Peterborough Regatta 2013
Glancing back at James' write up from Peterborough Regatta last year, recalls a really enjoyable weekend from 2012 - and it seems this year was more of the same. His Daviness the Smith scored another win in MasD 1x but with the men's eight racing at the Metropolitan Regatta, the spotlight was on the girls.The squad looks to be in good shape at the moment with some new athletes joining and many of those who have learned to row with us showing the benefits of all that hard work over the winter. With multiple wins the gentle clank of pewter tankards accompanied the girls' progress home. Thanks to Clare Sachs for this write up - and to Cat, Paul and Craig for coaching the squad and Les for towing the trailer up there.
From the women's (used to be) novice IV+
It's 6.30am on a Wednesday morning (when normal people would still be in bed), the Tideway is calm and it’s suprisingly warm for such an early hour. Despite the sleepiness of the crew we are all excited as this is our last outing before Peterborough Regatta; the next time we will get in a boat together will be for the first heat of the novice fours.
Sunday arrives, sunny and warm, and we all get to the lake bright and early. The butterflies are fluttering in our stomachs and nerves are high. All four of us had put in the hard work, done the training but hadn’t had much practice on the water in this combination. Therefore, we all felt that this four had potential but weren’t sure whether we could get it together on the day. We had all reached the final in the Eight the day before but this time there are only four of us. The day before Bab's four had triumphed but would we be able to do the same?
Up to the start we paddled and Paul, our cox, got us attached to the stake boat. 'Twickenham, Sons of the Thames, De Montford, attention, go!' And we were off into our start. After settling into our race pace I allowed myself a quick glance either side and could see both boats which just kept getting further and further away!
After winning the heat so comfortably we knew the final would be tough. We kept our focus and executed another good start, getting our bow ball in front. However, Derby weren't going to let us have it all our own way and started to come back. Paul called for a push and we pulled it back. We managed to hold them off in the last 500m as Miyesse remembers thinking ‘this is hapenning!! This is happening! We are winning this!" and then " don't let them to catch us up! Keep pushing!".
Thank you to everyone who helped us win our Novice Pot - to Paul for coxing and coaching us, Cat for her coaching and organisation on the day and for all the women's squad for supporting and cheering us on! We are still smiling like idiots almost a week later!!
Clare, Miyese, Amy and Jess