National Junior Sculling Head
The juniors had five crews racing as TSS and one for their school at the National Junior Sculling Head on Monday.
The Junior 4x came 10th overall in a high-class field, a good result considering their relative inexperience and lack of weight in the strong headwind. The WJ16 4x were 7th and the WJ15 4x were 13th. Again, both crews are very light and would probably have been higher up if it hadn't been so windy.
The WJ14 4x+ - Eleanor, Rachel, Mimi and Phoebe, with stand-in cox Harriet (Hannah was sick) - were another light crew but won the bronze medal. Phoebe set them a very aggressive pace off the start, which they maintained all the way to beat all of their usual local opposition, but two crews from Stoke Rowing Association claimed the gold and silver medals. The WJ14 B crew won the medal for fastest second crew: Kat, Isabel, Thea and Emma, coxed by Otto, raced really well to finish 12th in their category. Finally, the J16 4x of Henry, Jonathan, Eddie and Alex had a strong race and won their event for Tiffin School.
The National Junior Sculling Head is only three years old, and is run by the clubs and schools most interested in sculling, mainly Marlow, Windsor Boys, Hinksey, Dulwich College, Sir William Borlase, Henley and TSS. As such, TSS provided a number of helpers on the day: Carl Brighty worked tirelessly to get crews marshalled at the start; Frances Barton, Rosemary Thom and Kristian Wentzel were the finish timing team; and Claire-Louise French ran the umpires' meeting area at Remenham. Their assistance was very much appreciated - thanks a lot everyone, see you all next year? It also has to be said that the crews felt there was no escape as Chris Williams was starter all day! CW
The Editor
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