Henley Rowing Club

Founded 1839

1999/00 Regatta  Reports

(Regattas and Heads are listed alphabetically but reports entered in chronological order)

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As a fitting climax to the rowing season, Henley Rowing Club’s Kirsty Holland and Nick Friend represented Great Britain at the European Junior Rowing Championships (The Coupe de la Jeunesse) in Sempach, Switzerland last weekend. Each of them was sculling in the bow seat of their respective quadruple sculls crews.

On the first day of the competition Nick Friend’s crew won their heat comfortably in the fastest time of their event. In the Final, the French took an early lead and were clear of the field at the 1000 metre mark. In the second half of the race Great Britain fought back to take the Silver Medal, ¾ length behind France and 3 feet in front of Ireland followed by Austria, Netherlands and Portugal.

Kirsty Holland’s crew just failed to qualify for the ‘A’ Final in a closely fought race and had to be content with contesting the ‘B’ Final which they won comfortably putting them in 7^th place overall.

The second day’s racing saw the boy’s quad again win their heat but having a harder race in the Final. At half-way they were lying in 5^th position with France out in front. With a sustained push they moved into 2^nd place for the last 500 metres, closing up on France and ¾ length in front of Ireland to again take the Silver Medal.

The girl’s quad appeared to be a different crew on the second day. Determined to make the ‘A’ Final, they raced hard in their heat and qualified by beating Belgium, the previous day’s Bronze Medallists. In the Final, Great Britain were in contention for a medal right up to the last 250 metres, finishing in 5^th position on the line. Both days’ girl’s quad events were won by an outstanding Netherlands crew.

The Coupe de la Jeunesse is presented to the Nation with the best overall performance in the competition. Until the last race in the 2 day series, Great Britain were leading. The final race was the Men’s Junior Eights which was won by France with Great Britain 3^rd, allowing France to clinch the trophy by 1 point.

A fascinating and hard racing week resulted in many successes and one huge disappointment for the Henley RC boys.

Henley RC had two boys crews in the Fawley Cup at Henley Royal Regatta last week- the Henley, Maidstone, Windsor Boys and Burway composite, abbreviated to Windsor Boys and Burway, and the Henley RC crew.

The Henley RC crew - Rob Friend, Ryan Davies, Dorien Weber and Jonny Smith-Willis- qualified for the Fawley Cup with an excellent row resulting in them finishing 3^rd out of the 34 crews racing for 10 places in the Regatta. The draw pitted them against Maidenhead in the first round. This turned out to be a tough race with Henley always in front but never by more than 1 length. Maidenhead fought back hard and pulled Henley’s lead back to ½ length at the beginning of the enclosures but Henley held out and won a fine race by ¾ length. The second round against Wycliffe and Gloucester looked harder since they had already beaten the seeded Marlow and Bath University crew. Henley raced them hard to Fawley where they were a length down but in the second half of the race Wycliffe and Gloucester were able to draw away to win by 4 lengths.

The other Henley RC representative in the Fawley Cup was Nick Friend, bow steering the Henley, Maidstone, Windsor Boys and Burway composite quad. This crew, having already won the Elite event at Marlow Regatta was seeded and had two comfortable races against Marlow and Borlase’s followed by Dulwich and Kings College School before meeting Leander and Llandaff in the semi-final. This was known to be the crunch race in the event and so it turned out. Leander and Llandaff took an early lead and had 1¾ lengths at Fawley. After this, Nick Friend’s crew started their fight back. At the Mile they were a canvas down and at the Mile and ¹/₈ took the lead. But they could get no more than ¼ length in front and in the final sprint to the line Leander and Llandaff got the last stroke in to win the race by 3 feet.

This was the closest race of the regatta and the boys can take some solace from the fact that only one other sculling crew was faster than them on Saturday – The Australian Institute of Sport racing in the Queen Mother – bronze medallists at the 1999 World Championships. The final of the Fawley Cup was a foregone conclusion with Leander and Llandaff winning comfortably over Tiffin School.

While other crews were preparing to race between the qualifying races and the start of the regatta on Wednesday, the Henley boys were off racing elsewhere. Jonny Smith-Willis and Ryan Davies went off to Peterborough Junior Regatta where Smith-Willis and Davies won the J15 double sculls and Smith-Willis won the J15 singles – both races setting new records for the events.

