The Marlow Regatta was celebrating its 150th anniversary and it did it in some style. Racing was 2km over 6 lanes, except for the last race which was a NINE lane race for the MJ15B 8o!
The events were truly top class and international with entries drawn from the Oxford and Cambridge boat race crews, Leander and from Cork BC, Eire to Tasmania.
 
Maidenhead Junior crews continued to perform well and achieved 3 regatta successes at this years Marlow International Regatta.
 
Maidenheads three Winning crews are:
 
MJ15 4x - In a composite crew with Marlow RC Sam Prosser and Matt Reeve were part of the winning crew in this event.
WJ14 4x+ Carmel Bevan, Maddie Reynolds, Katie Lion, Rebekah Kerns (stroke) with cox Emily Webster.
WJ15 4x+ Katie Lion, Rebekah Kerns, Alice Ancora, Aimee Campbell with cox Emily Webster.
 
The conditions were calm and clear with some very high afternoon temperatures well into the mid 20s with a light wind. The normal wind condition for Dorney is a cross wind coming from the Tower side to the Enclosure side, on Saturday the wind was mainly a head wind with just occasional cross bursts to keep the coxes on their toes
 
During the morning our boys' crews did very well and all progressed through to their finals comfortably.
 
The first Maidenhead final was the WJ14 4x+. We had two crews entered. The "A" crew (Rebekah Kerns, Katy Lion, Maddie Reynolds, Carmel Bevan) had rowed and won at Wallingford and the "B" crew (Alice Ancora, Emma Kerns, Aimee Broadbent, Anna Campbell, cox Fifi Bevan) was a completely new mixing which had not raced together before. There was also a new cox in the "A" crew, Emily Webster.
The "A" crew had the better start but was pushed hard to the halfway mark by Marlow, from the 1000mtrs mark the Maidenhead crew opened up a lead and went on to win. Marlow won the Inter Regional selection earlier in the year. The "B" crew were having their own battle with TSS and Sr Wm Borlase.
The "A" crew made a fantastic final effort and won by 6.88 seconds from Marlow with our "B" crew coming 4th ahead of Sr Wm Borlase.
 
Four of the girls from this event were also in the WJ15 4x+, namely Alice Ancora, Rebekah Kerns, Katy Lion and cox Emily Webster. They were joined by Aimee Campbell. Again it was a straight final with Molesey, Surbiton High School and Marlow being the main opposition. The girls lead from the start and finished with a good 10 seconds lead.
 
But supporters had no time to relax and enjoy the wins because the very next race on the course was the MJ15 4x+ with Matt Reeve and Sam Prosser in a Marlow/Maidenhead composite. The boys were pushed hard by the previously very successful Windsor Boys' crew but finished with a comfortable 9.2 seconds lead.
 
No rest for the poor sundrenched supporters, 25 minutes later we were shouting on another Maidenhead finalist crew, the composite MS/J4x- with Sam Ashburner and Dave Jones. This was a very close and hard fought race with Sam and Dave's crew leading at one point by 3/4l but in the final 250m they came second to a TSS/Marlow composite by just 0.16 of a second.

Also representing Maidenhead in the Schools J4x was Matt Best, in a composite with Marlow. They finished 4th in their final and have now pre-qualified for the Fawley Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.
 
Josh Prosser, rowing up a year, was the Maidenhead representative in the MJ14 4x+ composite with Marlow. They had a steady race and finished 3rd behind Dulwich 2nd and Latymer 1st.
 
The last Maidenhead race of the day was the MJ 2x, with Phil Clapp and Max Gerrard. This is a relatively new pairing. The boys had an excellent race to qualify for the final in which they finished 3rd and closing, 13.3 seconds behind winners Marlow and just over 2.5 seconds behind Windsor Boys. Both boys are well below the age limit for this event so we shall watch with interest in the next few years.
 
Many Thanks to Maggie Bevan for producing most of this report.