Northwich Spring Head 2022 – successes for Vics’ Juniors
Vics’ crews have attended Head races at North of England (Chester) and Northwich this spring. The women’s Open and Masters E crews had both entered the North of England Head but used Northwich to get more practice over a shorter distance, ready for the regatta season.
The juniors turned out in force for Northwich, entering four singles in the First Division, a coxed Open J15 quad in the Second Division and a coxless quad and two doubles in the Third Division.
There were wins for Patrick Saunders in Open J15 1x and for Grace Rhead in WJ15 1x. Grace’s time was nearly a minute faster than the second placed WJ15 1x and was the fifth fastest WJ single performance of the day. Grace has benefitted hugely from the generosity of Guy Weatherly (Life Member) and his son Dan, who has loaned Grace his Empacher single for Grace to compete in the Junior Inter-regional Regatta in Nottingham on 23rd April.
Also at Open J15, Haig and Ethan Bainbridge showed how powerfully they can perform by winning Open J15 2x (Band 2), in a time that would have put them third in the Open J18 2x category. The Vics’ own Open J18 2x unfortunately collided with the bank just before the Finish but extricated themselves from the undergrowth and finished strongly.
Grace got herself a second first place by joining Zahra Wilkinson, Emma Large and Emily Bernhem in a WJ18 4x- (Band 2), beating Pengwern and North Staffordshire.
There were second places for Will Elliott in Open J16 1x (Band 2), Graham Barnett in Open 1x (Band 3, with Sam Fairbanks finishing third) and Mike Vick in Open MasG 1x. The Open J15 4x+ crew finished second in Band 2 with a time that would have placed them second in Band 1, Whilst the Womens Open 8+ and Womens MasE 8+ also finished second in their categories. Pablo Suarez found the Open J18 1x pretty strong and didn’t challenge for the leading places. The winning Open J18 1x would have finished second in Open 1x and beat one of Northwich’s Henley semi-finalists from last season.
Thanks again to Lesley Kuguloglu for the coaching input she has made to our crews, to Ray Percival for towing and for all the crews that attended and cheered on their fellow Vics’ members.
Our next event is our own Merseyside Regatta on Saturday 30th April. Please give your name to Sam Fairbanks if you can volunteer to help with the running of the event.
Richard Lewis
- Emma Large, Zahra Wilkinson, Emily Bernhem and Grace Rhead, winners of WJ18 4x
- Patrick Saunders, winner of Open J15 1x
- Haig and Ethan Bainbridge, winners of Open J15 2x
- Guy Weatherley with Grace Rhead, winner of WJ15 1x