Mike Ewing Retains Club Sculling Crown

Prizegiving Photos

As has become the custom, our annual general meeting was once again preceded by the club sculling championship and sealed handicap, this year with a record entry of 33 scullers, 28 of whom started and finished the traditional course from the Pink House to the club. On a pleasant September morning but with an easterly breeze roughing up the water around Brentford, Mike Ewing retained the title of Club Champion that he won last year and Elli Kirk was the fastest woman for the third year running. Steve Aquilina took the prize for Masters C-E, but Tom Bishop, winning Masters F+, had a faster time. The sealed handicap was won by William Medlicott, who was unfortunately unable to stay for the formality of being presented with the Finlayson Cup. One interesting feature of this year's race was an encounter by all the competitors with the flotilla surrounding a long-distance swimmer, whose destination, those on the escorting PLA launch informed us, was Putney. Steve Aquilina informs us that the swimmer's starting point was Oxford.

Full results may be found at ../sculling/results.php?ref=2014.

The race was followed by the AGM where Dave King, Malcolm Cook and Bill Burbage were re-elected unopposed as captain, honorary secretary and treasurer respectively. Secret ballots were then held to elect two vice-captains (Rob Williams and Mark Chatwin) and four additional committee members (Duncan Hughes, Elli Kirk, Geoff Peel and Graham Lloyd).

As a celebration of fifty years of the race for the Finlayson Cup, its first winner, in 1964, Lionel Bailey placed a £50 tab behind the bar, which, together with £50 left by Bob Slade on his fleeting visit last week, meant that a good time was had by all once the AGM was over.

There is no photographic record of the race this year as our usual photographers were either competing or officiating, but a camera was available to record the winners collecting their prizes, and these may be perused as usual in the photo gallery via the link provided.

Photographs of the prizegiving may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1939.

The new rowing year got off to an exciting start with the revival of the Hilda Mitchell Cup competition. This used to be a private match between Quintin and Ibis Rowing Club, instigated in 1921 with a trophy presented by F.G. "Tiny" Mitchell's wife, Hilda (when "Tiny" rowed at Henley Royal Regatta in 1920 he was, at fifteen stone plus, deemed to be the heaviest man ever to row at the regatta). With the demise of Ibis when the Prudential sold the boathouse (to British Gas) in the early 1990s, the event lapsed, but it has now been re-instigated with Putney Town RC as our opposition.

The format has always been a "best of three" event, with one of the clubs choosing the class and category of each boat (with Ibis it was always eights, fours and pairs). This being the first time for Putney Town they were given the privilege and chose women's IM3 coxed fours, women's Masters B quad sculls and men's IM3 eights. There was also a "warm-up" race between a Quintin Masters F and a Putney Town Masters D quad scull.

Hilda Mitchell Photos

The men's Masters quads raced first and in a very close race Putney Town claimed victory by ⅓ length. Our neighbours followed up this success with a win for the WIM3 coxed four by three lengths, but when it came to the women's quad Quintin were victorious by one length. The grand finale and decider for the trophy was another close tussle, with Putney Town securing the cup with a lead of ⅓ length at the finish. Geoff Potts acted as starter and umpire and the course for all the races was from the QBC flagpole to the "petrol pumps". Some, admittedly partial, observers on the bank felt that Geoff's attempts at aligning the crews always seemed to favour the Surrey (Putney Town) station. A surprise visitor and spectator was ex-Quintin captain Bob Slade, briefly over from Australia, who was convinced that Geoff had been bribed with the promise of a few beers!

After the racing came the barbecue, and a good time was had by all on a very pleasant sunny September Sunday afternoon.

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1927.

Willy's Runners

Not all of our readers may know that long-time Quintin members Mike Kidd and Charlie Shelton are also members of the Kew Horticultural Society - in fact Mike is their chairman. Every year the society organises a traditional horticultural show, which is held on Kew Green on the last Saturday in August. As well as the obligatory show tent there are many stalls and attractions and Quintin veteran Willy Almand has been known to frequent the show regularly and pick up some bargains at the bric-a-brac stall. This year Mike finally persuaded Willy to enter an exhibit and - lo and behold - Willy's magnificent runner beans took third place out of the twelve entries in their category.

Perhaps more of our members should branch out in this direction, and if they don't fancy or do not have the wherewithal for horticulture, they might like to try their hand at cake- or jam-making.

Mike Kidd congratulates Willy Almand

Geoff Potts has re-vitalised the weekly sculling ladder and its rebirth took place on Sunday. Here is a brief repoirt from our secretary, Malcolm Cook:

"Sunday's sculling handicap was a great success. Thirteen scullers took part, representing all speeds from Matt and Mark at the fast end to a couple of Vet Is at the other. In future it will be every Sunday at 10.00 unless I notify you otherwise. When the tide is ebbing you should assemble just above the Pink House. When the tide is flooding the assembly point will be just below Harrods and the race will be from there to the club. If one weekend we are forced to change the arrangements because of an awkward tide I'll send an all-member email beforehand.

All scullers are welcome: just turn up at the appointed time and place. Next Sunday (31 August) the tide will be on the ebb.

If you haven't already done so, don't forget to enter for the club sculling championship on 14 September."

We had seven entries spread over the two days at Oxford City Royal Regatta this year. On Saturday Basil Amin raced in both novice and IM3 single sculls, unfortunately losing to Leonard of Nephthys (Oxford University lightweights) in both cases. In novices Basil was two lengths adrift in the semi-final and Leonard went on to win the final also by two lengths. In IM3 Basil lost in the quarter-final, reducing the deficit to 1½ lengths and Leonard won the final by ½ a length. Leonard also won IM2 singles and thus gained five points in a day. Also racing on Saturday was Mark Boyd, who lost in his heat of IM3 singles by four lengths to a sculler from the City of Bristol.

On Sunday, over the 500m sprint course, Ray Doyle joined the team, racing in WIM2 single sculls, where, after beating a Putney Town sculler in the semi-final, she lost to Ms. Herridge, a City of Oxford sculler, in the final after taking "the RAC Blossom Route", as a certain ex-moustachioed gentleman would call it, colliding with a tree along the course. Although the official result published was "not rowed out", Ray did in fact finish with a deficit of less than two lengths! In IM3 double sculls Basil and Mark lost to Falcon by 2½ lengths, with Falcon going on to win the final by 1½ lengths. Mark had another go at IM3 singles, but lost, this time easily to a City of Cambridge sculler. Basil and Ray then boldly got together in Elite mixed double sculls, but lost by two lengths to a Peterborough-Derby composite, who went on to win the final.

Anyway, no silverware to bring home, but plenty of racing experience!

Matt Denley and Luke Moneley took part in the British Rowing Sculling Festival held at Holme Pierrepoint last weekend. The event brought together a number of athletes on the Fast Start programme with other aspirants and there were a wide range of participants including Leander, Molesey, Oxford University, through to the lesser known from Doncaster and Clydesdale.

The format was:

Saturday

• Time trial over 3800m
• 250m sprint time trial
• Skills and manoeuvrability tests
• 250m side by side sprint

Sunday

• 2000m side by side semis followed by finals

Each event was scored and those with the lowest points were seeded in the semis and finals on Sunday. Conditions on Sunday were typical Holme Pierrepoint with strong and gusting headwinds which gradually increased during the morning. Events were started early to try and avoid the worst of the weather however the final races were testing! Matt and Luke acquitted themselves very creditably with Matt finishing 11th out of 31 of the U23s and 27 out of 53 overall and Luke finishing 33rd overall. They performed particularly well in the 2000m finals with none of the competitors getting under 8 minutes and several being over 10 minutes.

An interesting part of the weekend was the series of skills tests which everyone including Leander prima donnas had to do and comprised standing up and turning through 360°, standing rigger dips, straight arm half slide suspension, roll ups, sequencing, and hands off at catch with blades squared and in the water.

From Rob Williams at Stourport

Quintin sent a sizeable squad up to Stourport this year for what is traditionally our last regatta of the summer and again were joined by some of the ladies from MAA. The weekend turned out to be full of close racing and a decent haul of pots.

In glorious sunshine on Saturday, there were wins for the ELI 2- (Dave Kempsall, Alex Miller) in a close final against Manchester Uni, IM2 2x (Mike Ewing, Mark Chatwin) comfortably against Birmingham and the WIM2 4x (Anne, Rachael, Hayley, Nanyamka), which was also Rachael's first ever race.

Stourport introduced a new event for Saturday afternoon; the 'Champion of the Severn' sprint VIIIs. Held over about 400m and involving 6 crews, a scratch Quintin VIII beat Stourport in the first round in front of a big and vocal home crowd. We faced Stourport again in the next round after they had won the repecharge and repeated the win. In the final, as expected we came up against Worcester 'A' who managed to edge a close race to take home the trophy. A great addition to the regatta which we hope they will continue.

Whilst we had the usual Saturday night curry, beers and a visit to the disco tent, the conditions deteriorated somewhat and heavy rain carried on throughout the night and into Sunday. It didn't stop most of the crews getting to the start line for the shortened course (our first race was 0830!) and we recorded wins in the WNOV 1x (Ray Doyle), ELI 2- (Mike Ewing, Alex Miller) and the Chiswick Beach MAA/QBC mixed 4x, which included Mark Chatwin and Matt Denley.

As usual, we couldn't fault Stourport's organisation and warm welcome. Hopefully we'll see some of their crews around QBC for the winter heads.

We had just one crew racing at Maidenhead this year, with the rest of our competitors busy at Stourport. Dave King's 'Barflies' Masters E coxless four came up against a Walbrook Masters E crew and lost by just a length. Walbrook won the final against a Marlow Masters F crew, not rowed out.

Lots of racing next weekend - Maidenhead on Saturday and Stourport on Saturday and Sunday. At Maidenhead we have just a Masters 'E' coxless four with our captain bow-steering and Aubrel Capel at stroke. They have drawn the Walbrook Masters 'F' four again in a heat of the E/F handicap at 8:46 am. The winners take on a Marlow 'F' crew in the final at 11:06. Their handicap has been announced as four seconds, a little less than at Molesey, but it's only 500 metres!

Saturday at Stourport sees a full Quintin contingent, with entries in IM1 quad sculls, IM2 double sculls, WIM3 quad sculls, WN single sculls (Ray Doyle), IM1 single sculls (Matt Denley), Elite coxless pairs and Mixed Masters 'A' double sculls. On Sunday the Elite pair, IM1 double, women's quad and single scullers Ray Doyle and Matt Denley race again and are joined by Nanyamka Brown in WIM3 singles and three mixed IM2 doubles plus a Chiswick Beach composite mixed IM1 quad. There was no event for our IM1 double scull.

