Having tasted so much success at Kingston the previous week, Dev. Squad were eager for more at Molesey Amateur Regatta. After some excellent power napping in the minibus, everyone arrived extra refreshed and ready for lots more racing.
Unfortunately, a lack of opponents meant that they all had to enter the IM3 4+ category in the morning session. That meant a lot of boat sharing as they tried desperately to get all five (yes 5!) of the crews to their respective races.
After a series of close races, the final pitted the last remaining CUWBC crew against a well-drilled crew from Great Marlow School, who had already defeated two Cambridge crews in earlier rounds. They had a good start well and quickly established a long, powerful rhythm, holding Marlow round the outside of the bend before powering clear down the straight. The final result was victory by 1-¾ lengths to Cambridge.
The morning also saw some new experiences, with Valentina unlucky to come up against a quick Walton sculler in her first ever sculling race. Ella and Cath narrowly lost their first race together in the pair, despite stopping to admire the scenery on the way!
In the afternoon session, the novice 4+ were unlucky to be drawn against the eventual winners Quintin in their first round, but produced a fantastic race to lose narrowly by a length and a half.
Next came the IM3 8+s. Both the “Twin” and “Joan” crews had comfortably won their first round races, setting up an all Cambridge final. “Joan” had the better start, taking a couple of seats before “Twin” made a series of pushes round the inside of the bend to take the lead by a couple of feet. Coming on to the straight, “Joan” made a massive push and, following a fantastic rhythm from Ella and Kate, started to really find the length in the water that they’d spent the last 4 weeks developing. This proved to be the decisive moment, with “Joan” taking the victory by 1/3 of a length.
To cap things off, the IM3 pair of Kate and Helen rowed superbly to take victory by two lengths.
The squad all had a fantastic time during the 4 weeks and learned a huge amount and would like to thank the fantastic double-act of Paddy and Nick for putting up with them and for teaching them so much. Everyone is looking forward to coming back for more in September!
