Maidenhead Rowing Club entered 8 crews in this year's Pairs Head of the River Race, held in London over a 4000m testing course from Chiswick Bridge to Hammersmith Bridge on Saturday 15th October.

This year's club entry consisted of 16 athletes (8 girls, 7 boys and one senior woman) making up 8 crews. The club entered 2 crews in girls J18 event, 3 crews in boys J16 event, 2 girls in the girls J16 event and one crew in the Mixed S3 Doubles event.

Maidenhead wins came in the WJ18 Double Sculls and the Mixed S3 Double Sculls.

This is a major event for crews to establish how well they are going against other top athletes across the country. Racing conditions were variable on the day with the later starting crews suffering from a gusty headwind and choppy water over most of the course. 330 crews entered this years event in total.

Winning Crews

Louise Entwistle and Ally Brooks continued their winning form and put up another good performance to win the WJ18 junior girls division in a time of 14min 7s, just 30 seconds behind Olympian Debbie Flood and partner.

Vicky Sims and Phil Clapp entered the Mixed S3 Doubles event and demonstrated just how well they could scull together after just a few practise outings. They went off strongly and soon drew up upon the mixed doubles ahead and went past them to win in a time of 13min 21s, 40 seconds ahead of the second place crew.

Top Performances

Aimee Campbell and Katie Lion did well on the Tideway by finishing in second place behind Maidenhead 'A' crew in a time of 14min 41s. This was an excellent result for the club to take the first and second place at this age group.
 
Maidenhead’s J16 boys double scullers saw three Maidenhead crews battle it out for who was to be the top Maidenhead boys J16 crew. This went to Alex Ryde and Ertan Hazine who sculled and steered the course well to finish in 3rd place in a time of 13min 30s and only 13 seconds away from the winners of this event. Next double home Simon Lilley and Ross McCoriston finished in 5th place and only 0.2 seconds ahead of 6th place Maidenhead crew of Robert Ashburner and George Poynter both crews given the time of 13min 52s.

In the Womens Junior 16 division Maidenhead’s top J16 crew who won this event last year were injured for this event. That left an opportunity for Gabby Watson and FiFi Bevan to participate at the head for a first time and as they are only J14 they had to race up a few years. Nonetheless they competed well and finished the course in a time of 15min 33s to take 4th place with Aimee Broadbent and Maddie Reynolds finishing in 15min 37s to take 5th place.

A big thank you to our boat sponsors this year who include

AP Printers and Michael Shanly Trust

Billy Brooks