"Breaking" News

While we await a full report from up-river, we can announce that Matt Denley and Luke Moneley won IM1 double sculls on Saturday, beating Wallingford RC in the final - the verdict - not rowed out.

Luke jumps up to equal second in the Potwinners Chart.

The club has four single sculling entries at Henley Town and Visitors Regatta next Saturday: Nanyamka Brown in WIM3, Elli Kirk in women's Senior, Luke Moneley in IM2 and Matt Denley in IM1. Matt and Luke are also entered in IM1 double sculls. According to the provisional timetable Matt races first at 9:12 against T. Commins of the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe in a semi-final of IM1 singles. Nanyamka races in her semi-final at 9:52 against E. Carter of Putney Town RC and L. Kay of Henley RC. At 15:20 Luke races in IM2 singles against CEF Jarvis (Walton RC) and C Heywood (Nonesuch BC) for a place in the final. At 17:12 Elli has a straight final in women's Senior single sculls against M Pepper of Star and Arrow Club. At 17:52 Matt and Luke have a straight final against Nonesuch BC and Wallingford RC in IM1 double sculls.

The club had seven entries at Staines Regatta on Saturday. Basil Amin raced in Novice sculls, winning his first heat against Beecher of Marlow RC by 1½ lengths. In the semi-final he met Steel of Weybridge RC and, after an extremely tight race was deemed to have lost by six inches. Steel went on to win the final by a length. Our "strengthened" Barflies Masters (now) 'D' coxless four had another close race, against Twickenham RC (also 'D' category) in the Masters C/D handicap event, losing by ¾ length. Twickenham went on to beat a Ross RC 'C' four in the final - the verdict "easily". In women's IM3 single sculls Nanyamka Brown raced Ms. Jenkins of Weybridge RC, but was unable to complete the course after capsizing when pressing to take the advantage and the verdict was given to Ms. Jenkins -"not rowed out". In the final of Masters F/G single sculls Malcolm Cook beat Hopkins of Eton Excelsior easily, despite undergoing a handicap as Hopkins was 'G' to Malcolm's 'F' category. In women's novice sculls Ray Doyle had a straight final against Ms. Fraser of Weybridge but lost by 1¼ lengths. Basil Amin and Tom Collins were due to race a straight final in IM2 coxless pairs against a pair from Twickenham RC, but Twickenham did not show up at the start and Basil and Tom rowed over to collect the silverware. Last to race for Quintin was Elli Kirk, who had a straight final against Ms. Cole of Weybridge in WIM1 single sculls. Unfortunately Elli could not make it three wins in a row to add to her Kingston and Molesey wins, losing by three lengths. Well done everybody for competing in sweltering temperatures of 30°C!

The Potwinners Chart is growing.

Full results from the regatta may be found at http://www.stainesregatta.com/2014/Results.pdf.

Quintin Masters Steve Aquilina, Ian Hyslop and Tom Bishop, together with Charles Parry of Wallingford RC, were flying the club's colours in Munich at the weekend. Steve and Ian were competing in 'D' and 'E' double sculls while Tom and Charles entered 'F' and 'G' double sculls and also 'F' and 'G' single sculls. The two crews also joined forces in an 'F' coxless four (the programme didn't allow them to make this combination a quadruple scull). Steve Aquilina takes up the story:

Friday

Quintin's first race on Friday was the F4- of Ian Hyslop, Charles Parry (Wallingford), Tom Bishop and Steve Aquilina. Posting a time of 3:25 in still conditions, the four had been in contention at halfway but lost the finishing sprint to Dynamo Moscow who pushed out to a length'’s lead at the finish. Quintin's time was 10 secs ahead of the third placed crew and a similar distance ahead of Ardingly, winners of the event at this year's Henley Masters regatta.

It would appear that Dynamo Moscow are our "Crabtree" on the international circuit!

With temperatures touching 28 degrees and a cloudless sky Tom Bishop and partner Charles Parry took to the water in mid-afternoon to contest the G2x event. A fraction ahead at 500m, the double pushed hard eventually crossing the line 7secs up in a time of 3:36. First Gold for Quintin.

Well done, Tom and Charles! They were busy again at 19:32 and 19:36 respectively in 'G' single sculls. Tom drew on all his reserves to win by 1½ lengths in a time of 4:02.

Charles was just as successful in his heat, winning in a time of 4:09.84, with a Polish sculler just 0.93 seconds behind.

Saturday

Action commenced early Saturday morning with Ian and Steve in E2x. Adrift by a mere 0.5sec at halfway, the double had closed further on their Czech oppo by 750m. However, a lack of practice together left the 2x unable to take advantage in the push for home, with a mistake by Steve Aquilina allowing the Czechs to draw out to a 1 ½ length victory, the Quintin crew finishing in 3:42.

Ninety minutes later Ian and Steve were back on the water contesting D2x. The event was won in 3:26 by a supremely fast Moscow crew, our double finishing an outpaced fourth, a full 18 seconds behind.

After the morning's disappointment, Tom and Charles were back to winning ways in F2x. A freshening tailwind pushed the crew to a 5 secs lead over Kiev at 500m, Tom and Charles extending this to a comfortable 8 secs at the line in a time of 3:43. Win number three for QBC.

Then there was a long wait for Tom and Charles for the last event of the day, F 1x, with Charles' race at 18:56 and Tom's at 19:00. Charles came second in his race, in a time of 4:06.09, 1.59 seconds behind Aleksandr Polyschuk of Kiev Sportclub Dnipro. Then Tom took to his single to contest F1x. In an epic struggle, he regained the lead 400m from home, purportedly "eaving something in reserve" for the last 250m. Withstanding a determined counter-attack, Tom maintained his advantage, rowing his Polish opponent to a standstill. The final verdict of 19 secs on second place gives no indication of the titanic nature of Tom’s victory in 3:55 - his and the club's fourth.

Sunday

Sunday opened with sore heads and mixed racing. Tom Bishop picked up a further two golds. First up was MxF2x with Gill Prescott of Durham ARC in 3:45, 4 secs ahead of second placed crew.

Tom and the club's sixth gold came in MxF4x - Charles Parry, Tom Bishop, Ailie Aird (Strathclyde) and Gill Prescott (Durham ARC) competing in the last race of the day. The winning time of 3:26 was a comfortable 3 lengths up on their international opposition.

In between races, Tom and Charles had combined with Katie Kapernaros and Emily Booker (both Wallingford) in MxE4x. Their time of 3:30 secured third place, but was 5 secs down on the winners.

The final tally of 6 wins was a resounding success for the club's small contingent and a personal triumph for Tom Bishop.

Tom's late-summer surge takes him to the top of the Potwinners Chart.

The club has had seven out of eight entries accepted for Staines Regatta on Saturday. Basil Amin races in a heat of Novice sculls at 9:49 against Beecher of Marlow RC. At 11:05 our "strengthened" Barflies Masters (now) 'D' coxless four races Twickenham RC (also 'D' category) for the privilege of racing a Ross RC 'C' four in the final. At 12:25 Nanyamka Brown has a semi-final heat against either Jenkins of Weybridge or Watling of Staines in WIM3 single sculls. Malcolm Cook has the prospect of racing either Hopkins of Eton Excelsior or Hall of Guildford in the final of Masters F/G single sculls at 15:33. Malcolm will undergo a handicap as the other two scullers are 'G' to his 'F' category. At 15:45 Ray Doyle has a straight final against Ms. Fraser of Weybridge in women's novice single sculls. Basil Amin and Tom Collins have a straight final in IM2 coxless pairs at 16:24 against a pair from Twickenham RC. Last, but not least, Elli Kirk has a straight final against Ms. Cole of Weybridge in WIM1 single sculls at 17:51. A long day's racing!

The full draw and timetable may be found at http://www.stainesregatta.com/draw.aspx. There is no event for women's lightweight IM1 single sculls, for which Elli had submitted an entry.

Molesey Photos

It was another day for our women's squad to fly the club colours with pride when, at Molesey Regatta, Elli Kirk won her second single sculls final in eight days and the women's novice four finally saw off all their opposition. Elli had a straight final against Ms. Hook of Wallingford RC, whom she beat with a comfortable four lengths verdict.The novice four avenged their narrow defeat by Cambridge University WBC last week with a win of 1½ lengths over another four from the university in their semi-final. In the final they met our next-door neighbours, Mortlake Anglian and Alpha, whom they beat with a convincing five lengths margin. The winning crew: Jiyoon Bae (bow), Ray Doyle, Sophie Piper, Lizzy Hill (stroke), John Peters (cox).

Our men did not fare so well. Basil Amin and Tom Collins lost easily in their heat of IM2 coxless pairs, Malcolm Cook lost easily in the final of Masters E single sculls and our Masters E coxless four of Dave King, Mike Harris, Adrian Ballardie and Aubrey Capel failed to overcome their seven second handicap disadvantage, losing to a Walbrook 'F' crew by two lengths. Walbrook went on to win the event.

Full results may be found at ../news/Molesey2014Saturdayresultsdraft.xls (Ray Doyle scratched from women's novice sculls).

See the updated Potwinners Chart.

Even Later News

Matt Denley and Luke Moneley were also competing at Molesey Regatta. They were entered in IM2 double sculls as a Quintin / University of Westminster composite, with Matt in UWBC colours, although the original results did not show the Quintin involvement. Contrary to earlier reports taken from the official results, Luke and Matt did not win this event but lost to Bonner and Pollen of Staines BC in the final by 2¼ lengths.

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1918.

The club has had six entries accepted for Molesey Regatta tomorrow. First on for Quintin is Rachael Doyle at 9:44 in a heat of women's novice single sculls, against Simpson of HSBC. At 11:17 Basil Amin and Tom Collins compete in IM2 coxless pairs against Kingston RC. Malcolm Cook dusts off his sculls at 12:20 in a straight final of Masters F single sculls, against Bowman of Molesey BC. Elli Kirk also has a straight final in WIM2 singles against Hook of Wallingford RC at 12:27. At 14:33 the Barflies Masters E coxless four will be on the stakeboat awaiting a handicapped start against Walbrook RC (Masters F) in the Masters D/E/F semi-final. Our last entry is the women's novice four, who narrowly lost to Cambridge University in the final at Kingston last week. Tomorrow they race at 15:53 against - Cambridge University!

Our entries for women's IM3 quad sculls and for Garrick pairs were not accepted.

