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.

We have a very healthy number of rowers in our women’s senior squad and are in need of one or two more coxes to take them through to success at major head races, Henley Women’s Regatta, Henley Royal Regatta and the National Championships in 2012.  This is a great opportunity to train and race at the highest club level, make lots of new friends and enjoy the social side of the friendliest club on the Tideway.

You will be fully supported by an experienced coaching team of Matt, Paul, Jeremy, Henry and Jamie; you’ll train in top quality boats and have every chance to take your crew to trophies.

Please email Matt Gilliver if you are interested.

The Vesta annual Big Breakfast will be held at the Vesta Bar after training on Saturday 24th September (probably around 11ish). This is the traditional Vesta way of kicking off the new season while helping raise money for the tea and toast which will sustain us during the long, cold, and hard winter. So please come, bring family and friends, and eat loads of yummy porridge, sausages and breakfast goodies.

The breakfast and training session will be followed by the annual 4′s Head Recce Bar Crawl. More details to follow, but suffice it to say that it will start around 2ish, and hit all the bars along the 4s Head course (i.e. Mortlake to Putney). Make sure to eat a big breakfast to line your stomaches for an afternoon of drinking which will bring us all back to the Vesta Bar…where beers buy boats!

Any questions, please get in touch with Ailsa or Alex

By Aga and Cheryl

I’m extremely pleased to report that Vesta Rowing Club was once again triumphant at Henley Women’s Regatta.

We won the Club Eights, beating Mortlake Anglian and Alpha Boat Club by 3L in a time of 5 minutes 9 seconds, having dispatched Thames RC A, Royal Chester and Cantabrigian in the previous rounds, with no verdict less than three lengths.  Our winning crew was Aleksandra Kurek, Martha Kelly, Liane Higgins, Vicky Brock, Susan Atkinson, Kirstine Keyes, Holly De Gay, Hilary Blandy and Rachael Dixon (coxswain), coached by James Parris, Matt Gilliver & Paul Fitzwilliam.  A fantastic result for the crew, squad and their coaches.

In other events, Lara Brock and Ellie Dorman fought a strong field to make it to the final of elite pairs eventually losing out in the final to a Reading University/Nottingham RC composite who are also the GB European Champs crew for this year.  Our Vesta ladies also made the semi-finals in the elite pairs (Ailsa Tremayne and Kat Hedges) and the club coxed fours (Aga Siemiginowska, Nell Pascall, Helen Edwards, Caroline Newbury and cox Rohanne Thompson) where we lost in a well fought semi-final against the eventual winners, Upper Thames RC.  We also had an excellent representation earlier in the regatta in senior doubles,  and in the Club eights with our Development Women beating Barnes Bridge Ladies in their first round and eventually losing to Thames A, and with our senior squad Club B eight losing to Curlew.

We were the most successful Tideway Club at the regatta, and after last year’s success in the Senior Eights, we have now have demonstrated that our success in women’s competition is becoming well established.

Andrew

Captain, Vesta Rowing Club