At the same time, Nick Friend was taking part in Final Trials at Nottingham for selection for the GB Junior Squad for this year’s championships. After three days of exhaustive testing in singles, doubles and quads culminating in a 2000 metre time trial in the quad, Nick was selected to represent Great Britain in the quad in Sempach, Switzerland on 29^th – 30^th July. He joins fellow Henley RC athlete Kirsty Holland who was selected for the girls quad.

Egham

Peterborough Junior

Reading Town

Whilst the elder girls competed at Henley Women’s Regatta the remainder of the Junior Squad where on the other side of Reading at the Thames Valley Park Regatta. This is one the highlights of the Junior regatta calendar and is well attended with nearly 200 hundred races on the Sunday over a 500metre sprint course. The Henley girls had a successful day with four wins and all the crews reaching finals.

The only crews not to win where the J13 and 14 girls quads who lost their final by a third and half a length respectively after having had convincing wins in the earlier rounds.

The J15 quad of Bethan Thomas, Lucy Darke, Louise Pickworth, Lucy Pratt and cox Hanna Boyd beat both their major rivals, Lady Eleanor Holles (LEH) in the first round and then Headington School in the final, to win this event.

The J16 quad of Jenny Desmond, Fran Compton, Rachael Dadds, and Sarah Fellowes had a straight final against LEH that they won with clear water between the boats which is not insignificant over such a short course.

The two quads then combined to form an eight with Kay Davies coxing which went on to win the Women’s School & Junior B eight’s beating Kingston Grammar School in the final. As this was the first time some of the girls had actual rowed as opposed to sculling this was a very unexpected victory.

Bronwen Steele had the longest day having one of the earliest and latest races to win the J16 Single Sculls event which she did comfortably which as one of the top 3 or 4 sculls in the country at her age she should.

On Sunday, in very hot conditions four of the boys raced in the 500 metre sprint regatta at Thames Valley Park. The J15 double sculls combination of Jonny Smith-Willis and Ryan Davies were not seriously stretched to win the event.

Like their counterparts in the quad the Henley Girls Coxed four of Katharine Boothroyd, Carly Ralph, Lizzie Mann, Kirsty Scott and cox Tom Huggins had a bye to the second round of the regatta. Their opposition Evesham had disposed of Christchurch School of the United States of America with a comfortable win in the first round. The Henley crew where therefore a little apprehensive at the start but got off to a good one and established an early lead up the Island which they consolidated over the rest of course to take a place in the semi-final with a verdict of "easily". The semi-final on Sunday against Haberdashers Monmouth "A" crew was not going to be so easy as this crew had already beaten the Henley girls at the National Schools regatta earlier in the month. The girls got off to another very good start and the race plan looked to be going well with the crew having a slight advantage at the top of the island. Monmouth however pushed through to take a lead by 400metres the Henley girls responded well and remained in contact with the Monmouth crew to the 1000 metres but from here Monmouth pulled away to win by two lengths. The girls took some comfort from the fact that later in the day Monmouth went on to win the Final with a comfortable win over Sir Winston Churchill College Canada.       

Henley boys started their campaign for Henley Royal Regatta by some excellent performances at Marlow last Saturday resulting in a win in the Elite Quad Sculls. With Marlow being the premier river regatta before Henley it is always a serious test of side-by-side racing.

Nick Friend, rowing at bow steers in a composite quad sculls crew with Maidstone, Burway and Windsor Boys School, had entered the top Men’s Elite Quads event to get some serious race practice. In their four races they were only led once off the start and in the final against Thames Rowing Club, 1999 National Champions in Men’s Quads, crossed the line just over a length in front.

The Henley RC J15/16 crew, Simon Thompson, Jonny Smith-Willis, Rob Friend and Ryan Davies, also had a successful day reaching the last four out of the 16 entries in the School & Junior (U19) Quad Sculls event. In their first heat against Portadown, N Ireland, they were led off the start but at half way, the Henley boys made a push to draw level and Portadown stopped rowing leaving Henley to win the race. The second heat was a victory over Latymer School who had earlier beaten Kings School Rochester but in the semi-final against KCS Wimbledon / Dulwich College they were unable to hold the heavier crew, and although racing all the way to the line were beaten by 3 lengths.

