Wallingford, May 5th

31st May, 2024

Senior Men

After a long winter of minimal racing and rowing, it was with excitement and trepidation that the men’s squad stepped back onto the Dorney pontoon ready to launch. The 4- had slightly weary heads given they were one of the first races in the schedule meaning a pre-6am start. A notable mention of Ryoma who had his debut of Dorney Lake and also his first visit of Slough the night before and was fascinated by the third largest Tesco’s on the planet. The four raced well and came fourth in their heat which was by far the fastest one of the day and just missed out on racing the repechage by one boat.

Later that day the four who raced in the morning were joined by four much more leisurely risers. The eight raced their heat around 4pm. They had a tough race with two crews being noticeably faster than the rest of the pack. Again, a call out to Karl for his first eight race side-by-side at Dorney after going through his Learn to Row at Minerva a couple of years prior.

And last, but not least, the 2- of Will and KB seasoned veterans. The pairs racing was fiercely competitive and they had an enjoyable race (although it didn’t look it from Will’s face) given barely touching an oar together before the day. KB describes the pairs’ efforts:

“We entered into the Champ 2 at Wallingford, an ambitious challenge given neither have raced at a regatta for nearly three years. With next to no water or erg time, expectations weren’t exactly high. Coupled with Brookes’ top guys using it to seat race, the final always seemed out of reach.

“The start didn’t exactly go to plan which meant the first 1km was fairly lonely and a little scrappy into the head-cross wind. But as we found our rhythm we began to claw our way back, pushing hard in the final 500m to overturn a two-length deficit and pip Westminster to the post for fourth place. Lots of lessons learnt and most importantly great fun!”

Chris Petitt adds: “The guys put down some really respectable times at the weekend against a really strong lineup and they cemented the evening with a rather loose session of curry and beers.