Maidenhead Rowing Club entered 15 crews from a team of (11 girls and 7 boys, aged 14 to 18) in this years National Schools Regatta held at the National Water Sports Centre, Holme Pierrepoint, Nottingham over 3 days - Friday 27th May through to Sunday 29th May.
 
This event is seen as the Schools' equivalent to the National Championships, so the event is taken very seriously by top rowing schools as the results do affect the seeding for schools at Henley Royal Regatta.

Any medal is hard to come by at this event making Maidenhead's haul of 1 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze very impressive, especially as the second day of racing was lost to the weather and with it some of our best Gold medalling chances.

More pictures available in the Gallery

The weather was superb on day one with tempatures around 89F and reportedly the hottest day for 50 years in May. Day 2 saw the events being cancelled due to very strong 25mph head wind. Attempts were made to shorten the course from 2000m to 1000m but one crew sank on this shortened course, so on safety grounds the event was put on hold for 4 hours and then the day's racing was cancelled altogether. Day 3 was fine with light winds, so all events took place.
 
Maidenhead's medal haul was impressive over the three days, taking into account that day 2 was cancelled. On day 1 Maidenhead got off to a fantastic start by winning 1 Gold, 3 Silvers and 1 Bronze. This was excellent taking into account that the Gold and Silver medal winners were won by two WJ14 2x’s who attended National Schools for the first time. It was also good to see the boys winning a Sliver in the MJ15 2x and a Bronze in the MJ15 1x. Another Silver medal came from the WJ15 1x event.
 
No medals won by any crews on day 2 due to racing being abandoned. On day 3 Maidenhead added another Silver to the collection from the WJ16 1x event.
 
National Schools Champions from Maidenhead for 2005 are Rebekah Kerns and Alice Ancora who won Gold in the WJ14 doubles. (It is worth a special mention that Maidenhead’s Maddie Reynolds and Katie Lion also won Silver in the same event). Our thanks to our 2005 junior sponsors Global Currency Exchange - GCX who have supplied a package of boats in partnership with Sports Match to help Maidenhead juniors compete at the highest levels and this is most certainly helping our top junior crews this year.
 
Summary of National Schools medal wins:

Gold	WJ14 2x	Rebekah Kerns & Alice Ancora
Silver	J15 2x	Sam Prosser & Mathew Reeve
	WJ14 2x	Maddi Reynold & Katie Lion
	WJ16 1x	Louise Entwistle
	WJ15 1x	Ally Brooks
Bronze	J15 1x	Phil Clapp

Friday 28th May racing over 1000m
First Gold and Silver medals came on the Friday's racing raced over 1000m for J14's and J15 athletes. Maidenhead's ‘A’ crew of Rebekah Kerns and Alice Ancora with Maidenhead’s ‘B’ crew of Maddie Reynolds and Katie Lion who all competed in the WJ14 2x for the new Tristan Howins Cup against 16 doubles from across the UK. 
 
Both Maidenhead doubles won their respective heats, leading from the start and recording the same times to the 500m mark, to go through to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals both Maidenhead crews again raced well and again led from the front maintaining a 2 length lead in each of their semi-finals. In the final they were up against 4 other crews. Both Maidenhead crews went off fast in the final to ensure they led from the front and both crews reached the first 500m mark, again level in 1m 52s. During the final 500m Maidenhead’s ‘A’ crew stretched out to a 2 length lead and crossed the line in 1st place followed by Maidenhead ‘B’ crew in second with Stourport boat club finishing in bronze position. St Georges, Durham and Headington finished in that order behind the leading crews. A magnificent result for Maidenhead and the athletes to achieve the top two finishing positions.
 
Ally Brooks competed in WJ15 single sculls and after winning her heat she went on to finish second in the semi-final and qualify for a final position. Racing as expected was tough in the final and after a good start Ally managed to move into a clear 2nd position and proceeded to  push Fitzsimons from St Neots hard all the way down the course. Brooks finished in Silver medal position followed by Delaney from Wallingford who finished in Bronze position.
 
Sam Prosser and Matthew Reeve competed well in the J15 2x sculls. In their heat they finished in first place leading all the way from George Watsons and Hinksey. In the semi final Maidenhead again sculled well and finished in 2nd place behind Grange School. In the final Sam and Matt had to work hard from the half-way mark as they were in equal 3rd position. During the final part of the race the Maidenhead crew managed to move away and take the all important Silver medal finishing just 2 seconds off Gold and half a second in front of Westminster School who took the Bronze.
 
