Docklands Head - 2011

MIRC went mob handed to the Docklands Head this year, particularly with a large contingent of scullers and doubles from the Juniors.

The weather was reminiscent of last year; a gin clear day, but much warmer, but also with an unfortunate 25 knot headwind bearing straight down the shortened course.

It was bloody out there, and after the first Division and numerous capsizes, the event was sensibly restricted to 4s and 8s, which impacted the Junior events heavily.

That said, even with a much reduced field, MIRC dominated the whole event, taking the first 3 fastest times, and with some notable performances further down the field.

Results are HERE

First were the dominant 4- of Morgan Hellen, Tim Grant, Chris Mollison and Matt Nicholls; fresh from their victory at the Fours Head, they destroyed this field, beating the second place MIRC Vet D 8+ by 35 seconds.

The Vet D 8+ coxed by Dani had a strong race.  They elected to use the women's blades and benefited from the shorter length in the difficult conditions.




















And in another powerful performance, the Novice 4x came third only just being beaten by the Veterans by 6 seconds.  We understand that Tom is throughly bereft and unconsolable from being beaten by the "old farts".  Still, based on this showing they will not be novice scullers for very long.

 Our rejuvenated ladies 8+ came 16th overall and 2nd to a strong Curlew ladies crew at IM3.  Their now trademark precision made the conditions look benign.

OK - that's before the start in the calm of the Victoria Dock, but even in the race it was pretty good!

The Vet C4+ came 17th, and seemed pretty happy for their second outing of the day.

 
Only 4 Junior boats got out in the end.  The stand out performance was in the J162x who came 31st  beating Thames Rowing Club by 36 seconds.

 A MIRC Junior sculler braves the docks!

Comic moment of the day was the unusual boat entry of Dani James into the Vet D8+.  It went something like this: Dani: "Cox getting in... aaaaarrrrrrghhhhhh," as she missed the boat altogether and ended up in the drink.  She was swamped for the rest of the day by other trainee coxes eager to learn how she performed this feat!

Dani - moments before her bath!

Photos, as ever, stolen from various FB albums particularly from Dani, Andrea and Anne

Well done MIRC - a good days racing!

Huggy's Blog - A Hit and Miss Autumn

The Pairs Head

After a solid performance at the Small Boats Head, we just can’t explain the Pairs Head.

Henry took one look at the water and the wind at Putney, and instantly reneged on his promise to let Huggy stroke the boat.

“Hugs old chap”, he opined, “These conditions call for experience and a calm head... so that counts you out”.

We felt we had a reasonable race: a strong start, and while the last half was really bumpy and a bit slack due to the awful conditions, everyone else said they had it bad too.

So how did we come last in category? Beaten by 3 of the boats we beat at Nottingham. Badly.

Inexplicable. No Excuses. Move on.

Hardcore Training

Our two heroes set about “moving on” with true professionalism. Henry went on holiday and caroused through 4 capitals of Eastern Europe, chomping his way through as much goulash, borsch and caviar and drinking as much vodka and jet fuel as he could feasibly cope with.

Meantime, Huggy took full advantage of Henry’s absence and delighted in the balance and power of ‘No Excuses’ being stroked by one Mr Mark Tompkins, who (despite the occasional snigger at the gasping mess behind him after a “gentle” 2k piece) was equally impressed with what could be done with the boat... in the right hands... Huggy is slowly getting used to the now obligatory grin and a wink from said Tompkins, as well as a conspiratorial “hello partner”.

"Hello partner"


Then Huggy went on his own European carouse – Venice: ate and drank even more than Henry did, but in less time; so when the fatter and fully debauched champions reconvened, they decided to forego any other attempt to train and just go to...

The Docklands Head

Henry’s face dropped at the sight of the milk-pond before him. He only agreed to go because he knew that the Docks in November are, 9 times out of 10, blowing a gale with waves the size of mountains. Any excuse not to sit in the bow seat had dissipated in one go. So it was a triumphant Huggy who eased himself into the unfamiliar surroundings of the stern, happy that the steering would be in safe hands... after all, what could go wrong, the course is pretty much straight.

