Bedford Regatta is a favourite event in the rowing calendar, mostly because it’s format is an old style ‘Knock Out Competition’. Competitors compete in up to four races to win the final, side by side over 1100m on the Ouse.
A slightly different structure of morning and afternoon sessions meant most rowers experienced a shorter rowing day.
For Georgina Greening and Lily Nickless, however, this was not the case: they were in our Women’s Four (open to all ages) at 10 o’clock. As it transpired this was one of the closest fought races of the day.
The opposition took an early length advantage, but this young crew did not lose their confidence, instead they competed fiercely. Over the rest of the course, they made time on the leaders, despite being on the outside of the bend. Sadly, an early knock out for the girls, but a great race.
Next the same crew went on to race in our WJ16 4+ (Year 11 Four), but having had little time to practise, lost in the semi-final. 7
Unfortunately, there were no Year 9 crews, as this conflicted with a Duke of Edinburgh weekend, so we just had Year 10s and above participating. The Year 10 boys were let down by equipment failure, putting an early end to their campaign.
The two star crews were the WJ15 4+ (Year 10 Girl’s Four) and the J18 4x (Sixth Form Boys’ Quad). Both crews raced three rounds to reach the final. Both crews raced very well in their finals but lost to faster crews by about a length in both cases. Mr Murison received a number of very complementary remarks from opposing coaches on the performances of these GMS crews.
This was an excellent day’s racing and plenty of crews were beaten, even if we did not bring back any silverwear.
