Maidstone Autumn Small Boats Head - 2012

The weather Gods were kind to us this year after weeks of rain, there was neither flooding nor a particularly strong stream.  Instead we were treated to a glorious autumn day, albeit with a headwind during the 2nd and 3rd divisions impacting times a little.

The clubs visiting us bore a close resemblance to those who came to the Spring Head, with strong contingents from the Lea, Medway Towns, Globe, and Kings School Canterbury in particular.  So, as we are beginning to discover, the days when MIRC dominated the event are long gone, and a thoroughly competitive day was to be had.

MIRC did reel in a good clutch of wins, however,

Chris Mollison and Matt Nicholls were our fastest boat in the pair coming 3rd overall in 9.06, though were without opposition.

Another special note goes to Saunders and Marlow in their IM2 pair who came 6th in 9.15.  Their terrifyingly high rating making up for some unique steering and timing choices, is now putting them in spitting distance of Mollison and Nicholls.  "Game on" says Tom.

The Masters D4x+ of Richard Huggins, Ollie Barton, Gerraint Evans and Ray Philips (coxed by Andrea Barker) came 9th and won the D/Cx category in 9.18 without having to resort to their handicap.

The Masters G4x+ of Tony Marshall, Alan Leeson, Keith Jones, and Robin Chapman (again coxed by Andrea Barker) won their G/Fx category in a very useful time of 9.47.  For the uninitiated - G represents a minimum average age of 65.

Jake Harris continued his strong season by winning the J17 singles in 9.56.

Lucy Maunsell and Andrew Collins won the mixed J182x in 10.38.

Of the other Juniors, a special note goes to the WJ13 4x+ of Louise Holt, Charlotte Burrows, Molly Bishop, Ella Knight and cox Katie Le Lion experienced their first head race and coped admirably with the chaos of pre and post race marshalling. They did well to complete the course despite being smashed into from behind by an aggressive coxless pair wearing orange and thus learning a few new words in the process! Great work to build upon with a benchmark set to beat in Spring. 

And finally, Tony Marshall won the Masters E/F 1x category in 11,45, beating his friend and frequent opponent from Tyne RC, Ian Boyd, by just 3 seconds.

Another fun day out on the Medway was had by all, with only 3 swimmers.  Just need to get those final results out a bit quicker.. hint.