Maidenhead Rowing Club hosted its annual regatta on Saturday 5th August, the event saw over 200 crews battling it out on the 500m sprint course and over 750 visitors attended the regatta enclosure near the sounding arch.

Maidenhead were represented in 34 of the 56 events and successfully retained the Wilkinson Sword Trophy for the most successful club, however as the hosting club cannot win the prize money, the £250 cash prize goes to the next most successful visiting club which was Eton Excelsior.

Notable wins for Maidenhead from the Women's Squad: Vicky Sprules won the Women's Novice Singles final. After successfully beating competitors from Eton Excelsior and Tideway Scullers, she beat fellow Maidenhead rower Marianne Amato in the final to win her Novice pot.

Women's Senior 3 Eights was also won by Maidenhead - Katherine Chapman, Claire Wallace, Christèle Blin, Louise Perry, Jo MacBeth, Anne Rees, Hayley Wildmore, Keri Johnson and coxed by Jill Danby. They beat Parr's Priory Rowing Club in a straight final by 1.5 lengths.

Also the Women's Senior 3 Coxed Four of Helen Stewart, Olivia McDermott, Marianne Amato and Helen Jacob coxed by Emma Sannerkin won against Curlew Rowing Club, then met HSBC Rowing Club in the final where they won by 1.5 lengths.

There was also an excellent novice win for the new learn to rowers of 2006 - the novice double of R Hammel and E Mitchell.
 
Women's Senior 2 Double Sculls saw juniors Ally Brooks and Louise Entwistle move up to race at senior level. Maidenhead scullers finished 4 lengths ahead of Putney Town in the semi-finals and raced another Maidenhead senior crew in the final. Brooks and Entwistle came home by a clear margin to take the prize for this event.
 
Maidenhead Men's squad also topped up the scores with a win at Senior 4 level. Their coxless four of James Goodchild, Paul Williams, Todd Stephens, Alex Jones and cox Corinne McGrail won against Linacre Boat Club.

Maidenhead Veterans showed they can still win honours for the club, the men's quadruple scull rowing at Vet C of Jamie Broadbent, Pete Neal, Paul Holmes and Mark Hopper won against another Maidenhead crew and the Vet D/E category Maidenhead quad of Orlando Fricker, Stephen Janisch, Ken Bedwell & Gareth Jones beat off Marlow to win in the final.

Maidenhead Junior crews took the opportunity to mix up a lot of their crews following an exceptional season that saw 7 juniors selected to represent GB this year and a long list of National Championships medal winners.

The five juniors who just returned from the European Championships last weekend all entered the popular mixed adult S3 doubles event. With 16 crews entered this event was split into two divisions. As expected racing was very competitive and it was good to see that all five Maidenhead junior crews that made it through to the final stages. In one half of the divisions Phil Clapp and Sophie Delaney raced Alice Ancora and Ertan Hazine a J16 v a J15 double, both crews did exceptionally well to win through to the finals, Clapp and Delaney winning by a length and a half. In the other half of the event Dave Jones and Ally Brooks sculled well together to make it through to the final against Tom Jost and Katie Lion. A good race in the final saw Jones and Brooks speed down the course and take the final by 4 lengths.

In WJ15 Single Sculls with 5 entries the final was contested between Aimee Broadbent and Carmel Bevan who won a Bronze at National Champs at WJ14 level. The final was a very good race with both crews racing side by side, at the line Broadbent finished half a length ahead of Bevan to take the WJ15 single scull prize.

In women's WJ14 Double Sculls Emma Kerns and Anna Campbell raced hard but could not match the pace of Abingdon RC who won by 2 lengths.

In women's junior Double Sculls Laurian Pepper and Aimee Campbell did well as a scratch double to push Ardingly all the way to the finish half a length down.

J16 Double Sculls saw a brilliant final race between Maidenhead and old rivals Marlow RC. Maidenhead scullers Michael Compton & Josh Cremin gained a small lead at the start and had to work hard all the way down the course to take a much deserved prize when they crossed the line 1/3rd of a length ahead of Marlow RC and at J15 level European Champion Robert Ashburner & George Poynter won the final against a rival Maidenhead crew.

In the Women's J14 Quad Sculls a straight final saw Maidenhead’s crew of Aimee Campbell, Fifi Bevan, Rebecca Reeve, Lucy Brockwell, cox Zoe Broadbent managing to hold off a competitive maidenhead crew of to take the win.

In the Women's J15 Quad Sculls a new quad of Rebekah Kerns, Aimee Broadbent, Carmel Bevan and Katherine Henderson with cox Zoe Broadbent raced hard against Sir William Perkins School and with an overlap all the way down the course Maidenhead finished just 1/3rd of a length behind Sir William Perkins School.

Other notable Junior wins J14 Quad Sculls Jack Beaumont, George West, Sam McCorriston, Bradley Halloran, cox Emma Sanerkin; J15 Quad Sculls George Poynter, Simon Lilley, Matt Powell, Tom O’Reilly, cox Ross McCorriston.

Maidenhead’s young crew made up of three J15’s Ancora, Kerns, Lion and one J16 Campbell raced in a senior event for Women's Senior 2 Coxed Fours and in the final against Staines RC they did well to keep in contact with Staines and finish just one length down.