Henley Rowing Club

Founded 1839

Wallingford Regatta

Wallingford is the first serious Thames regatta of the season and this year, based for the second year running at the Dorney 6 lane rowing course near Eton, had a massive entry of over 800 crews for the one day’s racing.

The boys’ quad scull crew of Simon Thompson, Rob Friend, Ryan Davies and David Read won their opening heat, beating Lea RC by ½ length with Hampton School 3^rd , Kings College School 4^th and Sir William Borlase’s School 5^th. In the final Henley were again led off the start by Lea who had clear water at 250 metres with the fancied Windsor Boys School in 3^rd Place. For the next 1000 metres Henley gradually came back on Lea to draw level at 1250 metres and crossed the line to win a fine race by 3 feet.

The boys’ double scull crew of Hugo Wiseman and Michael Bennett qualified for the final in their event comfortably by finishing second in their heat, but the final was much more of a challenge with the boys having their own race with a composite Dulwich / Windsor crew who they beat to finish 5^th.

The quad’s win comes after a tough month in which the boys have been through GB Spring Assessments and a Trials Regatta with the aim of being invited to Final Trials for the GB Team. Next weekend the squad will race at Ghent International Regatta in Belgium.

The newly formed Senior Women’s Squad had an encouraging start to the regatta season. Despite racing several levels above their status, the Elite Quad (Juliet Hookey, Lucy Mills, Caroline Hocking and Esther Dingley) raced well to finish a close second to Kingston in a time of 5 minutes 14 seconds, beating local rivals Upper Thames into third place. Just forty minutes earlier, Juliet and Lucy had shown their inexperience at this level by leaving their effort too late in the final of elite double sculls. Despite closing fast on Thames Tradesmen and the likely Great Britain junior international representatives from Headington School and Durham, they had to settle for third and the knowledge that there is "more in the tank" for next time. In senior 3 quads, Caroline and Esther were joined by Kate Thomas and Laura Leondiades. Having won their heat fairly comfortably, they had to contend with a very strong Thames Tradesmen’s crew in the final and despite pushing them hard all the way, had to settle for second in a time of 5 minutes 24 seconds, 2 seconds behind the winners.

The Junior Girls squad came away with three wins from Wallingford Regatta. The Junior quad of Lucy Pratt, Lucy Darke, Louisa Pickworth and Bethan Thomas had a straight final five boat final which they dominated from the start finishing 2 lengths clear of local rivals Marlow and 15 sec's ahead of Reading.

With no J16 category for them to race the J16 quad of Kate Osborn Jones, Gemma Mcintosh, Melanie Gilson and Hannah Smith Willis took on the senior women in the Novice quads event. In their heat they had a comfortable victory in a time of 5minutes 23 seconds beating the women from Thames tradesmen by 5 seconds with another junior crew from Surbiton High School in third place. These placing where repeated in the final where the Henley girls won by six seconds from Tradesmen. Also qualifying for the final of this event was the Henley second crew of Gemma Johnson, Katharine Warwick, Elley Lewis and Natalie Robinson the girls unfortunately caught a boat stopping crab shortly after the start and where never able to get back on terms with the other crews

Junior girls Emma Mclauchlan, Lizzie Gilson, Caroline Green, Amanda Moore, Vicky Gilson, Sarah Fellowes, Fran Compton, Hannah Boyd and cox Kate Thomas competed in Women's Senior 4 eight's. This was very much a scratch crew put together on the day and the girls did well to finish in second place in the six boat final just behind Maidenhead but ahead of the junior girls from Dame Alice Harpur and fourth placed Bryanston School with the women from two Oxford colleges in fifth and sixth place.

The third junior girls win came from the ferociously competitive under 15 girls quad of Becci Griffiths, Kay Davies, Hannah Read, Lucy Lewington and cox Nicola Johnson. With three crews from each of the two heats to qualify for the finals the Henley girls paced themselves well in their heat to finish three quarters of a length ahead of the Headington A crew. In the final the girls set out to dominate the race which they did and by 500 metres had clear water and at the finish where four lengths ahead of second place Sir William Borlase.