Henley Royal Regatta - 2012

MIRC continued to evolve into a club of substance last week, with 2 of 3 crews qualifying for Henley Royal.

The Wyfold 4- of Tim Grant, Morgan Hellen, Ryan Mitchell and David Porter were knocked out by Tyne RC in what looks like one of the closest races of Wednesday.  They were up at the Barrier and Fawley, but were rowed through and lost by 1/2 length.  Tyne's time was a very competitive 7.43 mins.

On the Friday, Chris Mollison and Matt Nicholls were always going to be up against it, as they confronted the Italian national lightweight 2- in the Silver Goblets and Nickalls' Challenge Cup.  The Italians, L. De Maria & A. Dell'Aquil, who were Silver Medallists at the last World Cup, dominated the race to win by 5 lengths.  A tough draw in a tough event.

Well, it is Henley after all.  Just getting there for a club of our stature is a immensely positive statement, and with the quality shown by our J16s rowing in the Fawleys, the auspices for the next few years are good.

Meanwhile... on the river bank, MIRC members, old and current, were seen hobnobbing with the great and the good, and cutting a dash in numbers over the course of the 5 days... here's a selection stolen from FB as usual.

Dani and Andi

Andi and Sir Matthew!

Craig and David (wake up Craig)

 Huggy

 Chris

Mike, Roger and John

 Paul and friends from Holland

Sue

Henley 2012 Qualifiers

MIRC put in 3 crews for Henley Qualification this year, with excellent results:

The junior quad travelled to the Henley Royal Regatta qualifiers on Friday aiming to grab a place in the Fawley Cup. In blustery conditions, the predominantly J16 crew (in a J18 event), performed admirably, battling through the strong headwind against crews quite literally twice their size. In the end, the boys just missed out on qualification but finished 4th out of the non-qualifiers, 7s off and a fantastic 12/25 crews overall. Given that 3 of the 4 boys have 2 years left, it looks increasingly promising that we will have a Junior Fawley quad competing at Henley in the next couple of years.

 The quad was from stroke, Jack Grace, Jake Harris, Pierre Flasse, Ross Porter.

The Wyfold 4 of Tim Grant, Morgan Hellen, Ryan Mitchell and David Porter, meanwhile, has had some mixed results over the past few weeks. After a rigger fell off in the first 100m of their race at Marlow, they somehow still managed to pre-qualify for HRR and were therefore not required to race on Friday. This has allowed them more time to prepare and they have been cruising up and down the Medway, picking up speed daily since. The draw for HRR has now been made and they will be up against Tyne RC for their first race on Wednesday.

Meanwhile our coxless pair of Matt Nicholls and Chris Mollison successfully negotiated qualifying for the The Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup in the dreadful stream and wind conditions.

Well done everyone, we look forward to seeing you at Henley!

Helen Taylor

Henley Royal Regatta - 2011

With the senior IM2 Eight only just failing to qualify for the Thames Challenge Cup by a measly 5 seconds (hard luck lads), the hopes of MIRC lay on our top coxless four in the Wyfolds, who had pre-qualified with distinction (winning at the Metropolitan).

IM2 8 just failing to make the cut, but looking very neat (from 7.20 in the video).

The crew of Mat Nicholls, Stuart Hampshire, Chris Mollison and Tim Grant did exceptionally well, making it to the quarter finals of the Wyfolds with relative ease by beating Abingdon and Banks RC (Aus) both by 3 lengths.  Unfortunately that is when the met the ultimate winners - London RC (A), losing in the fastest heat of the event.

 Our boys very comfortably beating the Aussies in the second round (5.03 into the clip).

We are all especially proud of the guys, who once again, have done Maidstone proud!

Henley Royal Regatta

Not sure if someone will do a write up, but here are Morgan and Tim in a composite quad with Maidenhead in the Fawleys.  I understand they got through a heat.
Starts at the 4.37 min point in the video.



The Senior 8 Thames Cup bid can be checked out here.  Unfortunately beaten by a very useful Galway 8+ in the first round who got to the semis.

Henley Royal Regatta - 1st - 5th July 2009

Maidstone Invicta Rowing club (MIRC), managed to qualify with 4 boats at Henley Royal Regatta last week 1st – 5th July. 3 of the boats (coxless 4 competing in the Wyfold Challenge Cup, Double scull competing for the Challenge Cup and the Mens Eight A competing for the Thames Cup) managed to automatically qualify for this prestigious event. Whilst the Mens eight B also competing for the Thames Cup had to prequalify on Friday 26th June where they had to beat eight crews to enable them to Race at this Regatta.

The regatta course is 1 mile 550 yards (2,112 metres) long. It has 2 crews racing at one time in knockout stages, which take place each day, leading up to the final on the Sunday (5th)

On the first day of the regatta Wednesday 1st July, MIRC had 3 boats racing. The first Maidstone crew to race that day, was the Coxless 4 (Josh Pendry, Will Tew, Alex Torbica and Craig Turner) In the Wyfolds Challenge cup. They had been drawn against Nottingham Rowing Club and managed to beat them by 2 ½ lengths, qualifying them to race on the Thursday when they beat Worcester rowing club by 1 ¾ lengths, which got them through to the Quarter finals on The Friday, unfortunately they lost to Sydney Rowing Club, Australia by 3 ½ lengths. Sydney RC went on to win the Wyfolds Challenge Cup.

