After two seasons of sporadic and interrupted rowing and training due to water conditions, draw offs, and some global pandemic the (newly formed) Racing Squad went to Dorney to compete at The Metropolitan Regatta for their first race since Remenham 2019.
In terms of a first race we couldn’t have picked a more prestigious one than the largest domestic regatta outside of HRR or HWR to announce the return of TWRC to the serious racing scene. Having started the season with three men and six women in the group The Squad arrived at Eton with 30+ members racing across seven different crews.
Met this year was running seeding time trials for boat classes then allocating crews by time into finals, allowing for close and exciting racing! First up were the two women’s 8’s in their time trial, the draw had both our crews starting one after the other. Which led to some excellent racing as the 1st 8 looked to chase down and push onto the 2nd crew who did not go gentle into the night, but burned and raged down the course.
In the final the 1st 8 looked to step on and get on terms with Marlow who had come 3seconds faster than us in the TT. Unfortunately due to being drawn in lanes on opposite sides of the course we weren’t able get some side by side with them so instead had to settle on increasing our lead over Putney Town by a further 3 seconds.
The next race up was the Mens 8+. Being set off last in their division for the TT the men had Oxford Brookes starting behind them, knowing they would be rowed through the crew decided to see how long they could go flat out to hold Brookes off. At the 1250m mark once Brookes had finally pushed through the wheels came off for the boys and they were gasping out of every open part of their bodies unfortunately landing them in the last final which they put a brave show of rowing through with a more composed paddle than the time trial!
The Womens 4+ absolutely stormed their final leading from the off and putting all hopes of any crews catching them to bed by only 250m in! They won their final with clear water. Arguably one of the tallest average height crews on the day at about almost 6’.
Racing in the Championship double against the top scullers in the country Ella and Connie put on a brave battle attacking throughout to come middle of the field. Our home grown talent caused some fear in the MAA double who asked them on the pontoon if they were planning to race at Henley Women’s in that combination!
On Sunday our Mens 4- went out to try and claim a scalp or two, they felt it was only fair to give the other crews a sporting chance and decided to take a scenic route to the finish taking in the sights of a neighbouring lane or two. They have been advised against this for the next race and hope to come back with a vengeance at Marlow in two weeks time!
Lastly the highlight of the regatta has to have been the race of our Womens 4-. In the time trial they were placed second to last in their final. However undaunted by having already raced 2k three times flat out that day they decided to go out there and take the final by storm. Blasting out of the start to almost clear water on the rest of the field by 250m they went for a wind at the 500m and sat on the lead out to 1500m at which point the Uni students began to reel them in. Despite trying to build to hold them off the ladies found they were doing a Sheeran “where your legs don’t work like they used to before”. None the less they pulled an impressive second place out taking some scalps of local clubs and truly announcing Twickenham Rowing Club is back!
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