On Sunday 27th November, Maidenhead entered 21 senior and junior crews into Marlow Fours and Pairs Head with 4 scoring event victories and a further seven runners-up.

Despite the cold weather, river conditions over the 2600m course were good, and although the stream looked light, steering the upstream course was always going to be a vital factor in any crew's performance.

Many events only had 2 or 3 crews entered (except for WJ14 double sculls, where Lady Eleanor Holles School were either having a Year 9 school trip out on the river, or perhaps more likely, there were some early pairs trials being carried out) so some events were joined together to provide more competition.

Division 1

WS3 4x: Possibly Maidenhead's current fastest women's sculling combination of A.Brooks/L.Entwistle/V.Sims/N.Trinder were the first to navigate the course and set a quick time of 10:52.20, which was enough to give them a convincing victory over the second Maidenhead WS3 4x crew of C.Blin/J.Wright/D.Thomas/V.Sprules who clocked in at 11:32.10.

WJ18 4x: This event was joined up with the WS3 4x event. Although Maidenhead's crew of C.Marsh/C.Weeks/S.Delaney/A.Campbell came third in the event with a time 11:32.10, they scored the moral victory by being the fastest WJ18 4x crew, comfortably ahead of a local Marlow crew.

MN4+: Racing for the very first time, this novice crew rowed well to come 3rd in their event of four crews with a time 11:29.00 .

MS2 4-: Despite a last minute crew change, and despite setting the fastest Maidenhead time of the day with 10:46.50, this crew were disappointed to still be 35 seconds off the pace of the competition.

VC 2x: A.Cook/H.Jenkins successfully teamed up to win the Veteran Doubles Handicap event in 11:45.70, over a minute and a half ahead of their Marlow rivals.

WJ14 2x: In amongst the flotilla of Lady Eleanor Holles crews, 3 young Maidenhead crews fought for some recognition. Highest finishers were A.Campbell/C.Bevan who came third with 13:16.60 behind strong crews from LEH and Marlow. Maidenhead also finished 5th with E.Kerns/H.Shimmin racing for the first time together, and 9th with L.Dobson/F.Bevan once again racing a year above their age group.

WJ16 2x: Both Maidenhead’s crews were racing a year up and A.Ancora/R.Kerns and K.Lion/M.Reynolds did really well to finish 2nd (13:15.70) and 3rd (13:33.90) respectively in a field of 5.

Division 2

After a break long enough for everyone to get really cold and question why it was they did this sport, crews boated for the afternoon division. Paddling down to the start under a grey winter's sky, ever darkening by the minute, they turned and silently waited for the umpires call to the start.

MS4 4x: A newly formed crew, this combo had a "very enjoyable" row and though nearly a minute off the winners, sculled well to record a time 11:02.86 .

MS2 4+: Converting to a coxed boat and with another 11th hour recruit, the men's four relied on a bit of brawn to conjour 2nd place and a time of 11:12.19 .

WS2 4x: Bereft of competition and sculling for time only, our women's quad devised a rate build 'training' piece to compare against their earlier effort. True to form, Ally stormed off the start and led her crew to a comparable time of 10:55.03 .

WJ15 2x: In another time only event, the Maidenhead/Claires Court crew clocked up 13:46.76 .

WJ14 4x+: Maidenhead’s crew of C.Bevan/E.Kerns/A.Campbell/H.Shimmin came home in 2nd place in 12:48.18 , down by 7 seconds to the winning crew from Lady Eleanor Holles School.

WJ16 4x+: Maidenhead’s A.Ancora/R.Kerns/K.Lion/M.Reynolds had a very hard fought race all the way down the course in 11:46.88 to finish in second place to Sir William Borlase School.

WJ18 2x: Victory went to Maidenhead's A.Campbell/S.Delaney who comfortably beat their opponents from Eton Excelsior by 20 seconds in a time of 12:33.71 .

WS2 4+: The final win of the day went to our Senior 2 Women's coxed four of K.Johnson/A.van Diem/S.Archibald/L.Lion and L.Gerrard (cox) who overpowered the other Maidenhead crew and a crew from Milton Keynes to easily win in 11:47.38 .

Summary of Winning Crews

WS3 4x	10:52.2
VC 2x	11:45.7
WS2 4+	11:47.4
WJ18 2x	12:33.7