A glorious spring day saw thirty crews from Stratford upon Avon Boat Club travel to Bedford for the Spring Head.   Held over 2000m on the Great Ouse, the course runs through the town centre making a theatre of rowing for the day. Stratford’s J17/J18 squad were out in force to enjoy racing following many recent cancellations. Xavier Sissins-Roffey and Seth Vondrak raced in OpJ18 single sculls achieving second and third places respectively. They then teamed up to race the OpJ18 double scull where they crossed the line in second place, just one second behind the winners! In the women’s events the WJ18 single scull was won in emphatic style by Alexandra Francis with Poppy Baines in second place. Stratford’s J17 ladies scullers of Maeve Dunn, Martha Baines, Martha Cooke and Millie Smith delivered fifth, seventh, tenth and eleventh places in a packed and high quality event. Moving on from the single sculling, Stratford’s J17 and J18 ladies formed double sculls: Alexandra Francis and Martha Cooke powered down the course for a well deserved second place followed by an all Baines crew of Poppy and Martha coming home in sixth. In the WJ17 event, Millie Smith and Maeve Dunn finished fourth with Becca Smith and Isla Dunn on their tail in eighth place. Last but by no means least Stratford fielded a women’s J18 coxless quadruple scull of Isla Dunn, Becca Smith, Sophie Evans and Martha Cooke who motored over the line just out of the medals in fourth place.

Stratford upon Avon Boat Club’s J14s fielded a full squad across the Bedford Spring Head’s divisions and delivered some exceptional rowing, something that bodes well for the approaching regatta season. Capitalising on some intensive training in quads both the girls (Islay Milles, Eva Cruise, Amelia Cruickshank and Mary Heenan coxed by Charlotte Franklin) and boys (Archie Eaton, Chris Durance, Arthur Burt and Ethan Siwakowski coxed by Eli Ford) blew all their opposition away to claim deserved golds in respective events. These deserved successes were followed by boys’ doubles of Eli Ford and Archie Mansfield then Chris Durance with Arthur Burt who recorded solid times and placed well amongst strong crews. The girls’ crews of Eva Cruise and Charlotte Franklin then Amelia Cruickshank and Islay Milles similarly impressed amongst some quality opposition.

Coach Jon Francis was delighted, “As a curtain closer on the winter head season we could have asked no more and the J14s come away with richly deserved silverware for their efforts.”

Stratford upon Avon Boat Club J13 squad had a great first race experience at the Bedford Fours & Small Boats Head. On a slightly overcast day, the squad showed just how much they have learned over the last few months, despite set-backs from the numerous weather-driven cancelled sessions. The J13s were racing up a category, which required lots of confidence for their first race outing. The girls’ quad was first to race with Hattie McGurk doing an excellent job coxing a lovely line right down the middle of the course: Georgia Wheeler at stroke kept up a lively rate backed up by Margo Paul, Harriet Wheeler and Zilpha Pope. The girls came an impressive second from bottom, with a time of ten minutes and thirty one seconds, a great first performance against much more experienced crews.

Second up was the boys double of Gregor Francis. They put in an excellent performance, showing some real promise, finishing second last with a time of nine minutes and twelve seconds in a field of much more experienced crews.

The boys’ quad was last up, under the guidance of Gregor Francis as cox, they put in a superb performance against a formidable set of opponents. Their time of nine minutes and forty seconds was a real credit to their focus and determination. Commenting, Rebecca Paul, J13 Coach said, “This was the J13’s debut racing event: considering that the squad has only been sculling for less than eight months, with many sessions off the water due to inclement weather and river conditions, they should be proud of their achievements. We certainly are!”

Competing in the Women’s Masters E 2x category, Ellie Davis and Gina Fusco were looking forward to racing in the morning division. Slightly blustery conditions but the duo settled into a solid rhythm and followed a good line on the course. They were delighted to catch up their two opposition in that division and then had to wait to see how their time of compared to the remaining three crews racing late afternoon. At the end of the day, the duo came first beating five other crews and commented, “We had to wait until the evening to know where we had come but we were over the moon when we discovered we had won. Many thanks to Sam Hill for his coaching.”

With the juniors and women’s masters setting the pace during the day with some excellent results and wins, it was left to the mixed masters double of Rebecca England and Tom Doherty to keep the standard high in the final division of the day.

Changeable weather conditions saw blustery winds and rain add to the challenge of navigating some narrow bridges and other crews. Stratford led off the start ahead of four of their opposition on the 1.9km course. Determined to set a high tempo from the start, Rebecca England at stroke set a metronomic pace of thirty two strokes a minute enabling Stratford to pull ahead of their opposition over the first half of the course.

Having navigated the worst of the bridges, calamity struck when the footplate of Rebecca’s feet broke. This led to some technical adjustments by Rebecca to maintain the pace and rhythm of the boat. Approaching the finish in blustery conditions, Stratford were able to maintain their pace to finish in a respectable time of eight minutes and five seconds. The time turned out to be comprehensively faster than the other competitors resulting in another win and a very successful day for Stratford Boat Club.

For media coverage, see Stratford Herald page thirty seven and also online https://www.stratford-herald.com/sport/stratford-boat-club-s-juniors-and-masters-shine-at-bedford-s-9461987 and Stratford Observer back sports page https://stratfordobserver.co.uk/editions/view/?/Stratford/2026/04/24&pages=24

For more great pictures of Bedford Spring Head, see Stuart Baines’ selection https://onedrive.live.com/…