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What a regatta to remember! We had two crews racing on Sunday, a day for Wallingford to be proud of. First up were the 4- in the Lester Trophy for Aspirational Club Coxless Fours. This crew has had a great season so far, winning or close to winning at all their regattas and heads, and a first proper club season for many of them.

We knew they’d be in with a chance in a very competitive field, and sure enough they waltzed through the time trial, beat Barnes Bridge Ladies in the first round on Saturday, and then Nottingham BC on Sunday morning by a tight margin. In the semi final they were up against a strong Upper Thames crew who had beaten them at Wallingford Regatta at the beginning of summer. Despite emptying the tanks and racing as well as they could, they lost by just under 5 seconds. They were very pleased with their performance, and hopefully this is just the start of a fantastic women’s squad over the next few years. Congratulations to Ruth Haigh, Lucy Walker, Sam Hammond, Emma Butler and coach Keith Settle.

In the West End Amateur Rowing Association Trophy for J16 Coxed Fours, our girls were also amongst the favourites. This was half the crew of the National Schools winning WJ16 8 (the other half were also due to race but had to withdraw due to illness.) They stormed the time trial, and were one of the seeded crews. They beat Aberdeen Schools in the quarter final on Saturday in the fastest time of the day, then beat Surbiton High School in the semi final on Sunday morning, again in the fastest time of the day.

Could they go one step further and beat Marlow, reigning National Schools champions in this event and multiple winners of the trophy in previous regattas, in the final? Oh yes they could! Never behind, they pushed on, relentlessly pulling inches away from their opposition every stroke to win by a length and 3/4. Amazing stuff, the first time Wallingford has won this trophy, and the first Junior win at HWR since 2012. Hats off to Elin Bahadori, Annie Collins, Lucy Mead, Tabby Gauden cox Katie Mellers and coaches Katie Greves and Andy Green. 

The weekend also hosted a major championships event. Only two Wallingford crews represented the club, and they both won! Congratulation to Andy Hull (who made it back to Reading the next day to support his daughter Alice in her WJ14 quad) for winning Mas Lightweight C 1x and to Janet Dutton for winning WMas Lightweight G 1x. Great performances from our Masters!

The first baking hot weekend of the year saw Wallingford take over 40 crews to this highly competitive pre-Henley Women’s and HRR regatta. Racing from 9 am through to nearly 7 pm, there seemed to almost always be a Wallingford crew on the course to cheer.

There was a great Wallingford camaraderie off the water too, everyone supporting and encouraging each other, especially at the end of Sunday when lightning curtailed racing and we had to load boats quickly as the heavens erupted around us. By the time racing was cancelled we had won no fewer than 8 events (with 10 more finalists yet to race.)

These were Dan Harvey and Sam Chard in O 2x, winning the Harrison Jones Challenge Trophy in just their second regatta together; Ruth Haigh, Lucy Walker, Sam Burrows and Emma Butler eclipsing their opposition  in W4-; Sam and Emma again in WMas B 2-; Laura Forrest, Mary Murray, Emily Booker, Karen Walker, Julia Wilks, Jenny Taylor, Alice Brown, Rachel Edge cox Georgia Dowdeswell putting on a powerful show in WMas E 8+; Rosie Powell (getting a much deserved, first ever win) and Emma Moroney in WJ18 2x; Martha Hudson, Lily Clayton, Zara Richardson, Charlotte Hermsen cox Nell Peters demonstrating our strength in depth in this age category by winning WJ16 4+; Orla McNulty and Holly Stafford smiling like crazy as they chalked up a first ever win in WJ15 2x; and Hollie Dickinson, Naomi Bell, Lauren Fiddy, Charlotte Hermsen cox Nell Bowden in an exciting WJ15 4x+ competition.

It was a glorious mix of Seniors, Masters and Juniors in a whole club effort at a classic upper Thames regatta. Special thanks to Keith Settle for putting in a magnificent shift including boat loading, towing and managing our senior squad, and to Neil Moroney for his unsurpassable trailer management skills.

Meaning “long row” in Italian, it lived up to its name for four Wallingford Masters who rowed a total of 35kms in 4.5 hours around the canals and sea channels of Venice on Sunday 28^th May.

The Vogalonga was founded in 1974 by a group of Venetians protesting against the deterioration of the city and the effect of waves caused by motor traffic. Since then it has grown to a huge, international event with some 8000 rowers in 2000 boats. It is a procession, not a race, akin to a painting by Canaletto. Alice Brown, Deb King, Laura Forrest and Janet Dutton hired a Filippi coastal coxed quad (having trained for it in our very own venerable Tony Wheel coxed quad, unused by anyone other than WJ14s for a century…) Boating out of Diadora rowing club in Lido, with Francesco the cox from Pisa, they rowed past a giant paddleboard with 10 paddlers, kayaks, gondolas of all sizes, a 5 person quad (?), frogmen by a bridge in the Canale di Cannaregio saving it from becoming a logjam, and of course the infamous pool of bright green water in the Grand Canal.

An exhausting yet amazing experience.

