The 2011 Scullers Head Winners

The 2011 Vesta Scullers Head took place on Saturday, 3rd December. Vesta is the only club that single-handedly organises not one, but two of the major Tideway Heads – a feat made possible because of members and friends of the club members. Happily not put off by the cold conditions in 2010, we had 528 entries for the 2011 race, with 26 of our own Vesta entries. The event ran without (major) incident with only two crews “DNF”.

Once the dust had settled post-race, and event chairman Sinéad Hayes recovered from mental exhaustion, the winners were celebrated at a prizegiving held on 13th December. Sinéad once again pulled out all the stops to cater for the event in true rower style – i.e. fantastic canapés in vast volumes.

Tommy Thompson and event chairman Sinéad Hayes with winners Adam Freeman-Pask (Imperial) and Imogen Walsh (London RC) and their prizes

Event winners came from all over the UK and from far beyond. Bragging rights for best Tideway club were shared between Tideway Scullers and London Rowing Club with seven wins each. The fastest man and woman were both GB lightweights, Adam Freeman-Pask (21:09.0) and Imogen Walsh (22:35.9). In addition to the medals awarded by event, recast from the original 1953 prize, the fastest men and women received an exquisite scale model sculpture of a single scull cast in pewter.

The Vesta Senior Women’s Squad succeeded in three events, with lightweight Holly De Gay achieving the fastest time of all three despite starting at 521, when the sun was starting to set. The winners were as follows:

Two of Vesta’s winners, Kat Hedges and Holly De Gay, with Sinéad Hayes

Holly De Gay, W.IM3.LWT.1x (23:58.5)

Liz Crighton, W.IM2.1x (24:04.7)

Kat Hedges, W.MasA.1x (24:16.2)

For full results, please check out the Results Page by clicking here.

Even more hotly contested are the Vesta exclusive events, also known as “Dick’s Bar Prizes” (two bottles of cava and glory untold). The categories and winners for these events were:

1st man home: Jamie Halliday
1st male Master: Barry Clarke (… faster than Jamie after adjusting for handicap)
1st woman home: Holly De Gay
1st female Master: Kat Hedges

It is understood that the Cava was appropriately consumed and enjoyed following the Vesta Annual Dinner… an event for which no website write-up is required!

Words and pictures by Martha Kelly.

• The women’s development squad followed up a fantastic season with a win at Richmond Regatta in W.IM3 8+ (crew:  A. van Den Berg, S. Schorm, S. Barton, S. Head, S. Schlosser, V. Harvey, R. Withers, T. Hudson, V. Taylor (cox)).
• CORRECTION: Kingston Regatta passed with a few entries and at least TWO wins:
• o    Mas C 4- Peter Simpson, James Weatherstone, Fred Beaud, Bryan Williams beat Kingston GS Associates
• o    Nov 2x James Ulner and Nico Russman
• … Fortunately we were back on winning form at a rainy Molesey Regatta, with no less than four wins – all in sculling:
• o   Gianni Galavotti finally popped his novice sculling cherry in style, with wins at both Nov 1x and IM3 1x
• o   Athene McGregor-Macdonald and Natalie “Red” Demblon also lost their novice status, in the W.Nov 2x
• o   Martha Kelly notched up a win in W.IM3 1x
• Back in Henley-on-Thames (for Henley Town and Vistitors) Vesta claimed more silverware, this time with some help from our friends:
• o   Emi Furuhata lost her novice status in the W.Nov 4+ in conjunction with HSBC RC
• o   Kat Hedges defended her quad title in the W.IM2 4x with alma mater club Eton Excelsior.
• And last but not least, in the Barnes and Mortlake Regatta, Mas C 2x was won by Peter Simpson and Frederic Beaud who beat Putney Town in the semi-final and Cygnet in the Final to win.

Well done Vesta! Now back to the ergos to prep for the new season ahead!!

