Henley Women’s Regatta was one of Imperial’s most successful in the face of tough, wet and windy conditions. Despite injury and illness, crews either won their event or were knocked out by the eventual winners. The stars were Laura Greenhalgh who won Elite singles, putting the cherry on the top of her unbeaten season, while Zoë Lee won Elite 8s with her GB European crew.
Photo by Pierre Thomas
Racing began early on Friday for the Senior women’s double of Christina Duffy (steers) and Ro Smith who, due to the number of entries in the event, had to go through the qualifying races where 24 were whittled down to 16. This was a relatively simple task, so much so that when it came to their first head-to-head race with Auriol Kensington, the girls walked through to a 3 3/4 length victory in 6mins 5secs. In the quarter finals on Saturday, they came up against A.S.R Nereus, Holland, who had had a very quick heat. The plan was race to the enclosures as if that was the finish. From then on, breath was short and Duffster’s calls turned into gasps of desperation. The lack of oxygen to the brain led to vomit-inducing calls such as "I'm with you" on the wind-up. Despite Imperial's best efforts, Nereus went through and eventually won the event [vindication].
The Senior quad (bow: Chloe Symmonds/Natasha Bolsin/Louise Connell/Helen Austin) had an eventful lead up to the regatta. Fifty percent of the crew did nothing for women’s map-reading reputation as they lost their way to the accommodation at 11:30pm. Direction-giving was no better as they were literally led up the garden path and into a very muddy field. Mr Dick Bush, husband of B&B owner Mrs Bush and farmer, fortunately got the tractor out and freed the very stuck BMW the next morning. On Saturday, hours before their first race, an irate official rang coach Don McLachlan informing him if the crew did not appear soon they would be disqualified for being late to their battle with Leeds RC. Fortunately the marshals realised their mistake and the girls raced (at the proper time) beating their opposition easily. In the semi-final on Sunday, the quad was up against the GB Junior Composite of Notts RC/Hollingworth L/Rob Roy/Debden. Imperial lost out in the quicker semi (5mins 13secs) to the eventual winners of the event.
Photo by Pierre Thomas
In-between racing the girls were treated to the multitude of stories from Mr and Mrs Bush [there are many as they have hosted IC crews for HRR and HWR for nearly 30 years!], most of which involve naughty IC boys causing havoc and unnecessary “visits” from ladies. Symmonds and Connell were entrusted with providing race fuel on a trip to the shops and returned with the obligatory iced buns, chocolate fingers and waffles. Further entertainment was provided on the Bush farm, when the cockerel escaped and the quad with Laura Greenhalgh (also staying on the farm) had to round it up, while keeping a good hold on the dog, Bramley, to ensure it didn’t lose its last remaining feathers.
The Elite double of Mathilde Pauls and Amy Propsting had a straight semi-final on the Sunday morning against the Rowing Ireland double, who had taken fifth place at the Munich World Cup. Banter was rife on the start as Press Officer Duffy was the only one in the umpires launch to understand the request of the Irish pair to race in different tops. Multi-lingual Mathilde also understood the accent and made a craic that her white sleeves were pale Irish skin, making the atmosphere incredibly relaxed with most laughing as their bows were aligned. The luck was with the Irish who won the semi by 2 1/2 lengths in 5mins 34secs and went on to win the final as well.
Photo by Pierre Thomas
In the Elite 8 category, Imperial had multiple representatives. Lottie Howard-Merrill was in the bows of the GB U23 eight, while Zoë Lee was stroking the GB European eight. In the quarter final on Saturday, the U23s took on one of the two Princeton University U.S.A crews and successfully sent them packing back across the pond in 5mins 9secs with a 3 length lead. In the semi-finals, the European eight also came up against a different Princeton crew, who had knocked out Sport Imperial/1927’s Rachel Smith the day before. Zoë must have thought history was repeating itself as a crab was caught in exactly the same place as she and Lenny Kennedy had had their tea break on the booms in the final of the Elite pair last year. Despite the slight break and the tight race that followed, they won by 2/3 length in the fastest time of the regatta (4mins 47secs). The final was an all GB [Imperial] showdown between the European eight (Zoë) and the U23s (Lottie), who had beaten more Americans, Brown University, in their semi. Age and strength shone through and the Europeans won by 1 1/3 lengths.
Photo by Pierre Thomas
Laura Greenhalgh has had an incredible season, winning just about every single race. In spite of her wrestling a cockerel, she went from strength to strength over the weekend. In the Sunday morning semi final, she beat Cottrell of Oxford Brookes University easily and dispatched Sanjana of Mortlake Anglia and Alpha by 2 lengths in the final, both in a time of 6mins 14secs. Regardless of the headwind that had blown up between the races [not exactly ideal for a lightweight], the commentator clocked Laura at rate 48 off the start and was still at 42 by the end of Temple Island [very lightweight-esque!].
Congratulations to all who raced and may more wins follow in 2012.Libby Richards