The club fielded eight crews across a range of events at this weekend’s Henley Town & Visitors’ Regatta. While not as internationally renowned as the Henley Royal Regatta, this 186-year-old historic local fixture shares the same stretch of river and delivers a quintessentially British experience, from smartly dressed marshals to the beautifully maintained wooden umpire launches, one celebrating its centennial anniversary this year, the boat not the marshal.
A particular highlight for spectators was the chance to travel upriver in one of these launches to follow the races in style, guided by the calmly authoritative commentary of the marshals. The only downside? A strict no-talking rule once the race began, was a bit of challenge but worth it to get up close and personal to the competitors.
The club boated two quads in the morning, followed by a busy afternoon of racing with another two quads, a coxless four, a double, and two singles. Ken’s morning quad notched up a strong win in the semi-final, narrowly missed out in the final and replicated this in their coxless 4 in the afternoon. All crews delivered nail biting determined performances against tough opposition and kept their supporters entertained.
For club members considering entering next year, if you’re able to race, do. And if you’re not selected, come anyway. It might just be the highlight of your summer rowing calendar.
Words Inkeri Abbots
4x and 4-
Simon, Jon, Dave and Ken were entered in both the Quad and Straight Four. Both were a challenge in their own ways. All four of us have sweep experience, but are working to iron out different rowing styles. And for the quad…Dave and Jon are new to sculling! We therefore came to Henley with strength and fitness, but with some rough rowing.
The quad was first up. We beat Thames Tradesmen easily in the semi-final. We were slow off the line but then rowed through them easily. In fact, we worked harder than necessary.
For the quad final, we hoped to row better and faster. We achieved that, but it wasn’t enough. Henley RC jumped us at the line. We held their speed and even pulled back. But we lost.
We then had a few hours to eat and rest before the straight four. The event where we felt more confident.
Our semi-final was against the Royal Air Force. They did fly off the start, but we held them and rowed through them to win. It was scrappy and a bit rough, but we were through to the final.
The final was against Poole. We felt confident but could also tell they were a well-drilled crew.
Off the line, Poole had a huge lead. Our slow starts were the theme of the day. And our start in the final was especially slow. We were working so hard on rowing well and sorting out technical issues, we neglected to put down the power!
Down by open water, we started rowing well. In fact, it felt noticeably better than the semi; we were swinging together, and it felt light and fast.
We closed the open water gap. We were overlapping. We did a 10 for the legs and started pulling even. All this time, we were rowing low, about a 31. Many beats lower than Poole.
Unfortunately, that’s when the 800-meter course ended. We heard a ‘Beep Beep’ and looked to see Poole just ahead of us. We lost. It was gutting. We were all convinced we were going to win.
We came away with a humbling lesson about technique over power. We’ll be faster next time!
Words Ken Creighton
The Open Masters E Quad was Quintin’s first race of the day. Preparation had been hampered by family holiday commitments so, as is a recurring feature, this was only the third time the crew had been together. Yan Tordoff at stroke, Tim Must, David Nicol and Gary Mills steering at bow were up against crews from Maidenhead and Henley. A clean, if a little conservative, start left us down from the off, but we were clawing back the deficit when a crab at three-quarters distance but paid to our efforts. Beaten by the better boats, but we know what to work on – getting to the finish line without incident.
Next up was Dominic in the second heat of open single sculls band 1. A student at Imperial College he takes advantage of Quintin’s student holiday membership, giving him access to the water outside of term time. A sweep rower by trade, this was his first ever side-by-side race in a single scull. He acquitted himself well but didn’t have the confidence to really put the power down and finished a length and a half down on the competition from Tideway Scullers School.
Words Tim Must
Rowing and racing at Henley is incredibly exciting. When Ken suggested that I race in a single, I was not convinced about my ability, but I accepted the challenge. The real challenge though was when Ken told me that I had to race in Open category. I trained hard the last month. It was my first race with my new boat, at Henley, everything was aligned.
My semi final was against a 28 year old young strong guy, but I focussed on my row. I had a very good start, very relaxed, at rate 36. I settled at rate 34, trying to have clean and relaxed finishes. After 200 m I checked where my opponent was, and he already was 3 lengths ahead. I focused on rowing well, but it wasn’t my best day and felt powerless. I lowered my rate to 30, and did a final push for the last 200 m.
We had a wonderful race day at Henley, and I realised that I will need to train more the next year!!!!
Words Jose Cotera
The W Mas C quad of Rita Parekh-Patel, Paola Correnti, Jenn Spencer and Jane Nicholls raced together.
The start of our race was a culmination of excitement, nerves and the stunning scenery. As our competitors Fulham Reach & Army pulled up, we knew we had to stick to our game plan and stay calm. We put our training in motion and had a brilliant start, and we were neck and neck with Army whilst Fulham quickly pulled off. We pushed as hard as we could with each stroke to beat Army, but halfway down the course, they pulled away from us.
We all gave absolutely everything we could, we were proud of how well we rowed together and we can’t wait to do it again!
Words Jenn Spencer
Veni, Vidi but not quite Vici for WM composite double and a quad at Henley Town & Visitors.
Jacqui (TTRC) and Kasia were first off in their double up against FRC and Wallingford RC. It wasn’t quite an even race, as the opponents had a handicap of 7 seconds. Kasia and Jacqui waited patiently and when their ‘go’ came were off like a shot, caught up and overtook FRC but weren’t quite able to reach Wallingford, despite their hard pursuit.
Well, the silver lining of not coming first in the semis, was the fact that the duo had time to recover before the quad race at 18:04.
It comprised of Jacqui, Kasia, Kirsty and Polly at bow. The competition was a Marlow squad.
The start was good, the going felt great, but unfortunately due to faulty steering in the boat and Marlow being slightly stronger, they got to the finish first; beating us by a length and 1/3. We did the course in a very respectable time of 3:43.
It was a marvellous day of racing and socialising! We will be back next year!
Words Kasia Wroblewska
