On the Saturday youth, athleticism, endeavour and rigour. On the Sunday, maturity, grit, well-honed skills and a hint of algipan on the breeze. At the Veteran Fours Head, the will to win is exceeded only by the compulsion for self-ridicule.

As with the Pairs Head, some of the club’s most worthy representatives were the ones out on the Tideway in the square-shaped metal boats who helped to make this excellent event a success. At the risk of leaving someone out, we should thank Cat, Anna and Kate.

A mid-day start had plenty to recommend it, the early morning frost melting in a crisp autumn sun which illuminated the colours of hundreds of visiting clubs.

Trentham Universtiy RC were with us again at Hammersmith, as were and one or two Cambridge clubs who seem to have made us their operating base on the Tideway.

This account is from the Vet D 4x boat because that’s the one I was in. After a gruelling practice outing to Chiswick Bridge the previous weekend, we paddled away from the Sons of the Thames pontoon with more resolve than style.

Behind me in the engine-room, the Boerike-Scrine turbo diesel – they of a close second place in the Vet D 2x division of the Pairs Head. In the bows, command and control safely entrusted to the matchless rowing brain of Baldwin.

Crowded with fours and quads in the sunshine, there was an unexpectedly carnival feel to the Thames at Chiswick, although these painterly observations soon gave way to the necessity of paddling down to Chiswick Bridge.

I'm not one for counting, so it was a big plus to have Brad's stroke meter in the back with me. I noticed it said 33 as we passed the stripey pole that ends the university boat race... steady, we'd talked about 32.

As the bridge faded into the distance, the crews behind became reassuringly smaller. That said, Stephen's calls from bow showed it was taking a long time to catch the quad in front. We'd later discover it was a City of Bristol crew.

We passed the club grateful for the support. Maybe we were already overlapping Bristol, I can't remember. But it seemed as if we were locked together even as we overtook other crews, Baldwin adroitly steering through small gaps.

Steady at 32, I expected us to go past them, but the Bristol crew just wouldn't roll over. It's never easy that Hammersmith to Putney stretch, but this was the hardest I've known it. Along the boats at Putney, Bristol pushed away to break the overlap. We beat them on time, but in this head race turned match race, their indomitable refusal to be overtaken seemed like a victory in itself.

Back in the bar at Linden House, the results were in before the sausage and mash was on the table. (It's a well-run event the Veteran Fours Head.) We were third in our division, and fastest crew from Sons... just. Somehow though, I think it's the epic battle with City of Bristol Rowing Club that we'll all remember.  

Just two years ago, our only representatives in the Scullers' Head were Les and Ed H. Today, 13 of us pushed off from the pontoon to join the traffic jam of singles to Chiswick Bridge. The start order looked something like this:

Ed Hillyard MasBNov

Michael Tchoubouroff   IM2

Ross Cook IM2

Anna Caffyn WMasA

Faith JameisonWMasB

Stephen Baldwin MasC

Drago Zhelev MasC

Ed Fawssett MasD

Eoin KashishianNov

Neil Kashishian Nov

Dave SmithIM3.LWT

Greg Foden IM3 LWT

Lju LazarevicW.Nov

The weather forecast's promised sun duly appeared, bringing with it an unexpected warmth, although a couple of scullers who fell in may not have said the same about the water temperature.

The presence of Olympic single sculls bronze medalist, Alan Campbell, brought extra distinction to the race. How many other sports let ordinary mortals compete alongside the Olympians? Mind you,  there doesn't seem to be any such thing as a wild card at the Sculler's Head. Alan started back at 108, but won anyway. 

Meanwhile, further down the order at 318 your correspondent was progressing up river, the sharp knock of oar on carbon-fibre shell enlivening a stop-start journey.

At the Ship Inn, official "tops-off" station, a nagging anxiety about my ability to feed a soft-shell jacket through the mouse-hole sized hatch cover was dispelled by the unexpected prescence on the shingle of a club mate. Thanks Cat, with your impressive rowing palmarès, I should be carrying your jacket.

And so to the return under Chiswick Bridge, my heart rate monitor suddenly deciding the time of day was much more interesting than news about what my heart might be doing. At least the Boat Coach app on my phone continued to work, displaying 30 in reassuring large numerals. 

As usual, I was slow to settle and immediately came under pressure from 319. He'd eventually row through me right opposite the club - a humiliation that passing four other boats didn't really make up for.  He must have had a good second half too, finishing third in Masters D.  My aim was to finish in the top 200 which I failed to do by five seconds. Last year it was six, so with this rate of improvement I'm looking good for 2017. 

The bigger news was Greg finishing as the fastest Sons of the Thames Rowing Club entrant. I've come to think of Colin's elegant trophy as being permanently resident on the Hillyard mantlepiece so this was quite a shake-up and well done to Greg. Ed did win the MasBNov category however with another characteristically fast row. Joining them in the top 200 was our Mens' Captain, Ross. 

Right down the starting order, and probably with less tide, Lju put in a really solid row having only learnt to scull this summer. Dave Smith, her unofficial coach, demonstrated some tidy blade-work of his own to finish 254th. Dave tells me that the last time he did the Scullers' Head in 2000 he placed 347th which just goes to show that advancing years can still produce faster times. 

He also had the spur of competing with his daughter Catie who represented Latymer School. The older Smith won this encounter, let's see what happens next year. 

Anna placed fourth in her category. Did anyone else know that Anna is a former winner of the the Pairs Head pennant for elite pairs? There are hidden depths to some of our members. 

In the men's novice section Eoin put in a strong row winning the battle of the twins, although I'm not sure their boats were as identical as they are. Neil has made a film record of one of his early morning outings from a stern-mounted camera which you cansee on Youtube. I think it gives a good idea of what it's like to be on the Tideway early in the morning and boat from Sons at Hammersmith. 

With the sun and very little wind this was an enjoyable day wasn't it?  Most coaches believe that single sculling is important to technique development in both sweep and scull crew rowing so a healthy sculling squad won't do us any harm. I imagine most of us scullers will be out rowing VIIIs for the Dewar Shield next month.  

In prospect the Pairs Head promises to be a bit easier than the other winter head races. It's shorter for one thing, the weather's a little warmer and we can hardly complain about the paddle back from Hammersmith Bridge. 

In practice those mellow delusions are pretty much knocked out of you before you've passed Barnes Bridge. Everyone simply compensates for the shorter distance by rowing harder. This year, the presence of a number of British internationals in the field helped keep standards high.

Pushing off from the Sons pontoon were six of our own crews – a lot of work from Drago and Tony ensuring that every available boat was ready to race. There were quite a number of visitors too from all over the country with doubles and pairs crowding the walkway by the river wall.

A wind that seemed mostly out of the West and a strong stream promised some fast times, with autumnal showers helping to keep heat stroke at bay.

The stand-out performance from Sons has to be Les Scrine and Brad Boerike in the Vet D 2x. Third in the same division last year they improved by one place to take second place, just four seconds behind the winners from Walton Rowing Club.

Almost as close behind the winners of Vet B 2x were Ed Hillyard and Sam Haeta. But very similar performance from the leading boats meant this highly competitive time only secured fifth place. A good row none-the-less – particularly as a number of scullers in this division are rumoured to have been competing at international level fairly recently.

Also worth a mention or a rumble of approval, the fourth place in the Women's Vet B 2x from Faith Jamieson and Alex Ayakatsikas. All in all some decent racing performances from the club – and volunteering too. A number of other members were kind enough to help run the race and make this important national event possible.

The Voga Longa - a 30 km row round the lagoons and canals of Venice with over 1000 craft of all types - doesn’t feature on any rowing calendar and had never featured in my 25 plus years of international rowing travel. But I’d heard from a few people who had ventured to Italy to take part in it that it was one of those events you just had to do sometime. And I’d never been to Venice. So when I heard (two weeks before the event) from Drago and Tony that some guys from Sons of the Thames needed a cox for it I offered my services and booked my flight.

