Email Newsletter No 6
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HENLEY SPECIAL
(issue six)
Well Henley Royal Regatta is done for another year. The lawns survived intact, Molesey throats were sore from cheering and the Remenham bar ran out of Pimms on Sunday and had to order more! There was rain, wind, rain, chat about the stream, rain, drinking, rain, cheering, rain, slow times, rain, slower times, rain, headwinds, rain, then glorious sunshine for the weekend. Oh there was some racing too. In fact MBC had the third highest number of entries and the loudest supporters. As well as a good 20 minute slot on Regatta Radio with two of our coaches!
Oh and all the way at the bottom look for some MBC pics at HRR 2007.
Henley Royal Regatta
Well Molesey had ten crews entered for Henley 2007, some of which had to qualify. In fact our only crew not to make it through was our Women’s Remenham Challenge Cup Eight composite with Mortlake. In fact our girls missed the regatta proper by half a second after the Mortlake cox steered up the Bucks side of the course all the way. In that stream a big no no, leaving MBC coaches thinking if you want a job done do it yourself, next year an MBC cox me thinks! A huge disappointment for our Molesey Women’s Henley winners who made up half the crew. Look out at Nat Champs for the girls to gain revenge!
Anyway the draw was done; Molesey had two selected crews one in the Thames Cup and one in the Wyfold Cup. A good start to the MBC challenge for the red boxes. How would Molesey do? Hopes were high….
Wednesday
Britannia Challenge Cup (coxed fours)
MBC B raced Henley B in the first Molesey crew up the course. Henley have had two great coxed fours all year and the boys were in for a tough race. The crew did a good job and lost by 1 ¼ lengths. They then went on to be the backbone of the MBC Cheering squad for the rest of the week. And they did GOOD!
MBC A had a round against Agecroft on Wednesday and duly dispatched them with an easily verdict. The Brit now being a 16 boat event gave these guys a day off on Thursday so racing again on Friday.
Wyfold Challenge Cup (coxless fours)
The opening day of the Wyfold saw a Molesey dilemma as the selected MBC A took on MBC B. Always a pity to see two MBC crews race in round one. Anyway MBC B did a sterling job holding MBC A to just a length in the first 600m. However the early efforts paid and MBC went on to win despite the early pressure.
Thames Challenge Cup (eights)
The selected Thames Cup Eight took on Tyne Rowing Club. The Northerners had a go but could not match MBC, eventually leading to an MBC victory by 1 ¾ lengths.
Thursday
Wyfold Challenge Cup
MBC A had a tougher race against a good Worcester RC crew. Worcester led by a length in the early stages but MBC rowed coolly coming through just after half way and won by 3 ¾ lengths. This despite a race delay of nearly 20 minutes when the umpires launch broke down with two intrepid MBC coaches on board!
Visitors Challenge Cup (coxless fours)
First a correction from Issue 5, this crew of MBC & OUBC had three Molesey Men. The only OUBC man was Robyn Esjmond-Frey Oxford President. MBC were led until Fawley by a classy Army RC crew but MBC Atlantic Rower Chris Martin at stroke led his crew to victory by 2 ½ lengths to make the quarter finals.
Ladies Challenge Plate (eights)
The crew of Molesey’s older generation took this event by storm and led a Dutch Under 23 eight from first to last winning comfortably by 1 ¾ lengths. They looked classy in the first race as a full eight.
Diamond Sculls (single sculls)
James Stephenson (Stepho) had the big Yank, I think that’s what he said, (careful family publication: ed) Jamie Shroder to contend with. Despite a valiant effort Stepho was underpowered and went down to a very classy sculler.
Friday
Wyfold Challenge Cup
The boys had tough one today. City of Oxford beat a good Leander crew on Thursday and MBC went out to book their places in the Semi-Finals. MBC led from start to finish to win with an easily verdict. Must have been down to the MBC support crew who came down to polish the boat that morning! Good MBC team effort. There had been fun at the start again for our Wyfold crew who had a slightly delayed race due to a swimmer at the start!
Visitors Challenge Cup
Friday saw cracking race as NUI Galway Ireland decided to lead MBC in the early stages. The fools! They made the boys angry and a 3 ½ length victory was Molesey’s at the finish.
Thames Challenge Cup
MBC had London RC “B” in the quarters. London “B” getting further than the “A” crew (??). MBC led as soon as the starter said GO and never looked back. Winning by 3 ¼ lengths as they cruised home.
Ladies Challenge Plate
The Molesey boys (boys? ahem) had the selected Americans from Bantam. The “boys” came from behind at Fawley to win by 1 ¼ lengths in the fastest time for the event at that stage.
Saturday – Semi-Finals Day
Visitors Challenge Cup
The Molesey scratch crew had a slick Reading Uni four to race. Despite a solid row the Molesey boys had a bit to much to do against the Reading students (and World Class Start Group) and went down by 1 ¾ lengths.
Wyfold Challenge Cup
The boys had an exceptional London crew to race. MBC A in the Wyfold were a young crew with one junior on board and the eldest being just 22. They were up against it and despite having their best race of the regatta according to crew and coach they lost by 2 ¾ lengths as London raced to the death.
Ladies Challenge Plate
The men had local boys from Leander to race in this event, the Leander 5 man had predicted a close tussle and a Leander victory just 24 hours previously. His psychic powers obviously need a polish, Molesey won by 1 ½ lengths to book a spot in the Final against Harvard.
Thames Challenge Cup
The Thames Cup also found themselves up against the Pink Palace. This was a grudge match of all grudge matches and unfortunately the Molesey boys came off worse. They went down by 2 ½ lengths. It must be said this was by far the closest anybody got to Leander all week as they went on to win the final by over 4 lengths. No shame on the MBC crew for losing to an exceptional Thames Cup crew from Leander.
Stewards Challenge Cup (international coxless fours)
Hodge and his chums from the Pink Palace had a minor setback one week before HRR, they lost Alex Partridge to a leg injury. Into the breech stepped Tom James, 2007 Cambridge President and MBC member. The crew with Tom on board continued their class and beat the Australian Institute of Sport with a comfy row winning by 1 ¾ lengths.
Sunday – Henley Finals Day
Ladies Challenge Plate
Could our lads top off their great Henley? Could they overcome another great Harvard crew, well on this occasion sadly no. The towpath chat was all about an easy Harvard win, how the Yanks had it easy. That could not have been further from the truth. The Molesey boys just know how to race, and they can race better than anybody. They hung onto Harvard and lost by a length.
Now, that might seem it. However, Harvard were warned on at least FOUR occasions for some more than dodgy steering down the whole course. This without doubt affected the Molesey crew and elicited a protest by cox Neil Chughani as soon as the finish was reached. However the Henley Umpire decided Harvard had raced fairly and awarded them the victory. (No re row a la 1989 when Harvard got a rerow)
An independent observer in the launch commented that in his humble opinion a re row or disqualification would have been a serious option for the Umpire.
Stewards Challenge Cup
Well the last race of Henley in which Molesey had any interest. Hodge stroking the British World Champion Coxless Four did what he does best and stroked his crew to a stunning victory over the Canadian four. The Canadians had shown some class after their eight eased to victory in the Grand but the GB four did the same to Canada’s top crew. They leapt into a lead and never looked back. Verdict 4 lengths. A great warm up before the Lucerne World Cup.
What’s Next?
Well Henley may be nearly 12 months away as you read this but Molesey does not stop, oh no…. Read on!
Lucerne Regatta – Expect to see this on TV. Hodge in the 4- Simon Fieldhouse in the quad and Tom Solesbury in the eight coxed by Acer Nethercott. BBC i and BBC 2 on Sunday 15th July
Kingston Regatta – 14th – 15th July. Just upstream of Kingston Bridge. Expect a large junior contingent, some of the novice squad and vets. Possibly even a senior men’s eight too
Molesey Regatta – Saturday 21st July. Our own regatta the course is down Thorneycroft Island and if the weather behaves it is a great day out. Again expect juniors, senior men and women as well as the vets here. And please bring a cake for the tea-tent! – we need to keep our reputation for best teas on the river.
National Championships – Friday 20th – Sunday 22nd July. The top juniors as well as senior men and women will be in Nottingham racing to become National Champions.
MOLESEY HAS A NEW COACH!!!
In fact we have TWO new coaches. Andy Bird is leaving to head across the pond to the USA and we have Tom Courtney and Ed Green coming to MBC.
Tom is Chief Coach at Mercantile RC in Australia and along with an illustrious rowing career of his own has an outstanding coaching CV. In fact Tom has coached at all levels from juniors right through to Olympic athletes and crews. Tom has already been in touch with most of the volunteer MBC coaching team by email as well as weekly conference calls with Club Captain Ollie Keech and Ed.
Tom will be responsible for overseeing all rowing at MBC and to such end will be liaising closely with coaches from all groups.
Added to Tom is Ed. Ed is the man responsible for spotting a large blonde chap at Staffordshire Uni and getting him into a boat. That blonde monster grew into World Champion and MBC oarsman Andy Hodge! Ed will be running a development programme funded by GB Rowing to get more students from local universities rowing and winning! Added to this, Ed will working with the junior coaches and top end juniors to ensure MBC’s continued success at this level.
Both Ed and Tom will also work with all volunteer coaches to improve the standard of the whole MBC coaching team across the board. Exciting times.
Further ahead we have Peterborough regatta and Gloucester, Bristol, Ross bank Holiday weekend in August. Speak to Club Captain Ollie Keech if you or crew is keen to race at these fun events. 
