Stratford-upon-Avon Boat Club compete at the National Schools Regatta at the Nottingham Watersports Centre
The Stratford-upon-Avon Boat Club made their mark at the National Schools Regatta.
The J14 squad sent a boys quad and a girls quad to the event at the Nottingham Watersports Centre.
This was the return of the event to the Nottinghamshire venue after a gap of several years and the competition was tough.
The weather was glorious and both boats showed strong determination.
The girls reached the D final and, despite injuries in the team, managed to hold their own.
They had a strong start, coming out of the first 100m in second position but were outpaced in the remainder of the race.
The boys reached the B final and also had a great start.
They were second at the halfway mark but lost ground in the second half, coming fifth overall.
J14 coach Rebecca Paul commented: "Both crews had a great day out, learned a lot from the experience and are looking forward to the next event."
The WJ15 4+ crew of Orla Linforth, Maria Ntoukaki, Naomi Sime and Erin Appleton (coxed by Ed Appleton) took to the Holme Pierrepont water in the 1900m time trial in relatively calm and temperate conditions.
They set the 15th fastest time out of 24 crews and secured their place in the C Final.
In the 2000m final, side by side with other fine crews, they were superb in their race execution.
They rowed through a few crews, including Royal Shrewsbury, and looked to be heading for a second place finish but Kingston Grammar were wise to the challenge and finished 0.17 seconds ahead of Stratford in dramatic fashion.
Where other crews seemed to be imploding, Stratford were totally steady over the 2k distance, in a solid 2:13 minutes for each 500m.
J15 coach Hugo Happel said: "The WJ15 4+ crew did incredibly well against tough competitors from Great Britain and Republic of Ireland, sticking to their game plan and delivering a very memorable row.
"Both on and off the water they were terrific."
Conditions on the second day of the regatta started to become less favourable with gusty headwinds on offer.
Stratford's WJ16 coxed four of Martha Cooke, Tessa Parkin, Martha Baines, Becca Smith and Poppy Warren (coxswain) embarked on their time trial and battled hard to achieve 12th position and a spot in the B Final.
With increasing winds, the crew again took the lake for their final in the afternoon but were unable to improve their position after a plucky row.
With the cancellation of racing on the third day of the regatta, the WJ16 coxless quadruple scull of Sophie Franklin, Millie Smith, Maeve Dunn and Isla Dunn did not get the opportunity to show the result of their training.
Stratford's WJ18 4x- and WJ18 1x also raced at the regatta which is one of the biggest races in the rowing calendar, where more than 5,000 junior competitors attended.
In the first event of the day on Saturday, Poppy Baines took on the windy conditions in the Women's Championship Singles event.
Sculling with great technical focus, she claimed 23rd out of 53 scullers in a highly competitive field.
After a long 10-hour gap, Baines' D final arrived where she had a rocketing start to maintain her position from the time trial.
The girls' quad of Alexandra Francis, Scarlett Richardson, V Vondrak and Lucy Sartain executed their race plan perfectly in the 2000m time trial.
It put them in 12th place and therefore gained them a place in the B final against competitive crews such as Henley, Headington, Hartpury and Shrewsbury.
The wind picked up over the day making conditions challenging for the final but the girls still battled through the choppy water, finishing respectively in fifth position after beating competitive crews.
At the other end of the country at Monmouth Rowing Club’s regatta, Stratford's masters were represented at the weekend by Tim Lunel who reported that the event was efficiently run and also very enjoyable.
Lunel explained: "I had to sit on the start for six seconds as a handicap in the semi-final but managed to catch my opponent by halfway and then win by a couple of lengths.
"In the final, it was a handicap of 12 seconds against an opponent nicknamed 'the Pocket Rocket from Totnes and Dartmouth.'
"The starter and I tried to persuade him he didn't need the 12-second handicap but unfortunately we didn't convince him so he pretty much sat on the lead all the way down the course.
"At least he said that it was hard work when we got to the finish."
Also out at the weekend were Stratford masters' rowers who headed to the west for a day out at Hereford Regatta.
Held in the beautiful surroundings of the River Wye in mixed overcast and windy conditions, Stratford was represented firstly by Rebecca England and Tom Doherty in mixed masters C/D double sculls.
With Stratford having an age advantage (being younger), they had to give their opponents, the highly rated Drinkwater couple from Bridgnorth, a seven second head start resulting in a tough task to reduce the deficit.
With Rebecca taking the crew off at 39/40 strokes per minute, the chase was on but, despite holding a high tempo of 38 strokes a minute for the whole 850 metre course, Stratford were unable to close the deficit finishing exactly seven seconds behind at the finish.
Afternoon racing saw the Stratford women's double of Lucy Scarlett and Rebecca England racing in their double scull in women's senior sculls against Minerva Bath.
With Rebecca again taking Stratford off at a good tempo, the crews were neck and neck approaching the halfway point with both crews rowing hard.
Minerva Bath’s experience began to tell and they edged ahead over the last 250 metres to win.
Rebecca said: "Hats off to Lucy who steered a great course in tricky windy conditions against tough opposition.
"We were pleased with our row and look forward to the next event."