If somebody would do a write up I would include a piece about the Novice men who won at Reading well done to them ---Does this make them Thames Cup standard

With regattas continuing to be cancelled even at this time of year due to strong stream, the latest casualty being Weybridge Ladies Regatta, Henley Rowing Club entered its full girls squad at last Saturdays & Sundays Reading Amateur Regatta hoping for a good days racing. In the end only one other club entered a Junior girls crews and this was not even from one of the other local clubs. So the only crew to get a race was the women's J15 quad of Rachael Dadds, Bethan Thomas and Lucy Pratt with Louise Pickworth at stroke and cox Tom Huggins, their opposition the girls from Kings Canterbury School. Due to the number of Regattas cancelled so far this year this was the first two lane side by side race for the girls with the additional pressures and excitement that brings. 400 metres into the 1100 metre race the two crews where level but as they came out of the final bend, which had been against the Henley crew, and into the home straight the Henley crew started to forge ahead and over the last 350 metres of the race pulled out to a four to five length lead for a very convincing win.

This weekend the older of the Junior girls are competing and hoping for success in the Henley Women's Regatta, and on Sunday the J13 14s and 15s will be competing in the Thames Valley Park Regatta in Reading.

Henley Rowing Clubs Junior girls squad spent a frustrating but successful Bank Holiday weekend at the National Schools Regatta in Nottingham.

Frustrating as most of Saturday's racing was cancelled due to a vicious head wind which caused chaos and resulted in a number of boats sinking. The success came on Sunday when five out of six crews reached finals and between them won one gold and two bronze medals.

The only crew not to reach a final was the quad of Lucy Lewington, Maggie Reinhard, Becci Varley, Clare Huntington and cox Kay Davis. However as these girls are a mixture of J13 and J14 they did exceptionally well to reach the semi-finals of the J15, event the youngest category available at the regatta.

The J15 "A" crew of Lucy Darke, Louisa Pickworth, Bethan Thomas, Lucy Pratt and cox Tom Huggins reached the final from the tough side of the draw. Their first round heat included crews from the top rowing schools but they won this round with some very positive rowing at the 500 metre mark which saw them pull away from the other crews and go on to win the heat 11 seconds clear of Lady Eleanor Holles. The semi-final included that other top rowing girls school Headington as well as crews from the North east and local rivals Upper Thames. With the first three crews to go through to the final the girls were not too unhappy to finish in second place just behind Headington but with a very significant margin of 30 seconds ahead of the third placed crew St Leonards. In the final Headington established an early lead followed closely by Gloucester and then Henley and whilst the Henley girls sculled well in the difficult conditions they were unable to close the gap on the very good Headington girls or the very strong Gloucester girls and had to content themselves with the third place bronze medal.

It was a similar story in the J16 quads where the crew of Jenny Desmond, Rachael Dadds, Fran Compton and Sarah Fellowes won the bronze medal they however were well clear of local rivals Sir William Borlase in fourth place and Marlow in fifth. This was a good performance by this crew with Rachael Dadds who is a J15 only slotting into the crew in the last two weeks to allow Bronwen Steele who normally rows in the boat to compete in the J16 single sculls.

Bronwen had perhaps the hardest task of the Henley team. A succession of injuries had severely curtailed her training and in Women's Junior single sculls she faced probably the strongest field ever selected at this level. In the circumstances she did well to finish 5^th out of 15, her lack of training proving too big a handicap to overcome in the latter stages of the final.

One of the crews most affected by the disruption and cancellation of Saturdays racing was that of Katharine Boothroyd, Carly Ralph, Lizzie Mann , Kirsty Scott and cox Tom Huggins whose main event the coxed fours was one of those turned by the organisers into a "head" style race, in one lane over 1250m. Unfortunately in the very rough waters Lizzie Mann caught a "crab" stopping the boat and whilst the girls picked up well from this could only finish ninth out of the sixteen entered. On the Sunday in very much their second event, the coxless fours, the girls did well to reach the final where they finished in sixth place.

