Trial Eights Report
Trial Eights
Sunday saw ULBC hold its annual Trial Eights Race held between the Hog’s Hole and the Pink Lodge and this year saw both the men’s and women’s squads put out competitive crews.
The men’s squad were the first to race with two semi finals between Osama, KimJong Il, Berlusconi and Gaddafi. This year was shaping up to be one of the hottest contested trial eights of recent times with four quality eights.
The first semi final saw Osama drawn against Berlusconi. Due to the tides this first race was done from the Pink Lodge down to the Hogs Hole. It was the much fancied Osama that took the early lead in the first few strokes off the start. By the first bend Berlusconi drawn on the Sion station had clawed back the deficit and then managed to use the inside of the bend to open up a half a length lead. Osama drawn on the Kew Gardens station seemed happy to let this happen knowing they had the bend in their favour before the finish. Berlusconi stroked by the ferocious George Turner had different ideas and were not going to leave it till the last bend to decide the race and caught Osama napping with a push down towards Brentford Dock. This took them out to a length lead and once they came to the last few hundred metres were confident that they had done enough for victory even though Osama managed to claw half a length back round the last bend. The closest victory of the day saw a win by half a length to Berlusconi.
The second semi final saw KimJong Il on the Kew Gardens station drawn against Gaddafi on the Sion station. After the first race this was expected to be another close contest however from the very first stroke there was only going to be one winner. Kim Jong Il had a slight advantage at the start of the race due to the bend but they did not need it striding out to over a length lead by Brentford Dock. Coxed by Clarissa Coveney, KimJong Il obviously wanted to put the race out of reach of Gaddafi and continued to move further ahead with a much higher stroke rate than their opponents. By the crossover point KimJong Il were three lengths ahead and started to conserve energy for the final. With Gaddafi fancied by many to take the overall title prior to the race this will have hit the bookmakers hard.
Race three saw the women’s title decider between Ponies and Unicorns, Brod only knows who picked these questionable names.
The girls race this year saw the current crop of ULBC women take on a crew of ULBC alumni hoping to live up to their crew name’s reputation of fable creatures impossible to catch. There was much debate as to which crew would come out victorious and the Unicorn crew seemed like they wanted to use their experience to help their cause by false starting. This may have worked if it were not for Ponies holding fast and not giving any excuse for umpire Young to allow the race to carry on. Unicorns were brought back to the line and then a very quick starting sequence allowed the prepared Ponies to take an early lead. A higher stroke rate then allowed Ponies to move out to just over a length lead as they moved down the barges. At the crossing point Unicorns put in a push to try and get back round the inside of the bend but Ponies had held their position perfectly and as the bend unfolded put their own push in to move away as they approached the line. The result saw Ponies win by just over two lengths to show the step forward that the girls are making this year. Congratulations go to the winning crew of Emily Craig, Simone Dutreux, Aimee Broadbent, Helen Van Kempen, Connie Rowell, Anna McSweeney, Alice Sephton, Matilda Horn and cox Anna Turner.
It was back to the men for the next race and to the B final which saw Osama and Gaddafi face off against each other. These two crews had been fancied to contest the A final and so it was to umpires Young and Gray’s surprise that they were racing off for 3rd place. From the very first stroke the result was clear with Osama showing their anger at narrowly losing out to Berlusconi in the first semi final. They set off on a mission and very quickly moved out to a length lead. Gaddafi were obviously still feeling despondent from their large semi final loss and quickly let their heads drop. Osama stroked by Ben Reilly-O’Donnell were not in any mood to let their opposition come back through them again and kept up their early pace to push further ahead. At the end the victory was over three lengths and Osama had gone some way to make amends for their semi final defeat.
The last race of the day saw the two black Vespoli’s race off for the title of Trial Eights Champions. KimJong Il on the Sion station and Berlusconi on the Kew Gardens station both benefitted from strong starts in their semi finals but it was Berlusconi that got the slightly better start and used the inside of the first bend to move out to a half a length lead by Brentford dock. Both crews really showed why they had made the A final with both strokemen keeping the rating high and a lot of power going down from the big men in the middle of the boats. Coming up to the crossover point and Berlusconi had moved out to just a length lead but with the bend moving in the favour of KimJong Il. The supporters obviously wanted a close final and screams could be heard from the following armada of launches for KimJong Il to make a move. It came and Ollie “the animal” Cook let roar from the five seat. KimJong Il started to move and pulled back a quarter of a length but Berlusconi still had some life left in him and Jo called one last push to hold off the opposition. Coming up to the line and the lads had put it all on the line with victory going to Berlusconi by a length. A somewhat boatrace style celebration ensued with screams and lots of water being thrown around by the victorious crew. Congratulations go to the crew of Neale Marlow, Sam Knight, Will Burch, Tom Chung, Jamie Cook, Dom Meyrick-Cole, Jo John, George Turner and cox Jo Street.
Post racing it was back to the clubhouse for some refreshments courtesy of David and Pawel with some very tasty donations from Mrs Rowell, Mrs Street and Mrs Cook. Thank you to Tyrian and Mortlake for the use of their boats. A solid day of racing with six good crews showed that the club is moving forward and the standard is going up and we hope that the club can take this forward into the heads over the coming months.
1 Comments
Nice to read. Good luck for the heads.