Tideway Scullers School

Three TSS members raced at the Home International Regatta at Nottingham.

Gareth Sharpe was selected for the England quad, along with Ben Johnson, Dave Marshall and Mike Mottram of the Reading University/Nottingham composite Prince of Wales quad. The three hours spent rigging on the day of the race - with kind assistance from Ian Roots and George Jones of Mortlake - paid off as the quad beat second-placed Ireland by nearly ten seconds.

The crew had asked for this season's trademark TSS-quad start, which was duly delivered with a good length's lead by 250m, and clear water at the kilometre mark. In difficult conditions, the focus for the second half of the race was on not making any errors and a win was recorded for England in what was the last race of the day, and England also won the overall Senior Men event.

Rhona MacCallum was in the Scottish women's eight that won their event by clear water, and seven seconds, over second-placed England.

Will Howell, representing Wales, raced in both the double and eight. The double was third at 1km, and three seconds down on the second-placed Irish crew, but they rowed Ireland down to pip them at the post for second place behind England. The hard work took its toll, however, with the Welsh eight finishing fourth.

Burway has been the last regatta for the TSS juniors for years. This year's entry was small and the weather poor, but we managed a few wins.

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Ella and Saskia had six successful races in very blustery conditions at Molesey on Sunday.

In WJ12 doubles they beat crews from Ross RC in both their heat and final. Racing up a year in WJ13 doubles, they won through three rounds before bettering a Sir William Perkins boat in the final.

The main racing season drew to a close with the National Championships this weekend, and the club returned from a wet and windy weekend at Nottingham with medals in seven events,

On Saturday, the WJ15 coxed quad of Mimi, Thea, Eleanor and Isobel, steered by Flora battled with Evesham in the first half of their final, but pulled away to take the bronze, behind Henley and Trentham.

Sunday brought medals in each colour. Jess dominated WJ singles, finishing nearly ten seconds clear of the field, then in the very next race Toby Lonergan claimed the silver medal in U23 singles. Earlier in the day, Toby, along with Dickie Twyman, Charlie Clarke and Gareth Sharpe, won silver in the open quad, then Dickie and Charlie took bronze in the double, while Gareth finished fourth in the singles final.  

The pair of Rob Irving and Nathan O'Reilly also won bronze, as did the women's eight, a TSS/IC composite stroked by Lindsay Muir and with Rhona MacCallum and Lizzie Stutters also on board.

While the England cricket team was extracting itself from a messy start to the Ashes series in Cardiff, the TSS J16 quad was doing something pretty similar just a mile away on Cardiff Bay. The crew of Thomas, Aaron, James and Sam had been selected to represent Great Britain in the annual under-16 international match against France. However, there was huge disappointment for Aaron, when having had a cough the day before the race he was deemed unfit to race. Jack, the GB squad's reserve sculler, took his place.

Blustery weather produced sinking conditions on the day, but the crew are light for international oarsmen and proved technically more than equal to the waves after a tricky first few strokes. They eased out to beat the French quad by four lengths, which turned out to be the biggest margin of the competition.

Overall, the British juniors beat the French juniors by a score of nine events to four. It is only the sixth time in the 29-year history of the event that the British have won.

Congratulations to the boys, and thanks to James Dunley, who stepped in as coach at the last minute.

Kingston Regatta offered a full weekend of racing for the junior squads.

On Saturday, over a 1000-metre course, Jess and Jenny raced each other in the final of women's novice singles, with Jess taking her first singles win, while Sarah and Roselle won women's IM3 doubles.

Sunday was the turn of the younger juniors, who raced over 500 metres.

Saskia beat the boys to win J12 singles. The final of WJ16 singles was an all-TSS affair. So much so, that Jess and Jenny finished the first attempt in a dead heat, and had to race the whole thing again. Jess won the re-row.

In quads, the new WJ15 coxed-quad lineup of Isobel, Mimi, Eleanor and Thea, coxed by Flora won their final comfortably after a tricky semi-final against LEH. The WJ13 boat was also a successful new crew, with the win going to Saskia, Isabel, Christa, Jackie and Hannah.

There was, as ever, strong sculling all round, with good performances from all who raced: the J14 double reached the semi-finals, the J15 quad lost their first round by just a length to the eventual winners, and the J14 crew, a TSS/St Paul's composite, were also put out by the event's winners. Hermione raced J13 (not WJ13) singles, Flora (WJ14), Leo B (J14) and Nick (J15) all reached finals in their singles, but narrowly lost out, and despite some really gutsy sculling, the double of Emily and Hannah lost a closely fought final to SWPS, while the J15 and WJ15 doubles faced up to some tough competition.