Author: wallingfordrowingwebsite

We took our youngest Juniors to Thames Ditton Regatta to enjoy the fun of side by side racing in a traditional English setting – by a Tudor palace, showers and sun, great home-baked cakes, capsizes at the start etc. – and the mayhem of trying to boat from a small beach on the Thames. Once they’d mastered this our Juniors did very well, winning both J15 4x+ events (General Classification and Top), the J15 2x, J15 4+ and WJ14 4x+ (GC.)

This was a first ever win for these girls, the excitement being heard by the ghost of Henry VIII in Hampton Court Palace on the other side of the river… well done Sophie, Phoebe, Pheobe, Isobel and Rupert!

The club took a mixture of Junior and Masters crews to Holme Pierrepont for Nottingham City Regatta on Saturday and Nottingham Club & Masters Regatta on Sunday. Our Juniors won four events, including Annie, Hannah, Tabby, Elin and cox Orla winning both WJ18 4+ and W 4+, Niamh and Emma winning W 2- and Jacob in J18 1x. Invaluable 2k experience ahead of National Schools.

Then our Masters scullers won two more events the next day: Andy in MasD 1x and Janet in WMasG 1x. Great racing, great weather, great to be back in Nottingham!

We enter relatively few crews into our own regatta as we are busy organising it, but this year our WJ17s picked up a trophy by winning WJ18 4+, storming down the course ahead in both the heat and final.

The next day at the Junior Sculling Regatta we nearly broke our record JSR medal tally, agonisingly falling short with seven “A” finalists and two 4^th places. Even so, our WJ16 4x won gold in style, several lengths ahead and pushing for the ice cream they had been offered for winning, and both our J17 2x and J15 4x+ bringing home hard-fought bronzes.

This is seen by many as the first major regatta of the year, where you can test the effectiveness of your winter training and start looking ahead to Henley. This year’s was an exceptional event: well organised, running on time, superb racing, and even relatively benign Dorney weather with that rarest of things, sunshine.

Many thanks to our amazing volunteers who make this regatta what it is – the regatta committee, club members young and old, parents of Juniors and BR umpires. And thank you to all competitors who came and raced, we hope you enjoyed our regatta!

Our younger Juniors turned on the style at the Junior Inter Regional Regatta on 20^th April with 3 medals.

We qualified 5 crews to represent our Thames Upriver Region, racing against 12 other UK regions at Nottingham. Our J15 4+ won gold by an outstanding 7 seconds, their first championship win of the year. We also won silver in J15 1x (2^nd boats) and bronze in J16 2- which was the biggest relief of the day as these boys were the nearly men of last year, coming 4^th at every major event!Well done to the whole Thames Upriver Region for winning both open and overall trophies.

On the 14th April the Juniors went to Bedford Head for the final day of their Easter Camp, and for the final Head race of the year. Benign conditions saw us bring home no fewer than 9 wins including the first ever for this year’s J14 squad in WJ14 4x+.

After a tough introduction to the sport, being mostly restricted to gym work from October to April, they are finally finding their way around a boat. Another highlight was a clean sweep of J17 small boats, Dylan and Hannah winning two apiece in 1x and 2x. And big congratulations to Mattie for winning W4- after two years of battling badly timed injuries. Thank you Bedford for another great event!

We are very grateful to the Rowing Foundation for their kind donation to the purchase of our new Swift coxed quad/four. Without this, and grants from our local councillors and money raised by our Juniors through their 24 hours sponsored erg last year, this boat would not have been possible.

Already our J15s have used it to qualify for the Junior Inter-Regional Finals on 20^th April, and to win a gold medal for fastest “B” crew at the Junior Sculling Head. We look forward to more success in our lovely Swift!

We brought the head season (almost) to a conclusion with a barnstorming five events in five days. The trailers are enjoying a well-earned rest after taking 23 crews to the Schools Head, the J15 race at Eton Dorney, the Junior Sculling Head, the Head of the River and finally the Masters Head.

It was good to have representation at all these, with highlights being a gold and silver medal at JSH (J15 4x+”B” and WJ16 4x), the first ever races for our J14s – much delayed due to flooding and fog – a 2^nd place and 1^st club crew home for our WMas 8+ F crew, and our first all senior men’s 8 (ie. without any Masters subbing in) for a number of years at HORR, demonstrating the exciting development of our men’s squad.

Just one more head to go, then it’s the regatta season!

Our best ever performance at the regional trials at Dorney saw 6 of our 8 crews qualify to represent the Thames Upriver Region at the Junior Inter Regional Regatta next month. Especially exciting was that on International Women’s Day our four WJ16s Hollie, Phoebe, Naomi and Daisy qualified three boats between them: a 1x, 2- and 4-.

Also winning a spot were our J15 1x, J15 4+ and J16 2- boats. This is the first opportunity Juniors have to represent something larger than their club, and is a pathway to international representation.

Both our 8s raced at WEHORR in challenging conditions this weekend. A strong wind which blew mostly cross-head all the way made for a tough day, especially for crews whose time on the water has been seriously limited by flooding.

Our senior crew came 97th, a mix of experienced and development rowers getting useful Tideway experience, and our Masters F crew came 132nd and second overall in the Masters category on adjusted time. This is a great result but they were disappointed not to retain the pennant they won last year.

Some of our members were also rowing as Wallingford in composite crews, finishing 124th as an E boat and as a “time only” due to a last minute substitution pushing them into a different category.