Summary of winning crews:

WJ14A 4x+:    Maddie Reynolds, Emma Alington, Harriet Ingall, Maddi van Noorden and cox Emma Sanerkin
J14 B 4x+:    Ross Mc Coriston, Ertan Hazine, Alex Ryde, Tom o’Reilly and cox Maddi van Noorden
WJ13 4x+:    Anna Campbell, Carmel Bevan, Emma Kerns, Lucy Brockwell and cox Fifi Bevan
WJ12 4x+:    Fifi Bevan, Lexy Dobson, Rebecca Reeve and Felicity Young
WJ13 2x:    Anna Campbell and Carmel Bevan
WJ12 2x:    Fifi Bevan and Rebecca Reeve
J15 1x:    Tim Wildbore
WJ12 1x:    Lexy Dobson

The Birmingham regatta is held on the Edgbaston Reservoir and is a very short course, 3 lane stakeboat start with repecharge over 350m for the youngest and 750m for J13 4x+ and above. So basically there isn’t any room for mistakes, the athletes need to go off strongly and stay strong all the way to the finish line.

It was an overcast day with a threat of rain all day which finally materialised as the last race was being called to the stake boats. The wind caused some problems particularly in the 2nd division and at the start of the third division.

Tim Wildbore's fantastic first regatta win. He entered the 3rd Div in the J15 1x, a straight final between himself, and 2 competitors from Ross on Wye. Tim led from the start by miles and miles. His steering obviously needs some work as he had to keep virtually stopping to look over his shoulder, the commentator said something along the lines that 'Maidenhead was stopping to look for the finish...but he can afford to'. He won easily - A fantastic first pot.

Birmingham implemented a new racing plan this year which allowed for doubling up between divisions but not necessarily within a division. The order of the events was made public so that coaches could gauge for themselves whether it would be possible to double up. Unfortunately there were so many entries that several events were scrapped, hence many safe buffers between races turned into unworkable gaps. I know we spent most of the 2nd division liaising with LEH, Evesham, Kingston and Avon to run races when all our athletes were available.

The new racing plan was expected to cut down on delays and the length of time that the juniors in particular spent waiting at the start…I’m afraid it didn’t succeed. But more of that later.

Division 1 was a fairly straightforward division for us with just 5 entries.

The J14B 4x+ was crewed by John Truswell’s boys, Ross Mc Coriston, Ertan Hazine, Alex Ryde, Tom o’Reilly and cox Maddi van Noorden. The boys were drawn against Monmouth and Evesham in their first heat. They had a reasonable start and kept in touch all the way down the course, then pulled away past the 350m mark as Monmouth caught a crab. They finished ½ a length up on Monmouth. In the semi finals they beat Shrewsbury in the same determined manner and romped home in the final to beat Bedford Modern by 4½ lengths. A fantastic first pot for the crew.

The girls WJ13 4x+, who have been together about 2 years longer than the boys quad, led all the way in the heat and had a comfortable 4½ lengths lead on Kingston at the finish. They went on to beat Avon County by 2 lengths in the next heat, recording the fastest time of the day so far of 2.51 and then beat Kingston A easily in the final.
The crew was Anna Campbell, Carmel Bevan, Emma Kerns, Lucy Brockwell cox Fifi Bevan.

In the WJ14B 1X (there was no WJ14A event) we had two girls, Maddie Reynolds and Emma Sanerkin. Maddie raced off first and took what the announcer called a slight detour to 'look at the ducks' fortunately her competitor from Bewdley also wanted to see the ducks and followed Maddie off the course. They both eventually returned and Maddie won by 4 lengths to go through. Sadly she lost in the next round to Abingdon.

Meanwhile Emma Sanerkin took to the water and was having a fabulous race down against her LEH opponent when a gust of wind came across the lake, blowing her off balance. She lost her confidence and her length and LEH sped past to the finish. Emma had a much better race in the repecharge and very nearly caught another LEH girl but eventually lost by ¾ length. The third place went to Bewdley who was quite a way behind the two leaders.

The final race in division 1 was VC 1x, and our athlete was Mr Piers Alington. Piers raced against Monmouth and Stourport in a straight final. He went of well from the start and was in contention down most of the course, at the 400m mark he seemed to have partly steered off into a bay on his bow side and it was this error which cost him the race.

