Reading and Hammersmith Heads 2017

A busy weekend's racing saw the senior squads take on many of the best crews in the Thames Valley at Reading University Head on the first Saturday in March, with the masters, novices and juniors representing the club at Hammersmith Head on Sunday.

Reading Head was as expected, a good test. After a large amount of pots so far this season, we came away with a bunch of second and third places behind the likes of Oxford Brookes, Leander and OUWBC, as well as other strong schools, universities and clubs.

There are too many results to mention all in detail but the women’s 2nd 8 narrowly missed winning WIM3 8+ by a fraction of a second. The men’s 2nd 8 beat Star and Arrow (Leander’s Thames Cup 8) and was second in IM1 8+ behind the stunning Brookes Temple 8 which finished second overall in the first run. Had the women’s 1st 8 been entered into IM1 instead of senior (the deadline was before seat racing!) we would have won this pot.

All crews learned from their first runs and stepped up well for the second race. The women’s 2nd 8 even put their riggers on properly for this one!

At Hammersmith Head the WJ16 4x, the women’s novice 1st 8 and Pauline Rayner’s masters F composite all won their pennants. The WJ18 4x, the masters F 8 and the women’s masters B 8 were all second in their categories.

Meanwhile the novice women’s 2nd 8 and the men’s novice 8 were both fourth in their categories, and the second-fastest club novice crews – an encouraging sign ahead of WEHORR and HORR.