Issue 104 - December 1997

Fours title goes to Germany

The Fullers Fours Head trophy went abroad for the first time in the event's 44 year history when four Germans from Mainzer, in a quad, snatched the title from Leander. The Germans, two from this year's lightweight silver medal quad and the two from the bronze medal lightweight double, started behind Leander I, which included Ben Hunt-Davis and Bob Thatcher. The German lightweights, looking smoother, steadily overhauled Leander, who had experienced last minute crew changes due to illness,and were side by side as the crews passed Putney. The clock showed that they had a 17 second winning margin.

The leading two opened up a large gap ahead of other top starting quads and an impressive third placing was eventually ahieved by Kingston/Molesey who started 327. This was the crew which unsuccessfully appealed against their non-selection last Summer.

Britain's world champion coxless four, with 1996 international Mat McQuillan replacing Steve Redgrave and Tim Foster taking over Redgrave's usual steering duties, duly won the coxless fours class as Leander II. Power, rather than a high rate, was clearly the strategy of stroke Matthew Pinsent, as the crew finished fourth overall behind the top three quads. Initially Oxford's top boat, which included Hecht, a former German international, and Nilsonn, a current Swedish performer, were announced as second in the class, 20 seconds behind Leander, but the computer had 'lost' boat 357, Oxford Brookes/London, all lightweight internationals, who were eventually found to have covered the course just fourteen seconds behind the winners.

Further German success came in the coxed fours, albeit under the colours of Cambridge. Cambridge, racing as Goldie, had two German internationals and an Austrian in their winning coxed boat which won the class by 16 seconds from London University. Ominously for Oxford, the Cambridge coxed four were only five seconds slower than the Dark Blues' top coxless boat, although some would argue that Suzie Ellis, a British international and the Cambridge coxswain, is a weight worth carrying over the Tideway course she knows so well.

Ellis's British international colleagues had a field day in the women's classes. The winning Marlow/Thames quad, including the Batten sisters,Miriam and Guin, and Miriam's world silver medal partner, Gillian Lindsay, almost took some spectators by surprise. Starting 421, their overtaking saw them finish with crew 407. Recognition was aided, however, by Guin Batten's recently dyed orange hair-style.

Overtaking was also a preoccupation for members of Britain's world champion womens coxless four, although they were split between two boats.

Lisa Eyre and Sue Walker were in the winning Marlow/Thames coxless four and Alex Beever and Libby Henshilwood were in the winning coxed four. The coxless winners had a full minute's winning leeway; the coxed boat were pushed by Kingston, only eight seconds slower.

Leander, with three crews finishing in the top nine, and Tideway Scullers, with three in the top eleven, monopolised the heights of the 550 crew entry. The top Tideway Scullers quad, finishing fifth, was a lightweight crew with former triple world champion, Peter Haining, at bow, happily none the worse from recently aborting his row across the Atlantic.

RESULTS

Men

	Quads
		Open	Mainzer Ruder-Verein (Germany) 18m.07
		Sen 2 	Leander V 19.03
		Junior 	Wycliffe Coll I 19.24

	Coxless Fours
		Open 	Leander II 18.32
		Sen 1 	Imperial College I 19.19
		Sen 2 	Goldie V 19.50
		Veteran	Upper Thames II 20.01

	Coxed Fours
		Open	Goldie I 18.57
		Sen 1 	Oxford Brookes III 19.32
		Sen 2	Cambridge 99 IV 20.34
		Sen 3 (Academic)  Goldie VI 19.58
		Sen 3 (Club) Lea VI.  21.04


Women

	Quads
		Open	Marlow/Thames I 19.38

	Coxless Fours
		Open	Marlow/Thames II 20.03

	Coxed Fours
		Open 	I.C./Queen's Tower/Oxford Brookes 21.10
		Sen 2 	Cambridge University III 21.57
		Sen 3 (Academic) Lady Eleanor Holles II 22.11
		Sen 3 (Club) Thames X 23.09

© Copyright Christopher Dodd, 1997.