A small but effective group of Masters and Seniors went to Peterborough this year and came back with 4 wins.
The senior men had made a strategic call to train during the Spring in small boats (singles and doubles/pairs), so that the smaller squad could still make an impact in terms of numbers of entries. The ploy has worked admirably, with an excellent return of 3 wins:
Alex Marlow and Tom Saunders won the IM2 pair in 3.52 with a handsome victory margin over Peterborough and Lincoln/RAF.
Jonathan Voss and Pluto Nicolls (in his comeback race after 2 years fixing his worthless VW Polo) won the IM3 2x in two heats beating Deben, Champion of the Thames, Birmingham, Derby and Peterborough.
Tom then went on to win the IM3 singles in a field including Milton Keynes, Peterborough, Nottingham, Warwick, Broxbourne, Sheffield, Derby and our very own Marlow and Finch! What was impressive with this win was that some of the toughest competition came from his fellow MIRC scullers, which bodes well for the seniors’ small boats strategy in the future!
The Masters also picked up an excellent win with the Masters B Novice 4+ (Dave Purchase, Richard Reynolds, Mark Pflaumer and Graham Hill, coxed by Dani) taking time out from their weight training schedule to actually row, and losing their rowing cherries in a tight competition against St. Neots and Peterborough. Hurrah.
Edit: view of the race from the coxes seat;
"from the crews perspective the race was perfectly timed. They had a good start with a healthy lead, took the pressure off in the middle and put a perfectly timed push in at the end with energy to spare ....... the reality however is yes they did get a really good start but weren't ever able to take the pressure off as at the 500m mark the crew in Lane 3 (? peterborough) started to gain and put pressure on so they had to keep their heads together and work hard, no let up! at the 250 mark they were coming ever closer and at about 200m I called "keep your eyes in the boat, above my head and listen only to me!" as I thought they may panic if they saw how close it was followed by "it's yours if you want it but you've got to give it all you've got now to the finish" and thankfully they held them off. There was certainly no energy left at the end so 3 cheers was quite difficult
The plus point is that we have retained the Rod Glover Trophy and are the only club to have their name on it twice .... just need to find a male novice crew for next year now :-)"
Other MIRC representation included the BBQ Masters D4+, Messers Jones and Marshall in a Vet Z double and Katy Povall in a Ladies B/C 1x.
Will Purnell lead the next man by several lengths of clear water to comfortably qualify for the semi-final of the novice sculls. Unfortunately the competition for a spot in the final proved a little too tough, but nonetheless a fantastic showing by Will in his first solo outing at a regatta. Next stop, Reading Town!
Well done all, and thanks for Darren and Thor for the pics.
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