A weekend of pennants
The weekend of the Head of the River Race (HORR) and Veterans Head proved to be one of the most successful in recent history for Thames, with a total of six pennants and trophies won over the two days.
On Saturday at HORR, the men’s 1st 8 finished sixth and picked up both the Vernon Trophy for fastest Tideway crew and the club pennant. They were beaten only by three Oxford Brookes and two Leander crews.
The masters B men finished 79th and won the masters B pennant.
The 2nd 8 were ninth, the 4th 8 17th and the 3rd 8 18th, making it two crews in the top 10 - for the first time in many many years - and four in the top 20. The 5th 8 also performed admirably, finishing 37th.
On Sunday, several of the men raced again and added the masters A and masters B pennants to the list of wins. The masters A crew were fastest overall, with the B crew third overall.
The women’s squad also put out a masters A crew, and were the fastest women’s crew on the day, finishing 26th overall to take the category pennant.
The women’s masters C crew finished second in their category and there were solid performances from the masters D and E 8s and three quads racing in the E and G categories.
With the hard winter miles now over attention will soon turn to summer racing, with the ultimate goal of some red boxes at Henley Royal Regatta and wins at Henley Women’s and Henley Masters Regatta to galvanise the squads over the next few months.
Racing photos thanks to Vicky Gillard
