05/07/2010 Selection for the World Rowing Junior Championships

St.Neots Rowing Club is celebrating the selection of Bethany Astell and Philippa Neill to the Great Britain team for the World Rowing Junior Championships which will be held in Racice in the Czech Republic in August. This is the 6th time in 7 years that St.Neots has provided members of the World Championship team more than any other club in the country.

The Final Trials were held over 4 days starting last Thursday at the National Squad’s training centre in Caversham. However the selection process for the 2010 Championships has been very long starting as far back as October 2009 with a test on the rowing ergometer, then a long distance trial in November, more ergometer tests, another long distance trial in February, more ergometer tests, spring trials and a selection regatta in April just to get an invitation to the Final Trials.

For Bethany Astell the process was even more of an ordeal as she spent several months between October and April out of a boat and cross training due to a shoulder injury. However Astell has already represented Great Britain at the Coupe de la Jeunesse and was determined to step up to the World Championships this year.

The first race at the Final Trials was in club combinations in coxless pairs. The St.Neots girls put in a strong performance to finish in second place. The top pair was then removed to do a time trial and the next four pairs raced in a pairs matrix’ where each ‘bow-sider’ raced with every ‘stroke-sider’ in turn with the aggregate times added together to draw up a ranking for each side of the boat. When this was completed Bethany Astell was the top bow-sider and Philippa Neill the top stroke-sider, a fantastic result for the St.Neots girls. The trials then moved into coxless fours where the Saints duo continued to perform at the top of their game both putting in excellent races.

After 4 days of intense work the crew selections were announced with both Astell and Neill named in the Women's Junior eight that will race at the World Championships. The St.Neots girls have already raced with some of the girls this year at the Munich Junior International Regatta and in the eight that won at Henley Women's Regatta. The other members of the selected crew Ruth Whyman and Yasmin Treddle of Gloucester, Camilla Hadland of Stratford, Georgia Howard-Merill and Fiona Gammond of Headington School and Rosa Atkinson of Runcorn with Lily van den Broecke of Headington School.

20/06/2010 Junior Eight win @ HWR

St.Neots Rowing Club won the Junior eights event at the prestigious Henley Women’s Regatta last weekend, the clubs 3rd win at the regatta following wins in the Quads in 2005 and Coxed Fours in 2008.

The Saint’s crew contained Polly Hetherington, Bethany Astell and Philippa Neill who were joined by Ruth Whyman and Yasmin Treddle of Gloucester, Camilla Hadland of Stratford, Sarah Lonergan of Tideway Scullers and Anastasia Chitty of Canford School. Hari Combe of St.Neots was due to cox the crew but came down with gastroenteritis the day before and unfortunately had to be replaced by Didi Horsburg-Wade of Henley Rowing Club.

Their first opponents on Saturday from Kingston scratched on the morning of the event however the St.Neots composite took the opportunity to row over the course to practice their race plan.

This moved the Saints crew through to the Quarter Final where their opposition was St. Paul’s Girls School, London. Hetherington, stroking the eight, took the composite crew off at 46 strokes a minute quickly opening up a lead and by the end of the island already had nearly a length of clear water. They continued to push away and by the end of the grass car park, about 550m, had a lead of over 4 lengths. The gradually stepped the rate down every 10 strokes passing the enclosures and 22 strokes a minute. They practiced the last 30 second push to the line recording a margin of 4 lengths in a time of 5:06.

Their opposition in the Semi-final, Molesey, had beaten Green Lake RC from the USA in their Quarter Final by a length and, with the strong following wind, had broken the course record by 2 seconds with a time of 4:59. However the Saints composite knew that they had rowed well within themselves and were the faster crew.

In their semi-Final on Sunday morning the St.Neots composite eight again had a good start and had almost a length lead at the end of the island. However the Molesey crew were very courageous and stuck at it as the composite, sensing victory, took their ‘foot off the peddle’. Molesey seemed to be moving back but the St.Neots crew were in control and crossed the line 1 ¼ lengths ahead in a time of 5.01 which, despite a weaker following wind, equalled the previous record.

In the other Semi-Final Headington School, the National School’s Champions, had an easier race against the American Buckingham, Brown and Nichols School to make it an all British final.

