Dewar Shield 2017

There's only annual race that gets the whole club involved, and that's the Dewar Shield. Sunday, 12th February saw all of our six eights on the water racing on the flood tide from Hammersmith to Mortlake. A resurgent Auriol and Kensington won the shield last year, and they were always going to be hard to beat. Their mens' Henley crew of 2016 seem to have retired from competitive racing, but returned as a formidable "vets" crew.  Our own vets squad was missing four regulars through absence and injury but still managed to put out a crew that finished sixth in 11.41 - as against the day's fastest time of 11.12 set by Sons M1.  M3 crewed by novices from our learn to row course, posted a respectable 12.28 in ninth place. 

Amongst the women's crews, Furnivall posted the fastest time of 11.52, emphasising their traditional strength in women's rowing.  AK were close behind with 12.00 but Sons crews took third, fourth and seventh places showing strength in depth.

The result, announced by Colin in an absurdly packed Linden House bar was, AK: 27,  Sons: 25 and FSC 22. It's been noted that if scored using the established system for this event, the result was even closer - AK 45, Sons 44 and FSC 39. So not a bad result - just one place better for one crew could have won us the competition. 

Big thanks are due to the volunteers from all three clubs that made the event possible, particularly Mel as host club organiser.