Tideway Scullers School

Last weekend a small group of veteran men and women went to the FISA World Masters Regatta in Zagreb for the last regatta of the 2007 season.

The men were represented by Dave Gramolt and Rob Pinckney, with the latter winning Vet F 4x in a composite crew with Occoquan BC.

Elspeth Pinckney, Rosemary Thom, Gilly Williams and Jo Al-Janabi spent much of the summer training in quad with the aim of racing in women’s Vet D 4x at Zagreb. The crew turned in an excellent result, and a personal best for the crew. They also split into two Vet D doubles and both crews (Rosemary/Gilly and Elspeth/Jo) finishing fifth in their respective heats. Also, on Sunday, Rosemary and Jo raced in a mixed quad with scullers from Ardingly.

Sunday’s racing at Munich brought an early birthday present for Tash Howard in the form of a bronze medal in the women’s eights. A superb race saw the Brits take the third podium place behind the USA and Romania, and a split-second clear of Australia. Tash is quoted on the FISA website: ‘It is incredible. This year has been really great. I am very happy that we qualified for the Olympics.’

Alan Campbell finished fourth out of a very competitive field in the men’s single sculls, improving from sixth place at Dorney last year, while Mahe Drysdale completed a hat-trick of world titles in the same event.

In the men’s lightweight singles, Alasdair Leighton-Crawford won the B final, finishing seventh overall, while Rodrigo Ideus, racing for Colombia, finished nineteenth and former TSS member Tim Colson (Canada) was ninth. Past club captain Rod Chisholm, racing for Australia, won the B final of the lightweight men’s four and secured the boat’s Olympic qualification.

Kaarin Scanlan, also of Colombia, took twenty-first place from a large entry in the women’s lightweight single sculls and her compatriot Melissa Shokoufandeh – who trained at TSS in the run-up to Munich – was twenty-eighth in the Olympic-class women’s openweight singles.

Finally, an honourable mention must go to James Clarke, son of Dickie Clarke, for bringing home a gold medal in the lightweight men’s four.

John Collins notched up a bronze medal in the heavyweight double scull, with George Caines of Nottingham RC, in Varese, Italy.

They came from fifth at 1500 metres to third place on the line, sculling through Poland in the last few strokes.

In other international news, Ali Leighton-Crawford has been confirmed as a member of the GB team for the World Championships in Munich. He has also been shortlisted for the European Championships team.

The Annual General Meeting was held at TSS on Tuesday 24^th July 2007. Click here to view the presentation.

The committee for the 2007-2008 season was elected:

• President: Andy Ripley
• Chairman: Chris Williams
• Captain: Stan Livy
• Treasurer: Seb Butter
• Secretary: Rosemary Thom

At the end of the evening the grand raffle was drawn. The star prize of a Filippi single scull – very generously donated by Paul Willis – was won by Mimi C.

Alasdair Provan sold the most tickets, and so his name will go on the new eight. There were also prizes for the juniors selling the most tickets, which went to Alice G and Phoebe B.

Many thanks to all who bought and sold tickets, and in particular to Judy Sarsby for her very great effort in organising the raffle.

Club members contested seventeen finals and won medals in twelve events: five gold, three silver and four bronze.

The juniors started the action on Friday, until racing was abandoned due to bad weather. As a result of the disruption, the Saturday final of the J15 coxed quads was decided on the results of a time trial. Jonathan and Daniel, in a composite with Tiffin School, won gold. The boys also took silver in J15 doubles.

Sunday saw early success with twins Hayley and Rachael Kugele winning silver in the women’s under 23 doubles, a result which was quickly followed by gold medals in both the men’s and women’s quads. The men’s quad of Lucas Dalgleish, Graham Benton, James Dunley and Mike Hennessy, which two weeks ago reached the final at Henley, turned in a commanding performance, finishing more than sixteen seconds ahead of the second-placed crew. The women’s boat – Andrea Finn and Elaine Johnstone in a composite with Mortlake, Anglian and Alpha – also recorded a decisive victory. The morning ended with a bronze medal for Rich Hardy in the men’s pair, racing in a TSS/London composite.

James Dunley and Mike Hennessy scored a second gold medal, this time in the men’s double, while Andrea and Elaine won silver in the women’s doubles. Bronze medals went to Stan Livy, Jamie Pine, Ben Johnson and Andy Sage in the lightweight quad – a crew which also finished fourth in the final of lightweight fours – and Kaarin Scanlan took bronze in the women’s lightweight singles.

Probably the biggest surprise of the day came from the women’s lightweight quad, a crew that had been put together shortly before the regatta and hadn’t had too many outings … Belinda Davies, Kerrie Trembling, Rachael Kugele and Katy Smith were in the lead by 500 metres and never looked back, taking the gold medal four seconds clear of an established Mortlake crew.

Finally, the men’s eight – Pete Allen, Toby Arbeid, Graham Benton, Lucas Dalgleish, Toby Marshall, Gareth Sharpe, Will Suthers and Richard Twyman, coxed by Ali Williams – ended the day with a bronze medal in a very competitive final.

Following on from Nat Champs results, Trigger, Graham Benton and James Dunley have been selected to represent England at the Home International Regatta in Cork this weekend. They will be joined by Katy Smith and Tasha Reilly, who will both be racing for Wales.