I did no more preparation for the event beyond checking the weather forecast (rain) and packing my hand held gps (on which Peter Horton had loaded the local charts). Arriving there the day before the race, the boat trip from the airport to St Marks gave me more of a flavour of what to expect. Venice is a mass of (very) low lying islands, with the deeper channels in the lagoons between them marked with wooden posts. There are boats everywhere and lots of wash, but what was clear to see was the respect paid to small craft, with our high speed little ferry slowing down when anything smaller came close. This was encouraging as by then I had ascertained that we were rowing in a coxed pair and that we would have to cross this very same stretch of water.

Mark (who is a seriously super star organiser – boats for this event are like gold dust) had found us a boat from Diadora rowing club on the Lido, the island at the far end of the lagoon that shelters the rest of the Venice archipelago from the Adriatic. Getting there from our hotel involved a boat ride and then a bus trip. The very friendly boathouse manager showed us our boat, aptly named Adriatico, which he proudly told us had been built in 1920. At least it looked very sea worthy - Venice and our start line looked a long way away across a large expanse of very bouncy water.The route across wasn’t exactly obvious and I was very grateful for my gps as we set off across the lagoon. The boat rode the waves quite remarkably well and we negotiated fishing nets and ferries and duly found the entrance to a canal which Mark had ear-marked for a beer stop. The guys then offered to let me try rowing on the way back and we practiced swapping over in the lee of an island. I’m not exactly built to row a coxed pair – never mind one this heavy – but I loved it!

Pre-race prep that night consisted of a trip to Harry’s Bar for a dry martini and then some pasta loading ahead of an early night. We wanted to be in the start area well ahead of the 9am start and, getting there for 830am, we parked ourselves strategically ahead of the larger boats and with other smaller and slower craft. 

These all started off and we followed them – we reckon we crossed the “line” at 845am – and this meant we were still ahead of the big craft at the first big bottle neck and a 90 degree turn left at the end of the island. There were boats of all types everywhere and a lot of cries of “Attenzione!” - a pair with old wooden blades is a surprisingly wide vessel and manoeuvrable only if both blades are actually free to row.

The race then takes you up to its furthest away point and the island of Burano (which confusingly had a different name on my gps) and where you can get land on a beach and pay calls of nature. We took the opportunity here to swap rowers over – with Jeremy now steering and me rowing. Setting off again we crossed another lagoon and then rowed through Murano, under a bridge packed with people. While still in the shelter of the island and this time on the water – Adriatico is a remarkable little boat – we swapped back to me coxing to make sure Jeremy and Mark got to row up the Grand Canal. Lucky we did so then as the excitement of rowing had distracted me from my role as navigator and we were much closer to home than I’d realised. Very shortly thereafter we turned into the Grand Canal.

And there we met chaos! A current was pushing boats onto the first bridge and boats had got jammed sideways across the canal and no one was going anywhere. Then Mark inspiredly suggested we go across some red buoys (see the photo above), take our blades out of the gates and manoeuver our way through the inside arch. This was achieved remarkably easily to cheers from the assembled throng on the bridge, and off we set down a near deserted canal. It felt rather like a victory parade- with crowds cheering and even people singing. At the far end of the canal we collected our medals and certificates and set off back to our favourite little bar for some very well earned beers, ahead of a row back across to the rowing club and to say a fond good bye to Adriatico.

I’d reckoned the race could take us c 6 hours. In fact it took us 4 hours 15 min. I haven’t mentioned the weather – it did indeed rain hard for much of the first part, but the sun came out as we entered the canal. I have also failed to mention the sights we saw. Venice is packed full of them, but it was the atmosphere of the event itself that was by far the most amazing.

Would I go back to do it again? You bet!

Hilary Cook

After our intensive training on a 2k lake in Plovdiv, Bulgaria for a week in the middle of May, the men’s squad came back ready for the two remaining regattas at Dorney Lake (location for this year’s Olympics). Unfortunately conditions at Dorney weren’t quite as idyllic as Plovdiv with strong cross-headwinds at both Metropolitan (2nd & 3rd June) and Marlow (16th June) regattas.