Sitting on the start waiting for the final both crews looked very nervous. Headington, the winners of the event in 2009, afraid of losing their British unbeaten record and the composite, the favourites on paper, afraid of not delivering. The St.Neots coach Martyn Rooney had warned his crew to expect Headington to give everything at the beginning of the race to try and unsettle them and that is exactly what happened. The Headington crew blasted out of the start and at the end of the island had about half a length lead which they held along the car park. Both crews called for a push at they entered the enclosure but it was the composite which began to move on as Headington tired. Passing the enclosures Polly Hetherington drove her crew on and the crews drew level. As they entered the last 500m the St.Neots composite took the led for the first time in the race. With a final push and increasing rating to 38 strokes a minute they began to pull away and recorded a 2/3 length victory in a new record time of 4.52 a full 7 seconds off the record set the previous day and with less wind assistance.

The St.Neots coach, Martyn Rooney, said after the race “the girls first got together only the week before and won a Reading. I knew that they had the power to win at Henley and with more time together to gel as a crew they would be substantially faster. However it was still an excellent result for St.Neots to gain our third win at the regatta."

14/06/2010 Reading Regatta

The junior girls of St.Neots Rowing Club continued their preparation for Henley Women's Regatta with a strong performance at Reading Amateur Regatta last week. Bethany Astell, Philippa Neill, Polly Hetherington and Hari Combe (cox) represented the St.Neots club with other junior girls from Gloucester, Stratford, Canford School and Tideway Scullers in the Women's Intermediate 1 eights. The event started with 6 entries but 2 crews from the London club Vesta withdrawn then the St.Neots strongest British rivals, Headington School, also withdrew which left the St.Neots composite with a straight final against the University of Dublin who had already comfortably beaten Villanova University USA.

In the final the Saints composite had the advantage of the staggered start and opened an extra half length approaching the bend in favour of their opposition. Around their bend the Dubliners began to move back on the composite but their gain was not more than ¼ of a length and when both crews entered the straight the junior crew started to move away again finishing about 1 ½ lengths ahead.

13/06/2010 Masters Championships

Last weekend St. Neots Rowing Club had several crews racing in the British Masters Rowing Championships. The Championships took place in Nottingham at the National Water Sports Centre and is raced over a 1000m multi-lane course. The event aimed at seniors aged 27years and over categorised by age, gave the older members of the club their chance to shine.

Nottingham is renowned for being a very windy course but the weather last weekend was very favourable and St. Neots kicked the day off in the Mixed Masters C/E eight category with the crew consisting of Alison Brown, Helen Knowles, Graham Mailer, Clive Emmerson, Drew Scott, Mick Staddon, Natasha Wilson and Dionne Page with Sarah Porteus coxing. Due to the eight racing in a combined C/E event against two other crews, St. Neots and Medway Town had to give a 14 second head start to Monmouth. Although this is a sizeable gap to make up the saints didn’t let it startle them and pushed hard to catch up. They had a good start and took a lead over Medway and began to real in Monmouth, however by the line the handicap proved that bit too much and finished just four seconds adrift.

The Women were in action again later in the day racing in the Women’s Masters C coxed four, coxed by Sarah Porteus. The Saints drew a tough draw against Hereford who were last year’s winners and a well established crew, so knew they had their work cut out. After getting a good start they were able to hold on to Hereford for the first half of the race but unfortunately their experience kicked in and were able to pull out a lead and take the win.

Helen Knowles was the busiest saint in action racing in two more categories and providing the closest finish on the day. She had a very exciting race in the Women’s Masters C Intermediate 3 Single Scull event where she was up against two other scullers. Unfortunately she didn’t have the best start and had some work to do to catch up. Sensing she was closing in on the other two scullers she pushed hard to get back into contention. By the line she had managed to overtake a local rival from Bedford and finished just 0.5seconds behind the winner from Cardiff. Later in the day she took part in the Masters C Championship Singles event where she came up against some tougher competition including an ex-Olympian, She had her best race of the day and was able to take 4th spot just shy of the winners.

Clive Emmerson and Graham Mailer took part in the Masters C coxless pairs where they had some stiff competition from all over the country. The men had one of their best races to date racing hard in a tight pack and were in medal contention to half way. However they were carrying some tired legs and were unable to put in a strong finish with a crew from Henley taking the win.

Last in action was Mick Staddon racing in Masters C Novice Singles. This being his first single scull masters event he was unsure quite what to expect. He did not let this put him off and gave a very gutsy performance and was punching his weight early on in the race. However the experience of the other scullers showed and they were able to pull away for the win.