The Gold Medal came in one of the regattas top events The Championship Girls Quadruple Sculls. At last years regatta in this event Wycliffe College had beaten Henley when a mistake in rough water close to the finish forced them to surrender a winning lead and allow Wycliffe through. Henley subsequently got revenge at Henley Women's Regatta but Wycliffe started this season by turning the tables once again at the Schools Head. Not surprisingly the tension was palpable as this intense rivalry was renewed in the final at this National Schools regatta and off the start it appeared that Wycliffe might confirm their early season form. The Henley crew however - all Great Britain Internationals - had been working hard on bladework in training and proved themselves superior in tricky conditions between 500 and 1000 metres to establish a decisive six second lead which they held through to the finish. The crew, Claire Ansley-Watson (bow steers) Anna Evans, Kirsty Holland and Juliet Hookey (stroke) were elated at their decisive win.

The girls thoughts now turn to Henley Women's Regatta where the quad will be looking to defend their title against all comers including no doubt a resurgent Wycliffe College.

The weather forecast for last weekend should have prepared the boys for rough conditions at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham, but as the day developed on Saturday, with a strong headwind straight up the 2000 metre 6 lane course it was clear that any pretence at serious racing was a lost cause. The J15 double sculls crew of Jonny Smith-Willis and Ryan Davies comfortably won their opening heat and were well placed to win the event when all racing for J16s and under in small boats was cancelled. This left Rob Friend and Simon Thompson without a race at all.

The Sunday was very much better. Starting the day in calm conditions Smith-Willis and Davies easily won their opening heats in the J15 single sculls. They both followed this with wins in their respective semi-finals. In the final Smith-Willis led from the start, had a 13 second lead after 500 metres, increased this to 17 secs by 1000 metres and maintained this lead to the finish line to win the gold medal. Davies, drawn in the next lane to Smith-Willis was 3^rd at 500 and 1000 metres but had dropped to 4^th at 1500 metres. With a very strong finish he came back on terms in the last 250 metres of the race but missed the bronze medal by 0.5 secs.

Nick Friend and Dorien Weber, competing as Sir William Borlase’s School in the Championship Double Sculls, were attempting to retain the trophy that Friend had won last year. They won their opening heat and semi-final comfortably. In the final they were drawn between Marlow and Dulwich College. Going for a fast start they led by ¼ length at 500 metres and ½ length at 750 metres. At this point Marlow pushed hard and took the lead. After this the result was not in doubt with Friend and Weber taking the silver medal.

Poplar Regatta, at the newly extended 2000 metre London Docklands Course, had the best conditions for several years with very little wind, hot sunshine and fair conditions across all seven racing lanes. 

This is the first major junior regatta of the season and due to the cancellation of a number of early regattas due to the flood conditions the girls build up to the regatta had been badly affected. Despite this the girls still came away with three gold medals four silvers and two bronze medals. With virtually all the girls racing it was pleasing to see the medals spread across the various age groups.

The J14 crew of Lucy Lewington, Clare Huntington, Rebecca Varley, Maggie Reinhard and Cox Rachael Dadds won silver in their quad event. This was the first race ever for some of the girls and was also raced over the full 2000metre that has now been opened on the Royal Albert Dock regatta course. It is unlikely that they will be asked to race this distance again this year at J14.

The J15 squad came away with two gold medals. The first came in the J15 doubles where Bethan Thomas and Lucy Pratt outclassed their major rivals from both Lady Eleanor Holles School and Headington School. In the final they establish an early lead which they built on throughout the race to win the event easily. Bethan and Lucy were then joined by Louisa Pickworth and Lucy Darke plus Tom Huggins as cox for the J15 quads race. In this race Headington established an early lead and at the 750 metre mark where two to three lengths clear of the Henley Girls with Dame Alice Harpur in third place but being pushed hard by the Henley second J15 crew of Katrina Robinson, Rachael Dadds, Rebecca Varley, Maggie Reinhard and cox Clare Huntington. By the 1000 metre mark the Henley "A" crew had closed the gap on Headington and with some determined sculling had by the 1250 metre mark nosed ahead of Headington from here they continued to build on their lead and finished comfortably ahead to take a second Gold medal. The second crew despite valiant efforts was unable to pass the Dame Alice crew and finished fourth.

