Felicity Hawksley writes:
The new squad arrived at St Paul’s in fine weather, chomping at the bit and ready to show the rest of the rowing world that they meant business.
The club boated four crews in total. The quad included two lightweight athletes: the veteran of 6 Boat Races, Sarah Cornick, and Emily Piggott, a first year triallist, at stroke. Joined by two former openweight Blue Boat girls, Debs Turner and Emma Windham, the quad placed 6th in a strong WS2 4x field. Emily noted that the race was an improvement on Upper Thames Small Boats Head the weekend before.
The other three crews were in the WS3 (A) 4+ category, and consisted of current squad members, old girls and some extremely kind helping hands from Wallingford RC.
Becky Donaldson coxed a boat consisting of stroke, Felicity Hawksley, backed up by 2007 Boat Race winner Linda Reynard and two current rowers, Rose Higham and Caris Marsh. The boat started well, steaming through the first bridge, confident and quick. Unfortunately, in an attempt to overtake KCL, they were involved in a crash that brought them to a standstill, tacking a good 10 or so seconds onto their finishing time. Angered by the collision, the boat quickly got up to speed again, to finish in a time of 23.30.
The next crew, containing current squad member Suki Tyler, posted the fastest time of the day, in 23.06. A member of the Wallingford women’s squad and OUWLRC Old Girl Emma Hodson, last year’s president Alice Millest and Wallingford athlete Lucinda Gooderham filled the remaining three seats. Coxed by Wadham’s James Packer, the boat was described as “smooth and nippy” by bow-girl Tyler.
The third 4+ to race contained three current girls (Sophie Knight, Becky Hunt, Ruth Crewe) and last year’s boat-race winning 5-seat, Tracy Fenwick. Coxed by Mark Brewer this 4+ completed the course in 24.33, placing 13th in their division. Sophie, stroke, described the race as a good learning experience, specifically citing Tracy Fenwick as an impressive influence on both boat speed and motivation.
A good day was had by all, and the current squad took the opportunity to learn a great deal from the old girls (whilst some of those not racing learned a great deal from a vantage point at the Anchor!). The squad gained more tideway experience and demonstrated their mental and physical strength, banding together to produce some respectable early-season results. The racing was followed by a slap-up meal in a Putney pub, during which several squad members fell asleep and some of those who remained awake were treated to a post-lunch detour through Putney by the coach, clearly overwhelmed with nostalgia…
Bring on the Eights Head.