Metropolitan Regatta, Dorney Lake 2009: The sun shone down on Eton’s prestige rowing facility at Dorney Lake for the MET regatta "last weekend". The regatta runs as two separate days of racing allowing crews to combine in different categories. For IC this was a chance to speed test the women’s Henley crews and for the men to test some Henley Royal Regatta combinations. Overall squad performances fell below expectation with just one win: The men’s Intermediate 1 8+ on Sunday. There was also a notable gutsy performance from the WE4x who put in a strong performance finishing second in the final behind a tough UL crew.
The men’s Intermediate 1 8+ (Cox: Henry Fieldman/Danny Bellion/Alex Gillies/Adam Seward/Josh Yerrell/Leo Carrington/Henry Goodier/Tom Arnott/Gareth Brown) faced a straight final on Sunday evening allowing ample rest in preparation. There were several delays throughout the weekend of racing due to boats being unable to attach to the stake boats efficiently. Fieldman’s vast coxing experience shone through as he managed to attach the boat immediately: “Oh yeah! Ten out of ten for speed onto the stakeboat!” Inspired by the recent news about Freeman-Pask the crew shot off from the start taking ½ length on the field in the first 250 metres. Fieldman left no room for doubt about what he wanted the crew to do: "LEGS, LEGS, ON THE LEGS, LEGS!" This slightly upset Carrington as he has testified on many occasions that "All I want to do is sledge it". The 8+ finished in 06:19.33, a length ahead of Cambridge Composite (06:22.30) with Putney Embankment neighbours Thames and Vesta down the field over 10 seconds behind.
Drained from a weekend of crew let-downs Trapmore was close to tears with the win: “You have restored my faith in you.” The crew collected their gigantic trophy (The Forster Cup, thought to be a distant relative of Jenny Forrester) which Bruce immediately fell in love with. Multiple shots of Bruce with the trophy were requested from the photographer allowing the Australian to exhibit his portfolio of poses. When a high resolution image of the crew was requested by POD, Bruce emailed the shot with the byline “I think this is as big as it gets.” It was also a big photo.
The Essen four of Danny Bellion, Henry Goodier, Leo Carrington and Josh Yerrell competed as a coxed boat in the IM1 4+ event with Henry Fieldman holding the reins. In the opening heat the four got well out in front with almost a length on the field but got rowed through in the second half. In the final the four “Did exactly what we set out not to do” and could not find the speed to stay with the pack. It must be noted however that they were racing against the boat that IC’s Will Todd won Henley in: The John Todd (named after his Dad) from York City. This was enough to seriously put the four off their game.
In the women’s squad there was similar disappointment for the student coxed four (Christina Duffy/Selina Graham/Chloe Symmonds/Julia Hong & Kate Wylie). On Saturday in their debut race as a crew in the IM2 heat the four had a slow start and could not catch up with the pack. Sunday showed improvement when they led the field of IM1 for the first 500 metres, finished third, and qualified into the final. However the final did not go well and POD is still emotionally scarred from the trauma. (Mainly the trauma of the post-race “debrief”). The delay in publication of this article is attributed to the counselling she has undergone in order to dredge the memories back up. This test has only strengthened her belief in IC before her crew peaks in time for women’s Henley next weekend. FACT.
Congratulations to IC8+ for the reliable and prompt bacon delivery. Seat 2 homie Bruce was keepin’ it real for his crew: "Guys that was awesome… if we could just go on to win Henley that would be great." Fo-sho.
Christina Duffy