It was a fairly bright day, quite warm and dry. There wasn't a wind and although the river was running a bit faster than normal it wasn't excessive. The only appreciable waves reported were created by a rather enthusiastic safety  launch going to the aid of a capsized sculler near the end of the third  division.
 
Maidenhead’s 4 Wins came from:
 
1. Carmel Bevan won the WJ13 single sculls event in a time of 16:15secs, 48 seconds ahead of Astell of St Neots.
 
2. Sarah Archibald won the women’s Senior 3 1x in 13:31secs beating  the second place sculler by an emphatic 20 seconds.
 
3. David Jones put up another fine performance to win the J18 category in a time of 12:10 secs beating 38 other competitors in his division.
 
4. Maidenhead’s Junior Men (Dave Jones, Matt Best, Matthew Reeve) won  a pennant awarded to the club with the lowest cumulative time over three  different categories (of Juniors) Dave Jones (J18 12.14) + Matt Best(J16  13.17) + Matt Reeve (J15 13.54) = 39mins 25secs
 
Bob Wilson racing in Veteran I sculls (over 75) was presented with a  life-time achievement award for regularly attending this head for the past 31  years.
 
Junior Boys:
Dave Jones was the fastest Junior beating  38 other J18 singles to win in a time of 12:10secs.
Phil Clapp (racing for  Claire’s Court) won the J15 1x race with an impressive time of 13:10secs.  Maidenhead’s three entries in this J15 category were led by Matt Reeve in 5th  place (13:54) then Sam Prosser (14:30) and Marcus Clover (14:59).
 
Matt Best took 4th place in the J16 1xs (13:17).
 
In the youngest category, J13 1x, Robert Ashburner came second  (14:40).
 
Mike Foran rowed in a Senior 3 quad with the older juniors - Dave Jones,  Matt Best and last minute substitute, Sam Ashburner. Although this was their  first outing together, they came second in their category and fifth overall  (10:31).
 
Senior Crews:
Mike Foran was fourth in the Senior 3 1x  (12:47).
In the Novice class Roly Peters (13:33), Robin Upton (14:24) and Roy  Prosser (14:55) put in sound performances.
 
Bob Wilson (Vet I) took third place in the Vet H 1xs (16:16)
 
Mark Shimmin, who helps with the boys coaching and competes for Upper  Thames R C, was third in the senior 2 1xs (12:26) then sculled again in the next  division to win the Vet C 1x category (12:33).
 
Karon Phillips competed in the women’s Novice race (16:09)
 
Junior Girls:
 
Maidenhead Junior girls were missing the Advanced Junior squad from this  event due to GB trials and a slight shortage of boat space on the trailer.  However, The Maidenhead Intermediate Girls entered 3 young crews who did well  performing above their age group in two events for this head.
 
In the first division we entered a WJ12 (Fifi Bevan, Lexy Dobson, Rebecca  Reeve, Emily Webster, cox Carmel Bevan) crew as part of the WJ13 quad event.  This was the first head for two of the girls.
 
They had a good row and finished still working together with good style and  timing. They were last in their event, 24 seconds behind UTRC and 1min 56 behind  Henley but had overtaken the WJ14 4x+ of Henley B beating them by 1 minute  28secs.
 
The times for those events were;-
 
WJ13 4x+
Henley 14.11
UTRC 15.41
Maidenhead 16.05
 
WJ14 4x+
Henley A 14.17
Henley B 17.33
 
Just as an aside we had two girls, Maddie Reynolds and Maddi van Noorden,  rowing for the Claires Court WJ15 quad, so rowing a year up from their WJ14 age.  That quad was 1minute 14 secs behind second placed Marlow and 2 minutes 12  behind the winners, Henley.  Times were;-
 
WJ15 4x+
13.07 Henley
14.05 Marlow
15.19 Claires court
 
We had no entries for the second division, our next entries were two  singles in the third division WJ13 event, Lucy Brockwell and Carmel Bevan. Yet  again this was a first time, full course head in a singles for both girls.
 
The weather was still very pleasant, possibly even brighter and warmer than  the morning division.  Both girls rowed well, although along with some of the  later starters, from about number 367 onwards, they suffered the effects of wash  from a rescue
boat going to help a capsized sculler. Again they both finished  with their style pretty much intact and taking full strokes.  Carmel won this  event.
 
Times were;-
 
WJ13 1x
Carmel Bevan, Maidenhead 16.15
Astell, St. Neots  17.03
Lucy Brockwell, Maidenhead 19.57
 
Thank you to my roving reporters Maggi Bevan & Kate Ashburner.
 
 
 
Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors