Hertford Senior 8

Cox Finlay Jordan
Stroke Simon Martina-Perez | 7 Isaac Hilsley | 6 Jonny Cook | 5 Richard Bradshaw | 4 Oliver Harvey-Rich | 3 Andrew Tucker | 2 Theresa Taylor | Bow Jeremy Pirt

Report by Jonny Cook

After a bus, a brief wait by the roadside, and another bus, we arrived in Henley with a narrow window to get the boat rigged and on the water. With heads in the boat and spirits high we felt good in the paddle up the river. Several of the crew were excited to row past Temple Island for the first the time. With little prior training as a crew in the 8+, we anticipated 3km being a tough distance to pace, but as cox calls of 1 and 2km came the boat was moving well and we held a consistent drive. Finally pushing through a headwind-laden last 500m, we got across the finish feeling positive. The result was something we’d like to improve on moving forward, but stood as a good baseline and bonding opportunity for the squad.

Result: “finished 4th out of 4 entries in Band 3 of event Op 8+ morning division 10:45 start”.

Hertford Senior 4

Cox Finlay Jordan
Stroke Simon Martina-Perez | 3 Isaac Hilsley | 2 Oliver Harvey-Rich | Bow Richard Bradshaw

Report by Finlay Jordan

For our second race of the day we entered into the open coxed IV category with Richard, Olly, Isaac, and Simon, with Finlay coxing. Now further back in the starting order, we faced a long queue for the start line. Thankfully the wait soon went with good morale and the sharing of sugary sweets from boat to boat. We knew we would have a tough challenge doing the second race with such a short turn-around, but we set off with a good clean start and settled into a nice rhythm. The first km felt like an age and our legs were soon in agony; we kept up a strong clean row, making sure we didn’t get scrappy. Soon, we approached the last km and buoyed on by the cheering of the crowd, we finished strong beating the time we had set ourselves. A good row from all the crew and really great experience.

Result: “finished 5th out of 6 entries in Band 3 of event Op 4+ afternoon division 14:15 start”.