This event is seen as the Schools equivalent to the National Championships, so the event is taken very seriously by top rowing schools as the Championship event results do affect the seeding for Schools at Henley Royal Regatta. Any medal is hard to come by and arguably seen as more difficult than National Championships.

Our thanks to our 2007 junior sponsors who include AP Printers, Michael Shanly Trust, Sportsmatch, Timberland and Oakley who have supplied several packages of boats and equipment to help our juniors continue to compete at this highest National Schools level competition.

Summary of Wins

Golds
CHG 4x  Ally Brooks, Louise Entwistle, Sophie Delaney, Katy Lion
CHG 2-  Ally Brooks, Louise Entwistle
CHG 2x  Sophie Delaney, Aimee Campbell

Silver
WJ14 2x Fifi Bevan, Gabby Watson

Bronze
J16 2-  Ertan Hazine, Alex Ryde
J16 2x  Ross McCoriston, Simon Lilley

Medal Totals 2007
Club Name	Club Code	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Lady Eleanor Holles	LEH	4	2	1
Eton College	ETN	3	2	2
Maidenhead R.C.	MHD	3	1	2
Shiplake College	SHP	3	0	0
St. Paul's School	SPS	2	3	0
Marlow R.C.	MAR	2	1	3
Molesey B.C.	MBC	2	1	3
Shrewsbury School	SHR	2	1	1
St. Neots R.C.	SNE	2	1	1
Windsor Boys' School	WBS	2	0	4
Evesham R.C.	EVE	2	0	1
Radley College	RAD	2	0	1
King's School, Ely	KSE	2	0	0
Tideway Scullers School	TSS	2	0	0
Bedford High School	BHS	1	3	0
Yarm School B.C.	YRM	1	2	0
Westminster School	WES	1	1	3
Headington School	HED	1	1	2
Henley R.C.	HEN	1	1	2
Abingdon School	ABS	1	1	1
Peterborough City R.C.	PET	1	1	0
St. George's College	SGC	1	1	0
Walton R.C.	WLT	1	1	0
York City R.C.	YRK	1	1	0
Hampton School	HAM	1	0	2
Abingdon R.C.	ABN	1	0	0
Dulwich College	DUL	1	0	0
Hollingworth Lake R.C.	HOL	1	0	0
King's School, Canterbury	KCA	1	0	0
Rob Roy B.C.	ROB	1	0	0
Tyne R.C.	TYN	1	0	0
King's School, Chester	KCH	0	3	0
Sir William Borlase's School	SWB	0	2	2
Latymer Upper School	LTU	0	2	1
City of Oxford R.C.	COX	0	2	0
Winchester College	WIN	0	2	0
Kingston Grammar School	KGS	0	1	2
Bedford School	BDS	0	1	1
Canford School	CAN	0	1	1
Eton Excelsior	ETX	0	1	1
George Watson's College	GWC	0	1	1
Strathclyde Park R.C.	SCP	0	1	1
Chester-le-Street A.R.C.	CLS	0	1	0
Emanuel School	EMA	0	1	0
Haberdashers' Monmouth School	HAB	0	1	0
Nottingham R.C.	NRC	0	1	0
Queen Elizabeth High School	QEH	0	1	0
Stratford-upon Avon B.C.	SUA	0	1	0
Tiffin School	TFN	0	1	0
Warrington R.C.	WTN	0	1	0
King's College School, Wimbledon	KCS	0	0	2
The Oratory School	ORA	0	0	2
George Heriot's School	GHS	0	0	1
Gloucester R.C.	GLR	0	0	1
King's School, Worcester	KSW	0	0	1
Pangbourne College	PAN	0	0	1
Runcorn R.C.	RUN	0	0	1
Wallingford R.C.	WRC	0	0	1
Worcester R.C.	WRR	0	0	1

This medal haul could have been higher if our top boy sculler Phil Clapp was well enough to compete and if both the WJ14 quad and WJ16 quad could have had slightly better luck on the day. The WJ14 quad missed out on a place in the finals by a fraction of a second and the WJ16 quad was moving through to Silver medal position in the final when a crew member caught a major crab in the difficult conditions and had to settle for 4th place.
 
