Henley Women’s Regatta / Marlow at Dorney

The heavy racing season has begun, with three regattas this weekend and four events next weekend, then Henley Royal Regatta all the following week.

Three GMS crews competed at Henley Women’s but due to the slightly unusual rules of this event, none of the crews were quite as we would have ideally chosen. The WJ16 Quad was the only crew to progress to the side-by-side racing; they had an excellent race against a composite crew from other clubs. While slightly out-powered the girls hung on to their opponents for most of the race and were pleased to have made it to the last 8.

At Dorney we had three boys’ crews. The two Henley crews, Quad and Eight, and our Year 9 Octo.

The time trials all went well, with both the Quad and the Year 9 Octo progressing to the A-final. The Eight came in the middle of the pack for the B-final but given the start list, which looked like a whos who of school rowing, this was a major result

In the final the Eight got off well and apart from the pack leaders (St Edwards Oxford)there was a half-length across the field for the first half of the race. Radley and Winchester dropped their pace and Bedford fell back. It left a nail-biting race between GMS and Shiplake, with Shiplake beating us by 1 second. A very solid race, which looks promising for Henley qualifiers next Friday.

The top Boys’ Quad had a surprisingly slow start in their final and never really recovered. Yet, impressively, they worked their way up to 6th by the finish and were closer to Hinksey than they had been at National Schools by the end. It was a solid result.

On Sunday GMS went to Thames Valley Park, a charming river regatta raced over a short distance (500m). The weather was glorious, and we had a large entry from across the squad.

In the morning our J18 and J16 Coxed Fours dominated their events, both winning. The Year 12 Boys’ Double of Sam Terret and Lucas Gray stamped their authority on the event with a comfortable win in both semis and final.

Our Year 9 Boys’ Quad won their semi final in style but were not quite fast enough in the final to win, they came second in this three-lane race.

The Year 9 Girls’ Octo, however, went one better. In the final they had a good start but were still slightly down on the main rivals. With real grit and concentration they overhauled the other crew and won the event in fine style.

In the afternoon division, we had our Year 8s racing for the first time. Normally, they would have had a number of regattas by now but with Marlow Town cancelled, this was a first for all of them.

They were well together and looked very solid, but were clearly lacking the pace of the crews from clubs who have had access to water time due to their club environments. They all raced really well and looked as though their skill was developing well but more race practice is needed.

The Year 10 Coxed Four were hoping to make it a clean sweep with the fastest time heading into the final, but a big Pangbourne crew had a very fast start and while our boys were coming back in the last 150m, we had to settle for second.

In our last race of the day, the Year 9 Boys’ Octo had their honour to defend against Bedford School and Reading Bluecoats because the girls had won in the morning.

Bedford got off to a fast start with a third of a length lead coming into halfway, but the GMS boys kept their concentration and pushed hard and worked their way past Bedford to finish the race half a length up and moving away.

A great win and end to a successful Sunday!