It's been a busy couple of months for the Thames senior squads with fixtures against Cambrdge, Durham women, Scullers Head and GB trials.  Race reports below from Harry Kelly, Dan Hickling & Praneet Shivaprasad. 

The senior men take on Cambridge...

On Saturday 10th December our Mens 1st VIII raced one of the Cambridge University Trial 8s in preparation for their race the following week.  

The match consisted of 2 race pieces on the Boat Race Course, roughly 1600 meters between the start line and the Mile post. The second piece was then from the Mile Post to the beginning of Chiswick Eyot.  

For both pieces Thames were stationed on the Middlesex side with Cambridge on the Surrey Station. Both crews braved unfavourably rough conditions with Thames taking an early lead in the first piece and despite a strong push from Cambridge managed to extend that lead to just over a length before reaching the Mile post finish.  

In the second piece Cambridge jumped out of the blocks making the most of the Surrey bend advantage, claiming half a length early on. Thames however battled on and managed to close the gap with both crews going under Hammersmith Bridge level. With some very aggressive coxing from Cambridge the Light Blues pushed Thames out further to the Middlesex station with a serious of clashes taking place. Unfortunately Cambridge came of this the better, regaining their half a length lead passing St Paul's BC and extended this lead to a length by the finish at the beginning of Chiswick Eyot.  

It is very early days but this shows some strong signs of the potential available for this coming season.  

Harry Kelly   

Cox: Hannah Watkins
Stroke: Ben Mcsweeney
7: Nick Halford
6: Anthony Lester
5: James Padmore
4: Harry Kelly
3: Rich Howell
2: Rich Dyer
Bow: Will Robins  

Scullers Head  
 
Saturday, 3rd December saw the 58th running of the Scullers Head over the 4.25 mile course from Mortlake to Putney. 15 competitors from Thames RC took part, including 4 [Dan H, Stephen D, Jon Moore, Sal] first time entrants, on what turned out to be a significantly warmer event than the previous year.

The pre-event marshalling proved to be almost as challenging as race itself, inevitable when you try to fit over 400 single scullers between Chiswick and Barnes Bridge. But despite numerous other competitors finding themselves boxed in, at right angles to other boats and drifting with the tide, all the Thames boats made it across the start line without any trouble.

The starting order of the different categories led to some mixed experiences for the Thames crews. Some boats were set off just ahead of much faster divisions, and a few of the novices found themselves overtaking lots of boats before Barnes Bridge had even come into view - though openly bragging in the bar afterwards about overtaking Womens Masters crews was not commonplace!

The Scullers Head is a unique challenge. Even though the stretch of water is familiar to our squad, the landmarks tend to come up a lot slower than they do when in a crew boat and having to think in terms of racing lines, rather than following rowing rules adds an extra mental dimension to overall success.

Despite having to avoid the odd capsized boat after the finish line, and with 4 Thames boats finishing inside the top 200, 2011 provided a good baseline to build on for next years event and hopefully with more Thames entrants to join the race.  

Dan Hickling  
 
101 - Jeremy Burke - MasC - 4th in category 
104 - Iain Pritchard - MasE - PENNANT WINNER 
183 - Jon Moore - IM3 - 3rd in category 
213 - Dan Hickling - MasNov - 5th in category 
229 - Sophie Theodorou - WSen - 3rd in category 
246 - Stephen Dooley - MasNov - 6th in category 
284 - Claude Curtis - MasF - 5th in category 
290 - Cat Hart - WIM2 - 8th in category 
332 - Sally Hodgson - WIM3 Lwt - 7th in category 
351 - John Collett - MasD - 18th in category 
403 - Kate Ironside - WIM3 - 9th in category 
412 - Mark Panter - MasD - 22nd in category 
413 - Kevin Watkiss - MasE - 14th in category
449 - Pauline Rayner - WMasF - 3rd in category 
 
GB Trials  

Iain Mandale (U20 lwt) and Sophie Theodorou took part in the second GB winter assessment in Boston, Lincolnshire coming 54th and 23rd respectively in their categories. 
 
The senior women take on Durham in matched VIIIs...

Saturday 7th January: 

We put out two matched eights to do some competitive paddling against two matched eights from Durham University. On an incoming tide we paddled from Barn Elms to UL continuously at rate 19. The idea was that if one crew got ahead of the other then they would either drop their rating or drop to single strokes so as to keep the crews together. The Grand 48 crew rowed strongly and were proving a handful for their opposition, having to drop to single strokes paddling several time over the course of the session. Even so, they were disappointed with their row and determined to row even better the following day - an encouraging fact given the speed they showed in the session. The crew in the Maurice Rayner took a measured approach, opening up an early lead and then sitting at half a length up on their opposition and responding to the situation - either to drop the rate if getting to around a length's lead and focus on rowing length and power, or to increase the power still more if needing to open up the gap again. The signs from this session were encouraging for both TRC crews as both showed good speed, but as the session was only at low rate we were still cautious going into Sunday's work.

Sunday 8th Jan: 

The same two TRC matched eights did two pieces against the same Durham matched eights from Saturday. The pieces were on an incoming tide: the first one from Barn Elms to St. Paul's School BC at rate 26 with us on Surrey; the second from the Milepost to Chiswick Steps at rate 28 with us on Middlesex. In both pieces the TRC crews rowed with good length and power with good focus on the front end of the stroke and opened up comfortable margins over their respective opposition.

A really high standard of rowing was displayed by our crews. What is encouraging is that we showed good speed whilst still leaving a lot of room for improvement. It was an extremely encouraging session for our crews as it showed that we are able to put out two eights of a very high standard whilst missing several key players and still perform strongly against a Durham University squad which year on year produces very strong results. We look forward to moving on strongly from here until the Head.

We would like to thank our friends from Durham University for joining us for the weekend in what proved to be two competitive but enjoyable sessions of rowing.  

Praneet Shivaprasad

Grand 48
Cox: Emma Searle
Stroke: Diana Egerton-Warburton
7: Sarah Jones
6: Rebecca Harland
5: Jessica Chichester
4: Abigail Carpenter
3: Charley Phillips
2: Madeline O'Shaughnessy-Hunter
Bow: Eleanor Garratt

Maurice Rayner
Cox: Praneet Shivaprasad
Stroke: Sophie Slaney
7: Helena Green
6: Barbara O'Brien
5: Emma Windham
4: Joanne Harris
3: Cat Hart
2: Christina Matteotti
Bow: Elizabeth Hickey