Henley Rowing Club’s dozen victories secure Upper Thames head top prize

HENLEY Rowing Club ran out winners of the Truman Victor Ludorum Cup at last Sunday’s Upper Thames Autumn Head.

Host club Upper Thames picked up 10 wins in an event that had a record entry with more than 350 crews racing over the 3km upstream course from Henley Management College to the finish opposite Phyllis Court.

The Peter Sutherland bowl for the fastest crew overall and the new Diane Sutherland bowl for the fastest women’s crew were won by Marlow men’s eight and Oxford University Women’s Boat Club eight respectively. Peter and Diane were founders of Upper Thames back in 1963.

Henley won the Victor Ludorum Cup having picked up 12 wins across the two divisions.

The day started well for Henley with all three eights racing in the morning division winning their events.

The J18 girls’ crew of Gwennie Hunter, Abbie Artherton, Abbie Smith, Issy Kelland Shorthouse, Tabby Hall, Tilly Macartney, Ailish Harkin, Pippa Jamieson and cox Matilda Ley won band one of the women’s eights whilst the J15 girls Amelie McDavid, Chloe Hughes, Lily Clegg, Eden Kent, Lilian Graham, Martha Dickson, Molly Hall, Jemima Butterworth and cox Florence French in their first eights race won band three.

The third eight was the women’s masters E crew of Louise Clarke, Sarah Girling, Linda Thomas, Margaret Hall, Helen Knowles, Karen Smith, Jane Ashby, Helen Turnell and cox Susanna Venn who beat Staines Boat Club by five seconds.

The senior Henley men’s four Rob Edmondson, Nick Friend, James Padmore and Tom Jost took first place in band two of the open coxless fours with a six-second victory against Broxbourne Rowing Club.

The J14 girls won both their events with the WJ14 coxed quad of Scarlett Sissons, Emma Floyd, Agnes Chapman, Grace Haldane and cox Emily Shutz beating their team-mates into second place and Thames Scullers into third.

The afternoon WJ14 doubles race was an all Henley event with four doubles from the club competing with Lauren Pollard and Sophie Floyd taking the victory.

As well winning the eight the girls’ J15 squad won the WJ15 double sculls with Charlotte Tong and Jemima Painter finishing ahead of Thames Scullers in second place.

In the afternoon the J15 girls squad claimed a third victory with a win in the WJ15 quads with Chloe Hughes, Charlotte Tong, Jemima Painter, Molly Hall and cox Eden Kent finishing ahead of another Henley crew.

Henley’s junior men’s squad raced in double and quad scull events, with all 12 boys racing twice during the day. The J16 double of Jacob Len and Viggo Gibbons won their event, whilst the J18 quad of Louis Boulton, Sam Pratt, Roman Meredith and Zak Jenkins raced in the open men’s category finishing second behind Reading University.

In addition to the eight win the J16/18 squad won the J18 girls’ coxless fours with Emma Eltze, Emily Simmons, Nonnie Luke and Freya Weiser gaining a comfortable 28-second victory against Hinksey Sculling School.

Competing in the women’s coxed fours, Gwennie Hunter, Issy Kelland-Shorthouse, Sophia Spanswick, Abbie Smith and cox Matilda Ley won the event ahead of two Oxford University crews.

Henley J16 girls Nicolette Pagdin and Lilya Wild raced up a category and won WJ18 pairs ahead of another Henley crew. Meanwhile host club Upper Thames had 29 crews competing. The fastest Upper Thames crew was the open quad sculls of Sam Diserens, Steve Griffiths, Matt Swiss and Dale Bucket who lost by less than a second to a crew from Leander Club.

In the morning division Griffiths and Bucket had an impressive win in the open coxless pairs event. The master’s coxless pairs was a battle between two Upper Thames crews with Pete Jacobs and Dan Sadler overcoming the younger combination of Steve Kelso and John O’Donohue.

The women’s masters double sculls event was also won by Upper Thames with Rebecca Sadler and Naomi Holland.

The Upper Thames top women’s crew of Lucy Ryan, Chloe Knight, Rachel Borrows and Pippa Birch went one better than the men’s quad winning their band one event in both the morning and afternoon divisions with an impressive time of 10 minutes 50 seconds in Division 2.

In the morning division Upper Thames had two matched women’s eights racing. In the band one event the crew of Sophie Lane, Izzy Pullinger, Beccy Norman, Alice Pickthall, Courtney Edmonds, Mary Bryant Jeans, Beth Arscott, Emily Paul and coxed by Zoe Thomas finished in second place to a strong crew from Henley.

The other crew of Elise Cope, Emily May, Claudia Adams, Yasmin Ryman-King, Ella Wandless, Eve Wright, Lucy Darke, Hope Kannor coxed by Bea Searle lost by just eight-tenths of a second to Oxford University Lightweight Women’s Rowing Club. In the afternoon division the two eights split into two coxless four crews and a quad. The two coxless four crews finished second and third in the band one event behind a crew from Marlow that they had beaten in the eights in the morning division.

The quad crew of Alice Pickthall, Beccy Norman, Yas Ryman-King and Courtney Edmonds, competing in band one instead of two, lost out to the other Upper Thames crews.

Upper Thames’s two senior women’s double sculls also raced in the afternoon division. Isabella Daniels and Matilda Mann had a comfortable win in the band two category while Lauren Herrington and Emily May finished second in the band one category behind a strong crew from Oxford City Rowing Club.

The Upper Thames senior men had two open coxless fours racing in the morning division.

The crews were Mike Scott, Ben Farrell, Matt Swiss, Olli Collinson and Hugh Cooper, Jack Squizzoni, Thomas Scott and Martyn Matt. Both crews raced well finishing third and mes winners included the masters D eight and the masters E coxless four.

In the afternoon division the crew of Mike Scott, Hugh Cooper, Martyn Matt and Thomas Scott won the open coxless fours while the open four crew of David George, Alex Powell, Alistair Harsant, Mark Lucani and cox Bea Searle finished fifth in a close event.

The women’s masters C composite crew including Emily Lyons and Anna Van Leemputten from Upper Thames had a good race to finish second out of five crews.

In the masters quad sculls, Upper Thames D crew of Adam Rennie, Eric Den Besten, Hamish Floyd and Mark Shimmin overcame the time handicap to end the winning streak of the E crew of Steve Dance, Chris Howell, Andy Ciecierski and Pete Beaumont.

Other Upper Thames winners included the masters D eight and the masters E coxless four.