Guildford Rowing Club finishes off winter training in winning way
At the weekend, Guildford Rowing Club was competing at Abingdon Head in
one of the last head races of the winter season. All sections of the club were competing with wins for both senior and veteran rowers along with strong performances from the junior squads. The successes of the weekend built upon strong performances, including three wins from the previous weekend at Bedford Head. Both events were time trial events over 2000m with Bedford being raced with the stream and Abingdon raced upstream.
At Bedford Head, Guildford had 21 entries from the senior section of the club ranging from coxed fours to doubles and single sculls. At this event there were wins for the Women’s Senior 1 and 2 coxed fours (Annabelle Ponting, Kate Lucas, Jackie Warrington, Alice Poole and Pete Hopkins) and the Women’s Senior 4 and 3 double sculls (Laura Bartlett and Ursula Martiniussen) with a win for Pete Hopkins in the Veteran D single sculls.
Away from the pots friendly rivalries were present, with Pete Hopkins still retaining his record as fastest GRC sculler of the day beating John Wills by a second. Despite losing out to Pete in the singles, John and his double’s partner Nick Hopkins beat Pete and Paul Woowat by 3 seconds. After just a year at GRC, Annie Lukes was out on the water in her single scull putting in good performance. Hannah Lyons and Suzi Boys took time out from coxing the Novice men to get out in their double. Ursula and Laura put their training at the recent camp into good practice by putting in some very strong times. Pete and Paul – watch out because the women are coming up behind you fast! Last but not least congratulations to the Development Squad for finishing their first competition. Although not included in Bedford’s results for GRC they recorded the following times:
293= N.4+ 08:21 +01:21 70 Guildford
326= S4.4+ 08:29 +01:39 200 Guildford
At Abingdon Head, a much larger entry was fielded with 29 entries including 12 entries from the junior section of the club. The day saw good conditions and some very strong performances. The club returned home with wins in the Novice double sculls for Nick Hopkins and John Mills, and the Veteran C/D double sculls for Pete Hopkins and Paul Woowat. The Novice men coxed four (Ross Manton, Paul Stacey, Glen Corbitt, Chris Scott coxed by Robyn Skillman) beat the Senior 3 men’s coxed four by just 1 second, and are now looking forward to the regatta season with renewed vigour. The Senior Women (Annabelle Ponting, Kate Lucas, Jackie Warrington, Alice Poole coxed by James Sadler) topped off a really good winter season with wins at Senior 2 and Elite in the coxed four and in the process posted the time for the fastest women’s crew of 8min 38 seconds. The prizes for Abingdon Head were presented to the winning crews by Peter Haining, MBE, world champion lightweight single sculler 1993–95.
For the men, it was a tale of crabs. The Novice men caught three with only Chris surviving. The Senior 2 men’s crew caught one showing that all of us are susceptible. It was only the Senior 3 men that escaped crab free and with a good line from their cox Ami Carter, were able to slip past an eight on the inside halfway along the course. The Senior 4 men’s crew included Paul Woowat making a welcome return to rowing, whilst Glen is looking to protect his back in the run up to Shrewsbury. Could this be the reason for Pete and Paul losing out again to Nick and John in the double sculls?
The Senior Women were out on a mission to impress and make the most of the opportunity to escape from the short stretch at Guildford. Their strong performance over the last two weekends sets them in a very good position for the regatta season and the run up to Henley Women’s Regatta. Susi Boys and Hannah Lyons had a better run second time round after hitting a buoy in their first attempt at the course.
The juniors had some good performances enjoying the opportunity to get ut on the water and race against some strong opposition from clubs with strong junior squads. The highlight for me was seeing one of the club’s youngest and shortest juniors sculling down to the start keeping Pete and Paul in the double at a comfortable distance.
The club now looks forwards to the regatta season which starts on the May Bank Holiday weekend with Wallingford and Marlow Spring regattas. Later in the summer, the club will be competing at the Walton and Molesey regattas.
