With 2,484 people competing in 550 crews, the Fuller’s Head of the River Fours head is one of the largest one day rowing events in the world. This year saw Maidenhead Rowing Club enter a record nine crews (6 Senior and 3 Junior) to compete over the famous 4  and a quarter mile championship course on the river Thames, from Chiswick Bridge to Putney Bridge.
 
This event is one of the few races where members of the GB rowing squad can compete for their home clubs and the event continues to attract many Senior and Under-23 internationals in the top level events. There are 20 different events being raced on the day, with everything from womens’s junior quadruple sculls to men’s elite coxless fours, so attracting international level rowers and many club level rowers from across the UK and Europe, from as far a field as Norway and Germany.

The Junior Squad

With three junior crews entered at this years fours head, the fastest overall Maidenhead crew over this course was the boys J18 quad of Phil Clapp (stroke), Carl Delaney, Sam Ashburner and Max Gerrard (steering).  This crew is possibly one of the strongest crews to compete for Maidenhead at this age group and they again put up an excellent performance to cover the course in  19m10s, being placed 3rd in their division. Winning crew on its home water was Tideway Scullers, closely followed by Walton RC with Maidenhead just 5 seconds of the winning pace.
 
Win for the WJ18 Quadruple Sculls

The girls entered two WJ18 quads and both crews impressed. The first crew ended up winning its event and becoming a 2005 Pennant Winner. Ally Brooks (stroke), Louise Entwistle, Sophie Delaney and Laurian Pepper (steering) sculled an excellent course overtaking 6 crews and recording a fast time of 20m48s to win this event by 36 seconds from Henley RC. The second quad with mainly younger members on board: Alice Ancora (stroke), Katie Lion, Aimee Campbell and Caris Marsh (steering), had an equally good scull over the course and clocked up a time of 21m27s to be placed a very credible 3rd out of the WJ18 quadruple sculls and only 2 seconds away from 2nd place Henley RC crew.

The Senior Mens Squad

The best placed Maidenhead Senior crew was the recently formed quadruple sculling crew who did well to finish the course in 19m23s to be placed 18th out of 42 crews in their class.
 
The Senior 2 coxless four of veterans had a good row to finish the course in a time of 20m47s which placed them in 32nd place and with a time that was faster than the senior 2 coxed four.
 
The Senior 2 coxed four had a good row and completed the course in 21m6s to be placed 29th in their division.
 
Senior Womens Squad
 
Three womens crews competed with the best performance coming from the Senior 2 quad sculling crew who finished in a time of 21m21s to be placed 22nd in their division.
 
The womens Senior 2 coxed four were unfortunate to lose one of their crew due to injury, but were fortnuate to have the experienced young veteran Laura Lion as a substitute. This crew did extremely well to finish in a time of 22m23s to be placed 5th of the 11 crews in their division.

The womens Senior 3 coxed four gained valuable experience in this type of race and finished in a time of 24m37s to be placed 31st in their division.
 
 
Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors
Maidenhead Rowing Club