Stratford upon Avon Boat Club take part in the Autumn Head on the Sharpness Canal event organised by Gloucester Rowing Club

Under crisp autumn skies, Gloucester Rowing Club hosted the 2025 Autumn Head on the Sharpness Canal, drawing a strong field of junior, senior and masters’ crews from across the region.

The challenging 5km course tested rowers’ endurance and provided an excellent opportunity to rack up the training mileage among the racing.

Racing for the first time at Gloucester (long course), the Stratford upon Avon Boat Club WJ16 2x of Orla Linforth and Erin Appleton sculled a well throughout the 5k course but their opposition proved too strong, finishing sixth.

Also in the morning, the OJ16 4x- of Ed Appleton, Will Shaw, Euan Richter and Rory Rowan set off well but had to take evasive action halfway down the course to prevent a drifting single sculler making contact with their boat and so ended in second place behind Hereford Rowing Club by seven seconds.

In the afternoon, Maria Ntoukaki sculled very well in the WJ16 1x event and came second in her Band Three event by only three seconds over the 24 minutes of the race but her time of 24:10 was significantly faster than six scullers from William Borlase School and Millfield. In Band Three, Hereford Rowing Club took the win.

Hugo Happel, J16 coach, commented: "All athletes sculled well indeed on a long course and the many lessons learned will be taken to our next events."

Stratford's J17/J18 squad competed strongly across the sculling events.

The WJ18 coxless quadruple scull of Tessa Parkin, Maeve Dunn, Millie Smith and Martha Cooke delivered an impressive performance, placing them second against a high quality crew from Hartpury College despite recording a time that would have won the senior event.

The Open J18 double scull of Xavier Sissins-Roffey and Seth Vondrak also claimed second place, once again pushing Hartpury hard to the line.

In the afternoon session, Stratford fielded two WJ18 double sculls with Tessa Parkin and Millie Smith finishing fourth and Maeve Dunn and Martha Cooke close behind in fifth place.

Meanwhile, in the Open J18 single sculls, Xavier Sissins-Roffey and Seth Vondrak showed strong individual form, securing third and fourth place respectively.

Stratford Women's Senior 2x of Rebecca England at stroke and Lucy Scarlett at bow built up to a good rhythm in their race.

Despite unpredictable gusts, the Stratford crew persevered well and maintained power in their longest race together to date.

They finished third out of six in a competitive field and were pleased with their performance.

The Women’s Masters were back at Gloucester for the long autumn head after the successful training day the previous week.

The crew of Will Shaw (cox), Ellie Davis (stroke), Abby Symons, Fiona Schultz, Gina Fusco, Helen Helliwell, Caroline Collins, Jane Cryer, Charlotte Jones (bow) started their race at a crisp 31 strokes per minute for the first 1000m which gave opportunities to settle into a strong rhythm.

This was followed by a solid 29 strokes for the remaining 4000 metres of the race.

The crew worked well together under the positive coxing by Will Shaw with an expert racing line helping.

Stroke Ellie Davies said: "It was a good long row and great to see the progress the women’s masters’ squad is making through the winter racing season.

"Will was a fabulous cox and his calls were excellent. Our thanks to all our supporters and coach Sam Hill who help make racing away possible and also for the training support and encouragement."

Stratford’s adaptive squad, fresh back from their tour of Turin, were the only adaptive event at the Gloucester Head and so it was an all Stratford doubles’ affair between Ian and Paola Ward and Ethan Roberts and Neville Hand.

This being Ethan's first head, the race resulted in a narrow win for the more established Wards crew by a narrow 14 seconds.

Stratford upon Avon Boat Club's adaptive section came home with a suitcase full of medals when they made their fourth visit to the large Mixed Ability Regatta in Turin, Italy.

The two day event has para, neurodiverse and mixed ability (the disabled and mainstream competing together) elements. There is five side by side racing over 500m and 1000m courses on the beautiful River Po.

Every member of the Stratford team won at least one medal on each of the days.

The club did very well in the small boats, singles and doubles, less well in the quad and fours racing - there is a lack of competition in the latter in the UK.

There were a number of highlights for the club over the two days of the regatta.

Ethan Roberts and Gillian Middleton competed in their very first singles races while Edward Owen-Smith (only 13-years-old) and Ricky Clutterbuck took part in singles at an international event for the first time.

There was an epic Saturday race in the Men's Mixed Ability Quads.

This turned into a close struggle between Stratford and the host club Armida which Stratford eventually won by a third of a length.

Also piling on the wins were Ethan and Edward winning their 1000m Mixed Ability doubles events by comfortable margins - in each case they were partnered by trainee coach Aron Altman.

Also showing their mettle were the squad’s long serving members Gillian Middleton and Hattie Throssell coming home with a handful of medals.

Ricky Clutterbuck won three golds over the weekend, one each in a single, a double and a quad.

The club's adaptive section is looking for good para-athletes keen to go far in the sport. Visit www.stratford-rowing.co.uk/contact on the club website for more information.