Club Captain and Coach Ed Porteus said ‘all the saints raised their game and gave as good as they got. For some it was their first taste of multi-lane sprint racing and despite no wins I was very pleased with everyone’s performance, giving more experienced competitors a run for their money’.

05/06/2010 Metropolitan Regatta

Bethany Astell and Philippa Neill of St.Neots Rowing Club raced at the prestigious Metropolitan Regatta last Saturday on the 2010 Olympic course at Eton. They were racing in fours and an eight put together from the top girls in the country by the National Junior Coach. However they were racing in the highest senior categories available at the regatta.

Their first event saw them split in to two Elite coxless fours, Astell with girls from Strafford on Avon, Gloucester and Molesey with Neill joined by girls from Headington School and Gloucester. This was a top quality event with 7 crews including the Great Britain U23 crew. The crews were 4th and 5th at the 500m marker but then Neill’s crew began to move through the field despite under-rating the leading crew, the GB U23 boat. They moved into 2nd place at the mid-point and remained there to the line they performed well with the U23 crew just 4.6 seconds faster. Astell’s crew were expected to be the ‘weaker, however they finished a creditable 4th in a very strong field with oxford Brooks University splitting the two junior crews.

The two fours then combined to make up an eight in the ‘Senior’ class. They stormed off the start and by 500m already had a 5 second lead. They stretched this at every mark so by the time they crossed the finish line they were a full 18 seconds ahead of Newcastle University and the National University of Ireland who were fighting for second and only a second apart. Five members of the junior crew will be in action again next week at Reading Regatta where the crew will also include St.Neots Rowing Club members Polly Hetherington rowing and Hari Combe coxing. The Reading event is being used as a ‘warm up’ event for the main domestic target of the year the following weekend at Henley Women's Regatta.

St.Neots have previously won the quad sculls and coxed fours events at HWR, with Astell and Hetherington in the latter, but this is the club’s first representation in the eights. The St.Neots coach, Martyn Rooney said “we only have a few girls available this year and a composite eight seemed the next logical step especially as I have put together crews the last two years that have won at the Women's Head of the River Race.” The event is however very popular with overseas crews and the racing will be hotly contested.

29/05/2010 National Schools Regatta

St.Neots Rowing Club took a small band of just 6 juniors to the National Schools Championships last weekend racing in 4 events but brought home 2 medals. The event takes place at the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham, where on Saturday the course was unusually flat however on Sunday the strong head/cross wind caused the organisers to change the draw system.

The Saints first medal came on Saturday in the Girls Championship double sculls where Beth Astell and Philippa Neill were competing. Their first race was the processional timed race. This has been used by the event organisers in recent years to cut the weaker crews from events with very large entries to give the top crews have an ‘easier’ progression to the semi-finals. Although times are not published when the St.Neots girls were drawn in lane 3 in their semi-final they knew that they were in the top 4 fastest boats. Their main rivals in the semi were likely to be Henley and Sir William Borlase School. The St.Neots duo raced the first half of the course very hard and got into a lead with Henley and SWB the other qualifiers for the final. When the final came the St.Neots crew did not race quite as well and came out of their start mode too soon and let Henley, and the other semi-final winners Runcorn, get ahead. Despite a strong second half to the race they had left themselves too much to make up and had to settle for a Bronze medal.

On Sunday the wind got up and the course became unfair with crews in lane 6 having an advantage over those across the lake in lane 1. The organisers therefore changed the drawn from the ‘traditional’ method of placing the fastest qualifiers in lanes 3 and 4 to lanes 6 and 5.

Beth Astell and Philippa Neill were again in action this time joined by Ellie Milne and Polly Hetherington in the Girls Championship coxless fours. This was to be another top quality event with several very fast crews. The favourites were Headington School with half the eight that had won the day before and the top 2 rowing girls in the country on board. However the St.Neots girls also had form they were all in the eight which beat Headington at the Women's Head of the River Race in March. The other main contenders were Lady Eleanor Holles School and City of Oxford both who have had good wins this season.

