The UK regional finals were held at The National Watersports Centre, Nottingham on Sunday 14th May 2006. Maidenhead had 7 crews selected to represent the Thames Upriver region at these UK Regional Championships, two more than were selected last year. Twelve regions competed for overall best region.

The racing was held over the multi-six-lane course and held over 1500m. Conditions were initially slightly wet for the heats, then it warmed up with a slight tail-cross wind turning to head wind in places.

This was an excellent achievement for Maidenhead to have no fewer than 7 crews selected to represent the Thames Upriver Region.

Maidenhead’s top crews demonstrated how to scull well by winning a high number of gold medals with the Intermediate J15 boys double just missing out on a Gold by 2 hundredths of a second.

All 4 Gold medal winning crews led from the start and won both their heats and the Grand finals in style and by convincing margins. The greatest margin of all was a sculling demonstration given by Phil Clapp who destroyed the field and went on to finish some 12 secs ahead of his closest competition.

Each event held a Petite Final of six crews and a Grand Final of the fastest 6 crews. The fastest six crews in the heats went through to the Grand Finals.

This year also saw the GB junior selector looking to see the crews that were performing overall but in particular crews that were winning at J16 level. Phil Clapp clearly impressed with his win.

The junior squads are benefiting this year from the boats supplied from their sponsors Eddie Murphy, CEO of Global Currency Exchange and we are grateful to Claires Court School who very kindly loaned us a coxed quad, St Vincent used by the WJ15 girls.

This again is Maidenhead Rowing Club’s best team performance to date at this Junior Inter-regional high-level event. Winning any of these events requires you to race and win against the top crews in the country. Maidenhead Rowing Club crews were seen as one of the top performing clubs of the event.

JIRR Summary of Results

First Gold medal of the day WJ15 4x+ Katie Lion, Maddie Reynolds, Aimee Broadbent, Carmel Bevan with cox Rebecca Reeve. Won WJ15 quad heat gradually drawing out to a 3/4l lead but with catching a crab in the last 250m the heat was closer than expected. They sculled better in the final after making a couple of good pushes down the course in their loaned boat  – won the first Gold medal for Maidenhead and Thames Upriver.

Second Gold of the day came from Ally Brooks racing in WJ16 single sculls. In the heat she went out of the blocks fast and gained a 3 length lead by halfway. In the final she led again from the front and came home easing up, 3 seconds ahead of a sculler from Sudbury.

Third Gold of the day came from Rebekah Kerns & Alice Ancora racing WJ15 2x. They won their heat by clear water moving away in the last 250m. Went on to do the same in the Grand final holding an overlap to 1250m and then taking an extra length in the last 250m of the race.

Fourth medal, a Silver, came from the MJ15 2x of Ertan Hazine and Alex Ryde. They finished 3rd in their heat which was not their best of scull. In the final they made a couple of changes and looked like a new crew. They led from the start pulling out to a significant 2l lead at half-way, from here in the West Midlands crew from Evesham pushed hard and with only 50m to go the crews were level. At the line Maidenhead boys missed out on a Gold by the closest of margins 2/100ths of a second. These boys will have learnt a lot from this race and be looking forward to going one better at National Schools.

Fifth medal, a second Silver, came from MJ14 1x Robert Ashburner, Robert achieved a 2nd place in his heat to qualify for a place in the Grand Final. Robert raced well in the Grand final to challenge and take for 2nd place. A good Silver medal behind a fast sculler from Tideway Scullers.

WJ15 1x Katie Lion, Katie achieved a place in the Grand Final after winning her heat coming in from 3rd place with 250m to go. The final as expected was tough and Katie had already stroked the WJ15 quad to victory. In the final Katie again made up a length in the last 300m to finish 4th place less than one second off Bronze. Some good singles racing experience.

Sixth medal and fourth Gold of the day came from Phil Clapp who came out of the blocks very fast and went on to demolish the field and finish some 12 seconds ahead of the 2nd place sculler.

Next Big Regattta will be National Schools at Nottingham on Friday 26th to Sunday 28th May.


Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors
Maidenhead Rowing Club