- Martha and Aga

The winning crew were (B-S): Rahma Barclay, Alex Johnson, Kat Hedges, Vicky Williams, Lara Brock, Vics McLeod-More, Charlie Dempster, Emily Trant and Julia Hedley (coxswain), and are very ably coached by Matt Gilliver, James Parris and Paul Fitzwilliam. This is an incredible achievement, rewarding our girls and coaches for their huge amount of effort, patience, tenacity and humour over the past nine months.

Earlier in the weekend, Vesta was very well represented in the quarter finals of the Intermediate Club eights with our club crew losing by two lengths to the eventual winners, Thames Rowing Club, our lightweight coxless four losing to Marlow Rowing Club, and Ailsa Tremayne losing to London Rowing Club in the elite singles.

A Vesta Senior Women’s crew will now attempt to qualify for the Remenham Challenge Cup this Friday at Henley Royal Regatta, please come and support them along with the Vesta Senior Men’s Wyfold ‘B’ Entry

The quad finished in the pack in a competitive final but the highlight of the day was Paul winning the gold medal the Masters F IM 1x in his first multi-lane single final.

Photo: Purdey congratulates Paul on his win on the presentation raft.

Having come away with one Gold medal last year in the quads (see report here) the bar was raised through the roof this year with the squad having 8 Crews in Finals and coming away with 2 Bronze Medals, 2 Silvers and 1 Gold whilst setting a course record (6.51.10) and claiming the International Belgian Championship for Women’s Eights.

In an exciting race, Vesta A tore through Thames (who had beaten them in the heats earlier in the day) to clinch victory by 3 seconds in a well fought final.

Belgian National Champions (L-R): Rahma Barclay, Alex Johnson, Helen Edwards, Vicky Williams, Lara Brock, Vics McLeod-More, Charlie Dempster, Emily Trant & Julia Hedley

Along with the victorious crew pictured above there were other medals in the form of:

Silver Medals for Emily Trant, Lara Brock, Vics McLeod-More & Charlie Dempster in the Women’s Coxless Fours.

Silver Medals for Lara Brock, Ailsa Tremayne, Charlie Dempster & Natasha Bolsin in the Women’s Quads (pictured below).

Bronze Medals for Ailsa Tremayne & Natasha Bolsin in the Women’s Pairs on Saturday (pictured below).

Bronze Medals for Kitty Lowings & Alex Johnson on Sunday in the Women’s Pairs on Sunday (pictured below).

Amongst the medallists there were 8 crews that made finals, including two eights for the National W8+ Final which is a staggering acheivement.

Congratulations must go to the whole squad and coaches: Matt Gilliver, Paul Fitzwilliam and James Parris.

For full Vesta Results click here

The senior women’s squad chunnelled and ferried over to sunny Ghent at the weekend for the 32nd International Belgian Championships for Seniors. Hopes were high after the wins at Wallingford, however the competition would be tougher since races at Ghent are open.

Saturday started well with the eight, quad, pair and double making it to their finals. Unfortunately with most people doubling up and all the finals being close together there were no medals to be had.

However everyone went into Sunday with renewed energy after the hotel’s great breakfast spread. The decision for Sunday was that no one would double up so it was just an eight, a quad and a coxless four racing. Both the quad and the coxless four made it into their finals with the coxless four putting in a strong performance unfortunately being pipped to the post for fourth place.

The final race of the day was the quad of Charlie Dempster, Kitty Lowings, Anna Barkensjo and Gaby Turner (pictured above) pitted against strong competition from Kingston and Imperial College (who had beaten them the day before). The commentator kept announcing that it was between Kingston and Vesta all the way down the course with Vesta having a half length lead the whole way. The supporters’ club were on the edge of their seats willing them on to stay in the lead. As they came into view they looked strong and maintained their position pushing through to win by a length to Kingston with Imperial College coming in third.

At Ghent the awards ceremony is accompanied by a regal fanfare of trumpets over the sound system, and the winning quad received, along with their medals, an impressive trophy of a blade painted in Sport Ghent colours. It’s now onwards and upwards to Metropolitan Regatta and Women’s Henley.