Phil Clapp competing in J15 single sculls finished second in his heat behind Nithsdale sculler A.Sarahs. In the semi-finals Phil had an excellent scull and moved from 2nd place at the half-way mark into 1st position at the finish line to qualify for a place in the final. The final was very close with four scullers in a row fighting it out for the medal positions Phil Clapp of Maidenhead won a well deserved Bronze medal in what can only be described as a blanket finish. Lea Sculler won Gold, J.Hockley of Marlow was awarded the Silver just 5 hundreths of a second ahead of Maidenhead who in turn was a fraction of a second ahead of fourth place Nithsdale sculler.
 
Saturday 29th May racing over 2000m
Day 2 was for the slightly older juniors and some of Maidenhead’s more established junior crews of WJ15 4x Katie Lion, Rebekah Kerns, Alice Ancora, Aimee Campbell with cox Lizzy Gerrard were favourites to win. Maidenhead’s WJ16 2x of Louise Entwistle and Ally Brooks were also favourites to win with Dave Jones and Sam Ashburner both expecting to medal in the CH 2x event. All crews scheduled to race on the Saturday unfortunately had to miss out this year due to the races being abandoned.
 
Sunday 30th May racing over 2000m
Louise Entwistle competing in the WJ16 1x led from the start in her morning heat and finished ahead of N.Bream from Peterborough and S.Delanie from Wallingford to go through to the semi-finals.  Racing in the semi-finals Louise paced herself well and finished in second place behind Hollingworth Lake and ahead of a Northwich sculler to qualify for the final. The final proved to be a record-breaking race with the first 4 scullers all beating the course record. Louise sculled well down the course and led until the last 250m when C.Jefferies from Headington finished very strongly to take the Gold medal with Louise finishing 2 seconds behind to take the Silver with Hollingworth Lake taking the Bronze.
 
In the boys J16 single sculls Maidenhead had two J15 competitors who moved up to J16 for experience. Phil Clapp managed to finish 2nd in his heat behind Bream of Peterborough and ahead of Gamb of Windsor Boys. Matt Reeve also finished 2nd in his heat behind Prescott of Glasgow and ahead of Bradbury of Kings Ely. In Matt Reeve’s semi-final he had a tough race against these older boys and could only manage to finish in 5th place and not qualify for the final.  Phil Clapp raced in the other semi-final and gave it his best shot but finished in 4th place just missing out on a place in the final.
 
Max Gerrard and Matt Best competed in the J16 double sculls event and put up an excellent performance winning their heat in style rating much lower than the competition and finishing some 12 secs ahead of Bryanston and Marlow A crews. Again Max and Matt raced well leading from the front to win their semi-final ahead of Molesey A and Henley B crews who joined them going through to the finals. The final did not go as planned and despite having a good scull Max and Matt were very disappointed with their 5th position.
 
Laurian Pepper and Jo Wright competed in the Championship 2x sculls. In their first heat they led out of the blocks and went on to win their heat in style finishing 6 seconds ahead of Molesey crew with Dame Alice coming in 3rd place, all 3 crews qualifying for the semi-finals. In the semi-final Maidenhead battled well and we saw Laurian and Jo leading their race to 500m, in 2nd place at 1000m and finishing in 3rd place to qualify for a place in the Championship 2x final. The final as expected was very tough but the Maidenhead girls managed to finish a very credible 5th position at this level.
 
Natalie Trinder competed in the Championship single sculls. In her first heat she was in 3rd place at 500m and gradually moved up into first place at 1000m which she held until the finish line. Worcester and Nithsdale finished 2nd and 3rd qualifying for the semi-finals. In the semi-finals Natalie raced well but could not match the pace of Parker from Rob Roy who won the semi-final, Natalie finished in 4th place just 4 seconds off 3rd position.
 
Dave Jones and Sam Ashburner raced in the Championship coxless pairs which is a new boat type for them both. In their heat they were fast out of the blocks and by 500m had taken a 5s lead. They went on to win their heat ahead of Dulwich A and Canford B crews to qualify for the semi-finals. In a tough semi-final Dave and Sam could not make the top 3 positions to qualify for a final position and had to settle for a semi-final 4th position. St Peters won this semi-final with Eton in 2nd and Radley in 3rd place.
 
Many thanks to all the parents who attended the event and helped out with support and logistics of Gazebo’s, chairs, food, transporting juniors from hotel to course etc. Special thanks to Sean Kerns who provides valuable expertise to ensure that all boats are set up properly and provides me with the necessary support to ensure everything runs smoothly for all the junior athletes.
 
Hopefully an excellent experience for all junior competitors.
 
Next major event for the Juniors will be Marlow International and two doubles will be entered at Womens Henley.

Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors