the best for a Lea crew for some time.

The second eight were going well up to Hammersmith and at this point the intermediate times showed they were lying in approximately 80th position. However, at this point , whilst overtaking a crew they crashed into a large , bright red, marker buoy which stopped them in their tracks. They recovered well and still recorded a finish position of 112, approximately 4 seconds off a top 100 finish.

 Brugge Head

 I can’t remember much about Brugge apart from the fact that it was very windy and we all got very pissed on Saturday night so weren’t in the best of condition to race on the Sunday. Oh, I do recall that the first eight came second overall on Saturday, beaten by IC by less than a second. (We returned the favour in the HORR, beating them by 0.29s.) Races on Sunday were done in terrible conditions and with massive hangovers. Hats off to Angus who came out of retirement and stroked a four on the Sunday despite being unfit and worryingly pale (That ninth pint of lager the night before was probably off.)  The experience must have scarred him as he hasn’t been seen since.

Peterborough Head of The Nene 2nd Feb 2008

Peterborough in February is never going to be warm but this year, along with freezing temperatures and a strong stream we were blessed with a strong and direct headwind. The Lea contingent for Peterborough comprised two men’s senior 1 eights, a women’s senior 3 eight a women’s junior quad (entering senior 3) and a Vet D scull in the form of Wilf Riley.

Wilf was the first to test the conditions. Earlier he had been hoping to post a time of around 11 minutes but ended up with 13 mins 41 seconds which gives some idea of the strength of the headwind. However, that was good enough for second spot in Vet D singles. The junior women’s quad improved on that time by almost a minute coming third in their category beating crews from Imperial College and the local Peterborough club in the process. An excellent effort in the conditions. In the last division of the day the women’s senior three eight found the going tough and took a marathon 23 mins 8 seconds to cover the longer 5 km course. Both men’s eights put in good performances with the second eight coming 8th overall in 18:18, just in front of Rob Roy and Broxbourne. The first eight went just over 40 seconds quicker posting 17:37 but were pipped to the senior 1 title by Molesey who went just two seconds faster. The crew had nothing left as they went over the line but take encouragement in managing a strong result from a relatively untried combination.

Fours Head 2007

We had six Lea crews entered in the Fours Head this year including two junior quad combinations with Royal Docks. Conditions were, for once, perfect and Bill Mason was on hand to give some very valuable pointers regarding the placement of new navigation buoys. The men’s top crew (Richard Ellis, Cyril Cornet, Sam Batten and Joe O’Neill) entered senior one coxless fours in a tough field that included Oxford Brookes and Cambridge University. Cambridge stopped just before the start line in order to allow a large gap to open in front of them and were probably surprised when the Lea subsequently chased them very hard down the course. They may have been concentrating on us rather than where they were going when they smacked into one of the new navigation buoys just after Hammersmith Bridge, breaking their bow man’s blade. Race over for Cambridge. We pushed on hard at this point, passed a couple of quads and caught Oxford Brookes on the line, winning senior 1 by a clear 20 seconds coming 31st overall and the third fastest coxless four home after Leander and Cambridge Uni 1, who were both elite entries. The day didn’t go quite so well for the second crew who were involved in collision with a London crew that snapped their rudder lines. Up to this point they were going well and were in the process of overtaking Kingston when their race was brought to a premature end. The juniors posted two solid results, particularly the men’s junior combination which raced as a senior 2 quad coming a creditable 101st overall.  The women’s junior quad put in a good performance to finish roughly mid table and the embryonic women’s squad were very pleased with their row which placed them in the top third of the women’s senior three coxed fours.

The winning senior one crew along with the Captain represented the club at the prize giving ceremony managing to get both themselves and the presentation blade home in one piece despite the free bar at the Fullers brewery.

Pairs Head 2007

5 men’s pairs made the trip to the tideway for the opening event of the 2007 head season. We had entries in Elite, Senior 1, Senior 2 and Senior 3 and came away with two category wins in Senior 1 and Senior 3 respectively. Richard Ellis and Joe O’Neill put in strong performance to take the Senior 1 pennant with a lively row, which they managed to maintain through the headwind and chop that made the final stretch from Chiswick through to Hammersmith quite challenging. They finished less than 10 seconds behind the winners of the elite category.  Sam Batten and Cyril Cornet put in a solid row to finish 7th in Senior 2. This was Cyril’s first taste of tideway rowing and first race since returning to the sport after a few years break.  They were followed home in senior 2 by the lightweight pair of G and Paul Johnstone who particularly enjoyed the headwind conditions. As a final flurry Frankie Bray and Josh Coleman-Pecha put in a fine performance to take the senior 3 pennant. A very strong start from the squad and a great platform for the training to come.