Results from Bedford Head
|
Status |
Time |
|
Crew |
Name |
91= |
07:24 |
|
67 |
Guildford RC |
|
100= |
07:27 |
|
199 |
Guildford RC |
|
147= |
07:40 |
+00:38 |
223 |
Guildford RC (Hopkins/Wills) |
|
154= |
07:43 |
+00:18 |
279 |
Guildford RC (Woowat/Hopkins) |
|
184= |
07:52 |
|
94 |
Guildford RC (Martiniussen/Bartlett) |
|
216= |
07:58 |
|
226 |
Guildford RC (Martiniussen/Bartlett) |
|
227= |
08:02 |
|
178 |
Guildford RC (Hopkins) |
|
235= |
08:03 |
+00:19 |
107 |
Guildford RC (Wills) |
|
257= |
08:10 |
+00:26 |
111 |
Guildford RC (Hopkins) |
|
272= |
08:14 |
+00:40 |
339 |
Guildford RC (Martiniussen/Bartlett) |
|
293= |
N.4+ |
08:21 |
+01:21 |
70 |
Guildford Dev Squad |
296= |
08:22 |
+00:38 |
241 |
Guildford RC (Manton) |
|
326= |
S4.4+ |
08:29 |
+01:39 |
200 |
Guildford Dev Squad |
333 |
08:32 |
+00:20 |
183 |
Guildford RC (Woowat) |
|
341= |
08:36 |
+00:40 |
173 |
Guildford RC (Lyons/Boys) |
|
345= |
08:37 |
+00:45 |
286 |
Guildford RC (Lyons/Boys) |
|
387 |
09:01 |
+00:16 |
123 |
Guildford RC (Lukes) |
|
394= |
09:07 |
+00:27 |
246 |
Guildford RC (Lukes) |
|
418 |
10:00 |
+01:15 |
186 |
Guildford RC (Spruce) |
|
419 |
10:14 |
+01:34 |
301 |
Guildford RC (Spruce) |
Results from Abingdon Head
Status |
Time |
|
Crew |
Name |
J13 1x |
12:10 |
+02:11 |
269 |
Warne |
J13 2x |
13:55 |
+04:05 |
189 |
Moulder |
J13 4x+ |
11:56 |
+02:22 |
133 |
Moulder |
J14 1x |
13:04 |
+02:50 |
62 |
Fox |
J14 2x |
10:04 |
+01:11 |
101 |
Sylvester |
J14 4x+ |
10:40 |
+01:54 |
184 |
Sylvester |
J15 2x |
10:24 |
+01:51 |
19 |
Davies |
J15 4x+ |
09:44 |
+01:15 |
238 |
Latimer |
Nv 1x |
09:32 |
+00:44 |
128 |
Wills |
Nv 1x |
09:41 |
+00:53 |
207 |
Mills |
NV 2x |
08:52 |
|
176 |
Hopkins |
Nv 4+ |
08:13 |
+00:03 |
10 |
Manton |
S2 4+ |
08:26 |
+00:12 |
228 |
Johnson |
S3 4+ |
08:14 |
+00:09 |
81 |
Strather |
S4 4+ |
08:34 |
+00:29 |
|
Manton |
Vet C/D 2x |
09:30 |
|
247 |
Hopkins |
Vet C/D/E 1x |
09:09 |
+00:22 |
36 |
Hopkins |
Vet C/D/E 1x |
09:41 |
+00:54 |
37 |
Woowat |
W E 4+ |
08:38 |
|
157 |
Ponting |
W S2 4+ |
08:42 |
|
234 |
Ponting |
W J14 1x |
12:12 |
+01:16 |
70 |
Turpin |
W J14 1x |
11:14 |
+02:18 |
187 |
|
W J15 2x |
10:34 |
+00:38 |
28 |
Aprees |
W J15 4x+ |
10:05 |
+00:27 |
|
Barron |
W J15 4x+ |
10:48 |
+01:10 |
|
Gallop |
W Nv 1x |
11:13 |
+00:33 |
|
Lukes |
W Nv 2x |
10:16 |
+00:35 |
|
Boys |
W S3 1x |
10:54 |
+00:45 |
|
Lukes |
W S3 2x |
10:55 |
+01:04 |
|
Boys |