Sudbury Regatta - 2013

Chaos prevailed in the run up to Sudbury.  Key crew members were on holiday, crews were entered way past our official deadlines.  Our administrators were entering crews while they were on holiday (thank you Charlotte and Anne); trailer towers were not identified until very late in the day, and there was no boat/loading plan.  Toys were thrown out of prams... and then thrown back in again.

Only through dint of persistence on behalf of the few, did the many manage to get to the regatta; race and win...

10 times!!!!

Sudbury, as usual, delivered fair skies, a relaxed ambience, entertaining visits to the notorious banks by novice and experienced alike; and frankly admirable handling of the divisions by the organisers, with enormous levels of flexibility and humour.

There were far too many crews and far too many races to catalogue them all.  So here are the winners.

Peter McLarney and Alex Marlow won the IM3 2- beating St Neots, Broadland and the Lea.

Ben Finch beat Oundle Town and St. Neots in the IM3 1x

Jake Harris beat Kann Belton in an all MIRC straight final in the J18 1x.

Keith Jones beat St Neots in the Masters G/H 1x

Huggy won the Masters D 1x beating Isle of Ely, Peterborough and his doubles partner, Geraint in the final.

Pluto and Dan Hawke won a straight final in the IM2 2x

Ross Porter and Jake Harris beat the Lea in a straight final of the J18 2x.

Mark Tompkins and Sean Bennett beat St Neots in the Masters A Novice 2x - thus losing their novice cherries!

Sue and Roger Mobbs beat Sudbury and Peterborough in the Masters D/G Mixed 2x

Sue having a bad hair day!

Susannah and Kate Povall thrashed Erith in the Womens Masters A/B 2x in a MIRC/ Csepel Evezos Klub composite, thus firmly staking Sudbury regatta as a truly international venue ;) 

Finally, Maidstone Grammar School for Boys came for their first serious regatta under the stewardship of headmaster and MIRC rower, Mark Tompkins, and coxed by Lois Birrell. They fielded 6 crews and won the Mixed IM3 2x and the Novice 2x.  Well done.

A fantastic day's racing everyone.  Well done.

Meanwhile the rowing committee have a few organisational things to sort out...

Other pics...

 Alistair's harem chilling before their first ever race!

Valiant effort by the harem - lost by 2 lengths

   Geraint giving the bank the "evils"

Sudbury International Regatta - 2012

MIRC continued their excellent record at Sudbury this year with a tally of 10 wins.  7 to the Masters and 3 to the Juniors.  We won 14 races last year, but that was with the Senior squad, who did not show this year.  This year was arguably a more difficult field with a veritable sea of orange as a very strong Lea contingent descended on the Regatta en masse.

I don't know how they do it, but the organisers at Sudbury always manage to get the weather right for their regatta, so after a couple of showers in the morning, we were treated to a beautiful English summers day.

The Masters campaign started off badly with a loss in the defence of their Masters A Eights title against Lea.  Who beat us tactically, by racing at 48 at 3/4 slide.  We strode at 40 at full slide, but just could not compete with that stroke rate.  Something to think about next time.

As we are talking Sudbury here, the day was littered with incidents, in particular, multiple flirtations with the infamous banks going both for and against our crews.  Although it was clear that we have an edge from our own experience at Maidstone compared to many other crews.

The Masters B2x of James Knight and Lewin Hynes came across top quality opponents from Medway, who were attracted to the Bank like magnets.  After Medway's first stoppage, our young Masters, very gentlemenly it has to be said, stopped and then restarted once Medway had almost caught up.  This lasted a few more strokes before Medway hit the Suffolk bank again.  A rather unsatisfactory win.

Richard Huggins (Masters D1x) and Ray Philips (Masters E1x) showed their quality in the single sculls both winning their events comfortably.

They combined to beat Broxbourne in the semis of the D2x, only to be just beaten by Paul Kane and Mick Howe (MIRC/Ardingly composite) in the final.  Paul and Mick had beaten Huntingdon fairly easily twice (another gentlemenly rerow) to get there.

You would have thought Sudbury themselves would be immune to the dangers of the course, but after their Masters F crew beat our very own Tony Marshall and Keith Jones (rowing Vet G) in the heats, they in turn succumbed to their Suffolk bank in the final against our Robin Chapman and Roger Mobbs.



Roger then combined with Sue Mobbs in their now traditional Mixed Masters F 2x race against Sudbury (Masters D) in the best Masters race of the day, with Sudbury clawing back against the large handicap every step of the way, and Roger and Sue hanging in there for dear life.  They won by a length.



Finally, the newly promoted Masters crew from Chris Long's Weight Training squad (for want of a better name) played at Masters A IM3 4+.  They were either going to thrash or be thrashed in that event, and fortunately it was the former, as they were placed against a very Novice looking Gravesend crew, allowing them to win by the biggest margin of the day.




Jez Massey, Ali Machin, Mr Mayor, Dani James, Darren Prentice, Chris Long

The Juniors came with a large posse of youngsters, some of whom were enjoying their first regatta. None successful, but a great experience for them anyway.





Andrew Collins and Jake Harris won the J16 2x easily in an all MIRC final beating Broxbourne on the way.  Andrew also made the final of J16 1x eventually being beaten by the boy who beat Jake in the previous round. However the race with Jake was extremely close and the fastest single race of the whole day!





