With a strong cold tail wind disturbing the river's surface conditions were difficult at the Henley 4's Head rowed 3000 metres upstream from .the Management College to the Regatta finish.
Unfortunately, the J17 boys (up to 17 years old), racing as Junior (up to 18 years old), had no competition in their division, so were not awarded a trophy, even though their time of 10.40 minutes was fast enough to win the Men's IM3 or come third in the IM2 category!! The crew, stroked by, Nick Gordon, with Will Sadler, Ed Hares, Jamie Axon, Jamie Copus, Guy Whitaker, Alex Spink, Tom Ajose and coxed by Alice Walker, raced really well, setting a fast time in good conditions.
Similarly, even more unfortunately, not only did the J15 boys have to step up to race in a J16 division, but for them, there were only two entries in that division, so they did not get a trophy either, despite beating the others J16 crew by over 30 seconds. Their time was fast enough to have come third in the Men's Novice category. The crew, stroked by Harry Chapman, with Ben Lock, Jack Roe, Jmaes Mills, Connor Pimley, Harry Borg, Tom Stockdale, Ben Brookes, coxed by Hannah Carder also rowed really well.Both crews were distinctive because of their neat bladework and stylish rowing. We look forward to good performances from them during the coming months.
The under fifteen junior womens squad delivered another impressive performance on Saturday at the Henley fours and eights head with a win and third place in the WJ15 coxed quad event. The crew of Kate Tollotson, Abegail Rouls, Molly Thorp, Maddy Wynn Jones and Didi Wade coxing powered their way to a sixth consecutive win beating their next rivals Eton Excelsior by 22 seconds whilst the second crew of Millie Marsh, Hollie Hancock, Jenny Norman, Abbie Sadler and Emma Salah coxing managed to overtake Guildford quickly off the start and rowed well despite a mishap with one of the seats in the closing stages of the race, they managed a third place
.
There were wins for Henley Rowing Club’s WJ14 Coxed Quad, J14 Coxed Quad and WJ15 Coxed Quad. Absences due to the half term holiday meant that Bradley Ralph who coxed the J14 coxed quad to victory at Hampton the previous weekend sat in the bow seat giving a coxing debut to Laxmi Aurora. After a solid row the crew of Bradley, Alfred Plaskitt, Will Hayes Andrew Lewis and Laxmi defeated 2 crews from Sir William Borlase School easily. Bradley then coxed the girls J14 quad to victory in their division of 6 crews. After a strong determined row the crew of Ruby Cooper Ella Seabury Ruby Fletcher Caitlin Sutherland and Bradley beat into 2nd and 3rd place Eton Excelsior and Wallingford respectively thus reversing defeats from previous races this winter.
For Henley’s senior men this race was first part of a program of seat racing in several upcoming head races in preparation for the Head of the River Race on 27th March. The aim is to have three eights racing for that head.
