Nine Cantabs crews entered Pairs Head 2015, a record number from the club, with representatives from Juniors’, Masters’, Senior Men’s and Senior Women’s squads. The race is ~4.5km downstream on the tidal Thames (aka “Tideway”) between Chiswick and the Harrods Wall. Conditions for this year’s race on 10th October were reasonably choppy, but manageable.
For the Senior Men, James Price and Jimmy Adams stole the show with an excellent result, placing 2nd in senior coxless pairs despite crashing into a buoy and tangling with another crew. As a quick pair starting well down the order Ricardo Herreros-Symons and James Quarrington also experienced steering issues trying to weave their way through the crews ahead. In spite of this, they manage to place a respectable 65th out of almost 500 overall, only 11s behind the top Cantabs pair. James O’Dell and John Broadbent, the squad’s youngest members at 18, made their tideway sculling debut in the IM3 doubles and after a strong start realised too late that the Tideway is quite a bit longer than the Cam! In spite of this, they placed 200th over all and were the only Cantabs senior men’s crew not to crash! Unfortunately the final men’s pair of Callan Swanson and Finn Grimwood had withdraw from the race due to injuy.
From the Senior Women, all crews finished in the top five of their categories. The lead pair of Georgie Plunkett and Claire Nichols followed in the footsteps of the previous two years’ lead Cantabs pairs by finishing 2nd of 15 in IM2 pairs, with Rachael Crockford and Jordan Bruce finishing 4th. Ellie Darlington and Clare Hall came 3rd of 28 in their IM3 double scull, and the lightweight pair (racing in the same open-weight category) of Alex Courage and May Perrin came 5th. These results are all-the-more impressive considering that the Cantabs crews were only beaten by crews who are based on the Tideway, and hence are used to its challenging conditions and steering lines which are very different to the winding near-millpond that is the River Cam!
Cécile Jacklin, a newcomer to Cantabs, raced with David Richardson to continue the top-five theme as they placed 5th in the mixed Masters D double sculls.
Lastly, but certainly not least, Imogen Forbes (15) and Peony Bracey (15) performed really well in their first Tideway race, finishing 10th in the J16 doubles category, beating crews from strong rowing schools and Tideway clubs.
Thanks to City of Cambridge RC for their kind loan of a boat for the juniors, to all the coaches involved and to Petr for help with equipment and trailer-towing!
Photos below by Bjoern Zeeb – please click to see a large version:
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- Jimmy and James
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- Ricardo and James
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- James and John
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- Cecile and David
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- Claire and Georgie
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- Rachael and Jordan
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- Alex and May
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- Ellie and Clare
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- Peony and Imogen