Elli Kirk with her cup

The club had six entries accepted for Kingston Regatta on Saturday and, while our masters were performing well up at Henley, the same can be said for our women's squad at Kingston. Elli Kirk won WIM2 single sculls in a straight final, beating a Weybridge sculler by 1½ lengths and a sculler from Globe easily. Our women's novice four fought their way through to a closely contested final, beating Lady Eleanor Holles School by 1½ lengths and Globe by a further canvas in the first round and Sir William Perkins School by one length in the semi-final. In the final they eventually succumbed to a Cambridge University WBC crew by a slender ¼ length.

Other Results

In women's intermediate 3 single sculls Nanyamka Brown lost to a Weybridge sculler by 1½ lengths. In men's novice sculls Basil Amin lost easily to a Thames sculler. Jakub Chalupczak and Marc Knight won their first heat in IM2 double sculls, beating Oxford Academicals by four lengths, but lost to Mossbourne by three lengths in the final. Our men's novice four went out in the first round to Medway Towns (the eventual winners) and Windsor Boys School.

Matt Denley entered Senior single sculls under University of Westminster colours and managed to dead-heat his first race, against a Vesta sculler, winning the re-row by a canvas. In the final he lost to a Maidenhead sculler, who had rowed over in his semi-final - the verdict 2¼ lengths.

Full results are available at http://www.kingstonregatta.co.uk/results.htm.

A photograph of Elli with her cup may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1916.

Our Masters squad fielded four entries at Henley Masters Regatta this weekend and came away with two sets of medals. In sweep oar a team of ten oarsmen and coxswain raced in both 'E' and 'F' eights while in double sculls Tom Bishop, with his Wallingford partner Charles Parry raced in both 'F' and 'G' categories.

First to race was the 'F' double scull, beating Walton by four lengths on Friday afternoon, followed by the 'E' eight a few hours later, who beat Tyne RC by a comfortable 2½ lengths. Early on Saturday morning Tom and Charles raced Upper Thames RC in the next round of 'F' double sculls, beating them with an "easily" verdict. Two hours later they were busy again, beating Potomac BC from the USA, again easily, in the semi-final of 'G' double sculls. Then it was the turn of the 'F' eight, taking on Durham ARC in the semi-final of 'F' eights. In a close race QBC were always ahead and finished one length up, an improvement over their last meeting at Nottingham in May.

This left just four finals to be raced. First the 'E' eight raced Crabtree, hoping to avenge their narrow defeat at Nottingham, but a clearly strengthened Crabtree crew just proved too strong and won by two lengths in a time of 3 min. 14 sec, the second fastest time of the whole regatta, bettered only by the winners of 'C' eights (London in 3 min. 10 sec.). Our next final was in 'F' double sculls, against Crefelder RC from Germany. Tom and Charles fought against stiff opposition but had to concede defeat by one length. Tom and Charles will be looking to turn the tables when they go to Munich in two weeks time.

Our next final was in 'F' eights against Leander BC from Hamilton, Ontario. We had beaten a 'D' eight and an 'E' eight from the Canadians at Henley Masters in 2012 and they were looking to reverse those results. Quintin went slightly ahead at the start and then gradually drew away to establish a lead of ¾ length. Leander put in a strong push in the last 40 strokes but the final verdict was ½ length to Quintin in a time of 3 min. 21 sec, a second faster than the winners of 'D' eights. Our winning crew: Huw Jones (bow), Roger Hine, Andrew Bramah, Dick Findlay, Fred Jefferies, Steve Aquilina, Charles Harrison, Ian Hyslop (stroke), Jane Adams (cox).

Finally it was the turn of the double scull to race Ardingly for the prizes in the 'G' category, and this resulted in a comfortable five length margin for the Quintin-Wallingford composite...

... so Tom Bishop now features in this year's Potwinners Chart.

Full results for the regatta may be found at http://www.henleymastersregatta.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Henley-Masters-Regatta-Results-2014.pdff. Commiserations to Richard Lonergan and Rob Carpenter from the 'E' eight, who came away empty-handed.

The draw is now out for Kingston Regatta. Basil Amin is first to race for Quintin in a heat of novice sculls at 9:38, against scullers from Thames RC and Marlow RC. Jakub Chalupczak and Marc Knight race against Twickenham RC and Oxford Academicals in IM3 double sculls at 10:18. Elli Kirk races in WIM2 single sculls at 11:46 against scullers from Globe and Weybridge. In the afternoon, our women's novice four race Lady Eleanor Holles anf Globe at 14:54, while our men's novice four race Windsor Boys School and Medway Towns at 15:06. Finally, Nanyamka Brown sculls in WIM3 singles against Weybridge RC and Mortlake Anglian and Alpha BC at 15:18.

Our IM2 coxless four has scratched and Elli's entry in women's masters 'A' single sculls and Rachael's entry in women's novice sculls were not accepted.

The club has nine entries for Kingston regatta, which takes place on Saturday. We have crews in women's novice coxed fours, open novice coxed fours, IM3 double sculls (Jakub Chalupczak and Marc Knight) and IM2 coxless fours, and also the following single scullers: Basil Amin (open novice), Rachael Doyle (women's novice), Nanyamka Brown (women's IM3) and Elli Kirk (women's IM2 and women's Masters A). Good luck everybody - let's hope you all get a race!

And don't forget, our Masters E eight is racing Tyne RC at Henley Masters Regatta at 17:04 on Friday and the Masters F eight races Durham ARC at 10:24 on Saturday.

Another great Henley for all concerned, with mostly sunny weather and only the occasional cloudburst at the weekend. On Friday our pair of Alex Miller and Mike Ewing were unable to match the power of the professionals although they hung on bravely for the majority of the course, but the final verdict was easily in favour of the GB pair of Sinclair and Durant. A message from our captain: "Congratulations to Mike and Alex in the pair and to Aodhan, Rob, Eoin and Paul in the four for some great races at HRR and for keeping us on the edge of our seats until the Friday! Also many thanks to the coaching team of Fred, Duncan and Geoff for putting in many long hours preparing the crews."

A full record of the pair's campaign may be found in our Henley Records.

Miller and Ewing pass the progress board

It's been a gloriously sunny Henley so far, although the competitors have found the ever stiffening head wind somewhat trying, with course records unlikely to be broken this year. Quintin's campaign in the regatta proper got off to a good start with a comfortable win for our top Wyfold Four over Cantabrigian RC 'B' crew on Wednesday. The crew established an early lead of some three lengths by the ¼ mile and gradually reduced their rate of striking to finish 1½ lengths ahead, a result which in bygone days would have been described as "easily".

Henley Photos

Yesterday morning the crew came up against the selected Norwegian crew, Norske Studenters Roklub, Oslo who, together with the head wind, made the going a little tougher. The final verdict was 3¾ lengths to the Norwegians, in a time ten seconds slower than Quintin's winning time on Wednesday. A thought for any aspiring "learn-to-rowers" - the three-man in the Quintin crew was vice-captain Rob Williams who joined Quintin on our very first Learn to Row course in 2009. Well done, Rob!

There were some tremendous races to be seen over the last two days, with a surprising number of close encounters, typified by a heat in the Visitors Cup yesterday between Molesey BC and Seeclub Zürich, Switzerland, where the Swiss led all the way to the enclosures only to be rowed through by Molesey, who were almost half a length up at the progress board. However the Swiss were not to be beaten that easily and pulled back in the last few strokes to force a dead heat (Today's racing kicked off with the re-row of this heat producing another close race and a ¾ length victory for the Swiss).

But the highlight of Thursday afternoon for the many Quintin supporters at the regatta was seeing our Silver Goblets pair of Alex Miller and Mike Ewing dispatch the Chinese pair from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Our pair were clear by the top of the island and steadily pulled away to record an easily verdict, finishing at a stately 24 strokes per minute. Today they meet Sinclair and Durant, the GB squad pair, in the quarter-finals. Good luck, boys!

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1913.

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1907.

The draw has been made for Henley Masters Regatta (11th-12th july). Our 'E' eight has a semi-final against Tyne RC on the Friday at 17:08 and the winners take on Crabtree or Grosvenor at 13:36 on the Saturday. Our 'F' eight has a semi-final against Durham ARC at 10:24 on the Saturday, with the winners progressing to the final at 16:12 against Wallingford, Tideway Scullers or Leander BC (Canada).

Our Wyfold four will be racing the Cantabrigian RC 'B' crew at 11:45 am on Wednesday.

The draw has been made for Henley Royal Regatta. In the Silver Goblets, Alex Miller and Mike Ewing have drawn the Bucks station against Kong and Cai of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. In the Wyfold Challenge Cup, our crew has also drawn the Bucks station, against Cantabrigian R.C. 'B'.

Our IM1 and IM2 coxless fours were required to race a time trial today to qualify for the Wyfold Challenge Cup. Unfortunately neither qualified, but they were the third- and fourth-fastest non-qualifiers, beating six other crews.

So that leaves us with just one Wyfold crew and our Silver Goblets pair to compete in the regatta proper.

Our IM1 and IM2 coxless fours are back in action this Friday, competing in the qualifying race for the Wyfold Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. Our 'B' crew is in the group that starts at 4:40 pm and the 'C' crew is in the 4:45 pm group. Our 'A' crew in the Wyfolds and our Silver Goblets pair are not required to qualify.

The entry list for Henley Masters Regatta (July 11th-12th) has now been published. Quintin has entered a category 'E' and a category 'F' eight. Other entries in 'E' eights are Crabtree BC, Grosvenor RC and Tyne RC, and in 'F' eights are Durham ARC, Leander BC (Canada), Tideway Scullers School and Wallingford RC.

Marlow Photos

A mixed bag of results for Quintin at Marlow this weekend but the good news is that Alex Miller and Mike Ewing rowed to a convincing win in the Elite coxless pairs, a trophy last won for the club by Graham Lloyd and Roger Hine back in 1980. In the five-boat final, Alex and Mike reversed an early lead by Eton College to beat them by 7½ seconds at the finish, with Thames RC a further two seconds behind.

Other Results

The Senior coxless four were disappointed not to make the A final and finished third in the B final, ranking them 10th overall. The IM2 coxless four finished fourth in their A final to a very fast Radley crew, and the IM1 coxless four finished fifth in their A final, which was won by a London crew which, like Radley, was well ahead of the field.

Alex and Mike now head the 2014 Potwinners Chart on three wins each.

The official results may be found at http://reports.regattamaster.com/Pages/Races.aspx?regattaID=1114.

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1893.

