MIRC Spring Small Boats Head - 2013

Once again, Maidstone was graced with beautiful weather as our Spring Head heralded the start of Spring after a pretty grim winter in terms of cold, wind, rain and lost outings due to fast stream warnings.

This was another full event with the usual strong contingents from the likes of Poplar, Globe, Medway, Gravesend, Erith, Ardingly, Kings School Canterbury, Kent College and Kent University.  We even had representation from the West of London from Tideway Scuillers and Kingston Grammar.

With no wind and a slow stream, we had an even playing field across the 3 divisions.

MIRC picked up 4 wins:

The Masters D quad of Ollie Barton, Geraint Evans, Ray Phillips and Richard Huggins, coxed by Liz Ridgway, were the fastest MIRC crew and won this event for the 3rd time in a row. They came 3rd overall in 9.07.

Messers Huggins and Evans went on to win the Masters D 2x event in 9.44, despite a costly tangle with the bushes (and on home turf too, the shame of it!)

K Belton won the J17 singles sculls in an impressive time of 10.17.

Nick Bird won his comeback home Head in the Masters D/E singles with 10.42.

Again, another excellently organised and run event, so a big thanks to Rob Kenway for coordinating the support.  Only 2 dips in the water (what is the MIRC SBH without at least a few?).  Results coming out faster (thanks Anne).  No angry owners of damaged river boats, and only a few peed off fishermen.

See you in the Autumn.

See other excellent pics provided by Alistair Hill and Andrea Barker below...

 

MIRC Spring Head Results Now Up!

http://maidstonehead.weebly.com/results.html

MIRC Spring Small Boats Head 2013 Draw NOW OUT

http://maidstonehead.weebly.com/draw.html

No - We Haven't Shut Down!

Sorry about the lack of posts - but the weather has played havoc withour racing calendar - both Peterborough and Molesey Head of the Rivers have been cancelled this month.

Next race is our home Spring Head on the 3rd March.  Lets pray for low rainfall!

Anyway just to show we are still alive and kicking, here are some piccies from the Annual Dinner in December - these are the ones that are OK for public consumption that is...

Piccies stolen from Andi and Annabel's facebooks.

Latest Club Constitution and Rules

Are posted in the organisation tab.

http://maidstoneinvicta.blogspot.co.uk/p/organisation.html

Gerraint and Ollie should take special note ;)

Fours Head and Vet Fours Head of the River

The Fours Head weekend brought with it calm and serene conditions, a reasonable stream and some fast times.

The men in the Fours Head on Saturday put in two crews: the new combination of Alex Marlow, Tom Suanders, Chris Mollison and Matt Nicholls (arguably our 2 best men's doubles); and the Juniors in an unusual combination of Jack Grace, Pierre Flasse, Andrew Collins and Ross Porter (Andrew had to sub in for Jake which resulted in a crew swap around).

The senior quad sculled at IM1, and despite coming 104th with a solid time of 19.53, came in the 2nd half of their category - such is the competitiveness of the Fours Head.  Tom did mention that it was a bit of a slog, as it was a melding of 2 different styles - so some work to be done there.

The seniors can be seen here at about 1.20 into the video.

The juniors came 150th in 20.11.  Pretty good for a scratch crew and when you compare it to the seniors, but at the same time, the Junior category at the Fours Head was very competitive and our boys came roughly midfield.

They can be seen here at about 0.39 into the video:

On Sunday, 3 Men's Vets crews competed.  The superb mixed Medway/MIRC Vet B quad with Lewin Hynes, James Knight and Shaun and Michael from Medway, came 3rd overall in a field of just over 200, and 2nd out of their category of 6 with a very fast time of 19.21.  A fantastic result, though they were a little disappointed at not winning a pennant.

The ex Novice Vet C 4x of Darren Prentice, Bob Barber, Jez Massey and Ali Machin completed the course in a very reasonable 22.02, and should be proud of the achievement.  Despite the reality of promotion to Open status from Novice and then competing at one of the top events of the year, they all seemed very motivated from the experience.

Finally, the experimental Vet D 4x of Ray Phillips, Ollie Barton, Gerraint Evans and Richard Huggins had a strong row and came in mid-field with a time of 20.46.  They are definitely progressing in the right direction: beating Vesta, who just pipped them in the first heat at Henley Vets in the summer, and slowly closing the gap with Ardingly.

A big thanks to the loyal trailer towers, wellie monitors, and general support who came along over the weekend.

Annual Dinner

Three weeks to go until this years Annual Dinner at Dance, Saturday 24th November.   

Mercure Maidstone (Great Danes), Ashford Road, Hollingbourne, ME17 1RE.

