Liz Tofts and David Best came back with medals from the British Rowing Masters Championships last weekend. The day had not started well as Liz lost her rigger nuts in the morning but a gallant gentleman (Stan) donated four of his. David took more care of his nuts but had only 3½ hours' sleep as he had to finish painting his sculling blades after returning from a party at two o'clock on Sunday morning. Liz’s relentless chattering on the drive up and back was most welcome as it was a perfect foil to David’s sleep deprivation.

Liz and David won gold in Mixed D Novice doubles (despite both being Es), finishing nine seconds ahead of silver medallists Oundle Town. After a rather shaky start Liz and David rowed through Hexham and Walton by 250m, then Oundle Town by halfway, and settled to a comfortable rate to the finish.

David then won silver in E Novice singles, losing to Jason Boulter of Twickenham. Jason maintained a lead of a length despite a push by David at 500m. David started to row through at 750m gone, but lost by a second.

Liz put up a valiant fight against much younger and Amazonian opposition in Women's D Novice singles, finishing fourth. LT/DB

Rosemary Thom also raced in Nottingham, winning silver in Women's D eights as part of a TSS/Walbrook/Molesey composite.

Defeating Thames crews in all three rounds, the J14 double of Charles and Theo won their event at Putney Town Regatta.

The double of Imogen and Charlie P were knocked out after a fiercely fought semi-final that was within a quarter-length over the entire course, and the WJ14 B coxed quad just lost out to a Putney High crew in the last hundred metres of the final. RR

The senior squads travelled to Belgium for the International Ghent May Regatta, and returned with gold, silver and bronze medals. 

On Saturday, Judith Schulz, Rowi Mortimer, Caroline Matthews and Elaine Johnstone won gold in women's coxless fours, then split into two pairs, with Judith and Elaine winning silver. Bronze medals were won by the coxed four of Tom Wheeler, Eddie Beckett, Tom Chung, Laurence Kaye and Fran Whitehead, and Stan Livy, Dimeji Ogunyoye, Max-Vincent Wentzel and Paul Bruce in lightweight quads.

The following day, the women's four again took gold, and there was a second pairs silver for Elaine, racing this time with Caroline. The lighweight quad, having repaired the broken gate that hampered their race on Saturday, won gold.

Saskia recorded the club's only win of the day, crossing the line nine seconds ahead of her nearest rival in Women's J18 singles, a very strong performance and follwing on from her fifth place in the A final at junior trials the previous weekend.

There was also a clutch of second places, in Elite eights, Senior coxed fours and Women's IM3 singles.

The Junior men’s group had a long day with some excellent results, as Chris Williams reports:

The J16 quad of Ben, Tom, Ollie and Jack raced at the unheard-of hour of 7.40am, but overcome the very difficult task of getting themselves there on time to rig the boat, be awake and get to the start in good shape. They raced well, qualifying comfortably despite every blade on one side hitting a swan at about 250m gone. In the final the crew went off well, but from 250m to the 1000 they let Molesey get too far ahead, watching other crews, and by the time they started to reel Molesey in they’d left too much to do and lost by half a length.  They had some very good crews behind them but this was an opportunity missed.

The J16 coxed four of Ed, Lucas D, Lucas R and Ryan, coxed by Susie, had what looked like a really hard heat, but quickly got into a qualifying position in the front three and left the others behind. The final had Eton A and B, Hampton A and B, King's Chester and TSS: a truly stellar of cast British junior crews. The boys started slowly, being in fifth at 500m, but settled well to be fourth at 1000m and third at 1500m, and pulled away from the other crews to finish a good third behind a very quick King's Chester and Eton A. All in all a very good result for the crew's first race.

In the afternoon the first crew off was the J18 quad of Alex, Jack, Ollie and Freddie, who had a good start but then didn’t really pick up the pace of the race and were twelfth quickest of the twenty crews so didn’t qualify for the final. The crew could have gone better, but this was their first exposure to top-level regatta racing and we will work onwards from here.

The final event was the J16 eight, with the quad and four combining.  They went off the start in the pack but just didn’t quite have the cruising speed, partly from tiredness but also lack of time in this boat, and finished 0.07secs outside of qualifying for the final despite Ryan's late charge scaring the life out of Bedford Modern in front of them.

Overall, a good day's work and it helped focus on what we do from now on. The boys made further progression into the ranks of British junior rowing, season, but with more work to do.

Thanks to parents for early morning ferrying, in particular to John Parkinson who was also an excellent rigging assistant! 

Facing a total of eighteen boats and over three rounds, the J14 coxed quad (Marcus, Sammy, Charles, Hugo and Maddie) won an emphatic victory. First round they pushed a strong start into an even stronger finish to win by a substantial distance. They finished the semi-final five lengths ahead, then in the final, against Norwich School, they won by two lengths.

The Junior Men's squad had a mixed day. Tommy, Stevan, Will and Alex W, coxed by Theo from the J14 group, were entered in Novice coxed fours. Alex takes up the story: 'We knew it would be a struggle to get it to move, and our first ever outing in the crew/boat combination was on the morning of the race. Fortunately, every start we did in practice was better than the last. In our first race against two other junior boats we pulled away instantly and won by two and a half lengths.'

The final was more of a challenge, however, as Stevan writes: 'We came up against senior men's crews from Twickenham and Lea who looked particularly big.' Lea pulled away quickly, leaving TSS to battle it out with Twickenham, ending with a clash. 'Twickenham managed to get free of the tangle first and nip us to a second place that we felt should have been ours. Overall, I feel that the boat went surprisingly well. We improved massively on the day.'