Our women's quadruple scull took part in the time trial this morning for the Senior event at women's Henley. This was Quintin's first ever entry of a crew for the regatta (as opposed to single scullers). Unfortunately our girls, sculling well above their own status, failed to qualify for the knockout stage of the competition.

The club has four crews racing at Marlow Regatta, to be held at Dorney Lake this Saturday. This year the regatta is ranking crews in events by holding time trials, the fastest seven going to the A final, the seven next fastest to the B final etc. This applies even where events have seven or fewer entries. For the time trials, crews are started in alphabetical order. The time trial for our IM2 coxless four starts at 8:30 am (our crew are 7th out of 14), for the Senior coxless four at 8:40 am (10th out of 16), for the Elite coxless pair at 10:51 am (5th out of 6), and for the IM1 coxless four at 12:07 pm (8th out of 11). Their respective A finals (we hope) are at 1:35 pm, 2:00 pm, 5:05 pm and 6:20 pm. B finals are five minutes before these times and C finals 10 minutes before.

The full programme may be found at http://www.themarlowregatta.com/fs/downloads/2014_regatta/Marlow_Regatta_2014_StartOrder.pdf (Our coxed four entry has scratched).

And don't forget our women's quad are racing at Henley Women's Regatta on Friday (see below).

B & M Photos

A good full day's racing was had at Barnes and Mortlake Regatta this Saturday, with racing due to start at 8:30 am and continue until seven in the evening. The weather was warm and sunny, if a bit blustery, and the rain managed to confine itself to the break in the programme for the turn of the tide at lunch time.

Basil Amin was due to start the regatta in a heat of Novice single sculls at 8:30, but the race was postponed until 9:45 when he beat his opponent, McOrast of Putney Town, by two lengths. In the next round he had a bye as his opponent from Medway Towns had scratched and so he went on to meet Folkard of Poplar, Blackwall and District who, unforunately for us, beat him by two lengths. Folkard went on to win the final, also by two lengths, so Basil is not far away from success.

Our men's novice four's first round opposition (HSBC/Brittlebank) scratched and so they met St. George's Hospital in round 2, but lost by 1½ lengths. St.George's went on to lose to King's School, Canterbury in the final. The women's novice four had more success, beating MAABC by 3½ lengths in the first round and then narrowly losing to Barnes Bridge Ladies, who had a minor shipwreck two strokes from the finish after taking the lead midway through the semi-final. The official verdict was ⅓ length. A tired BBL lost the final to Latymer soon afterwards.

Our women's IM3 double scull of Indiajane Jeffery and Sophie Kiedaisch had a straight three-boat final against Putney Town and Poplar, Blackwall and District, with Putney Town beating our girls by just ½ length and Poplar well behind. An hour later it ws the turn of the WIM3 quadruple scull for a straight three-boat final, against Tideway Scullers and MAABC. The young TSS crew soon established their superiority and won comfortably, but our girls (Tamsyn, Indiajane, Sophie and Elli) had the consolation of beating our next door neighbours easily.

The highlight of the day for the club was winning open IM3 coxed fours in a strong field of ten entries. In their first heat HSBC scratched, so our crew went through to the semi-final against Thames RC, who had already eliminated Twickenham and Radley College. In a close race, Quintin eventually beat Thames by 1¼ lengths. Then Quintin met King's School, Canterbury, who had beaten Putney Town and Tideway Scullers on their way to the final. The outcome - a win for Quintin by 2½ lengths. The winning crew: Marc Knight, Luke Moneley, Jakub Chalupczak, Matt Denley, Jane Adams (cox).

See the updated Potwinners Chart.

Full results may be found here.

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1882.

The club had a large entry for Barnes and Mortlake Regatta on Saturday, with men's crews entering novice coxed fours, IM2 coxless fours, IM2 coxless pairs and novice single sculls (Basil Amin), and women's crews entering novice eights, IM3 quad sculls, novice coxed fours, IM2 double sculs, IM3 double sculls and IM3 single sculls (Nanyamka Brown). However, when the draw came into our hands it was found there were no events for the IM2 coxless fours and pairs and none for women's novice eights and women's IM2 double sculls. At least this is not as bad as our entries for Reading Regatta, which were all rejected even though the events for which we entered are being held.

Back on home waters, Basil Amin kicks off the day's racing in Race 1, against McOrast of Putney Town at 8:30 am. Next for Quintin is the men's novice four, against HSBC/Brittlebank at 9:40. Our women's novice four race MAABC at 11:24. The men's IM3 coxed four race HSBC after the lunch break at 14:08 and the women's IM3 double sculls' first race is at 14:32, against London and MAABC. The men's IM3 quadruple scull race Tideway Scullers and MAABC in a straight final at 15:28.

The full timetable is here and the draw is here. All support gratefully received.

Phil Argent reports:

After a very early start (5am) the novice crew assembled for what was being discussed as the weekend QBC novice men would smash a win. All the signs were there: Tristan had limited his beer consumption to half a barrel; Matt had refrained from the usual Friday night activities; Stack and Mark had fuelled up on various isotonic compounds; and Phil had obviously spent the week on a liquid only slim-fast plan. All the signs for a win loomed.

At 7.45am the four boated and whilst running through the pairs drill edged past a flustered Kingston four. Obviously the square blades made them worry - novice crew, square blade, back splash... S*** they can row. That said there were early signs of a pending fault in the crew's performance. The heavyweight bow pair of Matt/Tristan were struggling to nail the warm up, with Matt at 2 not quite showing the outside arm control on the way forward, touching the water on the way forward was only the tip of a technical iceberg.

Spin, paddle, 3 stroke start - 5 stroke start. And there we are at the start of race 2 (8.05 am!). Knowing the start was going to be key, Phil set the crew up early, calling "set". Listening carefully to the umpire saying get ready, Kingston were not set up.

Go....

...and QBC took the lead by half a length off the start, leading by a length after the first 30 strokes. Then Kingston put in their "power 10" but QBC responded to reclaim their lead. Kingston 'power 10ed' again - QBC pushed back. When you're ahead its easy to stay ahead. It was all for QBC to lose. Then approaching the halfway point, Phil, the QBC cox, was just about to call "Settle" when.... Matt at 2 ...CRAB!!! Bother... Then Mark at 3..CRAB.... Bloody hell .... Then the Stack at stroke almost went for a swim.... CRAB!!!! (expletive deleted!). The boat stopped, almost flipped and the Kingston crew took two lengths.

OK, so the race was lost? Nope, after restarting the QBC crew got it back, taking a seat with every ten strokes, drawing almost level with 100m to go, rating 38.. Given another 250m the race would have been back with QBC.

The result - Kingston won by half a length in an excellent race. QBC showed real class on the run up to the race and the start. A win of three lengths would probably have taken them through to the semi-final. A great effort.. Next week wins loom again.

Our women;s squad have entered a crew in Senior Quadruple Sculls at Henley Women's Regatta. The event involves all crews in a time trial which commences at 9:45 am on Friday, 20th June. The seventeen crews entered will be required to take part with the fastest sixteen going into the next round. The time trial will be held over approximately 1,400m starting halfway along Temple Island and finishing at the normal regatta finish at Remenham Club.

Our men's novice four is performing at Walton and Weybrdige Regatta on Saturday. There are twelve entries in the event and we have drawn Kingston in the second race of the day at 8;03 am. The full timetable may be found at http://wandwregatta.org.uk/timetable2014.php.

Boat Naming Photos

The committee had wisely consulted the oracles and chosen a sunny first of June for our first barbecue of the year, combined with a ceremony to name three new boats. Rose Shaw named the new women's quadruple scull "Brian Shaw" in memory of her hasband and our past captain who died earlier this year. Alan Horton named his new namesake coxed four (replaclng a previous incarnation) and Martin Carr, who was largely responsible for establishing the Quintin Head as a major event, dropped in from the U.S.A. to perform the rites on our second newly-acquired coxed four. After the ceremonies were over attention switched to the barbecue and a thoroughly good time was had by all.

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1871.

The club had five entries at the Metropolitan Regatta on Saturday and another five on Sunday. On Saturday the IM1 coxless four (Mark Chatwin, Nick Clay, Luke Zakrzewski, Ian Caswell) came fourth in their heat, qualifying for the repechage, where they finished third. Elli Kirk entered women's IM2 single sculls and finished fifth in her heat. The Senior coxed four (Paul Keane, Eoin McDonald, Rob Williams, Aodhan Kelly, Hilary Cook) finished fifth in their heat. Our women's IM1 quad scull (Indiajane Jeffery, Elli Kirk, Sophie Kiedaisch, Tamsyn Wedlake-James) also finished fifth in their heat. Our Elite coxless pair (Alex Miller and Mike Ewing) finished third in the final.

On Sunday the Senior coxless four (Paul Keane, Eoin McDonald, Rob Williams, Aodhan Kelly) came fourth in their heat, just failing to qualify for the final by 0.38 sec. Elli Kirk came fifth in her heat of women's lightweight Elite single sculls. The IM1 coxless four repeated Saturday's performance, coming fourth in the heat and third in the repechage, Tamsyn Wedlake-James came fourth in the final of women's IM2 single sculls and our Elite coxless four (Michael Ewing, Alexander Miller, David Kempsell, Oliver Staite) finished third in the final.

We had three entries at Twickenham Regatta, all of them single scullers. The highlight came from Indiajane Jeffery, who won novice sculls on her first attempt. Her first round opponent had scratched but in both her semi-final and final she quickly established a lead and won looking very comfortable. Malcolm Cook (Masters F), in his first regatta for six years, was fortunate in his heat to meet a Putney Town sculler who displayed too much interest in the buoys. In the final Malcolm had to give his Masters G opponent, Jaggers of Twickenham RC, 12 seconds start but reckons that he caught him in a minute and a quarter, after which he could relax for the remaining four minutes. Elli Kirk won her heat of WIM2 sculls against Stock of Poplar Blackwall and then in the final she had the outside of the infamous bend and was leading Beadle of Tideway Scullers School but was then rowed through at the finish.

See the updated Potwinners Chart.

The club organised a spring training camp for the week 3rd-10th May. Here is a report from vice-captain Rob Williams.

For training camp this year we tried a new location, Mimizan, in south-west France. Located about an hour south of Bordeaux and just a couple of miles from the Atlantic, we'd heard good things about the lake and facilities (although also warned about the sea breeze!). Around thirty of us made the trip out, including eight from Mortlake, and as usual we were very grateful for having the luxury of our own boats - very kindly towed over by Graham.