After the time trial to select crews for the final Headington were drawn in lane 6 with St.Neots in lane 5, Oxford in lane 4, LEHS in lane 3 with Durham School lane 2 and the LEHS second crew in lane 1. All the main contenders got good starts with Headington and Oxford slightly quicker than the St.Neots and LEHS crews. By the 500m marker the Headington crew had established a lead with Oxford just half a length ahead of St.Neots and LEHS in 4th. The Headington crew continued to pull away leaving Oxford and St.Neots to battle for the Silver and Bronze medals. At 750m gone the St.Neots crew pushed and moved up to just a quarter of a length down. However Oxford responded and regained their lead. Philippa Neill again led the St.Neots crew with another attack at the 1000m point which was again answered, but not as well, by Oxford. The St.Neots girls kept on the pressure and drew level with 750m to go then moved ahead in the last quarter extending their lead all the way in the last minute to cross the line more than a length ahead and to earn their Silver Medals.

The St.Neots coach, Martyn Rooney, said “I was disappointed with the girls in the double scull on Saturday as they should have been contending for the Gold medal and I gave them quite a hard post race talk. However their performance in the coxless four, our ‘weaker’ crew, on Sunday showed real guts in a long battle against Oxford and they deserved their medals”

The St.Neots boys, Huw Jarman and Josh Dexter, raced in the Boys Championship double sculls on Saturday, 2 years above their age group, and came through a big field of 24 entries to make it to the semi-final. They were drawn in lane 1 so knew that they were one of the slower qualifiers however getting to the semi-final was their target. They raced hard but were not able to gain any further places.

On Sunday they raced in their own, Junior 16, event. With a big entry of 26 crews the organisers again used the time trial to cut 8 crews leaving 3 semi-finals of 6 crews each. This meant that to qualify for the final a top 2 position was required. The Saints boys first qualified for the semis and, being drawn into lane 5, knew that they were not in the fastest 3 but were somewhere between the 4th and 6th crews so to win a medal would be very difficult. They finished second in the semi to qualify for the final but once they were drawn into lane 1 they knew that any prospect of winning a medal had been lost. However they gave it their all in the final and, although finishing 6th, gained a lot of race experience.

27/03/2010 Men’s Eights Head of the River

After three years of being unable to form a crew for the London Tideway eights head of the river St. Neots Rowing Club finally made its mark. The course is 4 ½ miles long being raced in reverse to the Oxford vs. Cambridge Boat race this weekend. It is one of the biggest eights race’s in the world with many international crews competing amongst the 400 strong field.

Due to the long lay off from the event St. Neots had to combat with a low starting position of 289, where the outgoing tide was at its slowest making it harder to compete with the higher placed crews. Despite this the crew of Huw Jarman, Clive Emmerson, Thibault Jeangout, Mick Lawrence, Graham Mailer, Jon Heaney, Dom Chapman, Josh Dexter coxed by Hari Combe were able to put in a solid performance.

The crew racing in the IM3 category were up against some stiff competition with some strong college crews starting around them. Pushing hard off the start they were able to hold off several attacks from crews behind eventually making clear water on them all and turning their attention to the crews in front. With Hari steering a perfect line, sticking to the race and calling in tactical pushes the saints had tagged onto the back of a large group of crews through Hammersmith Bridge. With this being one of the main spectator points and the crowd roaring they were able to lift their game and start winding for the finish. Sensing the finish was close the men grit their teeth and emptied their tanks overtaking one of the crews in front before the finish line. The Saints crew came home in a very respectable time of 19minutes and 36seconds placing them 248th.

Club Captain and Coach Ed Porteus said ‘ with it being some of the men’s first time on the tideway and having limited time for water outings I am very pleased with the result and the crew giving a very gutsy performance. This result will set them up for a good summers racing’.

13/03/2010 St Neots girls retain the Women's Head of the River Trophy

In 2009 St.Neots Rowing Club entered an eight into the Women's Head of the River Race for the first time and, from a low new entry position, won the Junior category. The Course is the same as the University Boat Race but in reverse, that is 4¼ miles from Mortlake to Putney. With the starting positions are based on the finishing positions from the previous year with the top crews going off on the fastest part of the incoming tide. This year the club again entered a crew but this time had a high starting position of 20th of the 300 crews which meant that they would get a better part of the tide. The crew was made up of Polly Hetherington, Philippa Neill, Ellie Milne, Lottie Birks, Kate Parish, Emma Harris, Poppy Shelbourne and Ellie Grimley with Hari Combe coxing.

