St Neots Rowing Club’s senior crews were successful in four events at Huntingdon Rowing Club’s Head races in windy conditions on Saturday.
The men’s masters C crew came in one second behind their opposition, but scored a win once the time handicap had been applied against the younger crew. The men’s novice coxed four of Tim Neill, Ralf Felsner, Dave Bygraves, Matt Womack and Libby Milne as cox, soundly beat their opposition by 4 minutes in their first head race win since coming together as a novice crew.
John Knights beat his opposition by some 2 minutes in the Masters F/G singles event and the men’s coxed eight beat Star Club to clock the fastest time of the day for the second year running, and this was despite a handshake with the bank during the race. The mixed IM3 quad recorded the sixth fastest time of the day, winning their event and with a substitute due to illness. The women’s coxed 4 came second in their event.
On the 13 October, St Neots entered two junior crews into the prestigious Pairs Head on the Thames. The weather was dreadful, with driving rain and tidal waves, and the two crews were up against the best in the country of all ages.
Fergus Mitchell and Joshua Davies finished 24th fastest overall, and were the fastest J17-only crew on the day, which is an excellent result in difficult conditions. Nick Shorten and Adam Williams also posted a very good result at the top end of the table, despite colliding with a buoy in the turbulent water and almost capsizing.
On the same day the rest of the Junior Competitive Stream raced at Bedford’s Small Boats Head where again the weather was foul, with very heavy rain. Result of the day went to Voirrey Taylor and Louise Shorten who won by 32 seconds in their double scull, which is a huge margin of victory over a 1.8km course, and significantly quicker than winning crews in older age-group divisions. Lauren Parren also had a very good row indeed, winning her category in a single scull in a respectable time. Rory Tynan and Adrian Vulsteke came a creditable 2nd in their double scull, building on their first win at the St Neots Head two weeks previously.
Finally Sam Clift, Olivia Hooper and Zoe Adamson each had good races in their single sculls and achieved good places despite the torrid weather conditions.
Club Captain Ali Young said:
“The club has started the head racing season very well, for both junior and senior squads and this will enable all rowers to build up their winter training over the coming months.”
