Metropolitan Regatta at Dorney Lake, 5-6 June 2010
Added 07/06/2010 by Tom Wewer
 - IM1 8+ Winners!
Friday night, big Morgo revved up the yellow bus and rumbled a flotilla of City of Bristol boats down to Dorney Lake ready for a variety of crews to do battle in the 7-lane multi-lane splash and froth fest of Metropolitan Regatta.
First row of the sunny day was the men's 4+ (Billy Downey aka Crusher Jnr, James Nobhouse, Morgotron, Tom Wewer, plus Ruthie or Lizzie) in the Senior Heat with some strong crews from Molesey, Henley and Wallingford, IC and Agecroft - who were somehow all despatched as CoBC growled into a lead after 500m and kept pushing to win by a length to make the final. Next up, the technical finesse of the Coxless 4- (Colin Davis, Andrew 'no points' Porter, Schwen and Rob Beever) laid down a masterclass in the heats of both IM2 and IM1 walking away with emphatic wins in their morning heats; 7 and 8 seconds clear respectively!
Also on Saturday, The mens 4+ of Ian Green, Big Noah, James Benfield and Will Spencer coxed by Kat had a strong row in IM3 against a irresistable field of sand-bagging student crews racing in categories below their ability. The boys fought to 5th place, no small achievment at a Regatta like the Met. Emma Mitchell was also present in the Womens IM2 1x. She battled through her heat and into a repechage later in the day. Unfortunately the quality in the rep was too much and the Bristol Battler was knocked out of the competition.
For the Men's 4+ and 4- it proved a day of two halves. The Big Boy 4+, confident after strong wins in the heats decided to attack the water instead of row in it in their final and had stuffed it before the km mark with their nemesis crew of Tideway Scullers romping to victory a length + clear of crews that the CoBC boys had dumped in the heats. Oh dear. With tired legs full of 3x2k races, the 4+ nearly made amends in the IM1 final with Ruthie Cullingford coxing us to a surging comeback against fours from Durham and Oxford Brookes. Unfortunately, and despite rowing properly, the lactic locomotive ran out of steam with a canvas to go on the Durham 4+, dead heating for 2nd with Brookes. In the two finals for the Mens coxless 4, it proved an oh so close for both events, narrowly being squeezed into 2nd place despite big pushes in the last 250m in both events. Still, superb results for newly formed crews.
Sunday racing saw the senior men's squad reform the pain train and take on some big guns in the 8. No less than James Crabhouse's old Etonion super-8. Poor Sven was taken ill with a virus from a dodgy schnitzel which left us only one option; to dust the cobwebs and oil the big gears of the CoBC human wrecking machine - Tiny Larkman! Going against the top 8's from Eton, Thames and 1829 proved too much despite a reaonable chunky row, and we came in 4th, still managing to lay waste to a London 8. This left us all day to relax and recover, and to support the IM3 coxed 4 gents in another race, Emma Mitchell in a Marlow 4, and one of the shock performances of the day by the Bristol womens squad; the ladies surprised a number of opposition in their heat, battling for second place at the 1k marker with Vesta rowing club, with Mortlake out in front. The ladies were narrowly pushed back into 3rd, still qualifying for the final and despatching crews from Durham Universtiy, Newcastle Uni and Agecroft in the process. Sadly the final proved a step to far with the prestigious Thames women taking victory, but Bristol taking revenge over Vesta none the less.
 - The biggest novice pot in the world!
The final race of the day proved to be one of the best. Men's IM1 8s, the last shot for the men's squad to make up for the near misses so far. Now with big Texan Matt subbing in for Sven, and the wild youth of Billy and Crabnob in the stern pair of the 8, we were well up for a smashfest. A pretty shakey start saw us down to London and Molesey by 500m with LRC stretching to easy clear water by the 1k marker. Done and dusted according to some verbal reports from the bank... Not so. Lizzie called a massive push at 1k marker with the rate creeping up to 39 spm, 2 seats off London and a sniff of an overlap. At 1250, Billy's unhinged race attitude came into play and he called the go for the finish... pain train style. By 500 to go it was half a length, 250 to go, up level, 100m to go and Big Morgan is hollering with us over half a length up on LRC and thundering to victory through the red buoys in a cracking time of 5:52. Best of all, Captain Porter lost his novice status and went swimming for good measure.
City of Bristol finalists:
| Saturday | SEN 4+ 5th | | | IM1 4+ 2nd | | | IM1 4- 2nd | | | IM2 4- 2nd | | | | Sunday | IM1 8+ 1st | | | WIM2 8+ 5th |
Congratulations to all who raced through a tough weekend. Next stop for the CoBRC Pain Trains: Reading.
|
|
|
