Henley Rowing Club

Founded 1839

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Henley Women's Regatta

Henley Rowing Club entered three crews and a Henley/St. Neots composite for the 18^th Henley Womens Regatta which took place last weekend with three days of racing in exceptionally hot and humid conditions. 

Henley’s first race of the regatta was on Saturday morning in the Elite Double Sculls when Caroline Hocking and Katherine Pankhurst took on a very good Rob Roy A crew beating them by 1 ¼ lengths in a time of 5.54. Their second heat of the day was against Weybridge which they won more comfortably by 3 ½ lengths. 

The next crew to race on Saturday was the School/Junior Coxed Four of Caitlin Bennett, Becci Griffiths, Lucy Lewington, Hannah Read and cox Alice Skinner. Henley started well with Haberdashers’ Monmouth School staying in contention for the first 500 metres but the strength of the Henley girls was too much and they pulled away winning in a time of 5.57 and a distance of 3 lengths. In their afternoon race Denis Morris School from Canada failed to make the start so Henley had to ‘row over.’ Meanwhile in the same event the Composite Coxed four of Rebecca Nesbitt & Katie Loades of St. Neots and Natalie McIntosh, Amanda Moore and cox Natasha De Lange of Henley won their heat by beating Oundle School by 2 lengths in 6.08 minutes. 

It was now the turn of the Henley’s Lightweight Coxless Pair of Caroline Hocking and Katherine Pankhurst to race and they didn’t disappoint beating Aberdeen University/Robert Gordon University by 3 lengths in a time of 6.35. They then went on to beat Twickenham RC in the afternoon which finished a very successful days racing for the club with all four crews through to the final day. 

First up for Henley on Sunday was the Elite Double Scull who were racing Loughborough BC in the semi-final. Loughborough started very strongly and took a slight early lead but Henley stayed closely in contention and it was only in the second half of the race as they passed the Remenham enclosure that Loughborough took control and went on to win by 2 lengths. With seventeen crews entered in the event, making it to the last four was still a fine achievement for Caroline and Katherine.  

Henley’s next semi-final was in the Lightweight Coxless Pairs against a strong Kingston crew. For the first 500 metres there was not much in it between them but by 1000 metres Kingston was slowly drawing away and at the finish won by 2 ½ lengths. Katherine and Rachel showed great commitment throughout, not only in making the weight required but also rowing Elite which is above their Senior level. 

With two crews in the School Junior Coxed Fours and on the same side of the draw it was inevitable they would meet in the semi-finals. The Henley/St. Neots composite fought all the way but the club crew proved the stronger of the two, finally beating the composite at the finish by 2 ½ lengths. This took them through to the final against George Heriot’s School, Edinburgh who had been most impressive in all their races. It was an exciting final with Henley refusing to lose contact for most of the race but in the last 300 metres Heriot’s School finally managed some clear water between them and finished 2 lengths ahead at the line. 

The club will be very satisfied, finishing the regatta with three semi-finalists one finalist and a win for Elizabeth Mann, a Henley member and sculler, who was in the winning University of London Senior Quad beating Durham University in the final.

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