I was racing in the IM2 coxless four in both regattas and we had some success. At Metropolitan regatta, we had a good heat on the Saturday that saw us finish second in the heat and get straight through to the final in the late afternoon (with one of the fastest times of the three heats as well). We took what we had learnt from Plovdiv and were able to put in a good row, sitting ahead of London RC in the lane next to us. Some bad luck on the lane selection meant that we ended up in one of the windiest lanes for the final and this impacted our overall result – evidenced by the same London RC crew we had beaten earlier on getting in just ahead of us (having won the repechage earlier on in the afternoon) and leaving us in last. 

We were still pleased to have been in the final though and saw this as a positive step in our progress. We thus showed up on the Sunday with high expectations, although knowing we had the tougher of the two heats. Unfortunately, our steering broke just after the start (not early enough for a re-row) and we were forced to zigzag down the course fighting the rudder that was jammed on bow side (an easy race for stroke side!). This put us out of the running for qualification for the final but we were still able to race against Twickenham RC and avoid finishing last.

We had all been following the weather forecast for Marlow regatta and so turned up slightly apprehensive about what lay ahead. The wind was stronger than Metropolitan regatta but we arrived with a new, more stable boat (on loan from Mortlake Anglian & Alpha Boat Club) that we hoped would let us ride out the conditions better. We were allocated a lane in the middle of the lake for our heat so not the best, but not the worst, and a good row saw us finishing third (and so through to the final as only two heats) ahead of Upper Thames RC. What’s more we had a faster time than everyone else in the other heat. The more sheltered lanes (6 and 7) took the top two positions, unsurprisingly it could be said. Our third-place finish unfortunately put us in lane 1 for the final in what can only be described as near hurricane conditions. The very strong winds had already seen all the eights’ races abandoning the starting blocks for “free starts” at the 1,750m mark (something which our IM2 eight had the pleasure of experiencing!). Five minutes of tapping/heaving the boat round at the start (which nearly saw us capsize against the huge waves that were pummelling the boat and tired us out nicely) finally saw the boat straight. 

We were then able to get going (some boats had realised the lawlessness that had taken over at the regatta and so started slightly earlier than the rest of us!) only to have waves crashing over the bow side of the boat and the boat constantly being pushed to the side of the regatta course. The wind had pushed all the buoys over leaving not much of a lane “0” and a gust of wind and waves saw us pushed into one of the returning umpire launches. That marked the end of our race really although we kept going (mostly in lane 2) to the end and recorded a very slow time. We informed the umpires of the unsafe nature of lane 1 and hope that the lane was avoided for use in the remaining races. Once again, we took comfort on our heat race as we were beating boats that we knew we would meet at the qualifying races for Henley Royal Regatta. We certainly saw that in windy conditions, lane allocation has a big impact on rowing at Dorney – hopefully there won’t be similar problems at the Olympics later on in the summer!  

The four of us are now training hard in Henley in the evenings in the run up to the qualifying races on Friday and are hopeful that we can qualify to have two boats representing Sons of the Thames at Henley Royal Regatta.

Ross Cook

Mens' Novice IV+:  Messrs. Harrison, Lund, Brinker and Rees, coxed by Dr Maunder.

 glorious weekend, in a glorious location, four lanes of racing over two days and a selection of pubs located near the finish line: Peterborough Regatta seemed like the perfect scene for us to put in a valiant losing performance in our heats and spend the remainder of the weekend lazing in the sun.

That idea didn't last long. 500m into our first race and we found ourselves out in front of the competition, a couple of pushes later (powered largely by our own surprise as much as anything) and we came in first, 25 seconds ahead of our nearest challenger. My feelings were a strange mixture of elation and confusion. Having only beaten one boat in our previous three regattas, beating three in one race was a little surreal. 

Benjamin commented: "No one was more surprised than us to be climbing out of the boat a few minutes later with other crews still racing!  Mirko had pushed himself so hard he couldn’t recognize the reason he couldn’t see boat’s out of the corner of his eye was not that they were ahead but that they were a distant speck on the horizon.  Having lost a good number of races to that point I was fully aware that the unrestricted view I had from stroke of three distant rivals would be a lasting image."

