12th July 2008

Spike and Robert Bailey entered Vet E 2x at Veterans Henley Regatta with high hopes, aiming to see how far they had progressed onwards from their first appearance at the Veteran Championships at Holme Pierrepoint. There were 11 entries in total in the event, including crews from as far afield as Dubai, USA and errrr, Scotland. and heats started early on the Friday morning.

Twickenham received a bye in the first round and raced a Scots crew in the quarter-final, whom they beat comfortably. In the semi-final they came across the class of the field, a composite crew from TSS/Potomac BC. The crew knew they would have to make a huge step up, well beyond the level they had achieved in previous races plus execute a 100% perfect row, to get the result they wanted. The race started well, Twickenham exploded out of the blocks with their usual fast start and initially led by up to 3/4 of a length. By half-way the composite with their superior rhythm had dragged themselves level and produced a stupendous push at 500m to take themselves clear. Twickenham were unable to respond but continued to maintain the pressure all the way to the finish to produce the fastest time of the event. The final difference was a length and a half. The composite proceeded to win the final comfortably against one of our rival crews from Poplar.

Spike and Rob were both bitterly disappointed to go out this way, as they had real expectations of being able to pull out a win. The experience of competing at this level however was great, and the crew now know what they have to do to achieve a winning standard. Still a lot to learn and with improvements to make, not least of which is to learn and master the technique the winning composite used for their mid-race push that proved so effective.