Head Results 2010/11
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The Head of the River - 2nd April 2011
This was a big milestone in most clubs’ calendars and with months of hard winter training behind us we were hoping to move up a lot of places from last year. The weather was fair and the Thames was relatively calm which should have made for some pretty fast times.
We boated out of Thames RC and made our way up to our marshalling position watching plenty of world-class crews racing past having already started the race. Our group was then instructed to turn and everyone bunched up causing a bit of a frantic start but once we were away we started closing quickly on some of the crews in front. We overtook a German crew just before Barnes Bridge and then breezed past another two as we powered towards Hammersmith with a Walton crew on our tail.
As we came under Hammersmith Bridge we were closing in on Curlew with the Walton crew drawing level with us on bowside, the race was now hotting up as we were rowing three abreast all the way to the finish. Caught in the middle, we clashed a bit with Curlew and then started to wind when we passed the Black Buoy quickly taking nearly a length out of the other crews and we thought we were clear! But most of the action in the race happened in the last few hundred meters in front of the crowds standing on Putney Embankment when our stern and Walton’s bows clashed and brought both boats to a complete halt. Both crews frantically tried to untangle blades from each other, we managed to get free and sprint away from Walton and cross the line knowing we had lost a significant amount of time.
Overall, having started 184th, we finished 118th which was a big improvement on last year but if we had avoided any contact with other crews we felt we would have broken into the top 100. So although we put in a good performance there is still a lot more to come from our eight.
Lenny (coach) gives us some final words of wisdom
Gloucester Head - 20th March 2011
We travelled to Gloucester as our last warm-up race before the Head of the River. With glorious weather anyone would have thought we were heading to a summer regatta rather than a 4km head. The usual crew of
(b) Tom, Sam, Chris, Dom, Warren, Adam, Simon, (s) Oli, (c) Tony
boated and as we set off up to the start line we realised that there were quite a few very narrow bridges on the course with only inches to spare each side of the blades. We needed to make sure we weren’t side-by-side with other crews coming up to the bridges but as we started the race we definitely weren’t in danger of that as we opened up a large gap from the crew behind. We pushed on and it felt like a very solid row, just what we needed building up for racing on the Tideway. When we thought we had nearly finished, a canal boat ran a red light on one of the bridges and we found ourselves on course to hit it head-on as we were winding for the line but narrowly missed it. We produced the fastest time of the day winning IM2 eights and also beating the crews in the IM1 category as well.
Roll on London in 2 weeks.
Head of the Trent - 27th February 2011
The club took a trip just a few miles up the river to Nottingham to race on what was a very high River Trent that day. The men’s IM2 VIII was racing in Division 1 in the morning when the weather was still fairly pleasant. We set off up to the marshalling area against a very, very strong stream which was to prove difficult for some of the novice and women’s fours to overcome. This meant there was a delay starting the race but luckily being in the morning division we missed the 1.5 hour delay later in day due to bad coxing and an eight snapping in half by hitting the toll bridge.
Racing was the usual crew of; (b) Tom, Sam, Chris, Dom, Warren, Adam, Simon, (s) Oli, (c) Tony
Once we started the race, we put in a strong performance against the rough water and quickly dropped the crews behind us leaving us to race on our own until we approached Trent Bridge. We were now gaining fast on Peterborough and with a push under Trent Bridge we went from being behind them to being ahead of them just in the time under the bridge. We passed Lady Bay Bridge and started to push for home, finishing just as the rain started to fall heavily and we knew this was another strong performance like the weekend before at Henley. We finished 5th in our category and 10th in the division, making good progress as we were closing the gap on some of the crews we had raced at Henley.
Dom and Chris then went on to race in a novice eight in Division 2, which was probably Newark’s best performance of the day as they came 3rd in the division, only 2 seconds behind the winners, Nottingham University.
A good day of racing and the men’s eight was well on its way to what should be a good showing at The Head of the River.
Henley Fours & Eights Head - 19th February 2011
Henley was going to be the first real test for the eight, with a big entry and plenty of tough opposition it would give good idea how fast we were. We boated on a riverbank that was unrecognisable to most of us who have only seen it with thousands of people on watching the regatta. The usual crew of
(b) Tom, Sam, Chris, Dom, Warren, Adam, Simon, (s) Oli, (c) Tony
waited near the turning buoy and watched as the start descended into chaos as crews were so bunched up some had built up to full speed only to be told by the start marshal to hold up on the start line. Sure enough as we turned and got up to race pace we were told to hold up sharply as we were too close to the crew in front, this meant being so close to the start line we had to effectively do a standing start. Despite this, we went off strongly and caught up with Maidstone Invicta after a couple of minutes but they hung on and we had a side-by-side race down most of the 3k course until we dropped them when we pushed for finish line. This was by far our strongest performance so far and we finished 7th out of 21 in the IM2 8+ category full of quality crews.
The day was capped off by Sam making a very inconvenient trip to results board, after everyone having left Henley and being at least half an hour into the journey back. The phone rings and Sam, having sneaked into Leander to use the phone, asks “Guys, where you?”……. (Warren drew the short straw).
Boston Head - 23rd January 2011
Boston Head marked the first race of 2011, and we were well into our winter training program by now as we had moved from fours into an eight. We had entered an IM2 eight with the crew below;
(b) Tom, Sam, Chris, Dom, Warren, Adam, Simon, (s) Oli, (c) Tony
On a gloomy day and with very long delay at the start of the race, Newark powered down the course overtaking our rival crew in front of with ease. We recorded the fastest time of the day in all categories and only one of 2 boats to go under 10 minutes over the 3k course.
Dom thought he would make the most of the whole day and enter every division so in division 2 he raced with Chris in an IM1 pair and then with Ben in a J17A double.
A good start to the new year.
Fours Head - 14th November 2010
The start of the 2010/11 season was kicked off by a trip down to London to race in the Head of the River Fours. We entered two crews, an IM1 coxless four and an IM2 club coxed four.
| IM1 4- | IM2 4+ (c) | |
|
(b) Tom Simon Jake (s) Oli |
|
(b) Dom Nick Adam (s) Warren (c) Tony |
For some of the guys this was a usual trip to the Tideway but for others this was their first experience of racing on the Thames. The coxless four set off about half an hour before the coxed four and recorded a time of 20.57mins. The coxed four then recorded a time of 20.44mins which put them 14th out 43 in their category which was a great result as they had only been out together twice before the race.