It was a busy weekend for Henley Rowing Club with crews competing at Marlow Town Regatta on Saturday 15th June and Reading Amateur Regatta on both Saturday and Sunday (16th June 2019).
At Marlow Town the club had 5 wins over the 900m 3 lane downstream course rowed from Bisham Abbey to Higginson Park. The girls J14 squad who raced at both regattas had a very successful weekend winning every event they entered
This run started on Saturday at Marlow Town Regatta, where both WJ14 quad crews made it to the final. It was a close race all the way down the 1000m coarse, with the crew of Yasmin Lakatos, Nonnie Luke, Karima Erbolat, Eleanor Taylor and cox Fran Whittle over coming their team mates to win by half a length.
Nonnie,Yasmin and Eleanor then jumped into the octo with Lucy Jones, Ailish Harkin, Hanna Boddy, Gabby Chaplin, Lilly Hoogenberg and cox Caitlin Emery, to win in a straight final against Sir William Borlase and St Edwards school.
Lucy Jones, Ailish Harkin, Nonnie Luke, Eyla Wild and cox Fran Whittle, then got back into their quad to race up an age group at WJ15. They raced with grit and determination, to triumph over ten older crews from Headington, Marlow, Sir William Perkins and City of Oxford.
At the other end of the age spectrum the Clubs masters won Master E Mens quads and Womens Master D Womens races, both against crews from Marlow RC
The Men crew Sidgwick,Berrington,Paice,Hornsby won easily and retain their title won last year. The women’s race was very close and after a nail biting wait HRC were confirmed winners by 2 feet. (Crew: Ann Tully, Anna Stevens, Jo Paice and Victoria Molloy).
Strong performances also came from Master Mens E single (Crew: Ellison) and Master Mens F Double (Crew: Ellison, Skinner) coming second to very strong competition from Marlow and Tideway Scullers respectively.
A smaller contingent from the Club raced at Saturday’s Reading Regatta which is held over 1500 metres finishing just upstream of Reading Rowing Club. For the Senior men’s squad Nathan Hillyer competed in single sculls band C and after a comfortable win in the semi-final his opponent failed to appear for the final and Nathan rowed over for the medal. In a straight final in Womens School eights (which is two age groups up for) the J15 girls of Rose McEwan, Bea Bethall, Ella Mackay, Mia Roullier, Mia Vickerman, Laoise O’Donohue, Natalie Schoenmakers, Josie Sawbridge, cox Daisy Rolstone recorded a 4 1/2 length victory over Reading Blue Coat School.
For Readings Sunday regatta the Club had a much larger entry with Master and J13 to 15 squads all competing and all having success notching up 10 wins on the day. The regatta is supposed to be shortened to a 1000m for Sunday but was actually only reduced to 1100m.
J13 girls Anna Merritt and Gwennie Hunter won the doubles event, firstly beating a double from City of Oxford and then winning by two lengths in the final against Reading Rowing club in a tough race in blustery conditions. The two J13 girls quads were unfortunately the only entries in this event but to provide a more unpredictable outcome the normal race combinations were mixed to try and produce matched crews. The change worked out well with the crew of Pia Butcher Ruby Rodgers,Freya Weiser,Tabbitha Hall and cox Esme Davis leading all the way but with the other crew of Emily Simmons,Mimi Dal Largo, Ella Dickson and stroke Florence Lenthall with cox Katia Loggie overtaking in the last one hundred meters of the race to win by half a length across the line making the race a very exciting spectacle.
Repeating their success from the previous day at Marlow Regatta the two WJ14 boats again met in the final. This time, the crew of Anya Marston, Georgia Catlin, Hanna Boddy, Lilly Hoogenberg and cox Caitlin Emery, stormed away from the start and won by a comfortable three lengths.
The crew of Lucy Jones, Ailish Harkin, Eyla Wild, and cox Fran Whittle, were joined by WJ15 Mia Roullier to race up a year again. This saw the closest race of the weekend with a win over Reading RC of two feet. They then had a tough final against Wycliffe Junior RC, who were a silver medal winning crew from National Schools Regatta. The Henley quad squeezed out to a one length lead which they held until the end.
Also racing up was J15 Laoise ODonohue who raced in the Senior Womens event in Single Sculls band B, on what is not an easy course to steer she had a very tight side by side race in her semi final but went on to win the final with a comfortable easy verdict against Bawn from Reading University. Competing at her age group Mia Vickerman had a row over in the final of WJ15 single sculls when her City of Oxford opponent did not appear at the start. In the semi final Mia had had an easily verdict over another sculler from City of Oxford.
For the Masters Helen Turnell and Niki Orr had a comfortable win against a Twickenham RC double in the Masters D event repeating recent success at the Nottingham Regatta. A second Masters double win came from Margaret Hall and Janet Dutton in Women’s Masters F/G double scull, in the first heat rowing through a Twickenham crew who had had a 12 second head start based on the F/G handicapping and then leading a Twickenham crew from the start to win the final by 1 1/2 lengths.
Margaret and Janet plus Helen Knowles then raced with five Walbrook members in a composite Masters F Eight winning the final against Upper Thame RC by 4 1/2 lengths. The three Henley Masters where then joined by Julia Lock to race in Masters E quads. They had a tough battle against a Vet E crew from Minerva Bath, but just managed a win by 1/3 length. In the final against a Walbrook Vet F crew, who had a 9 second advantage at the start, they could only manage an overlap of 2/3 length at the finish running out of room for a win.
