19/10/06

Wallingford & Evesham Head Wins

Six wins get Upper Thames off to a fine start for the new season

Upper Thames Rowing Club had a splendid start to the 2006/2007 rowing season over last weekend with six wins at two different Heads of the River.

Wallingford Long Distance Sculling Head

The 33rd Wallingford Long Distance Sculling Head on Saturday 7th October provided four of the Upper Thames winners.

The crew of Caris Marsh (bow), Elise Cope, Beth Jackson and Suzanne Coleman (stroke) won the Women’s Senior 2 quadruple sculls; Mark Shimmin took the Veteran ‘C’ single sculls and Graham Lloyd the Veteran ‘D’ single sculls while Emma Wirt notched up her first ever win with the Women’s Junior 14 single sculls beating her nearest competitor by a margin of 36 seconds in a time better than that of a number of the senior men and women.

The Wallingford Sculling Head is raced over 4000 metres from Cholsey Ferry to the Oxford University boathouse at Wallingford Marina and is divided into two divisions. Division 1 started at 12 noon and was for double and single sculls; and Division 2 starting at 3.30 p.m. for quadruple sculls (both coxed and coxless) and single sculls. The singles results from both divisions are pooled to find an eventual winner.

More than 500 entries were accepted for the event (first held in 1974) which was originally sculled over a 6000 metre course from Moulsford boathouse to the Wallingford Marina. This was eventually shortened in favour of a 4000 metre course from Cholsey Ferry because of the difficulties in overtaking in the narrow channel at the Four Arches railway bridge.

Three Upper Thames Rowing Club winners display their trophies.
From left : Jo Unsworth who won the Women's J12 single sculls at Evesham;
Sam Mottram winner of the J12 single sculls also at Evesham; and
Emma Wirt who won Women's J14 single sculls at Wallingford Sculling head of the river.

Evesham Head

At the Evesham Head on the same day the two Upper Thames entries both broke the course record. Racing over 1400 metres, Sam Mottram recorded his first win in his first year of rowing beating his closest rival in a field of seven entries in the same class by a margin of 13 seconds to set up a new course record of 7 min 14 sec.

Joanna Unsworth, who is a pupil at Gillotts School, won the Women’s Junior 12 category by a staggering three and a half minutes and beating five J12 men in the process and also setting up a course record of 7 mins 33 sec.

This was a very satisfying start to the season for Upper Thames Rowing Club.

DT : 9/10/06 12 noon