HENLEY GIRLS SUCCESSFUL AT MAIDENHEAD

Photo shows (from left to right) Ellen Anthony, Alice Skinner, Fee Johnson,

Hannah Blair and Flora Barton.

Maidenhead Rowing Club ran their inaugural Junior Invitation Regatta on the

Maidenhead Reach on Sunday 18th May.  This was intended to be a different

type of regatta, with separate events for first- and second-crew standards

and the possibility of entering spare competitors who would be put into

combination crews in the second-crew events.  There was also a repechage

system to ensure that, in all events with four or more entries, crews would

get at least two races.  It was clear that the second-crew events had a

large number of entries and the race starters took special care to ensure

that crews who had never raced before understood the starting procedure.

The organisers' intention was that there should be no doubling up of

competitors.  It was soon clear, however, that a number of clubs had

missing rowers (Henley was no exception) and a pragmatic approach was taken

so that none of the competitors would be disappointed in what was

potentially their first event.

Henley had entered J13 quad sculls in both men's and women's events and two

competitors for the combination crews.  The Women's J13 crew of Alice

Skinner, Heather Elliott, Ellen Anthony, Emily Derrig and Hannah Blair

(cox) started well with a convincing victory over Lady Eleanor Holles

school "A", followed by Upper Thames but succumbed in the semi-final, just

after the lunch break, to Reading "A".  The winner of the event, however,

was the crew that they had beaten in the first round, who had survived

their repechage.  The boys J13 crew of Tom Pocock, David Labarte, Petar

Gril, Tom Downing and Ellen Anthony (cox) had the misfortune to be in a

straight final two boat race for their first outing and so, after a well

fought race, the trophy went to Maidenhead without Henley having the

opportunity of a second chance.

Hannah Blair and Ellen Anthony rowed again in a combination J14 crew with

Fee Johnson of Star Club and Flora Barton of Eton Excelsior.  Alice Skinner

was pressed to cox.  Flora had only been rowing for a few weeks so had a

fairly steep learning curve with people and equipment that she wasn't used

to.  The crew had very little time to practice and lost their first race by

two lengths.  They survived the repechage, however, and went from strength

to strength to reach the final, in the process knocking Flora's own club

out of the event.  It remains to be seen how long it will be before she is

forgiven for that.  A close-fought final against Maidenhead was won by half

a length, thus establishing the principle that scratch crews can be

competitive at this level, provided they have time to get accustomed.  By

the time that the girls had passed the finishing post to gain their

trophies, Ellen Anthony had raced seven times and Fee Johnson six times in

the day. The victorious crew are shown in the photograph with their

trophies.