The J16 squad came away from the regatta with two silvers and a bronze. Bronwen Steele finishing second in the J16 single sculls behind the very strong sculler K Tatman of Dame Alice who has been very successful in the trials for this years GB squad. Bronwen did well and got off to a good start and led Tatman until the 1000 metre mark where both were well clear of the rest of the field. From here Tatman sculled through Bronwen to take first place. In the J16 Double sculls the lightweights Sarah Fellowes and Jenny Desmond put up a good fight and whilst they beat Headington "B" and the Lady Eleanor Holles crews the crews from Headington "A" and Dame Alice Harpur School where that much stronger and left the Henley girls to pick up Bronze. The girls had some consolation though when they teamed up with Bronwen and Fran Compton for the J16 quads where they beat Dame Alice and took silver behind the Headington crew containing girls from this years GB squad.

The Junior girls squad (under 18) achieved gold, silver and bronze medals. The Junior coxed four of Lizzie Mann, Carly Ralph, Katharine Boothroyd, Kirsty Scott and cox Tom Huggins where unlucky not to win a medal but in a straight final with Headington lost by half a length. The girls rowed extremely well and came back from a length and a half down after a difficult patch about the 500 mark that can be attributed to the lack of race experience. In the single Sculls Claire Ansley-Watson was unlucky to be pushed into third place with a verdict of six inches going against her. Anna Evans and Kirsty Holland in the double sculls event took silver but then joined up with Claire and Juliet Hookey to compete in the top girls event Junior Quads where they took Gold. This was a very impressive piece of sculling against the top schools and for much of the race very little separated the top two crews put a set piece finish in the last 500 metres saw the Henley girls suddenly accelerate away and take clear water to finish a length and half ahead of Lady Eleanor Holles.

The second race of the day was the straight final of the Junior 15 double sculls. Ryan Davies and Jonny Smith-Willis led from the first stroke, had a 2 length lead by 500 metres and paddled to the finish well in front of the opposition to win the event with some ease.

Simon Thompson and Rob Friend raced in the same heat of the J16 single sculls. With three to qualify for the final Rob took the third qualifying place with Simon in fourth. The final was a hard fought affair with all the scullers in a bunch at 500 metres. By the halfway mark Rob made his push to get into fourth position a canvas in front of Offord of Reading and pushing Devlin of Reading for third place. However Rob was unable to hold the pace and dropped back at 1500 metres to take fifth place at the line.

In the J15 singles, another straight final, Jonny Smith-Willis led from the start and had just a length over Zakrewski of Tideway Scullers after 500 metres with Ryan Davies in third place. At the halfway mark Zakrewski had pushed through to draw level with Jonny and had a ½ length lead by 1500 metres. In the race to the line Zakrewski increased his lead to 1 length leaving Jonny to take second place and Ryan third.

This successful start to the regatta season follows an equally successful Head race season where in the National Rowing league in the junior category the girls finished second behind Lady Eleanor Holles and ahead of Headington and in the women’s section are in fourth place in division one.

Ghent Three bronze medals for Henley RC boys at  International Regatta

With April washed out and the first regattas at Wallingford and Marlow cancelled because of the high river conditions the first opportunity the Henley boys had for racing was at the two day Ghent International Regatta in Belgium over the last weekend.

The weather was in marked contrast to our recent English experience with little wind, hot sunshine and still water on the enclosed 2000 metre regatta course. The first race on Saturday was Nick Friend and Dorien Weber sculling in a composite Junior 18 quad sculls crew with George Watsons College and Leander. With no opportunity to practice, they had a good first row to take the bronze medal behind Skibbereen, Ireland and Mulheim, Germany - 5½ secs off the gold medal out of the 21 crews in the event.

They improved their performance on the second day, beating Skibbereen and Mulheim, but still only able to take the bronze behind Argenteuil, France and Gentse, Belgium neither of whom had raced on the Saturday.

The Junior 16 boys squad only raced on the Sunday. The quad – Simon Thompson, Jonny Smith-Willis, Rob Friend and Ryan Davies also had an excellent day. Drawn alongside Dulwich College, the Schools Head winners, they led for the first 500 metres but their lack of weight told in the middle of the race and although finishing hard were 9secs behind Dulwich at the line. But this was enough to gain them the bronze, 9secs in front of Windsor Boys School, reversing March’s Schools Head result.

The boys also took part in double sculls and singles races but they found themselves unable to equal the quad’s performance. Forsaking river racing for the time being the next regattas for the boys are Poplar in the London Docks on 14^th May and the National Schools Regatta on the Nottingham course on 27^th / 28^th May.