Last weekend saw the first major event of the season for Tees Rowing Club. The Fours Head of the River attracts only the best crews from around the country with Tees deciding to send three men’ crews, a women’s crew and a junior girl’s crew.
The race is rowed over 6 kilometres from Chiswick to Putney. The format of the race takes the form of a time trial with crews setting off at roughly 10 second intervals. Although primarily competing against crews within your own category it is possible to compare your result across all categories.
From the moment the crews arrived at the river it was evident that the weather forecast had been accurate with a strong southerly wind causing choppy water. Making their way to the start was tricky for the crews with a number of them taking on water due to the conditions.
All the crews battled hard through the conditions with the S1 men’s crew of David Cooper, Johnny Cooper, Paul Buckworth and Hugh Pelham the first Tees crew to cover the course coming in 3rd in their category and 204th overall. Shortly after were the two S2 men’s crews. First home and the fastest of all the Tees boats was the crew of Chris Black, Ben Rowe, Matthew Stiller and James Farley who came in 17th in their category and 57th overall. Only 5 seconds behind and coming in 19th in the same category was the crew of Darren Cooper, Lee Fisher, Dan Graham and Philip Gray.
Starting over an hour later were the women’s crews. The S2 women’s crew of Sarah Harker, Jo Pittaway, Anna Clayton and Angie Warburton rowed well coming in 5th in their category and 371st overall. The junior girl’s crew of Beth Henderson, Bethan Walters, Jo Wratten and Katherine Copeland also rowed well to come 5th in their category and 283rd overall.
Another Tees RC member, Bob Hewitt, was competing in a crew with three members of London Rowing Club. This crew contained Nathan Cohen who competed for New Zealand at this years Olympics. They dealt with the conditions well and finished in a very respectable 4th in their category and 11th overall.
Well done to everyone on a very trying and exhausting day and we hope this can be used as a foundation on which to build a long and successful season.