The lake was probably on a par with Aiguebelette in terms of size, surrounded by forest on all sides, with a 2k course marked out and plenty of space elsewhere for doing drills and pieces. We virtually had the place to ourselves bar a few fishermen and some sailing boats. Although most of the time it was calm and flat, we did have a handful of outings where the wind whipped up and gave us conditions more representative of the Tideway, just so we didn't forget!

The accommodation was a couple of miles away by coach (provided twice each day) and although basic, was clean and comfortable. There was a games room with table football and ping pong - where we regularly witnessed another of Tom Bishop's numerous talents. There was also a projector where we reviewed Fred's videos of the day's rowing and a couple of films. The food was not gourmet, but absolutely fine for what we wanted and considering the price was very good.

Mimizan itself has two parts, a small town inland and then a coastal part with bars and restaurants. On a couple of nights we ventured to one or the other, but with three busy outings each day we were usually pretty beat.

We'd definitely consider it again for a training camp, overall excellent value with very friendly and helpful staff and management who looked after us very well. It got a big thumbs up from the Mortlake ladies too...

A big thank you to Graham for towing the boats, Mark for leading the organisation of the trailer and equipment, and to Fred, Duncan and Willy for their coaching.

Saturday's summer weather continued on Sunday when, for the second year in succession, the British Rowing Masters Championships were held in atypically warm conditions. A small contingent of QBC masters arrived at Holme Pierrepont early on Sunday morning in preparation for a long day's racing. This year, for various reasons, our entries were confined to just three events, with only nine oarsmen and a coxswain available for duty.

First race of the day for Quintin was a four-boat heat of Championship Masters F eights (average age 60 minimum), with only one crew to be eliminated for the final. Quintin took an early lead, with a Bristol Ariel / Bradford-on-Avon composite giving the most opposition and Monmouth and Maidstone Invicta trailing behind. QBC crossed the line comfortably ahead in a time of 3 min. 32.8 seconds. Interest then switched to see the results of the first heat, featuring, among others, Durham ARC, Tideway Scullers and Wallingford. It appeared that Durham had beaten our time by just 0.4 seconds. All set for a cracking final!

Our second race was the final of Championship Masters E eights (average age 55 or over) where, with one change of personnel we met arch-rivals Crabtree, with Tyne and Oundle Town also on the starting pontoons. This turned out to be a two-boat race between Crabtree and Quintin. There was really not much in it over the first 500m and in the final 500m everything was flung into trying to establish superiority. The lead changed hands several times but Crabtree crossed the line just feet in front and Quintin had to be content with the silver medal. The commentator stated at the time that if the course had been an extra 100m long we would have won it. The other two crews were several lengths adrift. Our silver medallists: Huw Jones, Roger Hine, Andrew Bramah, Rob Carpenter, Charles Harrison, Steve Aquilina, Geoff Peel, Ian Hyslop, Jane Adams.

Then it was on to the final of F eights, with Quintin in lane 1, Durham in lane 2,Tideways Scullers in lane 3, then Bristol Ariel / Bradford-on-Avon, Monmouth and Wallingford. Durham threw everything into the first 500m, taking an early lead of about a canvas. Then Quintin closed up and the lead changed hands a couple of times before the halfway mark. With forty strokes to go Quintin unleashed their finishing spurt and drew relentlessly away to win by just over half a length - another cracking race! The 2014 Masters F eights champions: Huw Jones, Roger Hine, Andrew Bramah, Dick Findlay, Charles Harrison, Steve Aquilina, Geoff Peel, Ian Hyslop, Jane Adams.

The Rowperfect gate

Our final event was the Championship Masters F coxless fours and this turned out to be a great disappointment for us. Our four had just settled into their racing rythym and were establishing their place among the leading crews when there was a loud crack and bow man Andrew Bramah found he was unable to either square or feather his blade, with it jammed half-square. Continuing with the race was impossible and so the crew gently paddled home, middle pair only. It turned out that the retaining lever on the Rowperfect gate had sheared about halfway along its length and the remaining stub was what was preventing the oar from being rotated.

Results of the races, which appear to be incomplete and inaccurate in places (especially for our events), may be found at http://www.masterschamps.org/downloads/MastersChamps-2014-Raw-Results.pdf.

Take a look at the updated Potwinners Chart.

In gloriious summer weather the club scored a quartet of successes on the Holme Pierrepont rowing lake this Saturday. Quintin had entries in seven events and chalked up wins in IM2 single sculls, IM2 double sculls, Elite coxless pairs and IM1 coxless fours.

Matt Denley wins IM2 sculls

There were two heats in the IM2 single sculls, with the first three from each heat progressing to the final. Matt Denley won his heat comfortably with a 10½ second margin over the secnd-placed sculler. Luke Moneley, in the second heat, came second, exactly one second behind the leader. In the final Murdock of Curlew took an early lead, with a 4½ second lead over Matt at the 500m mark, and Luke a further seven seconds behind, but Matt bided his time and sculled through in the second 1000m to win by 8½ seconds. Luke finished in fifth place. Matt and Luke then teamed up in double sculls but, due to timetable constraints, had to enter the Elite category rather than IM2. This was a straight three-boat final which a slick Windsor Boys School double won comfortably. The Quintin crew were dropped off the start but then fought back in the second 1000m and in the end conceded second place to Loughborough BC by a mere 0.3 seconds, although admittedly both crews were 30 seconds behind the winners.

The IM2 double sculls event had a straight final between three crews: Quintin, Hollingworth lake and Sheffield City. This emerged as a close tussle between Quintin and Hollingworth Lake, Swansea City being dropped from the start. At the 500m Holingworth Lake led by 0.4 second, at the halfway mark Quintin had reduced this lead by 0.1 second but by 1500m had taken the lead and opened a gap of 1.5 seconds. Hollingworth Lake then had a final push and the final verdict was that Quintin won by 0.7 second. The winning scullers - Alex Miller and Mike Ewing.

The IM1 eights was a straight final of five crews, dominated by a fast St. Edward's School crew. King's Chester finished second and Quintin were fourth. Our IM2 coxless four were involved in a four-boat heat, with three to progress to the final, but were always off the pace and failed to qualify.

In IM1 coxless fours our crew won their heat comfortably, leading from the start and repeated the pattern in the final, beating Tyne RC into second place by 3.7 seconds. The winners: Paul Keane, Rob Williams, Eoin McDonald and Aodhan Kelly.

The final Quintin involvement was in the combined Elite and IM1 coxless pairs race, which Alex Miller and Mike Ewing won with the Derby IM1 pair in second place, nine seconds behind.

Full results of all the races at the regatta may be found at this location.

Take a look at the updated Potwinners Chart.

Our IM2 double scull racing at Putney Town Regatta went out to the eventual winners, Cygnet RC, in the first round.

A photograph of Matt Denley with his prize may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1914.

Boat Naming Poster

A date for your diaries! There will be a triple boat naming and barbecue on Sunday, 1st June, preceded by a scratch eights race. See the attached poster for details.

Towards the end of last year we bought two coxed fours and sold an existing coxed four to make way for them. Since the sold four was named the 'Alan Horton' we are giving the same name to one of the new fours. Alan will be at the ceremony to name his new boat. The other coxed four will be called the 'Martin Carr', in recognition of the way that the Quintin Head has transformed the club's finances. Martin identified the end of January as a good time for an extra Tideway head, got the Quintin Head off the ground and ran it with increasing success until he left for the USA. Martin is flying over from the States for the ceremony. The third boat to be named is the black coxless four/quad which was bought specifically for the QBC women. It has already had its first win, at the Kingston Head. It will be named the 'Brian Shaw', in memory of our former captain who died in March and who left the club a bequest in his will.

The club is involved in three regattas over the coming weekend. The senior squad are competing at Nottingham City Regatta at the Holme Pierrepont course on Saturday 17th May. We have entries in Elite coxless pairs, Elite double sculls, IM1 eights, IM1 coxless fours, IM2 coxless fours, IM2 douible sculls and IM2 singles sculls (two entries).

First to race are the IM2 single scullers, with Matt Denley racing Murdock of Curlew, Wagstaff of York City and Roe of Burton Leander at 9:10 (first three to final at 12:35) and Luke Moneley racing Pickering of Leicester and McGorva of Nottingham Trent University at 9:15 (first two to final). The next Quintin boat to race is the IM2 double scull, which has a straight final at 11:05 against Hollingworth Lake and Sheffield City. The IM1 eights final is at 11:50, with Quintin racing City of Bristol, St. Edward's School, King's School Chester and Derby. The IM2 coxless four has a heat at 13:15 against City of Bristol, Tyne United and Kings School Chester 'A' crew, with the first three going to the final at 16:25. The IM1 coxless four has a heat at 15:35 against York City, Nottingham RC 'B' crew and Tyne 'B' crew, with the first three going to the final at 17:25. The Elite double scull has a straight final against Loughborough, Henley and Windsor Boys School at 17:45 and the Elite coxless pair has a straight final, combined with the IM1 status race at 18:00. There is one other Elite crew, Cardiff City 'A'. The IM1 crews are Cardiff City 'B', Sons of the Thames and Derby.

Also on Saturday we have a double scull racing at IM3 status at Putney Town Regatta. Their first race is at 9:55 against Cygnet RC.

On Sunday ouir masters are at Nottingham for the British Rowing Masters Championships, racing in Masters E and Masters F eights and in Masters F coxless fours. The F eight has a heat at 9:16 against Bristol Ariel / Bradford-on-Avon, Monmouth and Maidstone Invicta, with a potential final at 13:56. The E eight has a straight final at 12:56 against Crabtree, Tyne and Oundle Town. The F four has a straight final at 15:52 against Bedford, Tideway Scullers, Ardingly, Upper Thames and Bewdley / Stourport.

The club had two entries at Borne Regatta on Saturday - a women's novice coxed four and a men's novice coxed four. The women's four raced the London School of Economics in the first round but lost by 1½ lengths. If the crew can improve on their race-fitness they should do better next time. The men's four had a row over in their first heat and then beat an Emanuel School four by three lengths in their second heat. In the final they met Sons of the Thames and, in a hard fought race, lost by 1¼ lengths. It shouldn't be long before they get that first win.

Chiswick Regatta Photos

It was a glorious spring day for our home regatta this year, with plenty of blue in the sky. On the river the familiar blue with white diagonal stripes were a little in short supply, partly because much of the club was just about to depart for the training camp in south west France. Three scullers had put their names forward for competition: Luke Moneley in IM3 singles, Basil Amin in novice singles and Indiajane Jeffrey in women's novice sculls. Sadly Indiajane had to scratch, but Luke won his first heat against Maynard of Poplar, Blackwall and District by a close ¾ length. Having slightly underestimated his opponent he was dropped off the start and had to find some extra speed to scull through. Luke went on to win the final a little more comfortably by three lengths against Whitehead of Eastbourne College...

