Henley Veterans Regatta - 9/10 July 2010



The Vet E4+

In their final outing before the big day, I coxed the Vet Es, keen to see where they were, and (in all honesty) a little worried that they may have bitten off more than they could chew going to Henley.  It wasn't bad, definitely some grunt in the boat, but a noticeable rush at the finish, resulting in some hangng around at the catch and the loss of a foot or two of available stroke.

Tom felt it was more unbalanced than normal, but the others were satisfied, and ready to rock and roll.

Unfortunately, the steps from Novices to senior Vets to Nat Veteran Champions to Henley in 2 years were just too giant, and they came across a very useful Durham crew in the first round, who rowed neater, harder and longer.


The Vet B 8+

Everyone was amazed that this 8 got to Henley.  The personel changed almost on a daily basis, and they could only train after Henley proper (ie over the course of 1 week).  Yet, amazingly, and this does happen, when asking crew members how it was going, I invariably got an astonished shake of the head and a "not half bad".  Intriguing.

The potential farce continued as half the crew were heavily delayed due to bad traffic on the M25 and James claims he only got there with minutes to spare. 

I didn't see the race, but they beat Marlow in a decent time of 3.16, which must have been a bitter sweet moment as it meant having to come back the next day to face the, frankly, feared Monmouth 8+ in the final.  Again I wasn't there, but this fantastic footage shows our boys put up a great fight against a very, very well drilled opposition.  No dishonour there, chaps, well done.  Feel free to submit a more accurate write up.




The Vet D 2x

Huggy and Henry's preparations for Henley Veterans consisted of pitting themselves against Mr Chairman and Tony Marshall in the Springfield sculls (c2k).  The Vet Fs proceeded to humble our not-so dynamic duo in all phases of the race,  more so when they commissioned their newly refurbished Sampfli double. 

Cue Henry's endless mantra about Huggy getting them an Empacher.  Yawn.

These 2ks were salatory lessions, made worse by the fact that the 2 H's could not beat their elders and betters over a straight 10 stroke start.  Henry parted with some cash (words never before put together in the same sentence), and in hushed whispers, Tony revealed the secret of their Start.  Start training continued under the watchful gaze of the Mobbs's, and slowly, very slowly, our heroes worked out the semblance of a half decent, if splashy, attack.

Time simply ran out for them to work on the remaining 110 strokes of the race, and they figured that once they were up, the rest would surely work itself out. 

So it was that the training paid off and boys left Abingdon at the start, and proceeded to bang down the course rating 35.  Which is actually a bit high for a couple of old farts.  Shocked into action, Abingdon powered after them, and took up station 3/4 of a length behind, giving absolutely no respite.  So much so that our heroes made a schoolboy error - they didn't dare stride for fear of losing their slim lead.



And so, at 900m, they simply ran out of steam and the oppo stunned themselves by cruising through to win at the end.

The boys were gutted, but despite their tactical error, it was a good row and the heat was the fastest time of the event.

Seeing Huggy lovingly pat Roger Mobbs' ancient, badly scarred bottom, and with a tear in his eye, reverently murmur: "you did your best old boy, you did your best", Henry's mind worked overtime on what to do about the key weakness of the partnership...

Results can be found here

No comments:

Post a Comment