Maidstone veterans followed up their total success at their Spring Head in March, with a
total fail at Lea Spring! Though despite the whitewash, there were glimpses of some real good news for the future.
As a club, we were not well represented, with the juniors off at the inter-regionals in Nottingham and the seniors, opting to avoid picking up unnecessary points so early in the season... hmm... The Vets, too, were short handed, resulting in largely scratch crews being fielded.
I don't like the river Lea. It is, without doubt, the most putrid course on the circuit: where even the fish have given up the will to live as evidenced by the large number of dead ones floating along with the other dubious detritus that can be found in this waterway of North-East London. You don't want to fall in here.
Seemingly oblivious to this, James was first up in the Vet B 1x. He was against a Belgian man-monster in Lea colours, who was to take his first of 3 Maidstone scalps. James, plucky as ever, gave his best shot, and while he was well beaten, it wasn't an Easy win. Anyway - it didn't really count as James was in his Old Monmouthian colours ;).
Next up were the Vet C 4+. In the morning, Gerraint had called in sick, so a hung-over Abraham was drafted in at the last moment. We were up against... yes you've guessed it, the Belgian man-monster and 3 similarly built man-monsters, who could have been his brothers, rowing Vet B. Ollie echoed our thoughts with a: "gosh, they're big", while Abraham echoed our other thoughts with a: "and so very young...", and Huggins finished off our pre-start demoralisation with a: "and so very together", as they neatly took up station at the start.
The start marshall gleefully told us that he had calculated our head start to be all of 4 seconds, and were we happy with that? err - NO. Still we had a good start, rapidly stabilising at 36. The men-monsters had a better start, and got to a length down ominously quickly.
But, their stride, while neat, was very pedestrian - at a guess, rating 33, and we held them at 1 length for 450 meters. Liz, unable to hide the shock shouted: "YOU CAN DO THIS!" And we all thought we could, but the Lea had a finish up their sleeves, and we were, frankly, knackered. They cruised through and beat us by 1/3 length. We comforted ourselves later when we found out they were a training IM2 crew. No dishonour there.
"YOU CAN DO THIS". VET C v The Lea Men Monsters (pic courtesy Alan Rickwood)
So, there was much interest in the final when the men-monsters came across our very scratch, very uneven, Vet B 4+ where Mr Chairman sat in between our very own men monsters of Ridgeway and Tompkins. A very odd sight. Our boys went down a length immediately to the fast Lea start, not helped by some poor early bladework of our own. However, the slow Lea middle game came to light again, and our heroes clawed back a half length, before succumbing to the fast Lea finish, which undid all their good work. Another gutsy performance.
The race of the day for Maidstone, though, was still to come. The Vet E 4+, who have been doing a lot of secret, hardcore training, under the watchful if menacing presence of Chris Long, held a straight final against another Lea outfit. They blasted down the course, out-rating the Lea, but doing so a bit less tidily. It was neck and neck all the way. As the crews closed on the finish, a Lea marshall, said if they won, it would be a great scalp: the Lea crew had won at the FISA Masters International Regatta, and were a force to be reckoned with... "but the race is not over yet". Which was portentious as the Lea put in a surge at the finish and won by a canvas.
Another plucky failure. I predict great things for this crew this year.
Finally, our Vet Novice 4+ in quite a experimental configuration with big Bill at stroke. They are a powerful crew, but they are not quite ready, technically, and so lost to a neat Sudbury Vet Novice crew in the final. The Novice Vet squad has fantastic potential for the future though - watch this space.
So, as we headed away from London, pondering the failings of fielding scratch crews, and not practicing sprint finishes, heads were not particularly down, and we are sure in the knowledge that later in the season, the Vets will do their part for the club.
I reminded myself, once again, as I recoiled from the bloated, half eaten, floating carcass of a Cocker Spaniel, never, ever, to go single sculling on the River Lea.