... thus opening the 2014 Potwinners Chart.

There were two close heats in novice sculls: Basil won his against Noriel of Lea by 2/3 length and Price of Sons of the Thames beat Wilson of Putney Town by 2 feet. In the final the easy winner of the third heat, McCarthy of Poplar, beat Price by a length, with Amin a further 3 lengths behind, but by no means outclassed.

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1859.

The club had four entries for Hammersmith Regatta on Saturday, but due to scratchings two of our entries did not get a race (Intermedaite 3 coxed fours and Intermediate 3 single sculls - Luke Moneley). In Intermediate 2 coxless pairs Mark Boyd and Jakub Chyalupczak met the American School in London in the first round and beat them by 1½ lengths, but went on to lose in the final to Sons of the Thames by 3 lengths. In Novice coxed fours Matthew Hunter, Tristan Wesley, James Oscroft and Eoin O Murchu, with Phil Argent coxing, competed in their first ever regatta race and beat Putney Town by 2 lengths in their heat. In the final, however, Tideway Scullers proved a bit too much for them and they lost by 4 lengths.

The full results may be found at http://www.hammersmithregatta.org/results2014.xls.

Saturday, 3rd May - Chiswick Amateur Regatta - all help welcomed.

Sunday, 1st June - Boat naming for three boats, plus a barbecue.

Saturday, 6th September - Our next Learn to Row Taster Day.

A reminder that Tim Firminger's funeral is at Putney Vale Cemetery on Monday 7 April at 10.40. After the service refreshments will be served at Kingston Lodge Hotel, Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 7NP. Please let Milena or Marco know by Friday if you intend to go so that they can finalise arrangements. Marco's or Milena's contact details may be obtained from the Quintin Secretary.

After Saturday's disappointment, things were looking up for the Vets' Head this Sunday, with temperatures approaching 20°C and a mostly following wind over the Hammersmith to Chiswick course. Unfortuantely, not for the first time, the organising committee had miscalculated the times of the tide and arranged for the race to start at 10:30 BST, when the tide would still be ebbing. During the week the start time was changed to 11:30, but on the day even this was deemed to be insufficient and the race was eventually started at 11:40. This still resulted in early-starting crews racing the tide up the river, and is reflected in the overall results.

Monmouth Masters C gained a somewhat hollow victory by starting not only out of position but last in the whole field, thus gaining the full advantage of the spring tide to produce a flattering result. Three late-starting women's crews finished in the top ten, further illustrating the effect of the ever- increasing tidal flow. Our sympathies go to the organisers who, having realised their mistake, were constrained by the times for the river closure declared in the PLA Notice to Mariners and were unable to postpone the race further. As most crews, apart from Monmouth, rowed in category order, most of the results are quite meaningful when viewed by category.

Masters D "Barflies"

Quintin had an interest in a number of composite crews as well as two with all-QBC personnel (our Masters A crew did not start). As well as the "Barflies" (Masters D, No. 65) and the "Supervets" (Masters E, No. 81) we had Dov Ohrenstein in the St. Andrew / Quintin / City of Oxford composite (Masters C, No. 31), Harry Powell in the Quintin / Auriol Kensington / Putney Town /Thames / Twickenham composite (Masters C, No.33), Leif Jacobsen in the Middelfart / Hvidovre / Fredericia / Quintin composite (Masters F, No. 120), and Rob Carpenter, Andrew Bramah, Roger Hine, Geoff Peel and Tom Bishop in a Wallingford / Quintin composite (Masters F, No.121). On top of this our ex-Olympians Dick Findlay and Willy Almand were respectively rowing in an Occoquan Masters G crew (No. 136) and an Upper Thames / Minerva Bath / Broxbourne / Henley / Reading composite (Masters H, No 139) and Mark O'Brien was helping out in a Thames Tradesmens' Masters D crew (No. 48). The results for all these crews are show in the table below.

The winning Masters F crew: Charles Parry (WRC, bow), Rob Carpenter, Andrew Bramah, Roger Hine, Geoff Peel, Tom Bishop, Sean Morris (WRC), Colin Cusack (WRC, stroke), Terry Baker (cox).

Full results at http://www.vestarowing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Vets-Head-2014-Results-UPDATED.pdf.

This event closes our Pennant Winners Chart for the winter season, with Tom Bishop top pennant winner on five.

A photograph of the Masters D crew may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=2931.

Once again there was disappointment for all concerned in this event, which failed to reach a successful conclusion for the second year running. This year the race was abandoned after about a hundred crews had started when it was realised that the Putney reach had become oceanic in the strong head wind. Seventy crews were given finishing times, including the Quintin first eight, starting at No. 51, but many of these times will not give any indication as to form as crews deliberately dropped their speed when the red flags were waved. This was certainly true of the Quintin crew.

For those with an academic interest in such things the results may be found at http://www.horr.co.uk/wordpress/results-2014/.

WIM2 Quad Pennant Winners

We had just one crew racing in the Kingston Head on Saturday and they came home with a pennant. So well done to our WIM2 quadruple scull of Nanyamka Brown, Hayley Short, Indiajane Jeffrey and Tamsyn Wedlake-James, who finished 73rd overall in a time of 18 min. 1.06 sec, beating quads from Surbiton High School, Walbrook and Molesey. See the updated Pennant Winners Chart.

The full results may be found at http://www.kingstonrc.co.uk/images/stories/Events/KHORR2014/khorr2014resultsdiv2.pdf.

A photograph of the crew may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1856.

The funeral and service of thanksgiving for Brian's life will be held on Tuesday 25th March 2014 at 12 noon at St Peters Church, Church Street, West Liss, Hampshire GU33 6JY, followed by the burial in the nearby West Liss Cemetery.

Afterwards family and friends are warmly invited to a buffet lunch at Hawkley Village Hall and Cricket Club, Upper Green Hawkley, GU33 6NA. Brian's family have said that any Quintin members who come to the funeral will be most welcome at the lunch afterwards. If you intend to go to the lunch it would be helpful if you would let the secretary know (secretary@quintinboatclub.org) so that he can give the family a rough idea of numbers.

Church Street is single track and there is limited parking opposite the church and at the far end of the cemetery. If you are able, please park on the verge on the main road or in the village of Liss.

For further information please contact Mark Harvey - 07886271663, Sue Harvey - 07900312950 susannahharvey@gmail.com

With great regret we announce the death yesterday (20 March) of Tim Firminger, a vice-president of the club. He was 83 and had been ill for some time.

Tim joined QBC as a 16 year old in 1946. Between 1948 and 1956 he rowed four times for Quintin in the Thames Cup and, while on National Service in 1949, raced in the Wyfolds for the British Army of the Rhine. He continued competing into the 1970s, although opportunities were limited because veteran rowing wasn't as common as it now is. After a spell away from the river, he returned in the early 1990s, despite having had a lung removed. He was still competing into his 70s and still rowing into his 80s, often in a double with his son Marco, who is a long-standing member of QBC.

Several club boats have been named after Tim, the most recent only a few months ago. Sadly, Tim was too ill to attend the naming ceremony.

Tim came from a rowing family. Grove Park Rowing Club, whose boathouse was where MAABC now stands, had Firmingers amongst its members in Victorian times, and Tim's father and brother were members of Vesta.

A series of photos of Tim's 1954 Thames Cup eight are at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=90 . The eight dead heated in the first round and won the re-row. Later photos include a 1975 veteran win (http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/image.php?ref=169), the 1994 Veterans Head (http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/image.php?ref=340) and a non-rowing picture taken at the opening of the Quintin gym in 2009 (http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=707).

The funeral will be at Putney Vale Cemetery on Monday 7 April at 10.40.

The club has an interest in seven entries for the Veterans' Head on Sunday, 30th March. Starting at No. 5 is our Masters A crew, then at 31 we have an interest in a Quintin / St. Andrew / City of Oxford Masters C crew, followed closely by a Quintin / AK / Putney Town / Thames / Twickenham Masters C composite. The "barflies" are entered in the Masters D category and start at No. 65, while the "supervets" are in Masters E, starting at No. 81. Leif Jacobsen's composite with Middelfart RK, Hvidovre RC and Fredericia RK start at No. 120 in Masters F, with the Quintin / Wallingford Masters F composite right behind them at 121. The race will be rowed on the flood tide from Hammersmith Bridge to Chiswick Bridge, starting at 11:30 am BST. All competitors and spectators pleae note that you should have adjusted your clocks to British Summer Time overnight.

The full start list may be found at http://www.vestarowing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/Vets-Head-2014-Draw.pdf.

The club has had four entries accepted for the Head of the River Race, which starts at 2:15 pm on Saturday, 29th March. The 1st VIII starts at No. 51, the Intermediate 1 VIII at No. 117, the Intermediate 2 VIII at No.180 and the novices at No. 364.

The full draw is available at http://www.horr.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/HORR-2014-start-order_FINAL.pdf/.

Women's Head Photos

The Women's Head of the River took place on a glorious spring-like day on a benign Tideway this Saturday, and for the first time since its instigation in February the PLA's Ebb Tide Warning flag had changed to green. Unfortunately this change came too late for the organisers, who had decided earlier in the week to scratch some of the junior categories, reducing the field to 241 crews. The winners were a squad composite in a record time of 17 min. 42.21 sec. Our WIM3 VIII, in only their second race and with five novices on board, finished 213th in a time of 22 min. 12.87 sec. They beat 23 crews including two IM2 8s (one from Kingston).

Full results may be found at http://wehorr.org.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2014-results-time-Final.pdf.

Photographs of the crew may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1820.

We have a women's IM2 quad scull competing in the Kingston Head on Saturday 22nd March - Nanyamka, Hayley, Indiajane and Tamsyn. Awaiting the start order with fingers crossed that the "red boards" will be lifted before the 22nd.

With regret we have to announce the death yesterday of Brian Shaw, a past captain and long-time supporter of this club. Brian was 83 years old. He represented the club in the Thames Cup at Henley Royal Regatta in 1957 and 1958, was captain in 1958-59 and 1961-62 and oversaw the rise of Quintin to its most successful period to date, with the 1st VIII finishing 10th in the Head of the River Race in 1961 and 7th in 1962. There is a photograph of him at Henley in 1957 at ../gallery/image.php?ref=103. Current members may recall that Brian performed the opening ceremony for our new gymnasium in 2009. There is a photograph of him cutting the ribbon at ../gallery/index.php?ref=702. Our sympathies go to his wife, Roselyn.

