438 crews in doubles, pairs and singles raced over the course in four divisions (10.00am, 11.30am, 1.00pm and 2.30pm).

Although there was only one short heavy downpour of rain on Saturday afternoon, the river level continued to rise throughout the day and the wind was gusty. Entries for each event were spread across all four divisions (as chosen by the crews at the time of putting entries in), so the changing conditions gave an added twist to the final rankings.

Maidenhead’s four doubles raced in the second division. The two J16 Double Sculls - Tim Wildbore/Rob Ashburner and Adam Lilley/Michael Compton raced consecutively, with Tim and Rob finishing 4th in 10:01, just 2 seconds ahead of Adam and Michael in 7th place, and 10 seconds behind the winning composite from Walton and Marlow who won the J16 2x at the Pairs Head earlier this season.

Ertan Hazine and Alex Ryde finished in 4th place (10:11) in the MJ15 2x event.  Ross McCoriston and Tom O’Reilly (MJ15) were unfortunate enough to crash into an unwary safety boat and break an oar, so did not finish.  However, after discussion with the organisers they were allowed to re-row in the fourth division, this time achieving a time of 10:07 and a very good 2nd place behind a St Georges College crew on home water.

After rerigging their boat as a pair, Ertan and Alex rowed in the fourth division and won the J15 2- race, despite clashing with a men’s pair just above Walton Bridge and then veering into a safety launch. Their time was 10:46.

Also in the 4th division, Rob Ashburner won the J14 single sculls. After withdrawals only 2 crews raced in this event. Rob recorded a time of 11:04, beating his opponent by 52 seconds as well as many older juniors.

My thanks to Kate Ashburner for reporting on this event.

Billy
Captain, Juniors