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.

IM18+ Pennant Winners (s - Kat Astley, Lara Brock, Caroline Newbury, Aga Siemiginowska, Emma Dyson, Kitty Lowings, Kathryn Clover, Kat Hedges, cox Jamie Wooler)

The Vesta senior squads were out in force at a sunny Wallingford Head on Sunday 27th November, with two men’s VIIIs, four women’s VIIIs and four women’s IVs in action. With an exciting set of bends halfway down the course, all coxes and steers did a great job to bring home all equipment intact, albeit occasionally decorated with small amounts of shrubbery. The squads gained quality race experience, with all finding better pace by the second division, having enjoyed rather more sedate rhythms in division one. The women’s squad recorded two wins in the afternoon, in IM1 VIII and Sen 4-. The W.IM1 VIII enjoyed overtaking their competitors so much with their new-found race pace that they took a detour into the bushes through that infamous bend, enabling the rest of the category to catch up; before storming through the field again to bringing home the pennant. In the W.Sen 4- event, the race was on between two Vesta crews. Having despatched Reading University early on, it was up to the mighty lighties to maintain the leading position to the finish line. The final verdict was a win to the lighties with a margin of half a second – thank heavens for Wallingford’s precision timing, eh?! We’ll call that a very well-matched set of performances.

• 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 women’s squad entered WIM3 and won the category convincingly with a time of 12.59.4.  Moreover, they were the fastest women’s crew of the day, beating 30 other women’s crews and a few men’s crews along the way!   The crew, from stroke to bow, consisted of:  Tammy Bernard, Helen Edwards, Nell Pascall, Aga Siemiginowska, Vicky Brock, Liane Higgins, Natalie Demblon, Sandy Kurek and Ro Thompson (cox).

The men’s squad entered IM1 and came third out of 7 in this category, with a finish time of 11.42.7.  The crew, from stroke to bow, consisted of Daniel O’Dowd, Robert Shaw, Samuel McCarthy, Michael Hughes, Nicholas Neveling, Jonathan Brown, Alister Campbell, Gianni Galavotti and Helen Gray, (cox).

- Tammy Bernard

(Photos copyright Birdman Photography)

The senior women’s squad entered both the Women’s Elite and the Women’s Intermediate.  The Elite crew, from stroke to bow, consisted of: Alex Johnson, Lara Brock, Ailsa Tremayne, Aga Siemiginowska, Nell Pascall, Susan Atkinson, Ellie Dorman, Kat Hedges and Julia Hedley (cox).  The Intermediate crew, from stroke to bow, consisted of:  Tammy Bernard, Sandy Kurek, Caroline Newbury, Helen Edwards, Vicky Brock, Liane Higgins, Liz Crighton, Kitty Lowings and Ro Thompson (cox).  The Intermediate crew won their category with a time of 12.58.27, narrowly beating the Elite crew who finished with a time of 12.59.54.

Winners of Women’s Intermediate: from left to right, Caroline Newbury, Tammy Bernard, Liane Higgins, Kitty Lowings, Helen Edwards, Vicky Brock, Sandy Kurek and Liz Crighton

Women's Elite Crew

The women’s development squad gamely entered Women’s Intermediate category.  The crew, from stroke to bow, consisted of:  Anna Vandenberg, Sybille Schorm, Sarah Head, Marie-Elena Nilsback, Sian Withers, Thea Hudsen, Deborah Croshaw, Emi Furuhata and Victoria Taylor (Cox).  For some of the crew, this was their first ever race, so despite the shaky start their coach, James Unler, was delighted that they finished only about a minute and a half off the top boats in their category, with a time of 14.23.87.

Women's Intermediate Crew

The Men’s Elite A crew finished in 11:46.97, the Men’s Intermediate crew finished in 12:25.44, the Masters A crew (Jamie Halliday, George Fieldhouse, Barry Clarke, Ariel Perez, Matt Gilliver, James Watts, Angry Vinny McGovern, Colm Hardiman and Andrew Macmillan (cox)) finished in 12:39.12 and the Masters B in 12:57.47.

Men's Masters Crew

Men's Intermediate Crew

- Tammy Bernard

Michael Hughes and Jon Brown raced in the IM2 1x and IM3 1x respectively, Big Jon qualified for the final after an impressive heat but lost to a strong Bewl/Exeter Uni sculler. They teamed up for the IM2 2x and after winning the heat, the gunship won a closely fought final.

Peter Simpson convincing won the Masters C 1x against Erith before doubling up with Janet Simpson in the mixed masters B 2x where they lost to a powerful local crew.

Paul Mew beat David Wright from UTRC in a heat of the Masters F 1x only to be disqualified for steering and therefore missing out on a certain pot in the final. He then teamed up with David in a VRC/UTRC composite to defend the Lea Autumn Masters E 2x but they were unfortunately out-gunned in a close race by the national champions from Poplar.

Photo: Vesta’s entry to Lea Autumn regatta, won IM2 2x and Masters C 1x

Here is a roundup of the Summer 2010 Vesta wins so far:

• Jamie Wooller won Novice Singles at Richmond Regatta

• Bevan Goulden, Laurence Manning, Nick Nevelling, Harry Bond, Alister Campbell, Chris Clements, Chris Burnell and Jamie Wooller, coxed by Sophy Fuchs won Intermediate 2 Eights at Kingston Regatta

• Jamie Halliday won Senior Coxless Pairs as part of a Vesta/Burton Leander composite at Burton Regatta

• Lara Brock and Vics Mcleod-Moore won Intermediate 3 Doubles at Molesey Regatta

• Hilary Blandy won Novice Singles at Molesey Regatta

• Alister Campbell and Laurence Manning won Elite Coxless Pairs and Intermediate 1 Coxless Pairs at Henley Town & Visitors Regatta

• Kitty Lowings, Vics Mcleod-Moore, Kat Hedges and Kate Tilbury won Intermediate 2 Quadruple Sculls as a Vesta/Mortlake composite at Henley Town & Visitors Regatta

• Kat Hedges won Masters B Quadruple Sculls as part of a Vesta/Eton Excelsior Composite at Maidenhead Regatta

More wins to follow at Peterborough and Oxford City I’m sure…!

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

Having destroyed the cream of British rowing at Met the previous week, the women’s Senior Eight turned their sights on the US. Following their string of recent wins, the girls were racing the elite American crews , St Joseph’s and Drexel, and proved that they have the power to stay cool under fire – rowing through from half a length down to win the final from Drexel by a foot.

Vesta 2, Americans nil – that’s how it’s done, Capello.

In the final of the women’s IM1 coxless 4, the Mighty Lighties (Tamsin Bernard, Pamela Brent, Freya Johnstone and Holly de Gay) cruised to a comfortable 3 length victory over Putney Town, demonstrating that sharp technical focus is more than a match for brute strength. The win so excited coach Matt Gilliver that he threw himself off his own bike and was removed from the regatta to have his leg stitched up.

The women’s intermediate eight made the finals of IM2, but were beaten by the more experienced Thames crew, while Ailsa Tremayne sculled through three rounds of the IM1x but was beaten at last by MAA.

Less than a week to go… be afraid, HWR, the Vesta women are on their way!

L-R: Vicky Williams, Alex Johnson, Kat Hedges, Lara Brock, Rahma Barclay, Vics Mcleod-More, Julia Hedley (cox), Charlie Dempster & Emily Trant

L-R: Matt Gilliver, Holly De Gay, Tamsin Bernard, Pamela Brent, Freya Johnstone, Paul Fitzwilliam & James Parris