The top Boys’ Eight had a good couple of sessions towards the end of the Dorney week and were in high spirits. In this race, the crew ahead of them was a ‘no show’ so they ended up with a fairly large gap giving them an uninterrupted race. The cox, Theo Harper, chose the best racing line, which is a key factor in any race on this tidal stretch of river. Their initial result was a win by 0.1 seconds, which was a reversal of our loss to second place in the Schools Head last year. The race officials later decided to make us first equal with Kew House, a local tideway club racing on their home stretch.
Following on from the Quads win at Wycliffe, this a great start to the senior boys’ season.
The top Girls’ Quad also had a great race in a top-class field, with probably only two or three major clubs not represented. Fifth in their event was a very exciting result, particularly given how little water time we have had relative to many of our opposition.
The Girls’ Eight had a very long wait before starting and were consequently very cold by the time they came off the water. They raced well but, at this late stage in the race, it seemed the officials were being less careful in spacing out crews, resulting in our Eight, through no fault of their own, being on the outside of the bend with four Eights abreast after Barnes Bridge. This sort of line adds much to their time, but their 9th position in a strong field was an encouraging result for this young crew and bodes well for the upcoming Schools Head.
Sadly, due to a last-minute increase in stream levels the Year 10 Boys Eight event was cancelled so they could not race.
