Upton Rowing Club

 

Win for Novice Men’s 4+ at Stourport Regatta, Saturday 14^th August 2010.

Stourport winning crew (from L to R) are:

Dan Herbert (bow), Mark Seyler (stroke), Karen Lanni (cox), Mark Moaks (3) and Mike Palmer (2).

Saturday 14^th August began with heavy downpours so we all expected another soaking at Stourport following the Stourport Head of November 2009, at which the men’s novice 4+ won their event having waited above the start line for about an hour in freezing conditions! However, the afternoon saw sunny spells and on arrival at Stourport and having squeezed the boat trailer in to the last remaining spot available, we assembled our boat before walking the course and to check how the Starting Umpire was operating before discussing our race plan.

We have all valued the input received from URC Coach Ron Paterson in preparation for Stourport and it was with this in mind, particularly the mantra, ‘cool heads’ that we boated and paddled up to the start point. The extra weekday evening outings and our focus on maintaining rhythm, power and togetherness with firm finishes, without rushing the slide, plus the benefit of a working cox-box has really helped us to maintain a steady and consistent race-pace of between 27-28 SPM which we maintained throughout the race at Stourport, prior to executing a reasonably respectable racing start.

Once underway, our opposition, a crew from Bradford on Avon RC, stayed with us briefly after which we steadily increased our lead on them as we progressed down the course. As we passed under the road bridge next to Stourport BC’s Boathouse it was clear to all that Bradford on Avon would be unable to catch us and that we were in for our first win as a Novice crew! This was confirmed when we passed the finish line to cheers from the crowd including Debbie Thompson from URC Women's Squad and URC Captain, Peter Barker, who was present to see us win.

It felt good to be giving three cheers for the loosing crew for a change and we are hoping this will now be a regular occurrence for us as well as other crews from the men’s squad not to mention the Club as a whole.

The other highlight of the day was the appearance of Sir Steve Redgrave and family wandering along the towpath as we returned to the car! We had hoped to have a team photo with Sir Steve, tankards in hand, but unfortunately he was heading home by the time we received our pots.

Three wins at Llandaff Regatta

Eschewing the televised attractions of two World Cups (one for football in South Africa, where England had been rubbish, and one for rowing in Lucerne, where GB annihilated the other 53 competing countries), Upton made its annual border raid to compete at Llandaff Regatta on 10/11 July.  Four blokes (Peter Barker, Andrew Scott, George Strang and Ron Paterson) made up six entries over the two days – a quad and two doubles on each day – and came away with a handful of pots.

First on the agenda was Masters E/F quads, where we had a straight final against Llandaff over 1000 metres.  Llandaff, being in the younger age band, gave us a nine second start under the handicap system.  Just as we went on to the stakeboat, disaster struck:  Andrew’s footplate fell apart.  This was in fact very fortuitous, because if this had happened after the race had started it would have been our tough luck.  As it was, we were given a postponement in order to make the repair, and Llandaff generously let us cannibalise one of their boats for the purpose.  Returning to the start, we repaid their generosity by beating them convincingly.  They recovered part of the handicap in the first part of the race, but we rowed away from them in the second half to win by 3½ lengths.  First blood to Upton.

On Saturday afternoon, we entered Masters E/F doubles.  George and Ron were drawn against Llandaff in one semi-final, and Andrew and Peter against Evesham in the other.  The first of these was virtually a repeat of the quads race, with Upton beating Llandaff by 3 lengths.  Peter and Andrew then had a great tussle with a strong Evesham crew, and held them off till near the finish, but eventually lost by 2 lengths.  In the final, Evesham pushed hard in the first part of the race and had made up most of the handicap on George and Ron by halfway.  But it was then stroke for stroke down the finishing straight, with the crews dead level from about 700 metres onwards, until finally Evesham pushed through in the last few strokes to win a great race by half a length.

On Sunday, Peter and Andrew had entered Masters Novice in the double, but our win in the quad on the previous day meant they had lost their novice status and they had to withdraw from the event.  Our first race was therefore in the quad, once again racing Llandaff (who had changed their stroke man), but over 500 metres this time and with a four second handicap.  We had an excellent row and powered away to win in style by 1½ lengths.

That left only George and Ron to race in Masters E/F doubles once again, in yet another race against Llandaff, who must by now have been sick of the sight of us.  They threw everything at us and closed up slightly in the first part of the race, but again we powered away and crossed the line 1¼ lengths up to win our third event of the weekend.

Head of the Dart.

Held on 24^th April over a nine mile course, an Upton eight consisting of Debbie Thompson, Sally Miles, Pauline Mason, Angie Rodway, Deirdre Thompson, Joy Larner, Jo Hammett and Sandy Barker coxed by John Dean, rowed the course in 57m 25s to beat their competition by over four minutes and gain 37^th place in an entry of 64. Congratulations to them! Also congratulations to all those who managed to get up for breakfast the following morning…..

Also, also a big thank you to the support team for towing and ferrying of personnel – it couldn’t have happened without you.

Shrewsbury Regatta

Held on the weekend of 15^th/16^th May a women’s Upton 4+ consisting of  Debbie Thompson, Sally Miles, Clare Bunn and Joy Larner coxed by Mark Moakes, beat Bridgenorth in their first heat, de Monfort university in the second and losing to Stourport by ¾ length in the final. Stourport had rowed only once having had a Bye to the final. Congraters!