A small but focused contingent of our Veteran oarsman attended a swelteringly hot Henley Masters this year with temperatures soaring into the low 30s.
Competition was more intense than ever before, and it is becoming clear that this is a tougher regatta to win at than the Masters National Championships.
All 4 crews got through their early rounds on Friday to return on Saturday.
The B double of James Knight and Lewin Hynes lost their final against Peterborough, who dazed all on the bank with a cruising rating of 38-40. The slower, but more powerful strokes of the MIRC double kept them ahead until the last 100 metres where the Peterborough crew found another gear to row through and win. Hard lines.
Our lads paired up with Medway to race Peterborough again in the final of the B 4x. The race was almost exactly the same format as the double's race, with the MIRC/Medway quad being rowed down at the last gasp. Really hard lines.
The D Quad (Ollie Barton, Geraint Evans, Ray Phillips and Richard Huggins), having taken revenge on a Vesta crew who narrowly beat them last year in the first round, met the favourites, Broxbourne, in the semis, only to crash out against the posts at the end of their start. A result of faulty steering, a bad crosswind and a tendency of the crew to skew off to bowside on the start. It was very disappointing. Broxbourne went on to win the event.
The biggest surprise for MIRC was the success of the D double (Huggins and Evans), who beat a strong Ardingly crew in the first heat; and a competent Bath/Chester composite in the semis, but were seen off in their final by a scarily strong crew from Kingston in the final.
So, three finals and no wins for MIRC, but after some very hard racing there was really no disgrace.
Maidstone Invicta won its first Henley Masters Race (I think) with the B4+ of James Knight, Will Purnell, Richard Ridgway and Lewin Hynes - coxed by Joanne Jarrett beating Upper Thames by all of 2 ft.
It was the culmination of 3 epic heats over two very soggy days, and an inauspicious start with Will and Joanne only just making it in time as the boat was being carried down to the boating area.
Hurrah!
The Masters D8+ were unfortunate in coming across Leander BC(Canada) with 3 ex-internationals in the boat, and were happy that the losing distance was no more than 3 lengths. That said, they seem to have plateaued (not entirely fair - this is Henley after all). The serious season is now over, and some thought is going into next season's priorities.
An experimental D4x made an appearance (Henley not really being the place to experiment, but hey...) and early impressions that this had possibilities were justified with a relaxed performance, just losing to Vesta by a canvas in the first round. Watch this space.
Finally, MIRCs next generation Olympians made a an appearance to sniff out the turf and get a feel for their future stomping grounds!
That will be standard conditions for the Masters regatta season so far then. The worst aspect was a steady 20 knot headwind, which was slowing down crews by 20 to 30 seconds, and making for choppy conditions.
We took 2 crews to the Henley. Messers Chapman and Marshall in the F2x and the Vet D 8+ - the only changes from Nottingham being Rob Kenway replacing Harry (who was umpiring and, despite ugly threats, was refusing to accept bribes) and Lois coxing.
The double were first off against Cincinnati. These guys were terrifyingly good, combined with the rough water not suiting our lightweight(ish) double, they were 4 lengths up by the 500m mark. They went on to win the event easily.
The Eight had a bye into the quarters, where they met Nottingham BC, who had beaten Stourport. Notts have a strong reputation, and had come 3rd at the Masters Champs last year, but had not been seen on the calendar this year. They must have been rusty, as we beat them by 1.75 lengths in a headwind which made it difficult for both crews to obtain full length. Despite the slow time (like everybody elses) - 3.47 minutes, we are calling that one a scalp!
On Sunday (with more benign if not perfect conditions), the Eight were more confident in our clash with Marlow in the semis, who we have beaten before (just). We put absolutely everything into it at the start, taking a 1/3 length by the 500m mark. But with all credit to them, they slowly clawed their way back, and we had nothing left to hold them off, eventually losing by 4 miserable feet in a time of 3.27 :(.
We were gutted, but will come out of it stronger, I am sure. Marlow, then went on to lose easily to Crabtree (Cambridge Alumni) in the Final, who are in a league of their own in this event.
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...
Crews from both the ladies and the men’s squad represented the club at Veterans Henley. The crews raced over 1000m of the Royal Henley course. The weather on Friday for the men’s double scull was terrible with rain, wind and a fast flowing stream. Robin Chapman and James Knight, a very experienced crew were prepared for the challenge that lied ahead. With a blinding start the crew settled down into their race pace, focused only on their race plan. Their opposition, a composite crew from Ardingly, started to edge forward at the half way mark putting them slightly in the lead. Chapman and Knight fought hard to stay with the Ardingly crew but were defeated by 2 lengths overall but thoroughly enjoyed the race and their 2008 Henley experience.
The ladies double scull, Kate Povall and Liz Macham had better luck with the weather on Saturday and made their way up to the start in plenty of time. As Stolen Dreams made its way up to the start, through the wake of cruisers and umpire launches, around Temple Island they met with their opposition, a County of Avon/Globe composite crew. After a bit of banter, both crews made their way to the stake boats, the umpire sent them off and the Maidstone lilac ladies had a blistering start, taking some water off the opposition early on. After the crews had settled into their stride the Avon/Globe crew started to pull away.
Fighting through the strong winds made the middle part of the race a strong challenge for the Maidstone crew, the conditions differed greatly to those experienced on the Medway. Povall and Macham soon picked up when they heard the cheer for Maidstone from the bank. Rating at 34 Strokes per Minute at the half way, the Coach (Robin ‘the rowing tart’ Chapman), started to run along with the crew, encouraging them to drive it home. Maidstone dug deep and kept it technical but could not pull back the two length lead that remained from here until the finish.
Both crews slummed over the finish and congratulated each other. The Maidstone ladies obviously enjoyed the experience as they had vowed to make a return visit to Veterans Henley before they had even reached the landing stage after the race.