A repeat performance in a slightly tighter semi-final proved that it wasn't an abberation and that we actually deserved our place in the final. I'd love to describe the final but I cannot for the life of me remember any of it. All I recall was the pain at the finishing line and the disappointment of finishing third. Seriously?! Disappointed with third? At the start of the day I'd have been pleased at not being embarassed in our heat. We finished behind a handy De Montford University crew and St. Neots RC, who seemed to find the afterburners in the final, after we beat them in the semi.

Day 2 dawned with heightened expectations, tempered somewhat our attempts to double-up in the novice 4+ and 8 and some tougher competetion, not least the usurpers known only as Sons Of The Thames (Field). The first 700m of our heat saw us involved in an tight battle with the Cambridge 99 crew, before we pulled away to take second place behind Derby. In a strange way I felt more exhilarated by this race than any on the previous day. We were further cheered by the news that the other Sons crew had qualified for the other semi-final.

After several weeks of training in the four getting into the boat for our heat in the eight felt really odd. It was basically a crew that involved glueing together the two fours that had just got through the heats and we hadn't rowed together before. Given that, I'm quite pleased that we managed to keep the race tight, nicking third place on the line. But I wasn't thinking that at the time. As we crawled out of the eight all I was thinking about was the prospect of our semi-final in the four in just 40 minutes. I can't have been the only one in the boat feeling a little pessimistic of our chances of getting through to the final while still having the thighs burning from the previous race. But what do I know? We found ourselves in a three way race for second before again pulling away in the last 300m to claim second. Suddenly the reason for all those sodding winter erg sessions becomes clear and we'd squeezed into our second final of the weekend.

Seven races over two days over the same course under broadly the same conditions, surely the nerves should have gone by now? Apparently not, the stomach was doing its thing again as we moved onto the start-line. Again, I'm sure that the race was fascinating, but you'll have to wait for the DVD because I can't recall what happened. It turns out that we came fourth (otherwise known as last, if you want to be pedantic) but in comfortably our fastest time of the weekend. So you've got to be pleased with that, haven't you? The race was won in a blistering time by Derby RC. They popped over to say 'Hi' after the race, which was a great gesture. I still want to kick their asses at IM3 though!

So ended a terrific weekend, filled with nervous tension, exhilaration, exhaustion and excitement. I can safely say that I've caught the multi-lane racing bug. 

James Rees

Sons Novices were back on the water for their second regatta of the season: a strangely familiar course but different organiser, Quintin RC - historic club house, roaring fire and, as some members discovered, cheap beer. 

First on were the men (Harrison, Lund, Brinker, Rees, Maunder (cox)) racing N4+. After a strong start last week, they were hoping to build on that experience and get through another round of a crowded draw (12 crews). Of course, these things never go to plan. Up against a spectacularly well-drilled crew from Norwich School, Sons found themselves beaten off the start and by 300m were a length and a half-down, with the schoolboys over-rating them on a very fast ebb tide. Nonetheless, grit and few big pushes allowed Sons to stay with them and as the crews reached the club houses, Sons had pushed back. Norwich, however, proved they had more in the tank and responded with an impressive sprint to the finish winning by ¾ length. The 1000m race seemed to be over in a flash. [Chaps I can tell you that Chairman Baldwin thought you looked good - and he doesn't say things like that every day. Ed]

Next up were the women (Lazarevic , Austin, Parr, Main, Crane (cox)) – racing IM3 after the previous week’s success . In what was fast turning into the theme of the day, their opponents, St. George’s College, took the lead at the start, leaving Sons in the unenviable task of having to play catch up. Despite a solid row, they – like the men - had left themselves with too much to do. They couldn’t make up the ground on St George’s who went onto win the event.

The final race of the day for the novice squad was the men’s 8+ (Hinds (cox); Harrison, Lund, Brinker, Rees, Madakbas, Taralezhkov, Grimsdale, Maunder) racing at IM3 8+. This was Matt and Alex’ s debut regatta, the boat aided and abetted by an experienced cox plus a couple of chancers with points who claimed to have rowed before. In the end it was one of those races you put down to experience. Not a bad start or row, but the opponents, and as it turned out, the winners of the category, Norwich School, were an impressive unit. The final verdict - `easily’ - was more emphatic than we’d have liked but the Sons boat offers something to build on for the rest of the season.  

