Good Head

Two crews in the top 10 and a further two pennants at the Head of the River Race once again confirmed Imperia’ls position as one of the leading rowing centres in the country.

The race, run over the same course as the Oxbridge Boat Race, received record entries with only 450 crews being allowed to race. Imperial entered 6 boats with crews containing oarsmen from Olympic to novice level. Imperial 1, with Olympic and World Champions on board retained 3rd position and the Vernon Trophy, for the fastest London based crew, behind strong crews from Leander and Molsey.

Imperial 2 produced a strong performance to finish ahead of its main rivals from UL, Oxford Brookes and Durham to come in 10th, only seconds away from the Croatian (Bronze 2002 World Champs) and Italian National Rowing Squads, and one place short of the S1 pennant.

The club also showed strength in depth when the 3rd VIII finished 30th and brought home the S3 pennant with the Novice VIII finishing 136th for the Novice pennant.

With spirits high after the day’s successes the IC team were welcomed to continue the celebrations at Crabtree Rowing Club, even after their 1st VIII was beaten by our 3rds! After a few drinks the dancing started and it wasn’t long before deputy coach, David Scooter began his master class in Lithuanian break-dancing. Meanwhile IC2’s rampant ginger stroke-man couldn’t decide which of the recent IC defectors tickled his fancy. Love was also in the air for a member of the Imperial colonial contingent, Foxy, who found the IC “cox” line-up a temptation he couldn’t resist. Luckily the evening’s shenanigans were soon a distant memory as we headed to the South of France for an Easter training camp.