Wycliffe Head Rowing

A long but very successful day on the canal south of Gloucester for GMSBC

Saturday 5^th Feb saw Great Marlow rowers heading for Gloucestershire. They raced at the Wycliffe Head which is one of the longer races over 4.5 km on flat water. When saying ‘flat’ it is referring to the lack of stream on the canal. However, the high winds on Saturday meant conditions were pretty tricky at times, with plenty of chop for the boats to contend with.

Most of the senior rowers competed in both divisions, which meant a total mileage of nearly 30km, as boating was from well below the finish line. Certainly, one or two of the rowers were not looking ecstatic when they had to turn around and head back out for Division 2, after just 20 minutes to grab a snack.

This event is a high calibre one with top crews from a number of major schools and clubs: Shiplake, Radley, Shrewsbury were there in force along with many more.

In Division 1 GMS had Year 11 and Sixth Form crews racing Quads Sculls. The top boys’ crew of Henry Gavin, Noah Grottrup, Tom Wiles and Hugo Loretto won their event with both Year 11 crews awarded 3^rd place and our J18 Girls’ Quad coming fourth in their respective events.

For Division 2 we had our Year 10 boys and girls racing in Coxed Quads, the top boys switching to a four with James Robson replacing Noah in this line-up. The top Girls’  Quad went out for a second run with a switch of Emily Downing for Christina Baxter, and the Year 11 boys went again.

The first crews back were the Year 10 boats. The boys had a good race, coming fourth in a good size field, and given some late substitutions, this was a good result. The Girls Quad have been showing a lot of promise and is a powerful group. As they approached the last 1km, they had clearly caught up on the City of Bristol crew in front of them but a minor crab checked their progress. Despite this, they stayed right on the other boats’ heels, with a long gap from the following crews. When the times came in the girls, Sophie Wharfe, Abi Forgenie, Poppy Spence Charlotte Greening and cox Emilia Deering, had won our second win of the day, a very impressive result.

The older crews all had great rows with wins for both the boys’ crew and third place for the Senior Girls’ Quad. The girls were delighted to beat both Shrewsbury and Shiplake in their race. The Year 11 boys, Sal Dunn, Joe Cogan, Jack Clarke and Danny Pressling, had a much better race in this second division and were pleased with their win and to have beaten Radley.

The website thanks Mr Murison for this article and for his work with the rowers: he and his team have created a rowing club that we are all very proud of.