Although division 1 was running about 30 minutes over time, division 2 started on time. Division 2 was going to be a very hectic time for us we had potential clashes between the final of the WJ12 4x+ and the final of the WJ12 1x. We also had clashes between all the heats of the WJ13 1x and the WJ13 4x+….these were events which had seemed to be safely distant on the original race schedule but due to the cancelled events were within 10 minutes on the updated schedules. Also the wind started to become a problem during this division delaying the start of many races.

Anna Campbell and Carmel Bevan were our entrants in the WJ13 2x and they had a good start beating Kingston and Avon County easily in the first heat. After letting Carmel come in to change boats to complete her first round in the WJ13 1x they returned to the water to beat Avon County in the semis and Stourport in the finals.

The WJ13 1x event is the one that caused most trouble, athletes were left sitting at the start for anything up to an hour and at one point were even overlooked altogether. By this time the wind had turned cold and uncomfortable.

Katherine Hendersen (her first regatta) and Lucy Brockwell were drawn in the same heat against Avon County.  Avon County beat Lucy by 3 ½ lengths and Katherine was close behind. When Lucy came back to the bank it became clear that a major part of the reason for her loss was the fact that her boat, John Rayer, was unsuitable and had cut the back of her calves to pieces, unfortunately with 4 junior girls on the water at the same time and only 2 Project Oarsome boats there wasn’t an alternative boat to give her. We had to adjust John Rayer as best we could and send Lucy back out to the repecharge.

Katherine’s repecharge was a close run thing with Katherine looking as if she could sneak up on the leader and win, but steering errors caused both girls to collide and a re row was ordered. This is where things went badly wrong. Katherine returned to the start for the rerow and, after a wait, was mistakenly put into Lucy’s repecharge heat, meanwhile Lucy continued to wait. Katherine came 3rd in the repecharge against LEH and Avon, but hopefully this has lit her enthusiasm to compete further.

After more than an hour the officials realised their mistake and that Lucy was still at the start waiting. She was offered a place directly into the semi final. However when she came back to the bank the poor child was so cold and miserable that she was just unable to continue with any further racing.

Meanwhile Carmel who had  by now been out on the water either racing or waiting for 2½ hours won her second round of the WJ13 1x against Avon and turned straight around to race the final against the girl from Dragon school who had come 3rd in Carmel’s first heat. The Dragon School won by 2ft.

Moving down a year the WJ12 double, Fifi Bevan and Rebecca Reeve had a very good row in the first round against Evesham and that brought them straight through to the Final. In the final they beat Evesham and Kingston, leading from the start.

Lexy Dobson was the WJ12 1x entrant and after a bit of a wait while it was determined that one of the competitors had scratched and that the heat would now be a final, Lexy won by 2½ lengths over Evesham and 2 Avon county crews.

The last race of this horrendous division was the WJ12 4x+. Crew was Fifi Bevan, Lexy Dobson, Rebecca Reeve (all old hands by now) and Felicity Young (her first regatta). It was a straight final against Kingston and Evesham. The girls led from the start and finished with a 2½ length lead.

Division 3 came, the end is in sight. Or not quite, the wind became even more disruptive and there seemed to be a shortage of start marshals, so racing was very slow.

We had 2 entries in the WJ14B 2x (again there was no A category), Emma Alington and Harriet Ingall followed by Emma Sanerkin and Maddi van Noorden. Both crews were in the same heat against Bewdley. The Alington/Ingall combination was the winner with Sanerkin/van Noorden coming second and Bewdley a remote third. Sanerkin/van Noorden went out at the next heat, but Alington/Ingall won through to the final where they lost to LEH.

The last race of the day, nearly 1½ hours behind schedule, was the WJ14A 4x+. Our girls, Maddie Reynolds, Emma Alington, Harriet Ingall, Maddi van Noorden and cox Emma Sanerkin were up against LEH. The crews were really close right from the start, such that given the convergence of the sight lines it was difficult to tell who was actually in the lead. However Maidenhead did a final push and won in the last 200m.

Many thanks to Piers for towing the trailer and Maggie for taking on the team manager role and chief reporter for the event. Another long day from 6.30am to 11.00pm. Thanks also to the parents and coaches who assisted at the event.

Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors
Maidenhead Rowing Club