After last year's icy and oceanic Hammersmith Head (See last year's news) this year's was in complete contrast, comparing well with many a summer's day. The temperature was around 20°C and there was only a stiffish breeze to contend with. There was still a strong stream from all the floods, but the PLA had reduced the new flag warning from red to yellow earlier in the week and so racing went ahead. As in the Quintin Head, the University of London were head of the river, in 10 min. 6.15 sec. and the Quintin 1st VIII put in a creditable performance, finishing 9th in 10 min. 26.10 sec. This closed the gap between Quintin and UL by 9 seconds over a slightly shorter course. Our 2nd VIII finished 33rd in 10 min. 51.54 sec. and the 3rd VIII (mainly novices) were 132nd in 12 min. 16.01 sec. The "Barflies" had a comfortable row and finished almost 18 seconds ahead of the 3rd VIII in 11 min. 58.22 sec, giving them a finishing position of 121st. Our women's VIII were 157th in 12 min. 57.26 sec.

Full results at http://www.mikrotime.com/rowing/row2014/hamh14.html.

As of today, the Port of London Authority has instigated a flag warning system similar to the "boards" used by the Environment Agency on the upper Thames. The flags refer to conditions on the ebb tide, when the net flow will be at its greatest. The PLA's definitions of the meanings of the colours are given below.

The PLA flag will be displayed at the foot of our home page.

We await further guidance from the club committee on how this new safety measure will affect club boating times.

Dinner Photos

Initial reports indicate that this year's dinner was a great success, everyone enjoyed the company of guest speaker Olympic bronze medallist Alan Campbell and Dave King reckoned it was the best in recent years.

Lionel Bailey has sent in a clutch of photographs to record the occasion.

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1811.

We are sad to hear of the death a few days ago of Dick Longhurst, who rowed for the club in the early 1970s. Dick started his rowing career at St. Paul's School, followed by Durham University and Durham ARC before arriving at Quintin. He represented the club at Henley Royal Regatta in the Thames Cup in 1971 and 1973 and was in the Quintin eight that won at the National Championships in 1973. Dick had lived in Canada for many years.

Quintin Head Photos

At the risk of being boring, we have to say that, once again, the weather gods smiled on the Quintin Head. On Friday night there was torrential rain, and again on Saturday afternoon, but in between the clouds held back and there was even sunshine. This, coupled with a mild westerly wind and moderate temperatures, made for some pleasant racing. The strong flow of land water led to fast times and the winners, University of London, clipped nearly one and a half minutes off our previous recorded time for this course. Oxford Brookes University, entering the event for the first time, just missed out on the headship by 0.7 of a second, but had the consolation of winning the Elite pennant as the UL crew were in the Senior category.

The fastest school crew were St Paul's, who finished eighth equal in a time of 11:25.7 to win the IM1 pennant. The University of London claimed their second win with the IM2 pennant, beating the University of Bristol by just 0.4 of a second, thus ending Bristol's run of pennant wins stretching back to their first visit in 2006. Latymer Upper School won J18, beating the host club's seniors by a tenth of a second to finish 16th in 11:39.3, and newcomers the University of Warwick won IM3, finishing 24th in 11:49.9.

Other men's pennants: London Oratory School won J16, Thames won Novice, and in the Masters categories Tyrian/Thames won MasC, Upper Thames retained MasD, Quintin won MasE (despite a time penalty) and Tideway Scullers won MasF.

The Imperial College Elite crew were the fastest women, in a time of 12:15.8, with Molesey taking the WIM1 pennant just 1.9 seconds behind and depriving the University of London of the pennant by just one tenth of a second. Tideway Scullers School added to their men's Masters F win with WIM2 and Thames added to their men's Novice win with WIM3. Mortlake Anglian and Alpha's WMasC eight won the women's Masters C/D handicap. In the junior events, Lady Eleanor Holles won WJ18 and WJ15 while Putney High School won WJ16. Final mention of a pennant winner goes to the University of East Anglia, who won women's novices - some reward for the club who last year missed the race because they were snowed in and this year had to scratch their second women's novice crew and their men's novices when the team motor coach failed to turn up in Norwich and and they were unable to arrange sufficient alternative transport for the whole team.

And finally, a summary of the Quintin results: Seniors - 17th in 11:39.4; IM1s - 51st in 12:14.1; Masters E - 81st in 12:35.0 (including penalty) and Novices, in their first ever race, 181st in 14:04.0. The Masters E pennant winners: Huw Jones, Rob Carpenter, John Ferrario, Willy Almand, Geoff Peel, Pete Meaney, Fred Jefferies, Richard Lonergan and coxswain Jane Adams.

See the updated Pennant Winners Chart.

Full results may be found at ../quintinhead/results.php?date=2014-01-25.

Some race statistics; of the 219 entries 204 started and 204 finished, with 13 scratchings before the race and two "no shows".

One new feature this year was the "tweeting" during the race of potential pennant winners, barring the effects of penalties or disqualification. As the race times came in to Timing Control in real time and as the last boat of a particular category crossed the finish line, it was possible to tell who the fastest crew in that category was and announce it to the wider world.

The organising committee would like to thank all the volunteers, both within the club and from other clubs, without whom the event could not have been run, and equally all the competitors, without whom the whole exercise would have been rather pointless.

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1802.

Team Quintin

Some of our older readers may remember the Oarsmen's Cross Country Race which used to take place in December back in the 1970s, with alternating venues of Richmond Park (organised by Ranelagh Harriers) and Blackheath (organised by Blackheath Harriers). Well Graeme Mulcahy clearly remembers it, since he organised a similar event to take place in Richmond Park on Saturday 28th January. Ninety five oarsmen and oarswomen took part in a race over five miles, starting near the Roehampton Gate, with a competitors' age range of 14 to 71 years.

Quintin fielded seven competitors: Rob Williams, Nick Ryan, Richard Lonergan, Elli Kirk, Charlies Shelton, Huw Jones and Tania Brunning. Unsurprisingly, young Rob was the fastest Quintin runner by some four and a half minutes. Full results may be found at ../downloads/run2014.pdf.

A photograph of six of the Quintin team may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1809.

A Happy New Year to all our readers!

2013 is now "Old News".

Christmas Party Photos

The club's racing this calendar year was rounded off in the traditional fashion with the "Plum Puddings" race from the Pink House to the club flagpole. The weather gods smiled on the event, which took place in sunny conditions with a mild air temperature although a somewhat chilling south-westerly wind. One break with tradition was that the race was treated as a time trial with sealed handicap rather than the first-past-the-post handicap of previous years. The start order was based on expected speed with the fastest crews leading the way - this was with the exception of the QBC development VIII and the QBC supervets, who were positioned at the rear "pour encourager les autres". The results of the time trial and the ranking based on the handicap are given below, although there was a certain amount of confusion over the Barnes Bridge Ladies' crews, who arrived at the start rather unexpectedly.

So the Bar Flies took home the case of wine, Mortlake Men's Vets got the plum puddings and Mortlake IM2 crew got the case of beer.

After the prizewinners had been announced, Dave King presented Hugh Davy with an illuminated Quintin blade to commemorate his eightieth birthday and long-standing membership of the club. Dave also presented Frank Webb with a special medal from the Vesta Scullers Head committee, recognising him as the oldest sculler in this year's competition. After that the festivities began.

Photographs of the presentations may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1796.

The club had two entries in Walton Small Boats Head on Saturday. Geoff Potts entered as a Masters G single sculler and came 101st out of 306 single scullers in a time of 12 min. 29.8 sec. He was the fastest of the five scullers in the Masters G category and thus wins the pennant. Dick Findlay and Frank Webb were in the Masters H double sculls category and finished 106th out of 267 double scullers in a time of 12 min. 5.2 sec. They were the faster of two boats in their category. As there were also two doubles in the Masters G category we await with interest any announcement regarding winners of handicapped events. See the updated Potwinners' Chart.

The full finishing order may be found at http://force8consulting.net/sites/waltonrowingclub2/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/wsbh-2013-results-revised.pdf.

Update 12/1/14: The prizes from Walton arrived at the club today - one for Geoff Potts and one each for Dick and Frank.

You may have noticed that the appearance of the website has changed! The new look should be easier for users of small tablets and mobile phones to access, as each page adapts to the size of your browser. Apart from that there has been little change to the content. Some of the archive material (old news, detailed head results etc.) is currently not available, but it is hoped that this will be restored gradually over the coming weeks and months.

Narrow-width browsers, typically in tablets and mobile phones, will display an icon in the top right-hand corner which gives you immediate access to the navigation menus at the foot of the page. Wider browsers have the main menu in the traditional place at the top of the page, with secondary navigation on the left-hand side.

Other new features include, for mouse users on wider browsers, "hover over" drop-down menus on the main menu, giving you direct access to more of the web site.

If you are using the web site on a computer, you can watch the page adapt to the size of your browser as you change its width or height. Unfortunately this will not happen if you are using Internet Explorer 8 or earlier as, to overcome deficiencies in these browsers the page width is fixed for them at about 800 pixels.

Your webmaster would be grateful for any feedback, positive or negative, on the new design. If you have any comments to make, please send them to web@quintinboatclub.org.

Having missed out on the Fours Head on the previous day, the club made up for the disappointment with seven entries in the Veteran Fours Head, which this year was rowed on a flood tide from the Mile Post to Barker's Rails, starting at 10:30 am. Our entry included two Masters A coxless fours, starting at numbers 16 and 18, two Masters E quads, starting at numbers 37 and 46, a Masters A coxed four at number 50, a Masters D coxless four at 72 and a Masters E coxless four at number 77.

All crews put in creditable performances, given various unavoidable constraints on crew selection. It was unfortunate that, on the day, the Category A crews had to be rearranged and the substitutions made them inelibible for pennants. Our fastest crew was the second from the club to race, crew No. 18, 'A' coxless four, which would have finished fifth overall in a time of 17 min. 58.0 sec. and would otherwise have won the pennant in their category. They were hotly pursued by our other 'A' coxless four, who would have finished sixth. The 'A' coxed four would have finished 12th overall, in a time of 18 min. 27.3 sec. and would also have won the pennant in their category.

Our next crew in the finishing order was the 'E' category quadruple scull, which, after the eight 'time only' crews had been removed from the finishing order, finished 17th overall in a time of 18 min. 54.3 sec. and fourth in their category, Norwich taking the pennant 18 seconds ahead. They were closely followed by the 'E' coxless four, who finished 32nd in a time of 19 min. 18.3 sec. This won them the 'E' coxless fours pennant and was an impressive 52 seconds faster than the next boat in the category.

