Over the summer, crews from all of Cantabs’ different squads raced at a wide variety of regattas across the country. Here is a quick summary of their results!
St Neots Regatta – 29th July
The fun summer regatta season kicked off with St Neots. Contested over just 500m on the Sunday, there were 3 Cantabs entries. The MasDEF.4x- entry had a good race against Peterborough City in the opening round to win by 3L. A MasD crew themselves, in the next round they faced a strong crew from Maidstone Invicta, and were unable to make up the handicap that their MasF opposition (and eventual winners) received.
Andrew Morley raced in MasCD.1x, losing by half a length in the 1st round to a Yare RC sculler who went on to win further rounds by much greater margins. David Richardson brought home the bacon, though, beating a sculler from Milton Keynes in MasDE.1x by 5L in the semi-final and City of Cambridge in the final.
Sudbury Regatta – 4th August
Sudbury was a regatta of near-misses for many Cantabs crews who entered, though all enjoyed the fun atmosphere of the event.
The Intermediate Women raced W.Mas.2x, W.Mas.4x and W8+ in their first post-Bumps regatta, and the Aquaphobes (pictured) in M.Mas.4+. Racing in scratch crews or relatively new combinations, they enjoyed some close racing along the short course against crews from across the country, putting in good performances to build on for future training and races.
There were some strong performances from the juniors, including Livvy Durrant having a good race in the W.J14.1x against the BRJC gold medallist in her semi-final. There was a good race for new club members Tom Woodard and Gabriel Holt in J12.2x, who narrowly missed out to a Huntingdon 2x.
Returning with some silverware, though, were Nicola and Joshua Pearson, who won the mixed parent and child doubles, beating a Sudbury duo by a convincing 4L in the final!
Peterborough – 11th-12th August
As ever, a large number of Cantabs crews were in attendance at Peterborough Summer Regatta and there were some excellent performances.
Harvey Dinkele and Ed Crampton had a good race in the M2- (Band 2) event both days. On the Saturday, over 1k, they won their final 7 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed crew from Norwich after a similarly convincing win in their semi-final. On the Sunday, over the shorter 500m course, they narrowly missed out to a crew from Thames in the final, but enjoyed beating a crew from Molesey’s high performance centre into 3rd.
There were good performances in the W2- on the Sunday, with Senior Squad Masters C duo Gill Cooper and Judith Weik having an excellent race in a non-masters event to beat a composite crew containing younger athletes who have both raced at Home International Regatta in recent years into 2nd! There was also success for the Intermediate Women in the W.MasBC.4+ event which they won 13 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed crew from Lea. Christina Woolner and Sue Hakenbeck raced well in the W.MasBC.2x event, to win that in a strong field.
Some single scullers enjoyed a good regatta, with Creon Taoself gaining valuable regatta experience in his first summer racing a 1x. After a strong 2nd place finish in the heats and semis of Band 3, he did well to finish 3rd in a competitive final. Andrew Morley also raced well to finish 2nd in MasCD.1x. Ellie Milne was back racing after a break from competitive rowing, and put in some good performances to make the final on the Saturday and build on this to win the Band 3 W1x event on the Sunday.
Oxford City Royal & Sprints – 18th-19th August
On the Saturday, Jimmy Adams raced well in the Band 1 M1x to make the final, unfortunately losing out to a member of Cambridge’s lightweight blue boat. The women’s Band 1 event saw a Cantabs vs Cantabs final, with Georgie Plunkett and Jessie Spivey (pictured) facing each other in a close race which saw Georgie emerge the victory. There was another Cantabs victory in W.J18.2x, and some good racing from Noah Tate and Dave Meredith in the M2x, beating Putney Town and City of Oxford in the opening rounds, before losing out to Green Templeton in the final.
On the Sunday, Georgie and Jessie yet again dispatched their opposition in the opening few rounds to meet each other in the final of the Band 1 W1X, with Georgie coming out on top, this time by just a canvas. Junior Ellen Goode raced well in the Band 2 event, losing out to Wallingford in the final. There were junior entries in senior events that day, too, with the W4+ crew gaining some valuable race experience but the W4x- enjoying some fantastic races to win the event.
Gloucester and Ross – 28th August
The Gloucester and Ross Regattas saw some strong participation and fantastic results from the Goode and Auty-Jacklin families over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
There were wins in the Band 1 M2x event, with Jack Goode winning the Band 1 M1x and his sister Ellen (pictured) winning the W.J18.1x event. Cecile Auty-Jacklin won W.MasD.1x, with a further win in the Mx.2x later that day.
Great Ouse Marathon – 2nd September
Andrew Morley was the sole Cantabs entry at this year’s Great Ouse Marathon. Conditions at the 21.5km race were good, and saw Andrew scull well to win MasC.1x in 1:47:16, 13 minutes ahead of the 2nd placed sculler in his event!
Lea Regatta – 2nd September
The Lea Regatta is always well-attended by Cantabs juniors looking for their last opportunity for regatta racing ahead of the new season.
This year saw some great performances, in particular from Robert and Sam (pictured) who won the men’s Band 2 doubles, and Katie, Lucy, Jess and Zara winning the W.J18.4x- event.
Milton Keynes Regatta – 22nd September
The final regatta of the 2017/18 season was at Milton Keynes, at which a handful of Cantabs crews raced.
With many masters events available, it resulted in a number of races having handicaps applied to them. David Richardson and Andrew Morley raced in MasCDEF.2x Band 1 and found themselves with an 8 second handicap to have to make up over a short course, which proved slightly too much, with the Cantabs crew finishing 1L down on their MasF opposition who went on to win the event. Paul Meadows and Chris Dale raced in the Band 3 equivalent, also suffering a large handicap which they valiently ate into but still finished behind their opposition, ultimately saving themselves for the 4x race later in the day.
Cecile Auty-Jacklin had a good race in W.MasDE.1x, closing her 3 second handicap off the start to win by 4L. She and David were scheduled to then race the mixed 2x event; however, their opposition got stuck in traffic on the way to the regatta and scratched.
With the smaller boats out of the way, and the rain increasing in intensity, it was time for the MasDE.4x- event. This time, the crew had a 3 second handicap which, after a good start, they soon overtook, pulling steadily away to finish 3L up and bringing home a 2nd medal of the day.
