By Mr McEwen (Assistant Head Rowing Coach)

On Saturday 28th February, the boat club attended Hammersmith Head in London, a time trial race over 4000m between Chiswick and Hammersmith bridges on the river Thames. This race acts as a valuable opportunity to gain experience on the tideway for our crews before the Women’s Eights and Schools Head of the River Races in two weeks time.

The recent wet weather has led to flooding on plenty of rivers and the Thames is no different, despite the dry and sunny conditions on race day, the stream was deemed too fast for less experienced rowers. This meant that both of our J15 crews, along with all other J15 crews, were unfortunately not allowed to race. However, even with the fast stream we still had two senior squad eights racing in a field with many of the top junior crews in the country.

The 1st 8 had a clean race down the track achieving 13th place in the junior category with a time of 11:46.5. This puts them well within the mix of crews with whom they will be competing with at SHoRR on Friday 13th March.

The 2nd 8 had one of the more eventful days on the tideway as after some hurried repairs to a rigger during marshalling they unfortunately lost their rudder leaving them with a significantly reduced ability to steer during the race. However, this was managed expertly by their cox Lily, and they raced safely down the course in a time of 12:47.7. Both results are extremely encouraging as we move forward in the season.