For the crews that have not produced results sufficient to please the Henley Stewards the last Friday before Henley is qualifying day, a day of reckoning. This year Molesey's Thames B and C VIII's, Wyfolds B 4- and Prince of Wales 4x were all being put through qualification.
First up was the Wyfold B crew of Ronan Lomas, Cled Ellison, Paul Keane and Stuart Davies, 5 crews out of 8 to qualify. This crew has changed personnel on a regular basis but despite this looked good for a qualifying place which was confirmed by the dulcet tones of the Henley announcer, and so began an evening of 'Here is an announcement...'
The Prince of Wales quad of Ben Long, Jasper Hassell, Michael Varley and Simon Kay were up against harder odds of 7 through out of 21. This is another boat that has not been together long, in an event featuring some depth of competition the crew needed to produce an excellent row to proceed. Unfortunately MBC were 4th fastest non qualifiers and this crew of experienced athletes will have to sit out HRR 2008.
Last up were the two Thames Cup crews. 17 to qualify out of 27 boats. On October 6th 2007 a dozen raw recruits turned up at MBC looking to take their first steps into 'High Performance' rowing, these characters came to us as 'The Giants'. Their objective for the season was to qualify in the Thames Cup, today the B crew (Jake Lea-Wilson, Simon Jones, Tom Colyer, Jonnie Miller, Teddy Groves, Frazer Anthony-Johns, Frazer Brent, Nick Fitzgerald and cox Andrew James) was made up entirely of Giants and the C crew (Lee Turner, John Higgs, Tom Westcott, Neil 'Magic' Wands, Chris Gilligan, Josh Kerman, Chris Teasdale, Mark Buchinger and cox Bruno Hallwood) featured the rest, also in the C crew are two of the clubs youngest athletes, Josh Kerman (16) and coxing, Bruno Hallwood(13). About 7 minutes of uncomprimising slog into a harsh headwind would determine whether or not this challenging objective was to be met.
After 15 minutes of nervous waiting the tannoy crackled into life... 'Here is an announcement, the following crews have qualified in the Thames Cup, in alphabetical order... Far too many crews in the early reaches of the alphabet than is good for my nerves, London D... Molesey B (dramatic pause) Molesey C. At this point grown men in lycra hugged each other.
As the coach who had set the goal of qualifying the Giants at Henley I have to admit my first reaction was relief, relief immediately followed by pure happiness that people who have put so much in have been rewarded with qualification at Henley (and here I refer to all those who rowed). This is a great acheivement for what is effectively the club's Novice squad. What is exciting is that this is just the beginning of these athletes' journey in the sport. In the immediate future the Regatta awaits, and in the long term... well lets just say Hodge, watch your seat, the Future is Black.
