Scullers' Head of the River 2009: Jamie Alexander Kirkwood has become Head of the River after winning outright over the 4 ¼ mile tideway race from Chiswick to Putney. The U23 elite lightweight sculler takes the title from last year's winner GB sculler Alan Campbell. Imperial won four pennants (U23.ELI.1x, IM3.1x, NOV.1x & W.SEN.LWT.1x), had five 2nd placings (IM3.1x, IM2.LWT.1x, W.ELI.1x, W.IM2.1x & W.SEN.1x), and three 3rd placings (ELI.LWT.1x, IM2.1x, W.IM3.1x) as well as nearly all IC competitors finishing in the top 10 in their categories.
The news of Kirkwood's win came on Saturday evening following a well spent afternoon in The Jolly Gardener's pub in Putney with mobiles refreshing the results page every two minutes. As patience ran thinner than Matt Lunt's wallet, IC competitors advanced to the horse's mouth at Vesta RC. When provisional results were announced, the IC contingent starred in disbelief at the lightweight in the corner who was casually sipping his sixth pint of the day (5pm), despite post-ICBC-club-dinner claims of “I'll never drink again”. Mouths dropped even further when Sullivan was announced as fifth. Kirkwood was unwilling to celebrate until confirmation: “I just don't believe it, don't believe it Rory, they're only provisional. Let's watch the rugby... come on Australia.” Will Todd's arm was instantly draped around Kirkwood's shoulder where it remained until the association was digested by the surrounding crowd.
As word spread (read: Ben Anstiss text messaged his entire address book) the posse headed for HQ IC boathouse where standard MagiMixing® set the tone for a night of exhausting and well deserved celebration. The following morning POD found Kirkwood passed out on a mattress on the boathouse kitchen floor, but the champion sculler was impressively up and under Trapmore's whip for training at 7:00am.
In 13th place overall was IC's German lightweight Ole Tietz (4th in ELI.LWT.1x) who claimed the novice pennant last year. Imperial managed to retain the pennant thanks to Henry Goodier who finished 19th overall. Also racing for the novice pennant was Trapmore's former glory days crewmate Dan Ouseley whose competitive record includes a World Bronze Medal in 2003 (8+) and 2001 (4+) as well as competing in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Ouseley finished 73rd overall and 5th in the novice category; which has untold comforting effects for POD who finished 7th in W.Nov.
There was tough competition in the lightweight IM2.1x category with Alex Gillies (who placed 24th overall this year compared to 59th in 2008) missing out on a pennant by a mere 0.02 seconds to Berridge of London RC. IC's Andy Gordon finished a respectable 4th in category and 35th overall; 9 places higher than last year's race. With the IM3.1x pennant assumed a Whittaker shoe-in, the race for place was on. Highlander Johnny Rankin claimed 7th (43rd overall) followed by chest infected Ben Anstiss who coughed home in 22nd (115th overall).
In the women's squad Rachael 'Chewy' Davies took the honour of fastest IC girl (148th overall) as well as fourth fastest lightweight in the entire head race. She claimed the W.SEN.LWT.1x pennant in a blistering time of 22:57. Davies has never lost a category pennant in the three times she has entered the Sculler's Head of the River. Appearing at training on Sunday morning Chewy was disappointed at the absence of women's coach Brian Steele; “I wanted to abuse him.” A still intoxicated Chewster went on to announce her legendary status to anyone who would listen before sculling off into the distance on her “recovery paddle” past UL. She was not seen again for another two hours and was still hyper upon her return. Women's Captain Mathilde Pauls came 2nd in category (W.ELI.1x) and 173rd overall. Pauls had special dispensation to spin before Putney bridge on the return paddle in order to catch a flight two hours later to New Zealand where she has a two-month placement in her final year of medicine at Imperial. Zoe Lee, representing the newly formed Sport Imperial club for non-student members, finished 3rd in W.IM3.1x and 182nd overall (sporting a very dashing lycra).
It was the battle of the Smith sisters in the W.IM2.1x category as IC's Ro Smith was pitted against older sister Nicky Smith. Nicky has won two Henley medals representing IC as well as a top 10 placing at WeHORR. She recently made the move from Imperial to Oxford and was racing for City of Oxford at this year's Scullers' Head. Nicky, starting last in her category, overtook all other scullers but could not catch Ro who led the category out. After a strong first half Ro came under Hammersmith Bridge and making “a decisive move for the finish” found her feet come flying out of the shoes. After a few strokes she had no choice but to stop to replace her feet before barrelling on towards the end of the race in a desperate bid to reclaim lost time. In the end the pennant went to Nicky (23:21.73) with Ro taking the runner-up position (23:33.77). Flatmate Chazz Moultrie also claimed second in the W.SEN.1x category (288th overall).
Head Coach Steve Trapmore was pleased with the results and commended club members on their hard work so far this season. Full results can be found on the Vesta website (http://www.vestarowing.co.uk/events/vesta-scullers-head/vesta-scullers-head-2009-results). Well done to everybody racing and sincere thanks to all supporters on the day (especially those whose encouragement included the words 'Agent Duffy').
Christina Duffy
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