Tag Archives: Long Distance Sculls

Henley Triumphs for Stratford!

Posted on by

On Saturday 2nd November, Stratford upon Avon Boat Club Junior Squad travelled south to the spiritual home of rowing, Henley on Thames, to compete in the annual Long Distance Sculls event.  Contested over 3km on Henley Reach the event attracts top clubs and schools from around the country.  With higher than normal stream levels the conditions favoured those who steered a canny course close to the bank. The Stratford J16 squad competed twice in both J16 and J18 events with the first crews to boat in WJ16 double sculls. The double scull of Martha Baines and Poppy Warren delivered a solid row to record fifth place; Tessa Parkin and Josephine Cooper achieved eighth and Sophie Franklin and Becca Smith came home tenth. The WJ16 single scull athletes of Poppy Warren, Tessa Parkin and Becca Smith achieved seventh, ninth and tenth respectively. Rowing up to the J18 category, the J16 athletes delivered strong second rows on the Henley course with single scullers Maeve Dunn, Martha Cooke, Isla Dunn and Millie Smith achieving creditable placings of fourteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and twenty first respectively. In the J18 double sculls event, Martha Baines and Maeve Dunn ranked eleventh, Millie Smith and Martha Cooke ranked sixteenth and the crew of Josephine Cooper and Isla Dunn coming home twentieth after being obstructed by a slower crew for the final 500m of the course.

With the usual first races of the season being cancelled, the J17/18 squad turned up at Henley excited at the prospect of some racing. With fine conditions but still some strong stream to contend with, the first Stratford crew of the day consisted of Aimee Appleton, Lucy Sartain, Lily Warren and Poppy Baines racing in the WJ18 quads. Executing a blistering start, the quad stormed down the course to claim sixth place in a competitive field. Next up were the J17/18 double of Jamie Wilcock and Seth Vondrak racing for the first time together. They sculled well and fought hard down the course to overtake a crew in the final stretch to secure eleventh place. The afternoon division saw V Vondrak and Scarlett Richardson compete in the WJ18 2x event. Settling in quickly to their race pace, rowing a good length and rhythm they overtook one crew in the first 1500m and continued pushing all the way to the finish to earn a very respectable third place. Finally, racing a year up in the J18 1x Xavier Sissins-Roffey got off to a quick start and fought hard all the way to earn himself fortieth of fifty five in a competitive field. J17/18 coach Eric Appleton said, “This was the first chance to race for many of the squad in over the last three months so it was good to get out and put all the hard training into practice on such a famous stretch of river. We’re very happy with the performances and looking forward to the next race.”

Stratford Masters WMD4x squad of Ellie Davis, Gina Fusco, Christine Goodwin and Ruth Poulten were inspired by the opportunity to race the iconic Henley Royal Regatta Course and it didn’t disappoint! Starting 3K downstream, conditions were good with five other crews competing in their category. The crew got off to a great start settling in to their planned rate twenty eight strokes per minute but a strong Marlow quad forced them into the middle of the river at the famous Temple Island and into a challenging upstream current. Undeterred and motivated by the encouragement at recent indoor ergo sessions, the Stratford crew held their line for the rest of the course racing side by side with the Marlow club to the finish and finished in a respectable fifth place.

Nick Sartain represented the Stratford’s Masters men. It proved to be a demanding race, especially given the lack of recent long distance training, against a competitive field. Pleased with his performance, Nick is looking forward to Stourport Head next weekend.

For media coverage, see Stratford Herald page forty three https://digital.imnews.app/app/STR931/editionguid/ca79aa62-774f-4c6b-814b-9ee8a4bc1fa5 and online https://www.stratford-herald.com/sport/junior-rowers-tackle-long-distance-event-9390768 and Stratford Observer back sports page https://www.stratfordobserver.co.uk/editions/view/?/Stratford/2024/11/08&pages=32 and also online https://www.stratfordobserver.co.uk/sport/rowing-stratford-upon-avon-juniors-oar-some-displays-at-henley-upon-thames

For more great pictures of Henley LDS, see Stuart Baines’ excellent selection https://1drv.ms/f/s!AiW2DAyn9tg9kJVQ1KjfA4EylOeRag?e=yEzQjY

Stratford upon Avon Boat Club makes its mark at Wallingford

Posted on by

A crisp autumnal morning greeted Stratford upon Avon Boat Club Junior scullers as they arrived at Wallingford for the first head race of the winter season on Saturday 29 September. Sculled over 4,250 meters upstream on the Thames, the event attracts entries from many of the top clubs and schools who use it as a selection trial for their winter heads programme. The Great Britain coaches taking notes on the bank gave a clue to the quality of the entry.

Stratford got off to a flying start with Fred Tyler powering his way to third place out of twenty two in the Open J16 single sculls event. Fred dug deep to pull off an heroic finish posting the fastest time for the second half of the course.

Stratford entered three scullers in the Women’s Junior 17 single sculls event. Khloe Curnock and Katie Wellstead were only separated by 2.6 seconds in eighth and eleventh places respectively and Talei Dunn finished a highly creditable sixteenth. Katie recorded fifth fastest time for the second half a very encouraging performance for an endurance event.

Molly Gill-Swift and Emily Brown faced girls from the older age group in the Women’s Junior 18 double sculls. Molly and Emily sculled superbly putting in a typically gritty performance to finish in third place, less than five seconds behind Emanuel beating Wallingford on their own water in the process.

Stratford member Joe Hodson represented King Edward VI School in the Open Junior 17 single sculls event. Joe had to contend with an old injury to his arm flaring up in the second half of the race dropping him from twenty third at the half way point to finish in twenty sixth place, so not a result indicative of Joe’s potential.

Despite competing at Wallingford for the first time in a single, Mya Kenny rounded off the day’s racing with a very strong performance in the Women’s Junior 16 single sculls finishing in twelfth place beating Evesham to boot by just over a second.

Coach Sam Hill said, “Wallingford gives us a measure of where we rank against top competition at the start of the winter head season. Our Junior athletes have put down a very impressive marker this weekend. ‘Man of the Match’ definitely goes to Fred Tyler for his amazingly powerful performance!”

The Masters also had a representation at Wallingford with Christine Goodwin and Tim Lunel racing in their first Head competition as a mixed pair. Under ideal sunny and calm conditions, they had a great row really making the boat run and do the work, knowing how important that is when it gets over 4,000m! It felt like an excellent row and the times showed that in beating their two opposition crews by two minutes including a Masters C crew. Not only that their time of 19:15 bettered three of the six men’s Masters doubles!

Said Tim Lunel, Masters’ sculler, “Not a bad first time out as a mixed pair in a head!  We then made the fool-hardy choice to go out and do it all again in singles in the afternoon session: the less said about that the better, except maybe showing that neither of us was holding anything back from getting a good time for the morning session for the afternoon scull!”

For media coverage, see Stratford Herald page 15 and Stratford Observer page 31. For great pictures of Wallingford Long Distance Sculls, see Lawrence’s great pictures at https://adobe.ly/2QjJj17