Henley Veterans Regatta

 

Dart-Totnes rowers came home from Henley Veterans regatta very disappointed not to have won a single medal despite an impressive performance earlier in the year at the National Veterans regatta in Nottingham.
 
Those expected to win gold were amongst the first to depart the competition in the semi finals and included Pete Atkinson single sculling at vet D, Ray Davis and Ian Andrews double sculling at vet E and all three with the addition of John Harris in the vet E coxless quad.
 
The only survivors making it through the semis included John Harris single sculling at vet E and Hugh Tubbs doing the same at vet F who both lost by a distance in their respective finals. The vet D coxed four sweep oared crew of Nick Price, Mick Rolley, Alan Langmaid, Steve Lamkin and coxed by Steve Grimes just scraped through their semi final against Crabtree by a quarter of a length only to go out in the final after a hard fought race losing by one and a third lengths against Marin from the USA.
 
The same crew minus the cox tried their hands at the quad at vet D and amazed themselves by winning the semi final against Llandaff who simply ran out of energy. Totnes earned themselves an official warning for being late to the start and the flustered crew caught a crab on the second stroke of the race sending them nearly a length down before recovering in the second half of the race. The final was a different story though. Tired from three gruelling races Totnes met a fresh crew from Roxbourne who had drawn a bye straight into the final. Roxbourne went on to win convincingly by four lengths completing an unsuccessful competition for the Totnes club.
 
 
Alan Langmaid, vice-chairman and PR for Dart-Tones ARC.