The Saints crew had one of its main rivals, Lady Eleanor Hollies School, starting immediately behind them with the other and more likely challengers, Headington School – Oxford, starting in 25th place. As the St.Neots girls passed the start line the LEH crew were quite close behind and pushing really hard. At the first timing mark, Barnes Bridge, they had made up 1.8 seconds with the Headington crew also 1.8 seconds quicker. However by the next marker, Hammersmith Bridge, the St.Neots girls had pushed away and reversed the positions being 5 seconds quicker than LEH and 0.6 seconds quicker than Headington. Moving into the second half of the race the Saints crew stayed solid with Hetherington setting a good long rhythm and they continued to open the gap on their rivals finishing 4.8 seconds and 10.3 seconds ahead of Headington and LEH respectively finishing in a very creditable 33rd place.

The St.Neots coach Martyn Rooney said “on paper our crew was slightly weaker than last year and the Headington crew stronger but our girls rose to the occasion and have pulled off and very good win. It is always nice to beat the big schools and 2 years running feels great.”

Other St.Neots members were also in action racing for their ‘second’ clubs. Jacqui Round, an Under 23 World Champion, was racing for Leander in a very strong crew of senior internationals including world and Olympic medallists. They were expected to finish in second place behind another internationals crew and this was confirmed in the final results. Rachael Crockford raced in the City of Cambridge second boat finishing in 81st place and Helen Knowles racing for the Cambridge club, Champion of the Thames, finished in 195th place.

07/03/2010 Final Winter League

St. Neots Rowing Club enjoyed brilliant sunshine in the third and final leg of the Cambridge Winter League and put in some strong performances to match.

Josh Dexter brought home the clubs win of the league, taking home the honour of fastest overall junior sculler. Dexter beat his nearest opponent by 1minute and 30 seconds over the three legs.

The senior squad put in a good showing to move themselves up the leader board. The first crew of the day was the women’s IM3 4+ of Alison Brown, Charmian Hardwicke, Tash Wilson ad Dionne Page. The women had a clean row and finished second in their category pushing closer to the leaders with every leg of the league. Wilson and Hardwicke were joined by Rachael Crockford and Sue Trow in the third division racing in the women’s IM2 4+ coxed by Ethan Page. Despite Wilson and Hardwicke carrying some tired bodies form their first race, the crew had a great performance finishing just 12 seconds adrift of the quickest women’s four on the day.

The men’s squad similarly had a good finish to the league showing how much they have moved on since the start of the year. The first crew racing was IM3 4+ ‘A’ crew of Huw Jarman, Clive Emmerson, Drew Scott and Mick Staddon coxed by Ethan Page. The crew had a very positive start and were moving the boat well, however coming off the second big corner they encountered some technical issues with their steering and brushed up against the bank costing them vital time. Pushing hard to catch up time the crew finished second in the category just 7 seconds behind the winners. The ‘B’ Crew of Thibault Jeangout, Mick Lawrence, Dom Chapman and Jon Heaney coxed by Charmian Hardwicke also had a good race. Attacking it right off the start the crew managed to pick up a few places in the table finishing just 3 seconds behind the ‘A’ crew on the day and third in the category.

The men teamed up in the last division to form an IM3 8+ coxed by Ethan Page. Having had a fast start they were able to close down some of the gap on the eight in front setting themselves up for a fast time. Pushing hard throughout the race they clocked the 10th overall quickest time on the day. With this time the crew moved a couple of places up the table finishing 11th overall out of 147 crews.

The men’s squad are now in some vital training over the next three weeks preparing for the first major event of the year. This being the Men’s Eights Head of the River on the Tideway in London which fields 400 crews from across the country and abroad.

21/02/2010 Extreme Weather Rowing for St. Neots

The second leg of the Cambridge Winter League truly lived up to its name with snow, sleet, hail, rain and zero degree temperatures thrust upon the competitors. This, however, did not deter the Senior and Junior squads from St. Neots as they braved the conditions and put in some excellent performances.

The women’s squad fielded three crews, with the first an IM3 4+ in the first division consisting of Alison Brown, Mia Hartwell, Tash Wilson, Charmian Hardwicke and Cox Hari Combe. Despite being held up in the cold conditions at the start the women stuck to their race plan and gained on the crews ahead. Hartwell, Wilson and Hardwicke were later joined by Rachael Crockford in the fourth division racing up a category in IM24+. Having clashed with a poorly steered double scull early in the race, the women kept their cool and raced hard to the line and recorded a quick time to move them up the league table. Helen Knowles racing in a Veteran E 1x put in a solid race improving her time from the first leg.

