Maidenhead Juniors return from the National Junior Sculling Head of the River at Henley with 2 Golds, 2 Silvers and a Bronze medal and were crowned as the top performing club at this prestigious event.

The National Junior Sculling Head of the River inaugural event was staged at Henley-on-Thames over a 3,200 metre, upstream course. The event took place on Wednesday 8th March and was held over three divisions.

Maidenhead Rowing Club selected six junior crews to enter this event held on the famous stretch of the Thames at Henley. Junior athletes ranged in age from 12 to 18.

Competition was as expected very tough with crews entered from all over the UK. The weather was also challenging on the day for competitors with a strong head wind and rain in Division 1 followed by more rain and perhaps less wind in the later divisions.

Division 1

Maidenhead’s WJ18 quad had to make a crew change on the day and re-organise half the crew into new positions. With Ally Brooks suffering with a sickness bug, Louise Entwistle moved to stroke and Caris Marsh moved to the 3 seat. Sophie Delaney joined the crew at 2 and Laurian Pepper steered the boat at bow. This demonstrated the strength in depth the squad has as they went on to race well overtaking a crew from Stourport Boat Club and during the early part of the course they closed on the main competition from St Neots. Maidenhead were delighted to hear that they won this event by 4 seconds from Dame Alice Harpur School with St Neots RC in 3rd place a further 2 seconds behind. This was a really exceptional win taking into account the crew substitution on the day and the toughness of this event.
 
Maidenhead’s J15 boys quad of Alex Ryde, Ertan Hazine, Ross McCoriston, Robert Ashburner and cox Tom O’Rieley put in an exceptional performance to finish in second place taking a Silver medal finishing only 3.6 seconds behind Windsor boys School and 13 seconds ahead of Newark RC. This result looks very promising for these boys and should be the start of a very successful 2006 and 2007 season.
 
Maidenhead’s young WJ14 quad which included Emma Kerns, Anna Campbell, Hanna Shimmin, Fifi Bevan and cox Charlotte Weeks put in a very good effort to finish 4th out of an entry of 37 crews in their event. This young Maidenhead crew did find the distance tough but they all put in a good effort to finish only 2 seconds off Bronze and 7 seconds off Silver.
 
Division 2

An exceptional scull by probably Maidenhead’s fastest ever junior boys quad, in a Timberland sponsored boat, saw this determined quad of Carl Delaney, Sam Ashburner, Phil Clapp and Dave Jones take on the best junior quads in the country and, just like the girls, proved they are the fastest junior quad in the Country at this present time. Windsor Boys picked up Silver 6.6 seconds behind and Yarm School picked up Bronze 10.2 seconds behind Maidenhead. It is worth noting that this Maidenhead crew has 3 GB Junior squad members on board including last year's Junior Internationals Carl Delaney and Sam Ashburner.
 
Maidenhead’s talented WJ16 quad crew of Alice Ancora, Rebekah Kerns, Sophie Delaney and Aimee Campbell steers, who had two members on board who won this event last year, had to settle for 3rd place and a Bronze medal this year. This was another good result taking into account that Sophie Delaney had already sculled the course earlier in Division 1 when she substituted in the WJ18 quad.
 
Maidenhead’s newly formed WJ15 quad who have been showing some good form in training continued to demonstrate that they are a leading boat in this age group. The crew of Katie Lion, Maddie Reynolds, Aimee Broadbent, Carmel Bevan and cox Emily Webster performed exceptionally well in a loaned Claires Court School ERB boat and went on to win a Silver medal.
 
Most of the Maidenhead Junior athletes who competed and won medals at the inaugural 2006 National Sculling Head are pictured below with the cups for the fastest girls J18 quad and fastest boys J18 quad. An exceptional performance, for the club to win both the top girls and boys boat classes.

 
Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors