This weekend sees the two big head races over the championship course from Mortlake to Putney. On Saturday the Head of the River race takes place, starting at 15:15. Quintin has a crew starting at number 129 and maintaining our record of competing in every Head of the River Race since its inception in 1926.
The full starting order may be found at https://www.horr.co.uk/wordpress/draw/.
On Sunday it is the turn of the masters in the Vesta International Masters Head of the River Race, which starts at 15:45. Our Masters H crew start at number 77 in the masters G/H handicap category and the "Barflies" start at number 90.
The full starting order for this race may be found at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f1bNTgVLCpbgZCNJwgl8xN6aIrsn4HrNLYRsahKOkeE/edit#gid=0.
Beks Chatwin coxed a composite Masters D crew to victory in the Women's Head on Saturday. With rowers from six other clubs she completed the course from Mortlake to Putney in 20 min. 58.0 sec, finishing 68th overall. They were the second fastest masters crew, beaten only by the London Masters A eight. However, with the aid of a 52 second handicap giving an adjusted time of 20 min. 6 sec, they were awarded the Masters pennant.
The crew were: Andrea Bosnyak (Danube Sport RC), Paula Reddy (Guildford RC), Amanda Bowden (Stratford-upon-Avon BC), Gillian Connal (Strathclyde Park RC), Suzanne Radley (Stratford-upon-Avon BC), Sally Pollok-Morris (upper Thames RC), Amanda Hynes (Upper Thames RC), Alison Jackson (Walton RC), Beks Chatwin (Quintin BC).
The full results of the race may be found at https://www.wehorr.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/WEHoRR-2024-Results-2.pdf.
Beks is our latest addition to the Pennant Winners Chart.
The Hammersmith Head had to be rowed under a yellow PLA flag on Sunday so the Junior 14 and Junior 15 crews were not allowed to take part, however some fast times were recorded with the London RC Open Championship crew completing the course in 9 min. 38.6 sec. Our two masters crews had mixed fortunes: the Masters F "Barflies" started four ahead of the Masters H "Supervets", but the older crew managed to overtake the "youngsters" with about 40 strokes to go. The 'H' crew completed the course in 11 min.29.8 sec. while the 'F' crew clocked 12 min. 45.2 sec. On handicap the 'H' crew's time was adjusted to 10 min. 48.8 sec. (41 seconds handicap) which handed them the F/G/H pennant.
The names of our pennant winners may be found at ../results/wins.php?ref=2024-02-18.
The full results may be found at https://www.hammersmithhead.com/_files/ugd/c62524_d7962aa7f47d48ee8899238472c4f372.pdf
The club has two masters crews entered for the Hammersmith Head tomorrow. The Masters F crew have a bow number of 43 and the Masters H are number 46. They are both in the merged F/G/H category and will presumably be subject to handicaps. There are ten crews altogether in this category, which seems a little odd as age categories with more than two entries are not normally merged. Because the PLA flag is currently set at yellow J14 and J15 crews have been removed from the starting order. The first crew to go is therefore crew number 29. The race starts at Chiswick Bridge at 11:00am and the finishing line is at Hammersmith Bridge.
The full starting order (xlsx format) may be downloaded from https://www.hammersmithhead.com/_files/ugd/c62524_9cf45c2f7e4a4ead97e7d69cb5f122f6.xlsx?dn=Hamm%20Head%20Draw%202024%20Draft%20V0.3.xlsx.
The prize giving for the Quintin Head was held on Thursday and was attended by some of the more local prize winners. Andrew Saunders-Davies of the Quintin Hogg Trust handed out the medals and also handed over the men's junior victor ludorum prize to representatives of St. Paul's School. Henley Rowing Club won the equivalent girls prize, but were unable to attend. Prizes for non-attendees were either posted to the recipients on delivered by hand.
Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=3382.
A number of people who were unable to attend the meeting on 14th January have expressed an interest in the redevelopment plans for the boathouse. In the new plans the entire boathouse behind the clubroom will be demolished and rebuilt, retaining the clubroom and two short boat bays facing the river. Behind the clubroom there will be five new boat bays parallel to the river, extending the footprint of the building to the side of the current building line. The plans also show provision for a kitchen, bar, crew room and four changing rooms on the first floor above the new boat bays and a gymnasium on the second floor. You can view the elevations, floor plans and sections in pdf format by following these links.
A week ago it was looking as though the Quintin Head might have to be cancelled for the first time. Heavy rain at the beginning of the month had flooded much of the upper Thames valley and all the water had made its way down to the Tideway. The PLA warning flag had been red over two weekends and very cold weather was also on its way. But the gods did not fail us and on Friday the PLA flag went from amber to green and the weather forecast suggested that temperatures would rise a little. On the day, although the rain puddles were still frozen, racing conditions were near ideal with very little wind to upset the calmness of the river.
The race, due to start at 11:00am, got underway fairly promptly with the J15 and WJ15 divisions followed by the Open Championship and subsequent divisions. Entries were once again limited to 300, and 281 crews completed the course after a number of scratchings from mostly junior crews. Thames Rowing Club retained the title of Head of the River and won the Open Championship pennant, but only by 0.3 of a second, pursued by yet another fast crew from the St. Paul's School stable. Leander Club A were the fastest women's crew and won the Women's Championship pennant.
One interesting result was a tie for the winners of Masters F between Tideway Scullers and Tyrian. There were in all 21 tied times but this was the only one where the tied crews were in the same category.
Full results may be found on this website at ../quintinhead/results.php?date=2024-01-20.
After the racing was over and boats put away the partying commenced at Quintin Boat Club with live music for all and free drinks for the early arrivals. A good time was had by all.
Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=3360.
Our annual Plum Puddings Race took part on Sunday, followed by a Christmas party. The course for the race was slightly shortened, owing to the strength of the stream and the large number of crews involved, so instead of starting at the Pink House the race began a hundred or so yards further downstream. After two scratchings there were still 22 crews from eight clubs taking part, including fourteen eights, seven quad sculls and one octuple scull.
The fastest crew overall were the QBC men's quad, in a time of 11 min. 56 sec, but after the sealed handicap had been applied the winners of the first prize were deemed to be the MAABC men's quad "Bussell", with an adjusted time of 11 min. 26 sec. The full results are shown below.
Bow Num | Club | Boat Type | Crew Name | Raw Time | Overall Posn. | H'cap | Adj. Time | H'cap Posn. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6 | MAA | W8+ | Emer | 13:10 | 5 | 1:00 | 12:10 | 10 |
16 | QBC | M8+ | Supervets | 13:18 | 6 | 0:30 | 12:48 | 17 |
21 | ICSM | W8+ | ICSM 'A' | 14:25 | 15 | 1:20 | 13:05 | 20 |
23 | Tyrian | Mix8+ | Snail's Pace PACE | 12:39 | 3 | 0:30 | 12:09 | 8= |
28 | MAA | Mix4x | Wild Family | 12:43 | 4 | 0:15 | 12:28 | 15 |
29 | QBC | M4x | QBC 'A' | 11:56 | 1 | 11:56 | 6 | |
30 | MAA | W8+ | Abi | 13:20 | 7 | 1:30 | 11:50 | 4 |
31 | BBL | W8+ | BBL 1 | 13:37 | 9 | 1:20 | 12:17 | 12 |
33 | Cygnet | M8+ | Cygnet 'A' | 14:10 | 12 | 1:10 | 13:00 | 18 |
37 | Sons | M8+ | Sons of Santa | 12:34 | 2 | 1:00 | 11:34 | 3 |
38 | Sons | M8+ | Sons Masters | 13:22 | 8 | 1:00 | 12:22 | 14 |
40 | QBC | M8+ | Barflies 'A' | 14:12 | 13 | 2:00 | 12:12 | 11 |
46 | BBL | W8+ | BBL 3 | 14:45 | 18 | 2:00 | 12:45 | 16 |
47 | MAA | Mix8+ | Kristian | 14:49 | 18 | 1:45 | 13:04 | 19 |
56 | MAA | Mix8+ | Kevin | 13:49 | 10 | 1:30 | 12:19 | 13 |
60 | QBC | M8+ | Barflies 'B' | 15:31 | 21 | 2:20 | 13:11 | 21 |
78 | QBC | W8x | Jackie's Ladies | 16:34 | 22 | 3:00 | 13:34 | 22 |
101 | BBL | W4x | BBL 2 | 14:21 | 14 | 2:30 | 11:51 | 5 |
115 | QBC | M4x | Breakfast Club | 14:09 | 11 | 2:00 | 12:09 | 8= |
142 | PTRC | W4x | Swift Boat | 15:03 | 19 | 3:00 | 12:03 | 7 |
151 | Cygnet | M4x | Cygnet 'B' | 15:09 | 20 | 3:40 | 11:29 | 2 |
171 | MAA | M4x | Bussell | 14:46 | 17 | 3:20 | 11:26 | 1 |
The QBC Barflies 'A' crew would be interested to know how Cygnet 'A' operate their time/space warp - very impressive!
When all the crews were safely ashore and back in the warm, action tranferred to the QBC club room for drinks and hot food (chilli con carne/veggie), the presentation of prizes and the inevitable Christmas raffle.
A photograph from the party may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=3353.
Jerry's funeral will be at Mortlake Crematorium at 10am on Friday 1st December, followed by a wake at Quintin.
If you are considering going to the funeral, Jerry's family say that "In terms of dress, Jerry would want everyone to feel comfortable in what they wear. Those with a rowing connection please feel free to wear a blazer and/or tie with any association. Suits or smart trousers/skirts or dresses with jackets are welcome but please do not feel these have to be black. In fact we welcome colour if that is your preference!"
The family request no flowers, but if you wish to make a charitable donation in memory of Jerry they ask that it should go to the Stroke Association UK.
Sunday, 17th December
Plum Pudding Race followed by Christmas Party.
Saturday, 20th January
Quintin Head (start 11am). The race will be followed by a Post-race Party (2pm to 8pm) to which all competing crews and their friends will be invited. There will be live and recorded music and plenty of cheap beer.
Friday, 9th February
Annual Dinner at the Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club, Richmond. In a departure from previous annual dinners, we would like to extend the invitation to all partners.
A photograph of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=3351.
We had two entries for the Kingston Small Boats Head on Saturday, but the event was cancelled because of the strong fluvial flow. Steve Aquilina and Charles Harrison are entered for the Teddington Head next Saturday so let us hope that the waters have subsided by then.
We have just learnt of the death of one of our long-term members and supporter of the club, Jerry Oliver. He was found dead yesterday but no further details are currently available. Jerry migrated from Vesta to Quintin in 1975 and gradually made his way up from Senior C status (for example, winning Senior C coxed fours at Monmouth Regatta in 1980) to elite status in 1986. Jerry soon became identified with the original "barflies" who competed mainly in Veteran B events in the 1980s.
Your correspondent recalls racing in coxless pairs with Jerry on a couple of occasions; once at Molesey Regatta in Garrick Pairs (one "elite" oarsman at most) where Jerry at bow steers was for some reason unable to compensate for a pull to bowside, resulting in defeat, and then at Richmond in 1985 doing the opposite and steering the boat round the severe strokeside bend to victory in Elite B pairs - two very contrasting races. [Roger Hine]
John Peters recalls:
"I looked forward to meeting Jerry each year at the Boat Race where I would inform him that he was banned and he reminded me why he joined Quintin. I was captain in 1975 when he joined. In those days having raced through to August a lot of rowers then joined in the Skiff racing season through August and September. Quintin and Vesta members tended to favour the Skiff Club. There Jerry discovered that Quintin members were stalwarts at propping up the bar. Apart from Quintin having the top Elite eight, the attraction for Jerry was that we had crew wins in the other 4 statuses. So he and several other Senior C/3 rowers from Vesta jumped ship up to Quintin. Subsequently on winter evenings in the Quintin bar after training Jerry would subject us to very long-winded jokes which were always rescued by a great punch line. A real character."
A photograph of Jerry may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=336.
The club has two entries in the Veteran Fours Head on Saturday. Our Masters F coxless four of William Medlicott, Doru Procopiu, Dave Nicol and Mark Russell are crew No. 120 and our Masters G coxless four of Huw Jones, Pete Meaney, Fred Jefferies and Ian Hyslop are crew No. 183. The race, over the full championship course from Mortlake to Putney, starts at 9:30 am. All support along the riverbank welcome.
The full starting order may be found at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lbg2gDeCqjKbzh5T2vZlfy-Z0KwjddD8CkmAqB1hTk/edit#gid=706681443.
Tom Bishop was competing in the Head of the Charles regatta on Friday, sculling in the Men's Senior Veteran/Grand Veteran Singles [70+, 80+] division, starting at 7:45 local time. He completed the course in 21 min. 18.701 sec. and was the fastest in the Senior-Veteran II category, some 35 seconds ahead of Mike Tebay of Greenwich Crew (and formerly of Cambridge University and Tideway Scullers). Tom was fifth overall in the division.
The full results of this division may be found at https://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/results2/eventResults.jsp?job_id=8392&event_id=11.
Tom adds to his tally of Head and Regatta Wins for this season.
Tom's Comments
The event had a huge crowd as usual. From the GB contingent St Paul's School were a stand out and looking impressive won their category with 20 seconds to spare in a 15 min race. Lots of international singles and crews from NZ, Ukraine,Ireland Germany etc. Still HOCR is an occasion I would recommend to anyone looking for a great event where you can compete against the novice and the international and meet rowers from around the world.
Another crew at the regatta of interest to Quintin members was the Ancient Mariners eight from Seattle racing in the Men's Grand Master Eights [60+] division on Saturday. This crew included sometime Quintin member Bruce Lamka and they completed the course in 17 min. 43.057 sec. and were the fastest 70+ crew by some 23 seconds.