Our Juniors brought home yet another record haul: three medals, more than anyone can remember in recent years. Across the whole regatta there was a fierce cross-head wind making their performance in time trials and heats crucial, as the organisers placed the fastest crews in the more sheltered lanes 1 and 2 for the semis and finals. This meant stepping up each and every time they raced – and there were some very exciting performances by our Wallingford crews! Our WJ16 8+ of Elin Bahadori, Lily Clayton, Lucy Mead, Phoebe Downs, Martha Hudson, Annie Collins, Zara Richardson, Tabby Gauden and cox Katie Mellers made a massive statement by winning gold. This event has been dominated by the top private school programmes over the past two decades. For a small, community club such as ours to win this is an immense achievement, thanks to the inspiring leadership of our Directors of Junior Rowing Katie Greves and Andy Green. Five of these girls are now back-to-back National Schools Champions, having won the WJ15 4+ last year.

This year’s WJ15 4+ brought home a bronze medal in a particularly tough field, meaning that no fewer than 7 of our WJ15s won a medal, as 3 of the 8+ are also WJ15. The crew of Elsie Warner, Daisy Coleman, Lauren Fiddy, Charlotte Hermsen and cox Nell Peters is all the more remarkable because Daisy only started rowing this year, and Lauren came to us from Reading in January where she had hardly picked up a sweep blade.

I don’t think Wallingford has ever won a medal in the J14 age category – there are too many schools and clubs who start their Juniors a year earlier, meaning we are playing catch-up. Well, we have now! Our very talented boys, coached by ex-WRC Junior Henry White, won bronze in J14 4x+. Well done to Lewis Strange, Arthur Liddy, Will Andrews, Tom Fanstone and cox Seth Bissell, and congratulations to the 9 other J14s who made the C final in the octo. What an exciting year group!

A sunny, breezy and very successful day in Weybridge this weekend saw the club winning 5 out of the 6 events that we entered. Congratulations to our W4- of Sam Burrows, Emma Butler, Lucy Walker and Ruth Haigh who continued to show why they are ones to watch this summer with a fine win over the local opposition.

We love it when our singles win, and sure enough Sam Chard slipped ahead of his O1x opposition in his sleek black Resolute, as did Mariann Novak in her pink-striped Filippi to win W1x. Lucy picked up a second win in W2x with Liberty Barlow, racing three times for a well-deserved victory. There was also a second win for Sam Burrows and Emma in W2- late on in the day.

Well done to all our seniors, a very satisfying set of results stemming from a hard winter’s training!

Also taking place at Dorney the day after our regatta, this is one of the major junior events of the year. A medal at JSR is hard to come by, and this year saw (what we think is) a record performance by our juniors.

Gold in the WJ16 2x for Tabby Gauden and Annie Collins (pictured), silvers for Ewan Sleep in J18 1x and Lucy Mead in WJ15 1x, bronze for Tom Fanstone and Lewis Strange in J14 2x, plus two other finalists (4^th for Rosie Powell in WJ17 1x and 5^th for our J14 4x+)

Thanks to the huge array of volunteer coaches and parents who once again helped make this happen, from carrying blades to dashing back to the trailer park from the boating rafts when one (nameless) Junior put their single into the water only to discover they had forgotten their seat… 

What a magnificent day! Huge congratulations to the organisers for setting up a superb regatta, and to the many volunteers who made it happen. The weather was kind, it ran pretty much on time, and lots of excellent racing.

How impressive is it that a club of our size can run a regatta like that? It’s not just the first multi-lane regatta of the season but also one of the big ones – a win at Wallingford Regatta is a significant achievement, setting you up for the summer. Lots of thank yous flew in from competitors all over the venue, in the trailer park, on the finish rafts, at race control, the coaches’ cycle path, everywhere.

The whole club should be proud. Congratulations also to our crews who raced brilliantly, especially to the Women’s 4- (pictured at the start) who put in two stunning performances to eventually finish second to a crew from Upper Thames, and the WJ16 8+ who beat their nemesis from earlier in the year but also finished second. Well done Wally!

Wallingford’s women won again at the bumps races kindly organised by our neighbouring club City of Oxford RC.

This is a chance for club crews to take part in a really exciting racing format usually exclusive to colleges – 8s racing nose to tail 1.5 lengths apart in an attempt to get an overlap or “bump” (physical contact no longer allowed thank goodness, to preserve boats!)

Our crew of Emma Butler, Sam Hammond, Ruth Haigh, Kat Butler, Lucy Walker, Liberty Barlow, Mhairi Gibb, Jess Dukes and cox Jonathan Beckett, coached by Keith Settle, raced outstandingly to win the Division 1 headship, getting some rather neat little blades as prizes and a rather large trophy…

Our WJ16s represented the Thames Upriver region in the finals at Nottingham last weekend, in this the first regatta of the year (at a surprisingly benign Holme Pierrepont.)

The UK is split into 12 regions, each sending a crew across various categories of boat in the J14-16 age groups. Our girls raced in both the 4- and the 8+, whose heats and then finals were only 40 minutes apart… cue lots of parents and coaches rushing around with blades, clamps, sweets and rehydration to get them from the finish raft to the boating raft in time.

The 4- of Tabby Gauden, Elin Bahadori, Annie Collins and Martha Hudson raced superbly and won gold, beating Tyne RC from the Northern region by 4 seconds. The 8+ of the same exhausted girls plus Zara Richardson, Phoebe Downs, Lily Clayton, Lucy Mead and cox Katie Mellers brought home a silver medal after a close fight with rivals Surbiton in the Thames London region.

These medals helped our region gain all three Victores Ludorum – boys, girls and overall. A very successful first summer outing for the Juniors.