Another sunny, exciting day of racing on the Thames over this past weekend. Three crews journeyed to Maidenhead Regatta: two Year 9 Quads and a Year 10 Boys’ Quad.
The format of the regatta tries to ensure most crews row in two races at least. Our Year 9 girls met Windsor Girls School in the fist round and had a fairly comfortable win, they looked strong and well-coordinated. In the second round they met a powerful squad, Eton Excelsior, who were a little over zealous at the start but made ground their early “go”. While this meant our girls were down at the start, they rowed well and kept their form for the most part and, indeed, in the middle of the race started to pull towards the Excelsior crew. A good race ensued but Excelsior held on to win. The girls were pleased to have won the earlier race and knew that they had performed well in the later one.
The Year 9 boys, sadly, were granted a bye through to the semi-finals meaning they went straight up against a strong crew and while they held together well and kept to the better form they have been working on recently, they were not able to win this time.
The Year 10 boys had the longest day with an early first race in the morning, but by virtue of winning this they progressed to the semi final at 3:10. Here they met Borlase and a reasonably close race ensued, but the GMS boys had winning in mind and pushed ahead over the course to move into the final.
It meant they went straight back to the start for the final. They began aggressively to leave competition behind and maintained a strong pace over the course to take the overall title.
A really good win for these Year 10 boys.
Winning Crew
Austin Begley, Harry Proctor, Jacob Abadeer, Theo Harper, and cox Jack O’Reily
This is a report of another good day’s racing. Congratulations to all the competitors and the team coaches.
