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W2 - Kingston HORR

Posted: Sunday 22 March 2009, 4:38PM by Tasha Scott

Time: 20:30 for 5300m

Race report by Tasha Scott

This year, W2 were deemed good enough to enter into their first off-cam race – Kingston Head of the River! With no previous W2 results, we had nothing to lose, and so we were all set for a fun day out in London, and a farewell trip in dear Roger Andrew.

First things first, everyone had to get ARA membership, negotiate the tricky plastic sticking part, and remember to bring the card with them. Slightly worrying was in the week previous to the race, Mhairi announced that her ARA stuff was still in Glasgow, and would that be ok? However, we all managed to sort ourselves out, and would be racing with a full crew.

Slightly hung-over, from a very scandalous bop on the Friday night, W2 and M2 gathered at the station the next morning. Group-save tickets were purchased before boarding what seemed like the slowest train ever to London. Getting to Kingston, we were taken on an extremely roundabout trip (due to Tim’s directions) to the river, only to find our boats were nowhere to be seen. So, we sat and ate, keeping our eyes peeled for Downing, who were trailering our boats.

Finally, an hour before we had to be on the water, our boats arrived, parked about a kilometre away. After putting the boats together we joined the large queue of boats converging to a single space of hard. Realising this would take a while, we decided to just put the boat in over a rocky bank, successful avoiding the rocks and most of the trees. In quite a panic, we all got in the boat and set off, crossing as quickly as possible.

Marshalling was quite tricky, as the stream carried us in the wrong direction, meaning bow pair were taking tap upon tap, especial as the Bristol University boat sticking rather close to us. Spinning round the buoy, we were unfortunate enough to have the same Bristol University boat mount our stern, rowing perpendicular to us and in all eights. It took a lot of rowing in opposite directions for them to separate from us, leaving our boat with a 50cm split along the seam of the stern. A marshal quickly appeared and spent a few minutes inspecting our boat, checking the rudder and deliberating as to whether we should race. It was decided that we should indeed race, so we set off to the start line all a bit flustered.

The word ‘GO’ came a lot sooner that we expected, as we had drifted pretty much onto the start line, but the nevertheless we wound it up well, and settled at a sustainable rating, on station with the boat behind us. They did creep up on us, and although we pushed off hard, managed to overtake us about halfway along the 5.3km course. After this, landmarks, random family members and Mhairi kept morale high and we carried on putting power down right to the end, crossing the finish line with a final burst. A great row by W2, and our last team effort as a crew.

Tired, and very glad the finish line was also where we boated from, we took the boat out of the water, dismantled it and loaded it onto the trailer. After a quick but chilly drink at the local pub, we all headed home. The journey back was rather uncomfortable and squashed, so everyone was glad to get home, shower, and go out for a W2/M2 meal. During the meal, we discovered our time, 20:30, which we were very pleased with, and which placed us in the middle of our division.