The Men’s squad also had a promising days racing with three crews on show. The first was the IM3 4+ ‘A’ crew of Dom Chapman, Clive Emmerson, Graham Mailer and Jon Heany coxed by Robyn Staddon. The crew pushed hard throughout the race overtaking an eight and clocked a swift time to push themselves 8 places up the leader board. The ‘B’ crew of Darren Cantell, Mick Staddon, Drew Scott and Mick Lawrence coxed by Hari Combe were not to be outdone. They attacked the race from the start and kept in contention with the ‘A’ crew, finishing a close 7 seconds behind. The crews teamed up in the next division racing in an IM3 8+. Putting in a consistent performance they bettered their first leg time and moved up the league into 12th out of 161 crews.

The junior squad was represented by Josh Dexter and Polly Hetherington both racing in their single sculls. Both scullers pushed aside some niggling injuries and put in a good effort to maintain the top spots in their respective categories.

06/02/2010 St. Neots Rise from the Mist

St. Neots RC had a brilliant days racing at Peterborough Head of the Nene. Despite it being very cold and a heavy mist the Junior Squad picked up four wins. The first came from Huw Jarman who paired up with a junior from Norwich to claim top spot IM3 2x. The Junior girls were not to be outdone with a double of Polly Hetherington and Ellie Milne who fought off 8 other crews to win WIM3 2x. One of the strongest performances of the day came from Phillipa Neill who battled hard against the stream to record an impressive win in the WJ18 1x. Also competing in this event was new girl Lottie Birks who put in a gutsy debut and took second place behind Neill. Neills time turned out to be the fastest women’s sculler of the day. These four Girls teamed up in the next division to race in Women’s Senior Coxed Fours coxed by Hari Combe. After only recently being formed they pushed hard throughout the race to record a win in their category and were the quickest ladies four on the day.

After a lengthy spell away from competitive rowing the Senior Squad have begun the New Year with some new found energy and made a promising start with more to come. The Men’s and Women’s Squad fielded two crews between them. The first was a Women’s IM3 4+ consisting of Alison Brown, Mia Hartwell, Sue Trow and Charmian Hardwicke coxed by Robyn Staddon. The crew put in a very pleasing and consistent performance to take 3rd in the category. The second crew was a Men’s IM3 8 comprising Huw Jarman, Clive Emmerson, Dom Chapman, Jon Heaney, Graham Mailer, Mick Staddon, Drew Scott and Darren Cantell coxed by Hari Combe. The men pressed hard off the start and stuck rigidly to their race plan closing down the crew in front all the time, finishing 35th out of 80 eights.

Newly elected Club Captain Ed Porteus was extremely satisfied with the clubs performance’s on the day, and very pleased to see the Senior Squad’s progressing well.

06/02/2010 Clubroom Refurbishment

The Committee has decided to embark upon the refurbishment of the Clubroom. As many members will be aware this has been an ambition of the Club for some considerable time and is perhaps long overdue, but up until now we have not been in the position to allocate the necessary development funding. We have initiated Phase 1 which will see: the removal of the dividing wall between the Clubroom and the extension to open up the area (and where in due course, but not in this phase, we will install a bi-fold door system to allow us to separately use the two areas); the replacement of the current lighting and audio speakers with systems sunk into the ceiling; the removal of air conditioning vents and the resurfacing of the entire ceiling; associated electrical works; and the removal of photographs and other memorabilia to allow the walls to be prepared for redecoration in the next phase. We estimate that this phase will cost up to £6,000 and we aim to complete it by the end of March. However, this cost is based on the assumption that the majority of the work will be undertaken on a voluntary basis by Club members; so the costs are reduced to the minimum of that for materials and skills outside our capability.

17/01/2010 Cambridge Winter League

We sent a good sized Senior contingent to the first Cambridge Winter League of the year. There were two mens crews in IM3 coxed Fours, two Ladies crews in IM2 and IM3 coxed Fours and we also put together a mens IM3 Eight with an eye on developing a crew for the Eights Head later in the year. The Eight put in a good solid time of 11.38 over the 2.6Km upstream course, which was the 13th fastest time of the day. The Junior squad were also in attendance with Polly Hetherington putting in a good time of 14:22 in J17 1x and Josh Dexter in J16 1x a time of 13:23. We have lots of pics of the event so checkout the gallery pages.

