Tideway Scullers School

On Saturday, the Fours Head saw the club retain the headship, with Iztok Cop, Mahe Drysdale, Alan Campbell and Mike Hennessy repeating last year’s success in Elite 4x, winning by a substantial margin.

The club fielded ten crews from both the men’s and women’s squads, and recorded some encouraging results, not least the second – lightweight – Elite 4x which finished eighth overall.

Then, on Sunday, the club boated eight crews for the Veteran Fours Head. The Vet G 4- of Dave Hudson, Francis Pinkerton, Dave Gramolt and Mike Knowles totally dominated their event to win by more than a minute over a strong Nottingham composite.

The women’s novice coxed quad – Regina Hughes-Spirlett, Alison Bradshaw, Vicky Sixsmith and Claire Delmar, coxed by Jess B – also won their event as the only entry in the category.

The Vet D 4x had to enter Vet C as they had frightened off all opposition in D and came second to a very fast Scottish composite. The Vet D 4+ and E 4- were also second in their divisions, with the President’s Vet E 4- placed fourth in E.

It was good to see three women’s veteran crews racing, although our strongest women were otherwise engaged in actually running the event. Overall the event went very well, thanks to Chris Harris, Kate Grose, Claire McIntosh, Zoe Gullen and Nick Rowett (in South Africa), and the rest of the largely TSS team who put it on.