Andrew Maunder

After merely one outing together (thereby minimising the danger of peaking too early), the Sons of the Thames-Furnivall Composite VIII debuted its racing season in the IM3 category at the Chiswick Regatta on Saturday.  It was a tough draw, with Sons-Furnivall on the Surrey station pitted against Thames RC, enjoying the middle of the stream and Auriol Kensington stationed on Middlesex.  Within twenty-strokes of the start, AK's coxadjudged the centre of the river was broad enough for two crews and promptly rammed Thames, which was Sons-Furnivall's golden opportunity until the umpire's red flag was lofted and a re-run commenced.  Second time round, Sons-Furnivall got off to a better start with David Preece setting a blistering stroke-rate, backed up by Graham Stewart and Ben Jury and with Marc Corbett at bow.   A third of the way into the race, Sons-Furnivall had already taken a length off AK and were impudently coming back at Thames, whittling the deficit down to half a length, at which point Thames realised a successions of pushes might be in order.  This duly gave Thames clear water again and they crossed the line first with Sons-Furnivall, starting to shorten-up, about a length and half behind.  AK finished third, a couple of lengths behind Sons-Furnivall.  Although the row was scrappy in parts, the overall feeling was that for a Composite VIII which had only had one outing before, Sons-Furnivall could go places. Possibly to Twickenham.  Or further, if anyone has space on their trailer.

Graham Stewart

My earnest entreaties have been answered with more than one report of an excellent Sons showing at Borne Regatta. Here from Rory, is an overview of the day, followed by a perspective from the winning men's IM2 4- crew written by Sam, and the single sculler's view from Anna. 

  “Squally winds, heavy rain and overcast skies can only mean one thing… that’s right, regatta season has started.  And so it was that Sons sent an armada of crews to Borne @ Chiswick Bridge Regatta.  Nine entries across three boat classes meant that almost 30 members of Sons were racing throughout the day with Sons crews being involved in both the 4th race of the day and the penultimate.  Winter training on the Tideway however must have some advantages as Sons managed an impressive haul of 5 wins from those 9 events kicking the season off to a successful start.

The Senior Men’s IM3 4+ (Horton (cox), Farley, Long, Darby & Hodgkinson) were first in to action at 9.15am, but were unlucky against a strong LSE crew, resulting in a quick return back to Linden House and a long wait until their next race in the IM3 8 at 5pm. 

The Novice crews were out in force and were represented in the Mens Nov 4+ and Womens Nov 4+ and 8+ (apparently the strength of the Men’s Novice 8 had scared off all the opposition!) and the men were quick to settle in to regatta form winning their first ever side by side heat against Eastbourne College.  Unfortunately their early promise led them to a semi final clash against a very familiar looking LSE crew and the Men’s Nov 4+ (Maunder (cox), Harrison, Lund, Brinker & Rees) had to take comfort with some good racing experience to take them forward for the season.

The Women’s Nov 4+ (Crane (cox), Lazarevic, Austin, Parr & Main) also had a flying start, taking a good local scalp against Putney Town in a very closely fought content.  Their ¼ length victory was enough however to set up a final against the American School London and after some initial confusion at the start line (resulting in a premature row over by ASL and a subsequent appeal) the women showed a great deal of composure and mettle to row out a clear verdict in their first ever final.  A great result for a crew who have all come through the Sons “Learn to Row” programme.

The Women’s Nov 8 (as Nov 4+, plus Pinheiro, Lugg, Wanot & Bell) unfortunately couldn’t capitalise on the success of the 4+ but rowed well against a well drilled Thames 8 who went on to win the Novice 8+ category.

A closely fought heat in the Men’s IM2 4- was brought to a swift end by the disqualification of Kings College for repeated steering warnings setting up the final against HSBC.  The Sons crew (Haeata, Rutterford, Cook & O’Hare) had a length lead by the half way point and never looked like giving it away, finishing comfortably and securing another win for the day.