The 2nd crew to race that day, was the eight B (James Knight, Alastair Cooper, Geraint Evans, Mark Tomkins, William Purnell, Richard Ridgeway, Guy Sticklee and Owen Mills – coxed by Sue Mobbs), The Eight were up against Chester RC, but were beaten by 3 ¾ lengths. Chester were very nearly disqualified due to bad steering.

The Mens eight A (Sam Blackwell, Tim Grant, Lance Tredell, Tom Mason, Morgan Hellen, James Crumpton, Jon Farrar, Ben Farrar, coxed by Ross Porter) raced later in the afternoon and were up against Monmouth Rowing Club, where they beat Monmouth by 3 lengths, qualifying them for the Thursday where they up against Green Lake Crew, USA and won by 2 ¼ lengths, pushing them through to the Quarter final stages on the Friday and were up against one of the favourites London Rowing Club A. Unfortunately London Rowing Club beat them by 3 lengths. The Winners of the Thames Cup were Molesey Boat Club A.

Also racing on the Friday in the quarter final, was Stuart Hampshire and Chris Mollison who were racing their Double Scull in the Double Sculls Challenge Cup. They lost by 1 ¾ lengths to the New Zealand international double Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen who were the eventual winners of the Challenge Cup and beat the GB international and Olympic bronze medallists Double (Matthew Wells & Steve Rowbotham) in the final.

Well done to all those who participated.

MIRC's next regatta is Nat Champs in Nottingham on 17th 18th and 19th July.

Laura Johnson

Qualifying for Henley Royal Regatta - 1st - 5th July 2009

Maidstone Invicta Rowing club is celebrating its 25th anniversary year this year and what a fantastic way to celebrate than by reporting that four MIRC boats have managed to qualify at this years Henley Royal Regatta. This is a fantastic achievement for a provincial club to have more than one entry into this highly prestigious event.

 Last year was the first year that MIRC entered, with Chris Mollison and Stuart Hampshire entering into the Double Sculls Challenge Cup. This year they are entering for the same cup again, and are up against Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen, two international rowers from New Zealand.

 MIRC are also entering two junior crews at senior level. The first being the coxless four (Josh Pendry, Will Tew, Alex Torbica and Craig Turner) challenging for the Wyfold Challenge Cup and are competing against Nottingham Rowing Club in the first round.

 The other junior crew at this event is the Mens eight: (Simon Blackwell, Tim Grant, Lance Tredell, Tom Mason, Morgan Hellen, James Crumpton, Jon Farrar, Ben Farrar, coxed by Ross Porter) challenging for the Thames Cup. They have been drawn up against Monmouth Rowing Club.

 Another MIRC crew challenging for the Thames Cup:(James Knight, Alastair Cooper, Geraint Evans, Mark Tomkins, William Purnell, Richard Ridgeway, Guy Sticklee and Owen Mills – coxed by Sue Mobbs), they have been drawn against Royal Chester Rowing Club.

 We would like to say a big well done to all MIRC participants racing at this years Henley Royal Regatta and would like to see all their hard work pay off with victories for the Maidstone crews and hope that the spectators provide enough support for all those that cannot attend to show their support.

Laura Johnson & Laura McGrillen

Royal Henley Regatta 02-06 July 2008

On the 3rd July, two members from Maidstone Invicta Rowing Club (MIRC) Chris Mollison and Stuart Hampshire, took part in the very prestigious Henley Royal Regatta thanks to sponsorship from Right Management. Henley Royal Regatta is a major event attracting many rowing clubs both nationally and internationally. The regatta runs over five days and operates on a knock out draw with two boats racing side by side in each round. The crews race over a distance of 1 mile, 550 yards which is 112metres longer than the standard international distance of 2,000metres. 

 
                                                                                                                                                                
This year was the first time that MIRC had a full senior crew to represent the club at Henley Royal Regatta.
Chris Mollison and Stuart Hampshire competed in the Double Sculls Challenge Cup event racing against a composite crew, D.J.Lowe and T.W Hennessey, from Adelaide Rowing Club and Adelaide University Rowing Club. The Australian stroke man had just missed out on a place in the Australian International Rowing crew.

Their nerves were unfounded as Hampshire set a good rate throughout the race and Mollison steered a brilliant course. MIRC had a fantastic start and managed to push away from the other crew almost instantly and settle into their race pace, which kept them ahead of the competition up to the first marker point, the Barrier. At this point the opposition’s experience showed as they started to come through the Maidstone crew, though Maidstone were by no means off the pace as they continued to push hard to the line. MIRC stayed with their opposition until the last 750m when the Australians pulled away to win by 1 ¾ lengths. Maidstone finished in a time of 8.02 just two seconds behind the winners.

Hampshire and Mollison were very positive about their race and both very pleased with their efforts as were the Maidstone supporters and their coach Ray Cassidy . The crew now look forward to their next race at National Championships in Nottingham where they hope to win a medal in their double scull.

Laura McGrillen