Wednesday saw the first rounds of the Fawley Challenge Cup for Junior mens quads at Henley. The winners of today’s races all go on to face selected crews tomorrow and will face tough tests.
The first race of the day saw Tideway Scullers C take on Bedford’s top crew. Scullers ‘C’ led all the way down the track to take a convincing victory over Bedford, by 2.25 lengths. They will go on to face Henley RC ‘C’ tomorrow, in a race that puts two of the crews that came through qualifying up against each other.
The day’s second race saw St Peters from New Zealand put St Pauls School to the sword, in a race they rarely looked troubled in. Despite looking comfortable, the crew thought they had a poor row from Fawley onwards, feeling they started to shorten up. They also mentioned this was the first race over 2k that they have had in 3-4 months and are excited to put these aspects of their performance right tomorrow
Clydesdale took a win against Hinksey, who were racing at their ever Henley race. This means that the Scots will face Lea RC tomorrow in what promises to be a good race.
Tideway Scullers A had an interesting duel with a plucky Star Club crew who held them level for most of the way to the barrier, before slowly drawing out to a 1 1/4 lengths, a margin they held to the finish, with a time of 7.01. Leander ‘A’ lie in wait for Scullers tomorrow in what promises to be an exciting race.
Celebrating its 150th year and first time racing at HRR as well, coach Nigel Longley of Frankfurter am Main said he is ‘very proud of the crew. You can see they gave that race everything.’ following their 1 length win. Tomorrow they will race a fresh and seeded Claires’ Court outfit, but this does not phase them. ‘We see it as an advantage that we have had a race today and been down the course.’ Claires Court lie in wait for Frankfurt tomorrow.
A clash with a distinct northern flavour saw Chester le Street loose out to Christiania of Norway by 0.5 lengths in what was a good contest the whole way down the track. Christiania took the win and go on to face Eniskillen from Ireland tomorrow.
Arguably the race of the day came in the race between Tideway Scullers B and Walton RC. This was a tight duel all the way down the track, with one crew never breaking clear, and resulting in a straight drag race down the enclosures which resulted in a 0.5 length win for the Walton boat. They go on to face Henley RC ‘B’ on Thursday.
The final Fawley race on Wednesday saw Scotch College from Melbourne, take on Sir William Borlase Grammer School. This was a race that saw Scotch move into a lead fairly early on and they held this all the way and looked reasonably set, just about fending off a late Borlase surge that brought them back to only 1/3 of a length back. Scotch now go on to face Henley A tomorrow in a race that will have significant implications moving forward in the regatta.
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