21st June 2009

Holme Pierrepoint,  Sun 14th June 2009

 Spike and Robert entered Open VetE and Open VetD in their double scull and Robert IM3 Vet G in the single.

The single’s race was a simple side by side with another Vet G sculler that turned out to be no real contest, so was an easy win. 

We entered the Open Vet D race to give us a race warm-up and to shake out the wobbles.  We actually took half a length on the winners of that – TSS for the first 250m, but weren’t able to hold on to them. We decided to wind it down at 500m when we were still a clear third to save ourselves for our main event and finished fourth overall. It was clear that if we had carried on that we would have most likely finished third here as well.

Come the Vet E event we had a small drama when the bow ball on ‘Nice Pair’ was condemned (it had split unbeknown to us) so we rushed a replacement swap from my single scull, sped up to the start, turned onto the stake pontoon and were off!  We do have a powerful and smooth start and took half a length of most crews by 250m.  Two crews then got ahead in the next 250 and from 500 on we did out pushes and spin ups to open up the gap behind and hold station with those in front.  We finished 3rd  in the final, 2 secs down on Ardingley at 2ndand 6 secs down on Dart-Totnes at 1st.  We deemed that a good result, with some improvement in speed still to be found in the 250 to 500m area.  We were the equivalent of 3/4 secs faster than last year, when we managed 4th.  The weather (like last year) was close to perfect at Holme Pierrepoint.

All in all, the experience of multi-lane racing in this event, contending with these top crews is an amazing experience (and there are a lot of very fit and competent Vets doing the event; many clubs take it very seriously) and we would welcome more TwRC crews training for and competing in the regatta to make it a more club-orientated event.

On to Henley Vets next!