Fridays Racing (1000m)
Racing started off on Friday with Maidenhead’s youngest crew of Fifi Bevan and Gabby Watson competing in the WJ14 2x competition. In the semi-final Gabby and Fifi were worried about the crew from Hollingworth Lake and made sure that they got away to an excellent start to try to keep out of reach. They succeeded in this and were on their own comfortably from about 400m leaving Hollingworth a length down but comfortable, while Northwich and Eton Excelsior fought for the third qualifying place.

In the final the girls had lucky lane 3 right next to LEH. They had a good start and went off in the lead for the first 100m closely followed by Evesham and LEH. By the 500 mark LEH had pulled away half a length and then increased their lead over the next 300m. Gabby and Fifi tried valiantly to pull back and started to make up ground on LEH whilst making sure that Evesham didn't sneak past on the other side. Sadly for Maidenhead, LEH proved to be stronger on the day crew and Maidenhead finished just under a length to take the Club’s first medal of the Championships, Silver.

The WJ14 girls quad scull with Lexy Dobson, Rachael Aldridge, Henrietta Jenkins and Felicity Young, coxed by Zoe Broadbent came second in their heat to qualify for the semi final in spite of their cox box failing to work. The cox box was repaired for the semi-final thanks to Oarsport but the girls were dissapointed to miss out on a place in the final by only 0.3 seconds. This event, raced over only 1000 metres, was expected to be difficult for this crew who take time to get into their stride, but the times of a very strong field in this event show that they are not far off the pace, and expect better results later in the season.

Saturday’s Results 
The J16 quad of Ross McCoriston, Simon Lilley, George Poynter and Robert Ashburner were first to row on Saturday and completed the time trial with ease. There was then a tough draw for the semi-final to include Evesham RC, unbeaten since their formation last Autumn, Sir William Borlase School and Marlow RC. The race went according to plan for the first half but then Evesham took a lead and were chased by the crews mentioned. Maidenhead could not stay with the pace in the third quarter of the race and finished fourth, out of the final qualifying places.

The Women's Championship quad sculls event saw Katy Lion, Sophie Delaney, Louise Entwistle and Ally Brooks race in its semi-final, moving out to over a lengths lead at 500m and steadily drawing away to win by a large margin. In the final the main competition was seen as Bedford High School who finished second at the Schools Head. Maidenhead again led from the start and gave another demonstration of top crew sculling by winning the event by twelve seconds and in a fast time. We are very fortunate to be able to put out a junior club quad that has four junior internationals on board. Maidenhead’s second medal of the event.

With Phil Clapp unavailable to compete in the Championship sculls, it was left to Adam Lilley and Ertan Hazine to represent the club and both of them did well to make the semi-finals where they finished 5th and 6th and therefore did not make the final. The final was won by Charlie Cousins, a Rob Roy sculler currently in the U23 GB squad and a previous J18 World rowing finalist.

The Championship double sculls had Tim Wildbore and Danny Garett entered. They qualified for the semi-final which was a good achievement in this tough field but then found the pace difficult and did not progress beyond that.

In the WJ15 girls quad sculls Maidenhead's crew of Lexy Dobson was called in as a substitute at the last moment for the crew with Katherine Henderson, Emma Kerns and Anna Campbell with Zoe Broadbent again coxing. This crew raced hard but missed out on qualifying for the semi-final of this event by about 2 seconds.

Sunday's Results 
Sunday brought a significant change to the weather with very difficult conditions of strong following winds , large waves and heavy rain. This caused the organisers to announce that the event could be cancelled at any time due to bad weather. This meant that every heat time had to count as a final as if the weather were to worsen and the event cancelled then Sunday's medals would be issued based upon times finished in earlier heats.

