A message from the organising committee: Apologies for the delay in producing the results, we normally try to publish within 2 hours of the last boat crossing the line, but several blanket finishes needed extra attention and close review of video evidence, which took its time for us to work through. We appreciate that we’ve raised people’s expectations with our normal prompt publication and we hope interested parties appreciate the causes for today’s delay.

There were two crews representing Vesta taking part this year, both coming away with good results.

A VetD.4x- comprising of Paul Mew, Robin Purkiss, Michael Hughes & Peter Simpson did well placing 6th out of 11 in their category and 37th overall despite getting over-friendly with a Tyrian coxed four (pictures here).

Vesta/Auriol Kensington had a win in the VetB.4x- category, coming second overall. Starting second, they overtook the crew in front of them quite soon after the start leaving them clear water and perfect conditions all the way to the finish.

Find out more about the race here.

The girls were back, showing their class with a 1st/2nd finish in the IM2 2x category, Charlie Dempster and Kitty Lowings finishing just 5 seconds ahead of Kat Hedges and Lara Brock.

Furthermore, the Vesta/Auriol Kensington Vet B/C 2x of Jeremy Burke and Frank ‘the tank’ Raschke won their category in a time of 00:12:36.

As the only person in the history of the event to actually enjoy 31 miles of non stop sculling, he was tipped as a favourite to come away with the coveted Novice 1x pot.

With standard mainland European doggedness Gianni did Vesta proud and did manage to secure victory in the Novice category with a good time of 04:10.59, many congratulations!

(Photo courtesy of Tim Hodges, in case you hadn’t guessed.)

In the meantime a record number of crews had qualified for finals and there were four Vesta wins in the W IM2 4x, the IM3 4+ , IM2 1x and IM1 4- categories.

The club’s sculling fraternity deserves a special mention: in a large entry of Vesta scullers Harry Bond lost the Elite final against a GB sculler in Mahe Drysdale’s boat by only one foot and in a close Vesta/Vesta final Jeremy Burke beat Michael Hughes by just three feet. In a race that looked like the master craftsman was passing on his trade to the young apprentice, the master was lucky to win in the very last few metres of the race.

Congratulations to the novice, sorry senior, four that won IM1 4- on the very last stroke to win their second pots in a week. Novice at Staines, IM1 at HT&V – a fantastic result!

There was a long overdue novice win for the NV 4+ of Philippa Le Roux, Harriet Caldwell-Nichols, Janine Snape, Robyn MacCrimmon, steered by Kate Garratt, a huge win for Michael Hughes in his third Novice 1x final of the summer and solid IM2 wins for Kitty and Kat in the 2x and Jeremy Burke in the 1x.

The senior squads had a good day at Kingston Amateur Regatta with four wins. The senior women’s IM1 8 beat Cambridge Uni in the semi and then went on to beat the other two Cambridge crews in a close final for the first pot of the day.

Harry then did the honours in the IM1 single before coming back in a scratch crew to take on the Obama Four in the Vesta/Vesta IM1 4- final in what was the race of the day. In race closer than last week’s City of Bristol semi final the crews were dead level coming into the enclosure. A late push just gave the Ireland/Campbell/Shaw/Bond crew a win in the last stroke of the race – the offical verdict was three feet but it looked much closer.

In a rare Novice Quad event, a group of our novice scullers then beat a strong junior crew from Calpe of Gibraltar to claim the fourth win of the day and their novice sculling pots. Sadly Michael Hughes, who is trying to win his novice sculling pot the hard way, couldn’t beat a strong Tiffin sculler in the novice 1x final. Also unsuccesful was the Hindshaw/Henderson double who unfortunately suffered from a lack of race practice.

Congratulations to everyone for a good day’s racing – and for winning the Victor Ludorum. Same again next year please!

This was Vesta’s 18th appearance in a Henley Final; the full list is shown in the results section. Further coverage appeared in the Surrey Comet shortly afterwards.

Vesta’s second boat was entered in the Thames Challenge Cup. Despite a decisive win against Combined Services on Wednesday they were knocked out by favourites Tideway Scullers the following day. The crew of Alasdair Anderson, Rob Shaw, Josh McInerney, Mat Jozwiak, Laurence Manning, Alister Campbell, James Watts and Uinseann McSamhrain and cox Liz Head put in a solid performance and this result proves that a year of technical work and fitness training has brought the squad to a new level with great potential to go even further next year.

As usual, Vesta supporters were out in force and leading the famous ‘Remenham roar’ as our crews streaked past the club! Many thanks to all who turned up and we hope to see you all again next year for even more success and champagne on Paul Baldwin, our ever-generous chairman.

The intermediate coxed four of Vics Mcleod-More, Aga Siemiginowska, Emily Druce and Natasha Henderson-Ross with Andrew MacMillan coxing did well to qualify in a strong field. Sadly, they then lost to eventual finalists City of Oxford in the first round.

The eight of Verity Ansell, Sarah Wood, Anna Barkensjo, Charlie Dempster, Gaby Turner, Rahma Barclay, Emily Trant and Kitty Lowings coxed by Ross Martin did particularly well, storming through the time trial and all three rounds on the way to the final with some close races on the way (including a canvas win over Putney Town in the second round).

In the final they came up against a very strong York City crew who had posted similar times to Vesta during the regatta. Throughout the race York had to pull out all the stops to repel Vesta pushes again and again, but they just managed to hold on and went on to win by a length.

The Elite coxless four of Anna Storrs, Kat Hedges, Mary Donovan and Becki Helson faced an incredibly tough field but after a determined fight and some interesting steering from both crews they clawed out a lead of a length and a quarter in their semi to become the second Vesta crew this year to make a HWR final. In the final they sadly lost out to a fierce Molesey crew which included some GB triallists.

Freya Johnstone put in a gutsy row down the course up until the halfway point, where she lost her lead on her opponent in the lightweight singles heat.

All in all, although it’s gutting to come so close to a win, reaching two HWR finals is a phenomenal achievement for the squad and congratulations must go to the athletes and especially to the coaches Matt Gilliver, Paul Fitzwilliam, Jessica Essex and the guest coaches such as Rusty Williams.