The Fuller's Fours Head was held on Saturday 3rd November in good conditions over the familiar boat race 4 1/4 mile course (reverse direction) on the Tideway in London. The prestige of this race is illustrated by the fact that many Olympic stars were racing in their club crews in the Elite sections. This year over 450 crews took part.

Maidenhead Junior women entered 3 crews (out of a total entry of 21 crews ) into this years WJ18 event. Maidenhead have won this event for the previous two years, so the top crew of Katy Lion (steers) , Aimee Campbell (2), Sophie Delaney (3) and Ally Brooks (stroke) were under huge pressure to maintain Maidenhead's dominance, against stiff competition from top schools and clubs.

Over the first half of the course Lion steered well and the crew moved a significant way ahead of two of the main competition crews from Henley RC and Marlow RC that had started immediately behind them. However, as they passed under Hammersmith Bridge, the problems commenced as they first caught and then started to pass five male crews. The fifth male crew took some time to overhaul and in doing so, Maidenhead were forced to spend a considerable time out of the stream, resulting in the chasing pack closing the gap approaching the finish. As they crossed the line in a time of 21m 27s, Maidenhead were concerned that the other crews might have closed enough to record a faster time, but were were relieved to discover that they had done enough to win by three seconds from Marlow RC in second place, to record an incredible hat trick of consecutive wins for the club.

The Maidenhead WJ18  'B' crew finished in 8th place and the 'C' crew finished in 15th place out of 21 crews at WJ18 level in their division in a time of 22m 20s. The 'B' crew had some rising stars onboard. Rebekah Kerns steered the course well, Gabby Watson (2) still only 14, Alice Ancora (3) and Franky Lovely (stroke) only 16. All four of this crew are hoping to compete at the first GB junior trials in Boston on 17th November. Their overall finish position of 8th at WJ18 level was a good result. [Crew picture]

The 'C' crew was made up mainly of the club's younger juniors. Anna Campbell, only 16, steered exceptionally well, Aimee Broadbent (2), Carmel Bevan (3) both only 15, and Fifi Bevan (stroke) only 14. Competing at WJ18 level puts their finish position of 15th out of 21 in a time of 23m 15s into perspective. As they have a few more years to compete at this junior event they did well to finish ahead of six WJ18 crews. [Crew picture]

The Women's Senior 2 coxed four of Helen Stewart, Anne Rees, Claire Wallace, Jo Macbeth with cox Emma Sanerkin finished in a time of 23m 11s to finish 7th out of 18, behind strong club crews such as Furnival, Auriol Kensington and Cambridge. This was a good strong race by this crew and provides further evidence of the revival of the women's squad at Maidenhead over the past two years. [Crew picture]

The Women's Senior 2 Quad of Vickie Sims, Natasa Newton (from the University of the West of England), Sarah Archibald and Natalie Trinder finished in a time of 22m 01s to finish 14th out of 39 crews. This crew contained two Women's Henley winners (Vickie Sims and Natalie Trinder) and performed well as this was only the crew's third outing and third race together. [Crew picture]

Maidenhead's veteran men's coxless four of Piers Alington (stroke), Steve Janisch, Ken Bedwell and Gareth Jones (bow) bravely, and some might say foolhardily, opted to race at Men's Senior 2 level rather than enter the veteran version of the event held on the Sunday. Racing against many top university, school and club crews. They performed tidily and finished in a respectable 39th place out of 43. [Crew picture]

Results Summary:

MS2 4-	Maidenhead RC I	22:31.92
WJun 4x	Maidenhead RC II	21:27.02	Winner
WJun 4x	Maidenhead RC III	22:20.12
WJun 4x	Maidenhead RC IV	23:15.71
WS2 4+	Maidenhead RC V	23:11.37
WS2 4x	Maidenhead RC / UWE	22:01.78