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.



1 comment:

Richard Huggins said...

Updated with some more pics and sorted out some crew details.

Post a Comment