Two "Bar Flies" crews put in sterling performances – the 'D' quad scull finishing 84th in 20min. 38.2 sec. and the captain's scratch 'D' coxless four finished 138th of the 199 eligible finishers in a time of 21 min. 53.1 sec.

The club also had an interest in a composite 'F' coxless four, listed in the finishing order as Wallingford RC. This included our own Tom Bishop, together with Charles Parry, Colin Cusack and Sean Morris, and they won the 'F' coxless fours pennant, finishing 34th in a time of 19 min. 25.7 sec. Tom will claim this as a win in Quintin colours.

The full finishing order may be found at http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/428326/23989328/1385996532373/Vet+Fours+Head+2013+Results.pdf?token=76C3Bvpds6z%2FK0P0d8eFrE%2Ba2NM%3D.

The pennant-winning 'E' coxless four: Huw Jones (bow, steers), Roger Hine, Fred Jefferies, Richard Lonergan (stroke).

See the updated Pennant Winners Chart.

Due to an administrative oversight by the club, there will be no Quintin crews in this year's Fours Head. The entries were closed early due to over-subscription and the club was unprepared for this eventuality. The race will, however, be taking place without us. The start is at 1:00 pm and the race is over the normal championship course from Mortlake to Putney.

Presentation Photos

On the last Wednesday in November a small contingent of Quintin members trekked down to the Putney Embankment to witness the presentation of prizes for the Vesta Scullers' Head. The venue was, rather unsurprisingly, Vesta Rowing Club. Two of the contingent were of particular importance, as they were to be recipients of prizes - Mike Ewing the IM3 pennant and Leif Jacobsen the Masters E pennant. Cameras were on hand to capture the moment.

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1788.

Our veterans Dick Findlay and Frank Webb (Masters H category) took part in the Burway Small Boats Head on Saturday and brought home the Masters E/G/H Double Sculls handicap pennant. They were the fastest in that combined category not only on handicap (with a margin of 29 seconds), but also on unadjusted time, where they were six seconds faster than their closest rivals (a Masters G crew). Their time for the course was 12 min. 41 sec.

This year's starting order for the Scullers Head was something special for the club - Mike Ewing leading off the field, the first time for Quintin since Bill Barry in 1967. The club had sixteen scullers, but five dropped out before the start for various reasons. The race was won by Verstraete of walton RC, but it was a good day for Quintin, with a haul of three pennants. Mike Ewing won the IM3 pennant, finishing sixth overall in a time of 21:221.68 – a great follow-up to tthe Novice pennant he won last year. Leif Jacobsen is getting back into form and won the Masters E pennant, and Frank Webb was the one and only Masters I , so unfortunately no pennat awarded for his efforts (yes, Frank, you've been Masters I all year!).

Summary of Results for QBC

The full finishing order for the 378 scullers who started may be found at http://www.vestarowing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ScullersHead2013.pdf.

QBC scullers Geoffrey Potts and Tom Bishop set off Friday afternoon to Turin, Italy as part of the GB entry of twelve various scullers who ventured to the Silver Skiff International 11k Endurance Race run by Canottieri Cerea Rowing Club, Turin.

On Saturday the weather was fine and sunny for a morning paddle over the course. Then in the afternoon an opportunity for culture was indulged with a visit to an exhibition of Renoir Paintings on loan from the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. This was followed with an evening visit to the Opera to see the Barber of Seville. Tom made a point of wearing his Quintin Tie so as to be sure to be in Quintin Kit (Well done Tom! Ed.).

On Sunday the Silver Skiff race started at 10:00am. The total entry of 467 scullers including Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale made the race bigger than Vesta Scullers Head this year. The entry was truly international with crews from all over Europe, USA, and as well as NZ. The course is a challenging up river 5.5k round a buoy and back. The time for all the scullers to take part is over three hours. Scullers go afloat just in time to start so as to stay warm. Conditions changed from early starters mist and rain with a little upstream breeze to later starters experiencing bright hot sunshine and strengthening headwinds in the downstream leg. Times and overall positions are flashed up on screens in the clubhouses as each sculler crosses the finish line. Local TV airs the racing scullers in real time with Google maps showing the positions of the leading scullers as they race the course. The rowing clubs of Armida and Cerea which are adjacent then provide a sit down three course lunch for a modest fee. Geoffrey found himself sitting opposite Mahe and was in earnest conversation as to his training regime. So beware you QBC guys, Geoff now has the low down as to what you should be doing in his training sessions.

The results overall and a gallery of more pictures are on the Silverskiff website, Mahe won overall and was only about ten minutes faster that your heroic QBC Scullers.

Geoffrey Potts had a good steady row with a fast return from the buoy and finished 5th in Masters G in a time of 50mins 18sec, being narrowly beaten into 4th by Tom Bishop in a time of 50mins 5sec. Tom had a more exciting paddle, entering the trees along the bank twice on the way up and then a few minutes after the turn being hit by a sculler who was still going upstream but was on the wrong side of the buoys. This took a chunk out of Tom's boat, knocked his number off and nearly capsized him. So the practise in Henley Sculls the previous week was put to good use. The other sculler did capsize (Tom is pleased to report)! The marshals sorted out that Tom had lost his number and radioed to the finish ahead of time so that Tom got a time recorded as he crossed the line. The Masters G category was won by GB's Sean Morris of Wallingford who, having accumulated three wins in the race over the last few years, was given a model of a sculling boat in silver as well as his category winner's trophy and medal. Something to aim for perhaps.

The club had two entries in the Kingston Small Boats Head this year. Steve Aquilina {Masters D) was the faster, in a time of 18 min. 29.5 sec,) but Pete Meaney (Masters E), whose time was 18 min. 40.4 sec, was awarded the Masters D/E pennant on handicap. Steve had even turned the tables on last week's Masters D pennant winner at Teddington, Pullen of Twickenham, beating him by almost ten seconds.

So it's Pete who enters the Pennant Winners Chart rather than Steve.

Full finishing order at http://www.kingstonrc.co.uk/images/stories/Events/ksbh2013/KSBH2013_div_1_and_2_provisional_results_Rev2.pdf.

The club had five entries in this year's Henley Sculls long distance race. Matt Denley was 9th overall in Division 3 and was 2nd in IM2 in a time of 15:04, Tom Bishop, also in division 3, won the Masters G pennant in a time of 16:54. In division 2, Geoff Potts was third in Masters F, 11 seconds behind the pennant winner, and Dick Findlay (Masters H) won the Masters H/I handicap in a time of 17:47 (handicap-adjusted to 15:32) over Frank Webb (Masters I) whose time was 18:48 (adjusted to 16:04). Full results may be found at http://www.henleyopenevents.co.uk/results.

For the secret to Tom's success, take a look at the photograph at this site taken by Iain Weir.

Also on Saturday was Teddington (no longer just small boats) Head, where Steve Aquilina returned to old haunts to compete in the Masters D single sculls category. Steve finished second in his category in a time of 19:03.4. Full results may be found at http://www.walbrookrc.co.uk/UserFiles/Files/Teddington_Head/results2013.pdf.

Geoff and Pauline

Geoff Peel (QBC) and Pauline Bird (TSS) were married today at the Octogon Room, Orleans House, Twickenham, at 11:00 am. This is not believed to be a move to bring the two clubs closer together - they are currently only separated by Chiswick Bridge. Geoff and Pauline first crossed paths at the FISA World Masters Regatta in Vienna in 1993, so it has been somewhat of a lightning romance.

A photograph of Geoff and Pauline may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1786.

While our home team was toughing it out in the torrential rain in the Pairs Head, the barflies were "playing away" and basking in the sunshine of southern France. Our captain, Dave King, takes up the story:

"The Bar Flies made their annual European pilgrimage this year to France for the Avignon Cup. This has the novel format of a 4.5k head race in the morning for eights followed by the crew breaking down for a 500m sprint through the arches of the bridge in a quad, pair and single scull, plus an ergo on land. Société Nautique d'Avignon provided us with a nice new Wintech eight for the race. However, we discovered it was a 70 kilo boat for our rather larger crew and so the gates had to be put on maximum height. The French club also organised a very pleasant sunny day in the mid 70's for the race.

Avignon Photos

Over 50 eights took part in the 4.5k Head down the fast flowing river Rhone. The Bar Flies came in third in the Veterans section in 14min. 40 sec, some 40 seconds ahead of the local Avignon vets. After the team had fuelled up on pasta, the afternoon sprints saw Simon, Paul, Adrian and Aubrey compete in the quad, Dave and Roy trying to stay upright in the pair, William in the scull and John a very creditable 1min 25 sec on the ergo (not 2:30 as initially reported - Ed.). The net result was QBC retaining its third position in the Vets category.

After fun and games with the satnav getting out of Avignon, a very tired crew slept all the way home courtesy of Easyjet. A big thank you to Adrian for organising the trip and to Société Nautique d'Avignon for providing the boats."

Photographs of the event may be found at http://quintinboatclub.org/gallery/index.php?ref=1776.

Contrary to our pre-race report, the club had eight full entries and an interest in two composites in the Pairs Head this year. Mike Ewing and Paul Keane (IM1 2x) finished sixth overall in a time of 12 min. 3.26 sec, just 9½ seconds behind the winners. At the other end of the scale, Dick Findlay and Frank Webb won the Masters G/H doubles finishing 255th in 14:06.29, and in the middle, Tom Bishop's composite with daughter Eva (Minerva Bath) finished 181st in 13:41.68 to take the mixed Masters D doubles pennant. Other in-betweeners as shown below:

The full results may be found at http://www.bblrc.co.uk/pairshead/pairs-head-recent-results/. The prizegiving is at the Civil Service boathouse on Sunday 27th October at "12:00pm" (sic). Your editor assumes this is meant to be 12 noon and not midnight! The prizes will be presented by sports presenter John Inverdale.

Results from Wallingford: Luke Moneley was the fourth fastest IM2 sculler (of seven) in a time of 19 min. 23.3 sec. Charles Harrison was the second fastest Masters E sculler (of three) in a time of 19 min. 44.8 sec. Tom Bishop was the second fastest Masters F sculler (of 3) in a time of 19 min. 32.0 sec, with Geoff Potts third in 20 min. 26.7 sec. Tom and Geoff together were the fastest Masters G double, in a time of 18 min. 6.0 sec. and thus kick off the 2013-14 Pennant Winners Chart. Full results from Wallingford may be found at http://wallingford-sculls.org.uk/2013-results/.

This is how the Pennant Winners Chart looks.