Marlow Regatta at Dorney Lake is the last chance for the Gentlemen’s Squadron to race before Henley Royal Regatta. Over the changable weekend, ICBC’s Temple Eight, Prince Albert Four and Prince of Wales Quad raced in Senior categories, attempting (successfully) to prove themselves worthy of pre-qualification, while the fairer half of Imperial raced it out down the booms at Henley Women's Regatta.

Photo by Libby Richards

The eight were finally reunited to their HRR line up (cox: Henry Fieldman/Wilf Kimberley/Rory Sullivan/Ben Spencer-Jones/Ali Hudson/Matt Whaley/Henry Goodier/Leo Carrington/Hal Bradbury) with the return of Whaley from his expeditions in the USA and Sullivan from “Constructionarium”. The crew arrived at Dorney with plenty of time before their heat but with a distinct lack of spanners (Team Kimberley being the sole provider of a single rigger jigger) due to cox and tool provider Henry Fieldman being otherwise engaged at Caversham, coxing the incredible eight and nearly breaking world records [as you do when one combines the GB pair, four and a couple of others]. Fieldman raced back and saved Libby Richards from taking the crew to the start and jumped in at the last moment. Despite this being their first outing together in over a month, the crew easily won their heat 6s ahead of their closest competition, much to the thinly-veiled delight of commentator Kat Holloway [Beastie has taken control of the microphone]. In the final, they were fighting neighbours Thames Rowing Club (who have only lost once this season to Leander) for first place and were within 0.1s with 500m to go. Unfortunately, Thames took the win with Imperial (5:51.28) 2.5s behind.

The coxed four (cox: Libby Richards/Adam Seward/Danny Bellion/Jake Lea-Wilson/Simon Steele) had a storming start to their heat, despite being blown onto the buoys by the immense wind. With a disrupted rhythm the crew moved ahead of New Orleans RC [we hadn’t heard of them either] and took the easy route into the final, without going through the repêchage. In the warm-up paddle for the final, the conditions became unbearable. As the sunny spells gave way to sheeting rain, Lea-Wilson described it as “rowing into Mordor” as the black clouds rumbled over and Richards could barely see as the rain/hail bounced off the lake. It was at this point the crews waiting for the start were informed the regatta was running approximately 20mins late due to “crashes and accidental swimming lessons”. Multiple “warm-up” loops were attempted before preparing for the start while rivals (and eventual winners) Oxford Brookes pulled into the wrong side of the lake and proceeded to hand over all their wet kit [probably about 5-10kg with all the water!]. The bemused marshal asked “Throwing anything else out lads? The kitchen sink too?”.  In spite of the sun peeping out of the clouds, the shivering rowers were forced to wait on the stakeboats as an umpire was acquired for the race. Even through the tough conditions, Imperial pushed on and took nearly 20s off their heat time to come sixth (6:36.42) in the final ahead of Bath University.

The Imperial Prince of Wales quad (Str: Tim Richards/Alex Gillies/Paddy Hudson /Gareth Brown) had a slightly new line up as Tom Pearson suffers from tonsillitis. After a swap in order (Gillies and Hudson switched from Met), the quad was keen to improve on their performance and got through the heat, just 1.5s behind the fastest qualifiers. In the final, they took fifth place (6:25.84). Representing Sport Imperial was Josh Butler in the U23 GB Lightweight composite quad (also entered in the Prince of Wales for HRR), who came fifth in the Elite category final. Tobias Whitting and Ben Anstiss raced in the Senior double, getting through to the final by rowing through from fifth to third (just) in the heat, but couldn't quite equal the competition of GB Start and GB Juniors in the final (7:08.24). Sam Scrimgeour was racing his single again in the Elite lightweight and successfully smashed another final in the face, taking the win (7:14.83) 5s ahead of the rest of the field. Jamie Kirkwood also won in the Elite category with the GB U23 four in an impressive time of 6:02.55 [not sure we can forgive the use of the pink blades though...].

Over the luncheon of the Sunday of Henley Women’s Regatta, the announcement of crews required to qualify for Henley Royal was released. After impressive performances at HoRR, BUCS, Met Regatta, Reading Amateur Regatta and Marlow, all IC’s men’s crews have pre-qualified for HRR and are eagerly awaiting the start of racing on Wednesday 29th June. Good luck to the women’s squadron who are racing two quads in the Qualifiers on Friday 24th June, vying for the single place in the Princess Grace.

Libby Richards