DARC Masters travelled down to Henley. Held each year a week after Royal Henley,the Henley Masters regatta takes place on the first 1000 metres of the iconic Henley course, with the start by Temple Island and the intimidating ‘booms’
Solid performance by F 8
The ‘F’ eight, short of a couple of regulars through injury and work commitments, put in a solid performance, rowing through a Wallingford 8 in the semi final to win by one third of a length, and then losing out by just a length to a strong Tideway Scullers 8 in the final.
Canadian can’t stop Gill
Gill Prescott was entered in a composite crew with Allie Ord of Strathclyde in both Womens C and D Masters double sculls. Not much gets in the way of Gill in her pursuit of masters titles, but in the C event, a Canadian nearly did. Gill explained, “We beat Rob Roy in the 1st round and were up against Ardingly in the semi. Between races a flock of Canadian geese had drifted onto the course between the booms … in the race my stroke side blade was knocked out of my hand by a Canadian goose .. fortunately we were well ahead and after a quick recovery, we went on to win. We took on the Americans, Cambridge BC in the final and won.” In the D event, Norwich scratched and Gill and Allie were straight through to the semi where they beat a Peterborough crew, and then on to the final where they defeated Wallingford. So two more wins for Gill, but the opposition are getting more desperate in finding ways to stop her.
Win for F double scull
John Lund and Andy Jaggard started sculling together less than 18 months ago, after both making ‘comebacks’, John from many years away from rowing, Andy after recovering from major shoulder surgery. They had a bye to meet the winners of Dart-Totnes and Ardingly. Dart-Totnes are this years British Masters champions, so when Ardingly beat them by a length, Durham knew they were in for a tough race. It was close all the way. Durham led off the start but then Ardingly moved through to take a half length lead. John explained, “They were up but couldn’t get away from us, at 500 metres we started creeping back, and at 600 metres I called for a push. We took a half length lead and despite attacks from Ardingly held on to win by a canvas”.
In the final Durham were up against a Southampton double. Andy said, “We were hoping for a more comfortable race as our semi was quite a bit faster than theirs. in the event they were 10 seconds faster and we had to go faster again. It was a battle all the way, with plenty of wash from pleasure craft. We managed to hold on to our half length lead and it was just relief when we got over the line first”.