Monmouth Winter Head Race, December 3rd

4th December, 2023

Finally we get to go racing! After the disappointments of cancelled events through the autumn, the rain relented long enough for the river level to drop at Monmouth and run their winter head race. It doesn’t mean the weather was pleasant: the temperature just about crept above zero, and it was forecast to rain for most of the day, so crews pretty much emptied their kit draw into their cars!

Minerva had an eight racing in the afternoon, but for the morning division this split into a D4+ (Marc Baldwin, Matt Clayton, Charlie Jackson, Paul Darvil and Maggie Cooke) and an E4+ (supersub Ian Burdis onboard with Andy Tyler, Ed Haddon and Ian Townsend, and Sue Shipley making a guest appearance in the cox’s seat). These raced in separate events, and both won convincingly, even after Sue was forced into some exciting course corrections around a very slow moving WD8+.

However, the real race was for bragging rights between the crews, which rapidly descended into an argument over the exact amount of the D/E handicap over a seven minute course. Impossible to decide, so we declared an honourable draw.

The eight (with Andrew Gordon-Brown now in for Ian Burdis) raced the same course in the afternoon and put in a dominating performance, missing out on the fastest time of the day by one second. Overall, Monmouth was a very promising start to our racing year.

Ed now thinks Masters rowing is a breeze – two races for Minerva, two wins; Sue won a medal on her birthday – although we think lunch after with Rod was probably the better reward; and special mention and thanks to Tim Birtwistle and Mark Melbourne for towing, supervising loading/unloading and helping us be quick and stay dry getting on and off the water.

We’re now looking forward to better weather and more racing in 2024.