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.
|