On 26th March, GMSBC was back at Dorney Lake for the Sculling Head. While not all the top crews and clubs compete in this second event, it is still highly competitive.
With illness cutting our senior boys’ squad down, the entry was reduced from three Quads to just the top boat, which thankfully was back in its usual line up. In beautifully calm conditions the boys had a great race, beating last year’s gold medal time by 1 second. They won Silver, behind a very fast Windsor Boys’ crew, who had won the Schools Head Quads the day before. A very strong performance and setting them up nicely for the coming season.
The J16, Year 11 boys’ crew also had a great row and were very pleased by their 8th place out of 48 crews.
The top Girls’ Quad was a different line up for this event, as two Year 11s, moved back into their own age group. Both the WJ18 and WJ16 Quads looked strong, if a little tired from the previous days’ racing. 17th for this squad put them reassuringly ahead of local rivals Sir William Borlase. 11th for the WJ16s showed them to be as strong as they have ever been, but as a club we have been particularly badly hit by lack of water time.
Our Year 10s all raced in Quads. There are Octo events for J15s, which is becoming more popular but GMS raced A and B boats. This year group is exceptionally strong in both boys and girls squads, with two very competitive Quads from both groups. The Girls’ A Crew coming 12th was an exciting result and their B Boat was 5th amongst the B crews.
The two Boys’ Crews were surprisingly close in time; the B boat earned Silver in their event.
Possibly the highlight of the day was the Year 9 races, as this is their first opportunity on a National Stage. Although they have had very little water time, they have trained hard on land through this winter. The Boys’ Quad had a disappointing outing at the inter regional trials a few weeks back and with a slight change in line up were keen to race hard. They were hallway down the pack, but well ahead of Royal Grammar School, and Wycombe, who had beaten them in the trials earlier in March. A solid result and will only improve with more time on the water.
The best comes last: the Year 9 Girls’ Octo, is a very exciting squad, with some truly exceptional athletes. Given their lack of opportunity to train on the water, their technique in the Octo, which is a challenging boat to row was impressive.
As I have mentioned earlier, the Thames in Marlow has been particularly badly hit this year and many clubs from London and elsewhere have had a considerably better water time practice.
In the top ten Year 9 Octos, GMSBC was the only Thames Up river crew. They came in 4th, frustratingly 1 second off the medals, but a fabulous result. It is the Year 9 Octos’ event where all the major players send their crews because there is no Year 9 event at the Schools Head and so this crew should be very proud of themselves.