07/11/2009 Henley Sculls Head

The St.Neots Rowing Club juniors had a successful weekend racing on the Thames at Henley in the ‘Henley Sculls’ Head of the River Race. The Saints crews posted some very good results winning one event, second in two and third in another. The Henley course is raced upstream over 3km and is known to be difficult, usually with a headwind, and this year was no different which made the second and third divisions for the single sculls very tough.

The St.Neots win came in the Women's Junior coxless quads, with a crew of Bethany Astell, Polly Hetherington, Philippa Neill and Lottie Birks. The starting order gave them some problems as they were started behind the boys Junior 15 coxed quads and found that they had to overtake several of the inexperienced crews. However Hetherington did a great job steering through the ‘chaos’ and with Astell’s stroking they raced with a very good rhythm and did not lose any time. This was a first race in St.Neots colours for Lottie Birks as she was drafted in to replace Ellie Milne who was ill. The girls had an emphatic victory in a fast time of 12:04 with the home club taking second place 48 seconds back.

St.Neots was also represented in the Men’s Junior coxless quads. This was second outing for the crew that had previously won at the St.Neots Head of the River in October. The crew was Huw Jarman at stroke followed by Thibault Jeangout, Michael Hawes and Josh Dexter. Despite limited time together they performed well, recording a time of 11:49, taking second place behind a very strong crew from Nottingham. The crews then split down to single sculls. The best performance came from Huw Jarman in the Junior 16 sculls. He had a very strong start and quickly found himself overtaking several of the scullers that had started in front. When the results were published he had covered the course in a time of 14:11 just 7 seconds behind the winner of his event. Josh Dexter was in the same event and finished in 6th place. In the women’s singles best placed St.Neots sculler was Bethany Astell in the Junior class, her time of 14:55 was good enough for 3rd place 13 seconds behind the winner. In the same event, and from a field of 33, Philippa Neil was 5th and Polly Hetherington 8th.

Looking ahead
Next weekend both coxless quads take to the Thames at Hammersmith to compete in the Fours Head of the River Race. Last year the club’s Women’s Junior quad was victorious but with only one of the same crew the competition looks even harder this year. For the boys it will be a new experience as none of them have yet raced on the tidal Thames.

The following weekend Bethany Astell, Philippa Neill and Huw Jarman will all take part in the first GB Junior Long Distance Trial at Boston. They qualified after meeting the required standard in tests carried out on a rowing ergometer. Astell and Neill have taken part before and have represented Great Britain England respectively. However this is the first year the Jarman has been old enough to compete.

11/10/2009 Bedford Small Boats Head 2009

Following just one week after its own successful Small Boats Head the St.Neots rowers moved up the Great Ouse to race at Bedford and were again very successful winning 5 events. Top performer was again Huw Jarman, after winning 3 events last week he added another 2 at Bedford. His first came in the Junior 16 single sculls were he won the event by 2 seconds from a very big field of 31 scullers. His clubmate, and doubles partner, Josh Dexter finished in 7th place 11 seconds behind. They then combined in the Junior 16 double sculls winning by the large margin of 17 seconds in a fast time of 7:15; a time that was 5 seconds quicker than the Junior 18 winners.

Another winner 2 weeks in a row was Ethan Page who won the Junior 14 sculls. Page is gaining in confidence and turned in a strong performance winning by a massive margin of 44 seconds.

The St.Neots women were also victorious in the Intermediate 2 Coxed fours and the Women's Veteran D sculls. The four of Polly Hetherington, Natalie Bream, Philippa Neill and Ellie Milne with Hari Combe coxing had to make up for a poor race at St.Neots where they had raced as a ‘scratch’ crew and finished just 1 second behind the winners, Milton Keynes. With time to train together on Saturday they looked a different crew and turned the tables on Milton Keynes finishing 8 seconds ahead in a time of 7:41. The Saints women also raced in the higher Intermediate 1 fours and although they covered the course 4 seconds quicker had to settle for second place behind Broxbourne.

The final St.Neots winner was Helen Knowles who won the Women's Veteran D sculls by 3 seconds from Macdonald-Smith of Bedford’s Star Club. This made up for her race at St.Neots where she just lost out due to the Veteran Handicapping system. Knowles also raced in the Women's Intermediate 3 sculls going 2 seconds quicker and finishing in 7th place.