Maidstone put in 5 crews this year. The established Vet D8+ in both Open and IM3 configurations; the established Vet C4+ that won gold last year in IM3 deciding to see what life was like at Open; and a couple of experimental crews: a Vet A4x and a Vet C4x.
The Vet C4x consisting of Mark Tompkins, Lewin Hynes, Ray Philips and James Knight looked an intriguing and possible medal winning combination combining the age and determination of Mr Philips with the youth and raw power of the other 3. And indeed, they fought well in a very tough field, coming a close 4th in the heat, in 3.20 and 5th in the final
I hope we see more of them this year.
The Vet A4x was the same combination, but this time Will replacing Ray, also looked a strong unit, and it looked like they might deliver a silver in their straight final when Mark did what sometimes happens to the best of us, he crabbed a total boat stopper at about the 750m mark. By the time they had got going again, they had been passed by the rest of the field and trailed in last.
Again - worth continuing with the experiment I think.
The Open D8+ came to the race with a very strong start to the season including 3 Head wins and 5th of all UK crews in their category at the Vets Head of the River. The only problem being that the 4 that beat them: Quintin, Peterborough, Bewdley and Upper Thames all came to the Championships too! They were fully aware that this would be very difficult, particularly when a rather scary Northern Irish composite were in the field, along with Nottingham (no slackers), Dart Totnes and Loughborough.
Kudos to the crew, who after an awful start (more anon) rowed though Loughborough and Peterborough (yes the very same Peterborough who kept handing our backsides to us all last season), to make the Final in a fast time of 3.13.
Of course the Final was even harder, and they were just pipped to 5th place by Bewdley (0.3 seconds) after rowing through Nottingham, after another pretty poor start. You can see a pattern evolving here. Quintin won again.
The Vet D IM3 8+ had just 3 replacements from the Open version. We knew they would be competitive, simply because times in training and races proved they were not much slower (1 second slower at the Thames Valley Trial Head). It's not as stable a platform as the Open 8+, but there is a lot of grunt there. In fact, the only thing that really worried them in their field of 5 in the straight final was there was a Vet E crew in there (Star/Isle of Ely) with a 7 second head start.
They should not have worried though. After a shaky start (hmm heard that before), they kicked off hard and fast, chasing down the Star composite and leaving the rest of the field (Reading, Tees, Champion of the Thames and Broxborne) well in their wake.
By 750, they had overhauled Star and cruised to a fairly easy victory in a net time of 3.19.
GOLD - Hurrah!
Last up, the Vet C4+. Hmm, let me think, 5 points in the boat, 3 years shy of Vet D, no training, final of the Nat Champs.... Nuff said.
Finally, this is where we say goodbye to Steve Bickers for the time being, whose commute to the club and work commitments have managed to get in the way.
Shame, he is going to miss the intensive Start training!
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