They tanked off at 32, zipping past the MIRC Veteran Novice Lightweight Four before they could say boo. Settling into strong and steady 30 strokes per minute, Huggy entered the zone and happily closed his eyes to concentrate on the rhythm and his legs.

Clearly, so did Henry.

They both opened their eyes to the sound of marshalls screaming at them left, right and centre:

Huggy: “everything all right back there, old boy”

Henry: “all tickety boo, old chap... just a little tickle with on the left will see us clear...”

Huggy: “...clear of what, perchance”

Henry: “oh nothing important (grunt), a little more left (grunt) perhaps”.

They missed the swing-bridge by a hairs breadth.

Despite this, as they entered the second half of the race, the power was still coming on. Rating – a solid 30.

Henry: “Now where did you say the finish was?”

Huggy: “Didn’t you check?”

Henry: “Not again... you are supposed to check”

Huggy: “Au contraire old chap, it is de rigeur for the steersman to check”

Henry: “Exactly, you’re the steersman”.

Huggy: “Not today, I’m not”.

The rest is a story of various detours, the questioning of various marshalls and competitors they passed as to where the finish was (they were still moving the boat despite the ongoing argument). False pushes for imaginary finishes were to take place before the exhausted pair collapsed in a heap when they finally found the end, easily adding a hundred metres or so to the 2.75k course.

Fortunately their only opposition from Erith were a bit ill, and the Maidstone duo finished well ahead with an OK time of 11.49 mins.

The boys were oddly pleased with the result. Standards have clearly slipped.

Their second row in the Vet D Eight, was entirely pleasurable. So, tired but happy, our friends went to their homes to watch the Formula 1 ... and to do more plotting.

Docklands Head - 2010 - Vets Report

Maidstone Vets went mob handed to Docklands with no less than 27 competitors. Unfortunately, very few Vets from other clubs turned up, so for the most part we treated the day as a useful and enjoyable training exercise.

To add to the general pandemonium, most got 2 rows, which meant the day was incredibly busy.

For me, the result of the day came from our heavyweight Novice 4+, in the fantastically newly refurbished Sword (thanks yet again, Pat Tenters). The crew, coxed by Andrea Barker in her first ever race, were (like all the novices) asked to row at Open Masters level, yet still only lost the only Vet event – Masters D4+ by 2 seconds! The time was a strong 12.04 mins. If you consider that Liz Macham’s Top Squad rowing at Masters C4+ came in a very reasonable 11.26 mins, that’s quite an achievement. Well done chaps, it’s a bow shot on your oppositions for the future.

Andrea coxed her first race!

A couple of Heavies.

The lightweight Novices, coxed by Tui Thain, also rowing as Masters D4+, looked comfortable, but were disappointed by their 12.52 mins despite beating the Old Duffer D4+, who came in a surprisingly slow 13.10 mins (note the latter rowed in the second division when the headwind had stiffened significantly – probably a 20 second handicap).

A couple of Lights

So to the lightweights, I say “keep at it”, the heavies are punching above their weight as Novices, but you are still in the right ballpark. We may need to give the set up a tweak though. To the Old Duffers (who all felt it was a nice comfortable row - Alan Rickwood tells me he set a comfortable rate in the mid twenties) – probably just a bit too comfortable chaps. :)

Old Duffers: "Nice and comfortable lads, take it nice and comfortable"

Huggy and Henry in the Masters D2x delivered a respectable 11.49 mins, despite the usual sightseeing and other shenanigans which will be explored further in the Blog!

In addition to the small boats action, we all combined into 3, yes 3 Eights. A D8+ containing the top squad and the experienced Vets, a C8+ containing the Old Duffers and another C8+ containing the Novices – Poplar clearly have an aversion to Masters Novice racing.

Vet D8+ overtaking an extremely pretty ladies quad from Poplar...

In these combinations, all three boats did admirably well. All came off the water with broad smiles on their faces – it was lovely to see. For the record:

Experienced D8+ - 10.44 mins (9th overall)

Old Duffers C8+ - 10.55 mins (12th overall)

Novice C8+ - 11.39 mins (28th overall).

The question I have left with the Poplar organisers is: “why no pot?” We await their response.

Well done everyone – a great day out.