The full results of this division may be found at https://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/results2/eventResults.jsp?job_id=8392&event_id=19.
Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=3347.
Unusually the club had only one crew in this year's Pairs Head. Sophie Young and Jess Hardwick competed for the club women's coxless pairs pennant and finished third in that class out of 11 entries. Their time was 16 min. 30.58 sec.
The full results may be found at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRcXf2j9dwjlFaRbzWO5IPv8Cu0lJttOqb8vJcrwdl3qoEQbQyp7K3deWHUz2Hc4hfuHGCehIXTa0oO/pubhtml?gid=411148612&single=true.
Addendum 22/10/23
Missing from our original report - Tom Bishop and Hilary Cook from MAABC sculled in a Mixed Masters F/G/H double and won the pennant without the need to resort to handicapping. Their raw time was 16 min. 14.13 sec, 16 seconds faster than the next fastest F/G/H double. After handicapping their lead increased to over a minute. Their position overall was 231st.
This win means Tom pushes Steve off the top of the Pennant Winners Chart but it's early days yet.
The new rowing year on the lower Thames kicked off this weekend with the Scullers Head. Quintin had eight entries but Ken Almand did not take to the water on the day. Our scullers were largely competing in masters categories and - surprise, surprise - Tom Bishop came home with a win in the Open Masters I category. Tom was also the second fastest sculler in the club with only Dov Ohrenstein posting a quicker time. It was good to see Emily Ford flying the women's flag for Quintin in the women's novice division.
Tom Bishop reports that there was some drama at the head of the race when sculler No. 5, Swiss of Upper Thames RC, hit one of the green buoys early in the race and broke a blade. Until he was rescued by a safety launch he created quite an obstacle for a number of scullers vying for the title of Champion. Determined to take part in the race, Swiss obtained a second pair of sculls and completed the course, finishing 52nd overall. The fastest sculler in the race was Copus of Oxford Brookes University in a time of 20 min. 37.02 sec.
Here are the results for the Quintin scullers:
Finish | Bow No. | Sculler | Category | Time | Posn. in cat. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
207 | 254 | Dov Ohrenstein | Mas D | 23:32.43 | 11 of 22 |
216 | 403 | Tom Bishop | Mas I | 23:37.70 | 1 of 4 |
236 | 369 | Steve Aquilina | Mas F | 23:45.61 | 6 of 20 |
249 | 271 | Mark O'Brien | Mas E | 23:52.20 | 7 of 21 |
416 | 318 | Graham Bagnall | Mas Lwt | 25:41.95 | 4* of 25 |
491 | 522 | Emily Ford | W Novice | 27:48.75 | 9 of 10 |
501 | 439 | Doru Procopiu | Mas Novice | 29:41.03 | 16 of 16 |
* after age handicap applied
The full results may be found at https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=329587&did=409966&cid=2036821.
Tom joins Steve Aquilina in the new list of 2023-24 Head and Regatta Wins. It should be noted that Tom was faster than all the H scullers, all the G scullers and all but one of the F scullers.
This Sunday was the date for our Annual General Meeting, scheduled for 12:00 noon. The meeting was preceded by a scratch Quadruple sculls competition among some of our keener members. Three crews were fielded, requiring an elimination heat followed by a two-boat final. In the heat Huw Jones, Nicholas Tonello, Mike Harris and Juliet Cassidy took on and beat Dave King, Doru Procopiu, Pete Meaney and Kira Vermang, but in the final they met the might of Geoff Garbow, Richard Ware, Simon Wood and Mark Chatwin. The Garbow crew took an early lead but the final verdict was a dead heat - and nobody fancied a re-row.
The AGM itself was fairly uneventful - minutes will be circulated to members in due course. Duncan Hughes, elected in July, took over the captaincy from Mark Chatwin, who had held the office since 2016. Many thanks to Mark for his years of service.
The committee for 2023-24 is:
Captain: Duncan Hughes
Vice-captains: Mark Chatwin, Cian Tan
Treasurer: William Medlicott
Secretary: Malcolm Cook
Other committee members: Huw Jones, Dave King, Jo Midgley, Sophie Young
Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=3342.
Steve Aquilina, apparently determined to open this year's Pennant Winners chart before Tom Bishop could, ventured north to the Tyne and came away with the Masters F pennant for single sculls. Steve completed the 3000 metre course in 13 min. 36.3 sec. and was only three seconds slower than the Masters E winner.
Steve thus has the privilege of opening the club's account for Head and Regatta Wins for the 2023-24 season.
Full results of the race may be found at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f26c2ad14016a351bcebd1c/t/64fcdfdd8ebbc22cc9566a27/1694293982032/div2_results.pdf.
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