About a week ago, it looked as though the men’s Head of the River Race and the Vesta Veterans Head of the River Race would have completed a set of encouraging results for Cantabs racing on Tideway this month.
The action was kicked off with the Schools Head of the River Race on 7th March, when Cantabs took two eights from Hills Road Sixth Form College down to race.
Hills Road/Cantabs Crews at Schools Head 2013
The men’s crew had a rather rushed start after delays in boating from Barn Elms, but settled in to finish with a time of 20:51, 165th overall. They were 23rd in their category, beating their only Cambridge competition, Leys School. This is the first year that a women’s crew from Hills Road has entered this event, but the girls didn’t let their lack of experience on a big river hold them back. They finished with a time of 22:00, 229th overall, and 10th out of 19 crews in the Women’s 8+ category, ahead of crews from Bedford Modern, St Mary’s and the Champion of the Thames’ multi-school composite; a very pleasing result.
There was an unfortunate incident on the way home, when a van driver managed to drive into the Cantabs trailer while it sat stationary in traffic. The force of the impact ripped the stern half of St Mary’s boat off the trailer and onto the top of Mike Hunter’s car, from where it slid down, taking the wing mirror with it. Fortunately, no-one was hurt and we were able to retrieve the badly damaged shell. Chris Lewis suffered a little collateral damage, but fortunately Petr was able to make rapid repairs the following day. Sadly, Mike’s car will take rather longer to put right!
The Women’s Eights Head event on 9th March was full, with a total of 320 entries, exceeding the previous record of 303, set in 2011. The forecast rain held off and despite thick cloud cover, the conditions were good for racing with only light winds and a strong stream. For the first time, there were three Cantabs eights in the event.
Cantabs A – photo by Ben Rodford
Cantabs A, from the Performance Squad, started at 116 and were pleased to overtake five crews and finish with a time of 20:15, placing 65th overall. They were 13th out of 119 crews in the IM3 category, ahead of the other Cambridge town crews and all the Cambridge Colleges except Downing.
The Cantabs B crew from the Development Squad were a bit disappointed with their race, perhaps partly because several of them were a little under the weather, but they gained good experience, finishing in 22:08, 234th overall and 93rd in the IM3 category.
The C crew rowers were juniors, six of whom had taken part in Schools Head just two days before. Despite the misfortune of cox-box failure early in the race, they managed to keep together to finish in 22:15 in 241st overall, which placed them 53rd out of 96 Novice crews.
There was also a Cantabs rower in a composite eight (Cantabrigian RC, Henley RC, Nottingham RC, Reading RC, Strathclyde Park RC, Wycliffe College BC ) Masters B crew, which finished in 19:41, a great 29th overall and 3rd out of 18 Masters entries.
On the following day, conditions were very different for Hammersmith Head, with low temperatures and winds whipping up waves big enough to ensure that four boats had to be rescued after taking on too much water, and two rowers collapsed during the race due to suspected hypothermia. The Cantabs men’s first VIII finished 11th overall, second in the IM1 category behind Nottingham RC, although the conditions certainly added some “noise” to the results; Granta (CUL) finished 14 seconds ahead of Cantabs, whereas Cantabs are generally faster than them. All looked set for a great Cantabs performance at the Head of the River Race.
Sadly, this was not to be, as poor weather put paid to Cantabs M1 & M2s opportunity to race in the Head of the River Race on Saturday 23rd March. The Poachers and Gunning crews were similarly denied the chance to race in the Vesta Veterans’ Head of the River on Sunday 24th. The forecast for unfavourable wind direction, wind speed, strong stream and low temperatures proved too worrying a combination and both events were cancelled on the preceding Friday. It must be very disappointing for the crews, but understandably the organisers did not want a repeat of 2007 HoRR.
So, congratulations to the women for their good performance and the commitment of those who raced twice in three days, and commiserations to the men for being denied the chance to race in the key event at this time of year!
