2004
Reading
University Head – the view from the driver’s seat
Saturday
28th February
Amongst
the many MRC crews making the trip to Reading were the formidable
Vet Cs. This week the chosen few were:
Mike Spencer-Jones, Tony Ellis, Chris Lenton, John Yeatman, Simon
Huntley, Mark Henstridge, Ed House, Richard Coles and me (Kate
the cox).
Weather-wise it was cold (very cold) but bright and dry so we
couldn’t complain. For once, we were ready to boat when the marshalls
told us (unlike the S4 mens’ crew who only turned up about 30
minutes before the start of the race). So we had a long paddle
down to the start, warmed up nicely and then sat waiting at the
start for 45 freezing minutes with only a kingfisher and a large
tree for company.
As usual,
all the vet boats were racing in one division but with no handicaps
being applied. We were the first vet boat off and behind us were
another Vet C from Reading Town, a Vet D from Upper Thames and
two Vet Es from Reading and Upper Thames. We elected to leave
a gap between ourselves and the S4 boats in front so we had a
nice stretch of clear water to go at.
The start
went just as we’d planned with Richard winding us up to a nippy
38 before striding out to a steady 33. Hitting a strong rhythm
right from the start meant that we easily pulled away from the
Reading crew behind us. Personally, I never saw them at all but
Ed tells me they were with us until the first bend and then they
faded into the distance. The rate didn’t drop below 32 ½ and everyone
put in a really good performance to keep us motoring down the
course. As we had no-one in front of us, the guts and islands
didn’t cause us any problems and we sailed on through. By the
time we reached the last 1500m the crew were beginning to look
just a little bit tired, but we soon picked it back up to a strong
33 and started thinking about home.
At 750m
to go, Ed started calling for a push which caused some worried
faces. Coming through Caversham Bridge we were up to 34 and then
took it up another pip every 30 seconds from there to cross the
line at 36 – rowing well but looking exhausted. As we heard the
call for ‘down’ everyone obeyed and slumped down into the boat,
gasping for air in some cases! 
The overall
time of 15m 28 s was good but unfortunately not quite good enough
to beat the Vet Ds from Upper Thames who finished in 14m 55s.
We were over a minute ahead of the other three vet crews and the
UTRC crew was full of ex-national squad oarsmen so we shouldn’t
be too disheartened. Overall, a great performance from Marlow
and it looks promising for the Vet’s Head on 21st March.
