The Maidenhead Women romped home to a stunning victory in the Novice Women's Coxed Four category at the Reading Amateur Regatta on Saturday. The crew (Lucinda Stevenson – Bow, Sarah Wright – 2, Carola Hillenbrand – 3, Helen Stewart – Stroke and Lisa Robson – Cox) came up against some stiff competition in the form of Southampton University, Headington Girls School, Kings School Worcester and City of Oxford. Our girls came up with the right stuff though winning the first race with a comfortable lead against Southampton of 2.5 lengths, a lead if 3.5 lengths against Headington, 1.5 lengths against Kings School and a massive 6 length lead in the final against City of Oxford.

The Maidenhead Women’s Novice 8+ (Helen Jacob – Bow, Olivia McDermott – 2, Kate Russo – 3, Fran Pearson – 4, Allison Colvill – 5, Debs Thomas – 6, Helen Easterbrook –7, Amanda Jones - Stroke and Lisa Robson – Cox) put on a fantastic show in the first round of their heats against Kingston Rowing Club. A gripping race had the whole bank holding their breath as Kingston pushed past Maidenhead at the 750m mark, to take a half length lead. Some fantastic support from the bank helped the Maidenhead Girls dig in and they attacked again, the only Novice Crew that day to push back past the opposition, to take a 3 foot lead over the finish line. The girls later went on to take a second victory in the semi finals with a comfortable lead over the University of West England (?). The final saw the girls take on Cardiff University who took the girls off the start, Maidenhead put up a strong fight clawing back almost a length in the final 500m, sadly Cardiff crossed the finish 2 boat lengths ahead. The girls attacked the 1500m course with bags of aggression, grim determination and excellent teamwork.

Sunday saw the ladies out again, in a scratch 8+ this time comprised of (Helen Jacob – Bow, Sarah Wright – 2, Lucinda Stephenson – 3, Fran Pearson – 4, Heather Craig – 5, Helen Stewart – 6, Helen Easterbrook - 7, Amanda Jones – Stroke and Lisa Robson – Cox) took on some formidable opponents in the Women's Senior 3 Eights Category. The first race on the foreshortened 1100m course was against Cardiff University whom Maidenhead sent off with a

1.5 length lead across the finish. The quarter finals saw our ladies working really hard to maintain their lead against Southampton with only a boat length in it. Sadly, the semi finals saw our girls face up to Osiris A crew (An invitation only crew made up from the best rowers from each of the Oxford Colleges) who took home the race with a 3.5 length lead over Maidenhead.

The Novice Coxed 4+ category saw (Kate Russo – Bow, Olivia Mc Dermott – 2, Allison Colvill – 3, Debs Thomas – Stroke and Lisa Robson – Cox) take on a crew from Globe RC who despite being given a good run for their money, beat the Maidenhead crew by 3 boat lengths.

All in all it has been a fantastically successful weekend for the entire squad all of the girls showing grit and determination of which we should all be proud! CAMAAN!!!!