Worcester Regatta – No longer a novice!

Event Details

750 meters up stream.

Crew

Senior 4 Double

• Myself
• Sandy McGilvroy – bow

Novice 4

• Steve Henry – stroke
• James May- 3
• Sandy McGilvroy – 2
• Myself – bow

Race Report

Senior 4 Double

Early morning start yet again! Not going to write much about this one as we got knocked out by Evesham in the first round. It was scrappy, not straight and we just weren’t switched on but at least we didn’t hit anything this time! Its not all bad though as we only just lost in cat4egory above us. Everyone said that if we could have rowed clean and in a straight line we would have had them by several lengths.

Novice 4

Round 1 – RGSAO

The starts at Worcester are a joke. There aren’t any stake boats and the starter sends you off arbitrarily. Jennifer still had her hand up when he called attention, go. Anyway, we got off the line any got about a length ahead. They pulled back but we stayed ahead to win by a length. Really should have been more; we rowed lethargic and we finished feeling disappointed with ourselves.

Round 2 – Welbeck College C

After Coffee all round and watching Mike and Paddy win their first round in the pair we felt ready for the next round.

To be fair to Welbeck C they were a very novice crew. We were well ahead off the start but Jennifer didn’t let us sit back. The rating went down but she made us focus on rowing technically well in preparation for the final. We finished several lengths clear and continued upstream for more technical work. This worked well and got us focused.

Round 3- Welbeck College A

We had just put our boat on trestles when we were called for the final. We found out that there had been some upset with the Welback A and Worcester heat, leading to Worcester being dq’d and them wishing us all the best for the final.

We all wanted this one and we didn’t really care who the opposition were, this was our final to win. The start was another farce. The marshal was calling us forward as we were pointing out there was a barge in our lane. “He’ll pull over” was the response. We delayed the start until we were happy the course was clear. We had a good start and went off quickly. By half way we were several lengths ahead. Jennifer kept us focused and drove us all the way, finishing several lengths ahead of the opposition.

Upon landing we were greeted by the Stratford posse who promptly tipped us out of the boat and into the river (a rowing tradition for loosing your novice status)! I don’t think we felt the cold from the joy of winning. Not only did we receive some very smart looking pots for our win but £50 in prize money.

Other club results

Patrick and Mike won the Senior 2 pair. They were taken to the line by looked and finished strong.

Emma and Gez won their straight Final in the Novice Pair.

Well done to all! Another day of Stratford “owning” the Worcester stretch of the Severn!

See the pictures.