Conditions meant it was a day more suited for larger boats, but Sons still enjoyed success in the singles as both Faith Jamieson (Mas B) and Anna Caffyn (Mas A) showed great determination to win their respective races (against MAABC and Furnivall).  Faith and Anna led from the front in both their races and wins never looked in doubt.  The long row home against the tide post event was probably not the celebration either had in mind but success was well earned.

Although not the final win of the day (that pleasure fell to Anna) it was the Men’s IM3 8, a straight final against Furnivall, that was the hotly anticipated event.  After the withdrawal from the Dewar shield earlier in the year, the Men (as IM3 4+, plus Tchoubouroff, Versteege, Price & Foden) were keen to correct the Hammersmith pecking order.  An aggressive start put the crew 2 ½ lengths up by the half way marker and from there rowed home to a comfortable win.  A pleasing result for the men, but tougher opposition will be quick to follow.

Barring the weather, it was great event at Chiswick and the Sons supporters had plenty to cheer throughout the day.  A great start to the season and hopefully a sign of the season to come.

Sons are racing again this weekend at the Chiswick Amateur Regatta (Sat) and Wallingford (Sunday).”

I've always like the Bruce MacLachlan, the red and white Lola that Sam, Ross, Joe and Rory are in this season. We vets used to go out in it, and that was because, in our minds at least, we were the only ones that could sit it . But this crew seem to have mastered the balance, giving them the platform to use their impressive power.  

"The Sons M4- has been training as a crew for not all that many weeks. Even in this short time we have felt things coming together and are happy with progress so far. But of course, the only way to know how we are really doing is to line up for a race and the Borne regatta was our first opportunity.

Our first race was scheduled with a crew from Kings College London. We did not know what to expect from this boat club and we would not find out that day either. Unfortunately our heat with King's was not going the full distance. It would seem that you are testing the patience of an umpire who warns you before the start and then again repeatedly during the race. Kings had lined up against us, but on our side of the river and too close to us entirely. The race began as it should and we got away perhaps a little slower than we would have preferred. We conceded half a length to their boat in the first few strokes. But that was all we gave away. Once we found a rhythm we began to move back through them with every stroke. But they were moving closer to us and our blades clashed twice. The umpire shouted at them, telling them to move away from us. The race continued and it seemed our two boats were matched for speed. It was going to be a great race. But the umpire continued to shout warnings at Kings and eventually he had seen enough and raised the red flag. Our first race was over after 300 metres with our opponent disqualified for not allowing us a fair race.

We would then meet HSBC in the final. This time we knew our opposition well enough to know they can produce some quality boats. It would by no means be an easy race. After sitting about for an eternity in the cold and constant rain typical of a spring day we again moved onto our starting position. At last the call came "attention, go". We were away, this time our start was good and even without looking over to the HSBC boat I could sense we hadn't give them an inch. Then Joe made the call for length and we responded. Stretching out to full slide and still we were rating up at 36. It wasn't long before we were beginning to edge ahead. But they were still on us and well within an effective strike range. One solid push from them could bring them back up or even ahead. Suddenly there was a flash of colour on our left as a navigation buoy zipped passed our boat, narrowly missing our bow side blades (Rory will tell you he judged it perfectly). I then noticed the umpire was giving instruction to the HSBC crew to move away. They were quick to respond and moved away so there was no chance of them being disqualified. This race was going down to the line. I could hear them calling for pushes as they tried to come back on us. But we would have none of it and without a word we responded, extending our lead to close to a length. We could hear the Sons supporters calling from the bank, the finish was near, we only had to hang on now. But the finish line never came, or at least, there was no buzzer to say we were home. So we hammered on and on until eventually the umpire realised and called for us to wind down. Then they raised their white flag and it was official. We had won our first race and it was free from opponent disqualification. It just so happened to be a final and thanks very much that will do fine.

We are very grateful to the organisers for such an enjoyable regatta and a big congratulations to all the Sons rowers who raced on the day, especially the many boats that won their events."