8th November 2008

Two fours from the men’s senior squad competed at the annual Fours Head of the River on Saturday 8th November. In difficult conditions for the second week running, both fours turned in excellent performances in the S3 category.

Team 1, comprising of Jonno Davidson (stroke), James Morton, Steve Bowers, Peter Crush (bow) and cox Michael Loweth came 9th out of 47 in a time of 21m14s. Nobody caught them but they passed three boats and caught up with a fourth boat, local rivals Thames RC. They came 199th overall from a pool of 470 racing boats.

Team 2 comprised of Jonathan Rowland (stroke), James Frater, Anthony Cox, Andrew Fletcher (bow) and Christine Palmer (cox). They came in 34th place in the same category, and 332nd overall in a time of 22m27s.

The women’s squad also entered a boat, however were not allowed to start due to rudder failure after another boat caught one of their blades on George Plumtree which snapped the rudder cleanly off in the holding area prior to starting.

Director of Rowing and senior squad head coach Gerry Elphicke commented: “Once again our crews put in a formidable performance in tough conditions. We managed to build and improve the performance from last week’s Teddington Head and we now look forward to the next race in two weeks’ time at Kingston and in three weeks at Wallingford where I know the crews will step up to the mark and improve once again. I am really gutted for the women, however, I know they will turn their anger into a great aggressive performance at the next meet”.

Vicky Cheevers