This final day of racing saw Maidenhead win a further 2 Gold medals and 2 Bronze medals.

First Gold medal on the Sunday came from Louise Entwistle and Ally Brooks who took a risk and switched from sculling to Rowing in the Women's Championship Pairs to see if they could still win with just one oar each. Happily they proved in the time trial and the semi’s that they were moving the fastest of all boats, being 4 seconds ahead of Henley RC who won the other semi-final. The final was a tough race but Maidenhead managed to gain clear water on Henley RC by the 1000m mark. During the second half of the course a strong attack came from LEH who seemed to be benefiting from faster conditions in lane 2. At the end of the race, Maidenhead took Gold, LEH Silver and Henley RC Bronze.

Next race down the course was Women's Championship 2x where Aimee Campbell was competing with Sophie Delaney. Maidenhead and Marlow had won the semi-finals in the same time, so a tough race was expected in the final. Moving out of the blocks quickly, this Maidenhead crew opened up a good early lead and at 1000m they led Marlow by 2 lengths. Sculling well during the difficult conditions of the second half of the course they maintained this lead to take the Championship Gold for this event.

The boys J16 coxless pair of Ertan Hazine and Alex Ryde rowing in their first regatta in this combination won the time trial and their semi-final. This was important as due to deteriorating weather, the medals would have been awarded on the times of the last races if the organisers had decided that it was no longer safe to run a regatta. In the final the Chester Le Street and Dulwich College pairs took an early lead which they defended to the finish, with Maidenhead third but beating a pair from St Pauls School who had been in the crew that dominated the J16 eights event on Saturday and Stourport who won the National Inter Regional regatta earlier this year.

The J16 doubles event had the two halves of the quad racing. Both doubles progressed through the time trial to the semi finals. McCoriston and Lilley were third in their semi, but had done enough to progress to the final. The Ashburner/Poynter double were in the semi-final that posted faster times than the other semi but they were only fifth. In the final, the Maidenhead boys went for an early medal position as on time form they would have been fifth or sixth. They managed to achieve the third position at half way and found themselves challenging Warrington for the silver at one point. They gave the race everything and in the last two strokes caught the rough water and capsized. There was then a wait to see if the boat had crossed the line before the chasing Borlase double finished. The coach of the boys thought they had crossed the line with their feet remaining in the shoes and therefore attached to the boat but their bodies in the water. The boat did not fully cross the line after the capsize, but only the bow bobble needs to cross the line to register a time, and the judges decision was that by the smallest of margins they had won the bronze medal.

The WJ16 quad of Maddie Reynolds, Rebekah Kerns, Alice Ancora and Katy Lion sculled well in the semi-finals to finish less than a length down on Marlow RC. Confidence was high for the final and the expectation was for this quad to race Marlow for the top position. Unfortunately, Maidenhead found themselves down off the start and when they began their move from 3rd place into 2nd place, a crew member had the misfortune to catch a massive crab which stopped the boat and they then had to settle for a disappointing 4th place. This crew no doubt will come back and do well at the next big event.

Tom O’Rielly entered J16 single sculls but found the competition tough so did not progress past the processional race.
 
A very pleasing set of overall results from the whole junior section.
 
Thanks again to parents and coaches for their valuable support and assistance in making these 3 days run smoothly for everyone. I would just like to make a special mention to a few people who without their help then this would not happen.
 
A big thank you to Steve Clapp and Jamie Broadbent who helped out with boat and trailer transportation. Marilyn Entwistle and Fiona Truswell who handled entries, Carol Reynolds who provided this year's Marquee, which was much needed to protect everyone from the sun and rain. Coaches who attended to look after the large number of Maidenhead crews Tom Jost, John Truswell, Orlando Fricker, Maggie Bevan and Sean Kerns. Sean for his excellent skills in ensuring all boats remain in good working order. Another extended Maidenhead junior support group. Of course a thank you to the coaches who help out during the year but could not make this event. We are already looking at improving results for 2008.

Billy Brooks