 "Do you think I'm sexy?"

Who was in what boat.

Docklands Head - 2010 - More Wins for the Senior Squad!

I will leave the vets to tell you all how they got on today. Their reports are always much more amusing!

Another weekend, another race! This time to the east of London when MIRC went, en masse, to the Docklands Head. A bitterly cold start but at least there was no rain and, unusually for the docks, no wind! Once again though, thanks to everyone who turned out to support us - it really is valued and I am convinced you spur us on to greater things.

Frenetic activity saw all the Maidstone boats rigged in double quick time, and out on the water for a 9.30 (ish) race start. The conditions were as good as you were ever likely to get at the docks in November and everyone was looking forward to a good morning's racing.

The MasA 4+ had a last-minute seat swap and Mark 'Free Rate' Tomkins stroked his first ever head race, and what an excellent row it was for the crew, overtaking two IM3 coxless fours in the process and rowing down Poplar's Elite 2-! All the crews were happy with their racing , the Nov 4x having stormed through the field and the Nov 4+ performing really well.

The wind picked up and changed direction slightly which made the conditions in the second division very different. All crews found they had scrappier rows but generally coped well. We then just waited for the results!

The organisers had already told me they reckoned there was at least 20 seconds difference between the divisions but asked me if it was possible for the Nov4x to have won. I said I hadn't seen the another Nov4x but I told them the crew was going really well at the moment and that they had said they'd had a stonking race (Tom deserving a special mention for some really excellent steering.) Going back to the trailer, I told a couple of the squad that the rumour was that the 4x had won and glibly said that if they meant that the crew had won fastest boat overall (and not just Nov4x), I would buy everyone in the squad a Chinese meal! However, as this meant they would have had to beat IM1, IM2 and IM3 8+s, I felt my money was safe.

When the results were finally posted, we could not believe how well the squad had done, and were delighted with some excellent racing from our vets crews as well! Some extremely good finishing positions and some very creditable wins against other crews. And all six of our 4s in the top 25! We think of Curlew and Poplar & Blackwall as the local rivals, so it was particularly pleasing to perform so exceptionally well against them. There was some surprise that a Nov 4x could beat an 8+ but Curlew's ex-Men's Captain, David, very graciously came up to John afterwards and said he thought that, when he saw them, the 4x was moving definitely faster than Curlew's IM1 8+. Very sporting.

Everyone in the squad had an excellent day, and it was really good to be able to turn out in force with the vets and show just what 'only Maidstone' can do! Does anyone know a good Chinese restaurant?!

Finishing Positions
1
Nov 4x Hugh (S), Charlie, John and Tom - Fastest Overall
7
IM2 4+ John (S), Charlie, Hugh, Ben and Jo (cox) - Fastest IM2 4+
8
MasA 4+ Mark (S), Richard R, Lewis, Rick Wood and Lois (cox) - Fastest Masters Boat
14
IM3 4x Alex, Richard R, Fergus and Rick Wood
16
IM2 4+ Rob, Mark, Will, Tom and Lois (cox)
24
Nov 4+ Rob, Fergus, Oli, Alex and Jo (cox)

Out of 127 crews

Full results available at www.pbdrc.co.uk

Docklands Head - 2010 Draw

THe draw for the Head can be found HERE.

Remember, boat loading is from 10am on Sat morning.

Docklands Head 02 November 2008

The winter training at Maidstone Invicta Rowing Club has been going very well over the last few months, both the ladies and the mens squad have committed to water outings and land based training in the mornings, evenings and weekends and are now training under their new coach Ray Cassidy.

On Sunday 2nd November three fours and two eights travelled to Docklands to compete in the first Head race of the season away from home water. The crews were set off and raced against the clock, making every stroke count over the 2750m course to ensure the best time possible for the crew.

The MIRC mens eight were the fastest boat of the day completing the course in a time of 9 mins and 20 seconds. The mens novice four also won their category completing the course in a time of 10.51.

The Womens S4 8+ were the fastest women’s boat and completed the course in an impressive time of 10.51.
All the Maidstone boats finished in the top 14 out of the 61 competitors on the day and now MIRC are looking forward to competing in the next race of the season.

Laura McGrillen