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Saturday, 06 November 2004 |
Maidenhead Rowing Club entered four crews in this years Fours Head held in London on Saturday 6th November 2004
The 50th Fullers Head of the River Fours over the Mortlake to Putney
Championship course was yet again oversubscribed, the entry limit of 550 crews
being reached well before the closing date. This event accepts the first 550
correct entries.
The race was run in ‘event‘ order (ie all crews of the same boat type and
status will start in one division together) which has proven successful for
the last 2 years, ensuring a safer & fairer race. Taking part in this year’s
event were some of the athletes who competed at the Olympic Games in Athens but
not members of the Gold medal winning coxless four, who are taking a break
from competition and/or contemplating their futures in International rowing.
Leander Club, with just one of last year’s winners on board, successfully
defended the overall title in the Elite quad sculls division by 0.6secs from
Tideway Scullers School.
Maidenhead’s first crew competing in Senior 1 Mens quads was Ben Webb, Dave
Jones, Sam Ashburner and Keith Dixon. From the start, Maidenhead were pushed
very hard by Royal Chester Rowing Club, who went off behind Maidenhead, and
soon closed the gap. Maidenhead responded by sculling harder than was planned
over the first half of the course, which helped them keep in front of Chester
until Hammersmith, but this did have an effect on the crew over the second
half of the course. Maidenhead finished 10th out of 12 crews in this event in a
time of 20mins 8secs.
Maidenhead’s second quad scullers crew was made up from the top 4 junior
girl scullers, competing at this event for the first time. Ally Brooks 15,
Louise Entwistle 15, Laurian Pepper 16, Natalie Trinder 17 competed in Womens
Senior 2 as there was no junior event for girls. This crew sculled the course
strongly, steering well, and overtaking 5 womens crews on route. Their finish
time of 21mins 55secs was a good time which placed them a very credible 12th out
of 52 crews in this division.
Maidenhead’s third crew, also entering Womens Senior 2 quad sculls was made
up of the womens squad with Jo Wright from the Junior group joining Keri
Johnson, Heather Craig and Gemma Brace. This crew also had a good scull over the
course with one incident on route involving a crew not moving out of the way.
Despite losing some valuable time at this incident this Maidenhead crew
finished 24th out of 52 crews in a time of 22mins 23secs.
Maidenhead’s fourth crew, entered Womens Senior 3 coxed fours event and was
made up of Fran Pearson, Carola Hillenbrand, Sarah Wright and Lucinda
Stephenson with Lisa Robson coxing. This crew had a good row down the course,
starting one category early (with womens senior 2 group) due to a marshalling
mix-up and they still managed to overtake two crews within the first kilometer.
Starting at crew number 525 and finishing 454, which was 16th out of 46 crews
in a time of 23mins 54secs.
As you can see all crews did well at this top event for fours.
Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors
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