Women's Head of the River - 2012

After months of training the day finally arrived for the WEHORR. Unfortunately we
had been denied any race practice by the cancellation of Henley Head and illness had dogged the crew in the weeks running up to the race.

 

However we all gathered early on the Saturday morning at Cygnet, keeping a close eye on the sky for rain. It was forecast for midday and the race was due to start at 11am. However in true British style the unpredictable weather dumped some rain on us just as we lined up to boat.

After the usual scrum to boat we were afloat and off, heading upstream towards our marshalling position between Barnes Bridge and Tideway Scullers. After some ‘polite’ requests to crews failing to marshal properly from our cox Tom we found our slot, although the crew in front seemed to be number dyslexic!

We watched the first few crews race pass, being armchair critics looking at style, kit, and admiring their boats and were off again to our final marshalling position above Chiswick Bridge.

The sun then came out and a discussion ensued as to whether we were going to race in skins or with tops under the all in ones! The final outcome was a mixture. Having stripped down to racing layers the sun went in and a chilly wind blew up. Those of us who had kept our tech tops on were laughing!

Then we were off. A steady paddle down towards Chiswick Bridge and then a build to race pace. We went through the start at 30/32 and Tom called for a build on the rate. We pushed a couple of pips higher and quickly began to reel in the crew in front. Passing them before Barnes Bridge we then set about reeling in the next crew. Their cox was determined to make our passage more difficult and a discussion ensued between Tom our cox and Laura our stroke about which side we could overtake on. They were eventually warned by the umpire and we went through. That was 2 crews down.

We then settled through the next sector, boosted by the cheer from Kate and Robin at The Bandstand, aiming for Hammersmith Bridge. 

Although we had pulled away from the crew immediately behind us, they began to reel us in again and we went under Hammersmith Bridge just ahead of them. They then took the inside of the bend and as we hit the infamous rougher water, pushed past us.

However we held things together and drove on to the finish, catching up some of the crews further ahead. We finished 171st out of 287 but were lying 130th at Barnes Bridge and 129th at Hammersmith, so again it was the last part of the race that did us in.

Well done to everyone who raced, some for the first time, others who were more experienced and knew what to expect and those who had struggled through illness and survived (just). An umpires launch was heard to call to us ‘Maidstone if you need some help raise your hand’ as we rowed back up after the race. Some of the crew were looking quite rough!!!


Anne Salmon

Pictures courtesy Hugh Gabriel.