Wallingford regatta was held at Dorney Lake on Sunday 3rd May over a 2000m 7-lane course. Wallingford is the first major regatta of the season and is now the biggest one-day regatta in the UK with a race every 5 minutes for 11 hours. Many events were heavily over-subscribed within two or three days of entries opening. Conditions were windy, but fair, as the wind was blowing almost straight down the course, resulting in some very fast times.

Maidenhead Rowing Club sent its top junior and senior crews, coming away with a win for the WJ16 Quad and some other encouraging results.

Juniors

WJ16 Quad
The WJ16 quad of Henrietta Jenkins, Megan Haines, Kate Ryde and Lexy Dobson raced in a straight 7-boat final. They got a good start with their bow ball edging ahead of the field after 20 strokes. Gradually they pulled away from the field to lead by about 2 seconds at the 500m mark. By halfway, only Molesey were still in contention, with the Maidenhead crew leading by 4 seconds. The second half of the race was a repeat of the first, as Maidenhead continued to extend their lead until they crossed the line 9 seconds ahead of Molesey in second place and Tideway Scullers 19 seconds behind in third place. Two of this Maidenhead crew now have a hat trick of quad wins at Wallingford Regatta at WJ14 (2007), WJ15 (2008) and now WJ16 age groups, with the other two crew members achieving their second and first Wallingford wins.

WJ18 Quad
The WJ18 Quad of Alice Ancora, Aimee Broadbent, Gabby Watson and Sophie Wedlake came third in their heat to qualify for the final. In the final, they tried a crew order change with Sophie Wedlake now stroking the boat, but they fell behind in the first half of the race before pushing back strongly in the second half to secure fourth place behind winners Star Club from Bedford. This was a very promising result as they have only had two outings together in the last couple of months and they can expect to be in medal contention for the National Schools Regatta later in May.

J18 Quad (racing at Intermediate 1)
The top J18 boys quad were disappointed to find their event over-subscribed by the time they entered, as they had been hoping to repeat their winning performance from the National Junior Sculling Head. Instead, the crew of Alex Ryde, Jack Beaumont, Rob Ashburner and Ross McCoristonentered the Intermediate 1 senior men's event which also contained some other crews that otherwise would have been in the J18 event. The Maidenhead 'A' crew were closely in contention for the first quarter of the race but faded slightly in the middle 1000 before coming back strongly at the end to finish third behind aBorlase School/Peterborough/Agecroft/Kings Schoolcomposite(which is the GB junior quad racing in Munich next weekend) and just behind rivals Westminster School in second place. Their time was faster than the J18 event winners. They will hope to resume winning ways at the National Schools Regatta later in May.

The Maidenhead 'B' crew of Adam Lilley, Jack Stokes, Sam McCoriston and Brad Halloran finished in fifth place.

Seniors

Women's Intermediate 1 Coxed Four

Maidenhead's ever-improving women's squad decided to race at Wallingford in a coxed four, having spent most of the head season racing in quadruple sculls.

Despite only a couple of outings in this boat type, the four ofHelen Stewart, Sarah Archibald, Claire Wallace and Katie-George Dunlevy (with a borrowed cox from Eton Excelsior)performed well in a straight final of the Women's Intermediate 1 Coxed Four event. This was one of the most exciting and closest races of the day, with four crews crossing the line within a second of each other. York City led for most of the race, chased by a four boat pack of Furnivall 'A' and 'B', Thames and Maidenhead. The Maidenhead crew stayed with the leading group for the first half of the race, and only fell back in the last quarter finishing in fifth place behind winners Furnivall 'B'. This was a highly encouraging result for Maidenhead as they can expect to improve rapidly as they gain more experience in the four later in the season.

Being presented with their prizes by the Mayor of Wallingford

The winning Maidenhead WJ16 Quad on the pontoon after the race