Meanwhile Adam and Mathieu were having equally tough times. Adam, in J18 singles, came up against Bradbury from Westminster, one of the best junior scullers in the country, but pushed him all the way to the line. And Mathieu, a J15 racing in IM3, found himself outpowered, but by no means outskilled: 'The Tyrian sculler pulled away pretty easily. But with a good finish (which I am pretty proud of) I took two lengths out of the Surrey side sculler. It was good experience for when I come back to J15 racing.'

Finally, there was a win in Masters E doubles for Mark Alloway and junior coach Chris Williams.

P. Jamieson £200
P. Willis £200
H. Wheare £100
A. Wallace £50
A. Kapica £50
C. Collerton £50
C. Williams £50
J. Stoner  £50
L. Wymer £50
N. Dale £50
S. Luker £50
W. Almand £50

The next draw will be held shortly and will cover subscriptions received in February and March. After that, draws will be made quarterly.

See the 100 Club page for more information on taking part, and to download an application form. 

Sucess came for Ava and Ella, who won bronze in a composite WJ16 quad with Weybridge, and two silver medals for the J16 boys, as Andrew Eames reports below. The TSS J14s were represented en masse for Thames Central, and performed well in their first multi-lane races. We are proud of you all. JB
 
J16 Boys

First off, Olly raced in the single and was third fastest of the heats, despite feeling a bit sluggish as it was early in the morning. He hoped to be better in the final but fell in after two strokes. Never mind.

The quad of Jack, Olly, Tom and Ben had the very fast Thames Upriver (Marlow) crew in their heat, who raced at a much higher rate and TSS finished second some lengths back. The eight had a rather similar heat, rating about 33 to the 37-8 of the West Midlands crew (Shrewsbury).

For the finals we decided that both crews should race at a high rate, and this worked well. The quad stayed with Marlow for much of the course, racing at about 35. They slipped back to nearly a length behind in the mid-section, sculling in a pack with three other crews, but in the closing stages Ben pushed the rate up and the crew closed on Marlow to finish less than half a length down.  

The eight - Ryan, Lucas R, Ben, Tom, Lucas D, Ed, Tommy and Alex, coxed by Susie - followed the quad's lead and stayed at a much higher rate throughout. Shrewsbury stormed off and gradually pulled away, but by staying at about 36 TSS gradually pulled away from most of the crews. The North West eight (Grange School/Northwich/Runcorn) chased very hard into the last 500m, but Ryan at stroke in his first-ever regatta pushed the rate even higher over the last 250m to finish half a length up and just over a length behind Shrewsbury.

All in all, a very satisfying regatta, and the boys progressed a huge amount in the day.

On a  final note the boys did get compliments for the best leggings in the regatta: those yellow perils looked fantastic! AE

Adam won J18 singles, coming through two preliminary rounds to just beat Shepsi in a very close-run final: it was a shame somebody had to lose. Mathieu stepped up a year to win J16 singles in a straight final, showing great racing instinct and watermanship, while Stevan, racing for the first time in a single in Novice, struggled with his steering at the start, and never managed to claw back the deficit. Happily, Paul Savage of the Senior Men's squad won the final for TSS.

Ollie and Alex won J18 doubles after a collision and a re-row in the final. Then they combined with Freddie and Jack H to win J18 quads with a narrow victory over Emanuel, while Louis and Dan of the Junior Bs won Novice doubles. Monty, although not racing himself, played an invaluable role in helping scull boats down to the start for quick changeovers.

Brenna and Imogen won WJ18 doubles, and Issy, Christa, Katherine and Flora, coxed by Essy, won WJ18 coxed fours.

Thanks to Andrew Eames and Judith Behan for reporting on the regatta.

Brenna and Freddie are the first two recipients of the club's Jack Petchey Achievement Awards, which recognise, reward and celebrate the achievements of our younger members. 

The awards were voted for by the club's junior-squad coaches and co-ordinators. Brenna was singled out for 'perseverance in training (her knee injury kept her from competing for over a year), helpfulness and inspirational attitude both within the Junior Women's group and to a wider audience in the whole club, her cheerful manner and immediate positive response to helping out'.

Freddie was recognised for 'successfully stepping up from the recreational sculling group to the Junior Men’s racing squad, attending every session despite having to cycle from Hanwell for every outing even the early morning mid-winter ones and he has never been heard to complain.'

Rowena Clewlow, Grants Officer at the Jack Petchey Foundation, said: 'On behalf of Jack and the Foundation, our congratulations to Tideway Scullers’ first ever Jack Petchey Achievement Award winners.'

TSS Junior Co-ordinator Judith Behan presented Brenna and Freddie with their certificates at an award ceremony on 20 April, and said, 'I am very proud of Freddie and Brenna for their contribution to Tideway Scullers School Juniors, showing true leadership by example, and proving that if you think you can, you can: the core value of Jack Petchey himself.'

Both won £200 to be spent on new equipment for the club, and it is their job now to decide how best to spend the money to benefit the juniors.   

The Jack Petchey Foundation was established in 1999 to enable young people, to achieve their potential by inspiring, investing in, developing and promoting activities that increase their personal, social, emotional and physical development. Since its inception £75 million has been invested to support this aim.

www.jackpetcheyfoundation.org.uk