Marlow Regatta 2015

The last big test of boat speed before Henley Royal Regatta took place on Saturday at ‘Dorney 3’, also known as Marlow Regatta. A time trial, followed by straight finals, against the best Men’s clubs, universities and schools saw some great racing across the whole squad, in a gentle cross breeze that did little to hinder racing in fairly neutral conditions.

Our Men’s 1st VIII showed that Ghent was no fluke by pushing Oxford Brookes and Leander right to the line. Despite having been a length down at 500m, the base pace of our ‘old Men’s 8’ took them to within a canvas of Brookes by the finish and 3/4’s of a length off Leander, with Tideway rivals UL and Sport IC over 14 seconds back. Given Brookes had paddled the Time Trial while TRC and Leander had gone at more aggressive pace, this is particularly encouraging.

It was a similar story in the Senior IV+ where the crew rowed clean through the field in the middleof the course (catching Vesta in last 500m) to win by 3/4 of a length, in a faster time than Elite IV’s, which to be fair, was run in a slightly windier part of the day, but nevertheless shows this crew’s improvement since Ghent, and calmness under pressure.

The 3rd VIII also showed improvements since Met where it had finished a length behind Molesey in the B Final of Champ VIII’s. In the IM1 A final on Saturday, they were just a canvas behind Molesey and only 5 seconds off the winners, St. Paul’s School.

An admin error meant our 4th VIII also raced IM1 rather than IM2. Making the C final (there was also a D Final) wasn’t enough, and the crew were frustrated not to have beaten higher ranked crews, but were obviously delighted at beating our old rivals from LRC.

The Novice 8, now competing in IM2, reached the D final (there being an E final) and finished a very credible 2nd in a fast time. An outstanding performance once again from these guys.

With the final touches to be put to each crew, the excitement is building for HRR next week.