Division 1 in the morning was for MJ18 scullers.
Competing in this division was Max Gerrard who is currently a J17 sculler. As expected the competition was very tough but it was good to see Max put in a good solid scull to clock a time of 19mins 46secs and to be placed 59th out of 168 of the best J18 scullers in the UK.
 
Dave Jones remains on his recovery program and is expected to participate in the GB junior trials from February 2006.
 
Division 2 in the afternoon was for WJ18, WJ16 and MJ16 scullers.
Louise Entwistle went off 3rd at the front of the W18 single scullers and at the halfway mark she gained 7 seconds on the Hollingworth Lake sculler Lucy in front of her. During the second half of the course Louise had to race hard against the Hollingworth lake sister sculler Ruth who began to gain on Louise during the second half. When the finish times came out Louise was delighted to hear that she had won her first set of GB trials from Ruth of Hollingworth Lake by the closest of margins, one hundreth of a second in a time of 20mins 55secs. This is a significant win for Louise and puts Louise up there as the number one Womens junior athlete as far as boat moving skills are concerned.

Ally Brooks also had to move up to WJ18 as her birth date being in October makes her a WJ17 by International rules although she remains a WJ16 by UK rules. Ally had a good scull and at the half-way mark had caught up 23secs on a sculler ahead however, from this point onwards the big Latymer sculler was determined not to let Ally past and they both clocked the same time for the second half of the course, Ally having to keep going in the close bumpy water pushing along the Latymer sculler. Ally was also pleased with her time of 21mins 42secs to be placed an excellent 9th in this age group.
 
Laurian Pepper had an excellent scull and when she passed the main bend at the 2k mark she steered this really well and overtook one or two scullers at this point on the inside of the bend. All the Maidenhead scullers were complemented on racing the course at the max rate of 28. Laurian finished the course in 22mins 20secs to be placed 32nd out of these top 82 scullers.
 
Aimee Campbell at WJ16 enjoyed her experience of competing against the best in the country and Aimee did really well to cover the course in 22mins 46secs placing her 49th out of 82 and 8th in the WJ16 age group.
 
Phillippa Cuss of Maidenhead's World Class Start experienced her first set of GB trials and completed the course in 23mins 36secs to be placed 76th out of the 82 top GB scullers that entered.
 
Phil Clapp competed in J16 single sculls and considering this is against all the top scullers in the UK Phil did well to finish the course in 20mins 7 secs to be placed 3rd overall, eleven seconds behind the winning sculler from Lea RC - O.Courtney. This again was good experience for Phil and looking at his split times Phil went very fast on the second half of the course, so next time round with more speed on the first half then Phil will be looking to repeat the same result as Louise.
 
This was an excellent day for Maidenhead Rowing Club to see so many athletes competing against the best athletes in the country and Maidenhead athletes finishing high up the rankings list.
 
Billy
 
 
Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors
Maidenhead Rowing Club