Three course dinner:  (vegetarian option available please advise) 
Starter - Freshly made carrot and coriander soup, crunchy croutons
Main - Roasted breast of chicken, smoked bacon, mushroom, sun-blushed tomato, red wine sauce served with potatoes and seasonal vegetablesDessert - Glazed lemon tart, raspberry salsa  
Entertainment: DJ  

Dress code: Black Tie

Everyone is welcome so please feel free to invite family and friends along.  Tickets in advance only £35 each, please make cheques payable to MIRC, or transfer to sort code 403106, 71230964.
Please let me know if you would like a ticket to this event on lauramcgrillen@hotmail.co.uk or 07783 954371 and let me know in advance of any special dietary requirements.

Upper Thames Fours & Small Boats Head - 2012

A small MIRC contingent made its way to Henley to compete at the Upper Thames Head.  We put 6 Junior crews and 1 Masters crew into a competitive field for the 2 mile race.  Compared to the Medway, steering at Henley with the white posts taken away is a relative breeze, with only a gentle long bend to contend with.  However, the strong headwind and upstream conditions meant that it would be very expensive if you found yourself carried out into the stream.

For the Juniors, Jake and Pierre came 3rd with a time of 12.38 in the J18 2x beaten only by two very strong crews from Star / Leander.  

Ross and Jack also came 3rd in the pair beaten by two crews from Kingston again J18s with a time of 13.12.

Andrew and Dylan raced twice in the J18 2x and IM3 2x but improving from race to race (14.40 and 14.13).

The boys J17 quad racing at J18 came 3rd again beaten only by the Star/Leander and Henley J18s with a time of 11.47. They did beat the Bewl crew that took bronze at Nat Schools by 48 secs, however.

 

Sally and Tamsin rowed a composite with Bewl and were competitive against stiff opposition on the day

Overall the Juniors have raised the bar with their performances.

As expected, the experimental Masters Vet D4x were beaten by both Ardingly quads.  The time: 12.07 v 11.53 for their Vet D crew and 11.56 for their Vet E crew.  That said, Ardingly have one of the most competitive veteran sculling squads in the country, coming 3rd and 1st respectively at last year's Open events at the Vet Nat Champs, so this was not too shabby.  We will get a better picture of where we fit at the Vets Fours Head in November.

Tour from Medway to Maidstone on 28/10/12.

On 28^th October our recreational section organised a short tour for the 11.5 miles from Medway Towns RC at Rochester (on the tidal Medway) back to Maidstone via Allington Lock.  The Recreational Squad was joined by boats from other squads and 6 crews and 39 members took part. It started as a cold wintery Sunday with temperatures as low as 4 degrees but luckily despite forecast rain it stayed dry, other than from some members who got damp from washes from passing boats.

As the cars turned into the Medway slipway one member commented “it’s a bit rougher then we are used to at Maidstone!”  This was part of the reason for the row so we could allow members to have the opportunity to row on more lively tidal water than we are used to.   We had invited Medway Towns to join us but they were in the middle of a big recruitment drive and their members were very busy taking out new members so they were unable to join us.  They considered it to be a relatively calm day, with a following tide and a following wind.

The boats taking part were:-

• Recreational coxed quad (Captained by Alan Leeson).
• Recreational coxed quad (Captained by Tom Fuller).
• Masters B coxed quad (Coxed by Ella Knight).
• Masters Intermediate 3 coxless quad (steered by Ally Machin).
• Junior eight (MGS coxed/coached by Lois Birrell and stroked by Mark Tomkins).
• Masters D eight (coxed by Andrea Barker).
• Club Safety Boat (manned by Chris Long and Dani James).

The first boats got afloat about 9:30am with the last boating at Rochester about 10am

 Masters 8

 Recreationals

 MGS boys with Sean and Mark

The 6 crews all had different reasons for the row with the recreational boats out for a long leisurely row while taking some members for their first long row.  The junior eight were also out for their first long distance row, and the two Masters quads and the Masters eight using the row as tidal water training to get ready for the Veterans Heads in November.

Frozen Lois!

All the crews were well wrapped up against the cold day and plenty of water and snacks were also taken together with balers and other safety equipment.

Allington Lock is only opened 2 hours before and 2 hours after high tide so those using it have to plan this row with the tides.  We also had to allow for the fact that at low tide much of the up reaches around Aylesford don’t have enough water in them for any boats to row.  Luckily, we planned the tides just right and our boats came up fast at the top of an incoming tide with high tide at the lock at 12:15. 

About 11:45am our first crews reached Allington Lock, and the lock keepers opened up the full lock to enable all the boats to get into the lock together. By 12:30 all the crews were back at the club for tea and cakes.

Thanks go to Chris Long and John Clayton for organising the towing and Chris and Dani for manning the safety boat, and braving the cold.

Dani gets some heat in her.

The pictures show the Clubs boats at Allington lock.

It was generally agreed it had been good row and great fun and that the Club should organise more events and rows similar to this one.

 Logjam

We are grateful to both Medway Towns RC and the lock keepers for their help. 

John Clayton