Beth Arscott and Lauren Gilchrist won by 2 lengths in the WJ16 2x, beating Rob Roy in the final.

Finally Beth and Lauren teamed up with Arabella Gordon-Reid and Tamsyn McConnchie in a WJ16 4x+.  Coxed by Connor Gilchrist, the crew racing as seniors (WIM3 4x+) beat Leicester RC handsomely by 3 lengths in a straight final.

Do we know him?

The now usual Veterans celebratory picture in the evening sun.

Another fun day out for us in Suffolk. A big thanks to the parents who helped out, and for towing from Chris and Darren.

Finally, there is some good video footage at Row TV HERE from a number of the Divisions.

Big thanks to the Facebooks of Andi, Jez and Darren for the piccies.

Sudbury International Regatta - 2011

MIRC went mob-handed to Sudbury this year with some 31 crews competing to bring in a fantastic return of 14 victories!

Juniors

While not strictly a junior event, the Porter brothers, Ross and David, romped home to win their Novice pot in the Novice 2x, beating Sudbury by 2 lengths and Lea in the final easily.  It is always great to see rowers win their novice event, and this was a great way to do it.  A proud day for mum and dad looking on from the bank.

The Porter brothers winning their novice sculling pot.

Tamsin McConchie also dominated her event in the Junior 14 1x, beating Lea and Sudbury comfortably.

Her sister Sally  then went on with Ross Porter to win the mixed J16 2x in a straight final with MIRC.  With so many entries, we were bound to be racing each other occasionally.

 Big grins from Ross and Sally


Sarah Judd and Abbi Delderfield beat the Junior's old adversaries, Kings Canterbury, in a straight final in the Womens J17 2x.

 Sarah gives Abbi a hug!

Seniors

The seniors won the battle of the squads with 6 wins in total.

Ben Finch, and Mark Tompkins combined with ladies from Poplar (Laura Birrell and Sarah Kendall) won a straight final in the mixed IM3 4x+.

The new combination of Steve Slade and Lewin Hynes followed up their Novice and IM3 2x success with another win here, beating their Peterborough opposition easily, who had fallen foul of the infamous Sudbury bank.  The lads just missed out on the IM2 2x race against the powerful Medway double by 1 foot.  Fantastic work.

Steve and Lewin getting cozy with the Mayor.

Some terrific racing was to be had in the mixed Elite 8+, with MIRC roping in some old stalwarts such as Alex Torbica, Jennie Hampshire and Katie Martin.  The crew was also beefed up by a couple of our successful Henley Wyfolds 4-: Chris Mollison and Matt Nicholls.  Helen Taylor, Craig Welch and Laura McGrillen made up the rest of the 8 (does anyone have the coxes name?). They went on to win the event beating Sudbury, Lea and Cambridge in the process.

 The Elite Mixed 8 beating Lea in the semis.

Chris Mollison and Craig Welch won the Elite 2x, beating a strong crew from Gravesend.  The novelty here was that Chris had all the points, Craig (a newcomer to MIRC) was a novice - a spectacular way to win your novice pot.

Triple event winners, Chris Mollison and Craig Welch

A third novice victory was gained when newcomers to the club, Charlotte Faulkner and Craig Welch again won the Mixed Novice 2x.

Chris then got his third victory of the day in the mixed IM2 4+ with Matt, Laura McGrillen and Helen Taylor.

Some of the winning seniors with their amassed pots.  See if you can spot a few old MIRC ringers!


Masters

The Veterans had their fair share of the spoils too with 4 wins.  Tony Marshall followed up his double at St. Neots with another couple: starting with a win with Richard Huggins in the Vet E 2x in the third of the all Maidstone straight finals.

Roger and Sue Mobbs beat their old adversaries: the Lea, and then Sudbury easily to win in the Mixed Vet F2x.

Tony and Richard then combined with Robin Chapman and Alan Leeson in a Vet F4x+ (coxed by Roger Mobbs) to beat their friends from Bewl Bridge in a hard fought final.

 Vet Fx+ on the way to their win.  How did that 35 year old get into the 2 seat?

And finally, the Open Vet A 8+ won an extremely tight competition redressing their loss against Broxbourne last year in the quarters, and then beating a St Ives/Huntingdon composite by a canvas in the semis, and eventually Medway by 1/2 length in the Final.  The crew, consisting of Steve and Lewin (enjoying their 2nd win of the event), Richard Ridgway, Mark Tompkins, Graeme Hodgkinson, Steve Bickers, Sean Bennett and Richard Huggins, was coxed expertly by Sue Mobbs.  Huggy was the third triple winner of the regatta, but no one stayed around to listen to his 10 page acceptance speech at the prize giving.  He is saving it for the annual dinner though!

The Vet A 8+ holding off Medway in the Final.

Various Veterans showing off their pewter.

A wonderful day out for MIRC.  For most of us, the final regatta of the season.  Ahead lie holidays and the Head season!

Watch this space as additional photos will be added when they are sent to me.

Sudbury Regatta Results and Photos

Stacks of wins were had at Sudbury. The results can be found here

While our correspondents work on the various reports for the Juniors, Seniors and Veterans. Here are some pics to be getting on with: