Juniors impress as they take on Boat Race course

NINE junior women from Stratford Boat Club’s J17/18 squad took to the Thames in the annual Schools Head of the River Race.

With more than 300 boats on the water at once, racing the Boat Race course in reverse, this head attracts the top crews in the country who are ready to fight for the top spots.

Stratford’s girls VIII was composed of Poppy Baines, Lucy Sartain, Molly Vondrak, Scarlett Richardson, Lily Warren, Aimee Appleton, Alexandra Francis, Eloise Cooper and Poppy Warren (cox). It was a mixture of sixth form aged athletes who had only been training together in the boat for a month in the lead up to the event.

Setting off first in the girls’ championship eight event, the girls started off strong, settling into a solid rhythm under Chiswick Bridge. Unfortunately, after just 1km, another crew mis-judged their line and clashed with the Stratford crew. Forcing the latter to stop before valiantly re-starting and taking back control of their own race. Undeterred, Stratford continued to lay down their power for the remaining 6km with Poppy Warren steering an excellent course.

Commenting, Imogen North, J17/18 Coach said: “The crew delivered a strong performance against the top crews in the country, representing the club in the girls’ eights category for the first time in over a decade.”

Also at the Schools’ Head of the River Race was Stratford’s sister club, King Edward V1 School Boat Club. Entering in their staple mixed eight event, the squad were looking to reclaim a position on the podium which they just missed out on the year before.

As expected, due to the short rowing length of the Avon, the crew began with slightly too much care towards pacing themselves, losing time on the other boats on the 6.8km course.

After the first quarter, speed and confidence began to climb as the KES mixed eight managed a successful overtake on one of the competition as well as several boats from earlier divisions. Cox Hannah Wright notably completed a clean pass through the middle of two competing boats, especially impressive as this had been her first major race as a cox.

Shoulders heavy, legs numb and with resounding motivation from the cox, the final quarter of the race was when KES showed their best efforts, keeping a neck-and-neck pace with the favourites to win, explosively blasting through the finish line.

Ultimately, the crew’s efforts were enough to land themselves on the podium once again with a prestigious bronze, just 20 seconds off gold and over a minute faster than the crew behind them.

The following day saw Stratford rowers Rebecca England and Tom Doherty head to the more sedate climes of Loughborough for the annual River Soar Head race. The event, 3.1km long, is probably the most challenging head race of the season for steering, taking place on a fairly narrow extremely windy course guaranteed to test every crew.

First off in Division Two was Doherty in a masters single category taking on amongst others former Stratford teammate Gary Clay, now of Loughborough, in what were extremely gusty conditions. Rowing upriver in a strong tail wind resulted in choppy but fast racing with difficult steering resulting in a number of crews hitting the bank and struggling to overtake resulting in a number of clashes.

Starting towards the rear of the division meant less interference and allowed some good sculling which saw the pair battle it out neck-and-neck before Clay grabbed the win six seconds ahead of the Stratford rower in a time of 13.26min.

Division Three provided better conditions with the wind dropping as Doherty and England raced their mixed double. With steering again proving a problem for crews and crashes and clashes continuing, the crew held a lively pace whilst trying to negotiate very tight bends and, in one instance, a capsized crew.

Unfortunately one bend got the better of the crew resulting in a time loss of about ten seconds. Getting underway again saw a good fight with following crews and good speed resulting in the Stratford crew catching a coxed quad junior crew which on the narrow course held them up until they could safely squeeze past.

In the end the much faster tail wind in the earlier divisions proved decisive.