Henley Rowing Clubs junior girls competed at Egham "International" Regatta last weekend and came away with five very good wins. Egham is an interesting regatta, the course of 650 metres is described by the organisers as a gentle "S" curve but the reality for coxless boats is a very tortuous course which leads many of the better umpires to provide steering guidance for the coxless boats. The difficulties of the course are further compound by being a popular stretch of the river for cruisers which combined with the stiff wind on Sunday at times made for some choppy water. The girls coped well with these conditions and perhaps only Amanda Moore in the J14 sculls suffered from the difficulties when on the final bend which was to her favour on the run in to the finish hit a buoy and had to stop sculling momentarily loosing her the semi final by half a length to Wale of Tideway Scullers.

The finals of both J15 sculls and Senior 4 sculls where all Henley affairs. In the J15 sculls Hannah Read, Kaye Davies and Lucy Lewington all won through to the semi finals. Lucy beating her team mate Hannah to face Kaye in the final who had beaten Christie of Kingston Grammar School in her semi final. The final between Lucy and Kaye was close with both good sculling and steering from the girls but Lucy coming out the eventual winner by 1 length. In the Senior 4 sculls Rachel Dadds and Bethan Thomas won their heats and semi finals comfortably to face one another in the final. This was one of the races held during some difficult conditions and both boats coming up the final stretch could be seen being bounced around on the water the girls sculled well through this with Bethan being the eventual winner.

Lucy Lewington picked up her second pot of the day in J15 quads along with Kaye Davies, Hannah Read, Becci Griffiths and cox Nicola Johnson. The girls had a bye to the semi final where they beat Kingston Grammar School and in the final with a demonstration of controlled and quality sculling had a comfortable victory over Molesey Schools Rowing Association. Lucy collected a third pot in her eighth race of the day when with Kaye (for her second pot) they won the J15 double sculls giving Henley a clean sweep of all the J15 events at the regatta. With the exception of the first race in this event against Kingston Grammar School which the won by a length the girls had easy victories over Weybridge Ladies in the semi final and Lady Eleanor Holles School in the final.

The fifth win of the regatta came in a sweep oar event where the crew of Hannah Boyd, Caroline Green, Elley Lewis, Natalie Robinson and cox Amanda Moore won the women's novice coxed fours event. In their first race of the day the opposition Staines RC scratched giving the girls a semi final race against Lady Eleanor Holles which the won by 3 lengths. In the final the opposition was Walton Rowing Club who in their semi final had beaten Marlow RC, the Henley girls rowed well establishing an early lead which they continued to build on to finish well clear of Walton.

The girls squad have had a run of good victories, 10 in the last two weeks and are now preparing themselves for what will be the last major regatta of the season the National Championships which take place at the end of this month.