Fours Head 2016

The Fours Head went off without any weather hitches. We had two crews with a serious chance of a pennant although sickness overnight struck the men’s lead crew. A sub was found on the day and the crew raced and despite being held up by its own B crew, managed a five-second win to take the IM2 4+ pennant and the trip to the brewery. They are only the third Thames men’s crew to win a pennant at this race this century!

The women’s IM2 4+, all pretty much lightweight, trailed Tideway Scullers by six seconds at Hammersmith Bridge. As planned they ramped it up from here but fell short by an agonising 0.6 seconds! The double would have been great but it wasn’t to be. They were, however, faster than the WIM1 4+ winners.

Overall, it was a decent showing. The men’s IM1 4-s finished second and third after some terrible performances the week before at Kingston Head. However a focused week, some seating changes and getting it right on the day paid off. The senior 4- finished sixth in its class which seems about right and the IM2 B 4+ also finished sixth.

The women’s quads had a mixed bag in WIM1 4x. The A boat raced for time only but would have been third in the category. A lot was learned however by racing with an Olympic champion; many thanks to Maaike Head for doing the pairs and fours head with us! In the B boat Chloe, from our junior programme but rowing with the seniors, had her seat jam and lost a good chunk of time trying to fix this. They still finished a very creditable fifth in the same event as their A boat. Finally the Thames B crew in WIM2 4+ finished eighth out of 48 which is a result they can be very happy with.

All told – a good club showing despite that elusive 0.6 of a second!

The winning crew in IM2 4+:
Thomas Phelps
Luke Wertheimer
Will Hardy (super sub)
Alex Morris
Vlad Saigau (cox)