Aberporth 16th August 2015
Sunday 16th August 2015
Aberporth 16th August 2015 An unusually nice day for this season, but another early start in order to make our way up the all too familiar coast to Aberporth.
First up was the Ladies race and although we were unable to field our own crew we still had a vested interest in the race with Bryony rowing for Llanion and Sian rowing for Towy. The Llanion ladies came in 2nd overall from a field of 17 and 2nd in class, losing out to the impressive Newport Ladies. In the Towy boat Sian set the rhythm in stroke and the Towy girls followed in unison. Sian's rhythm gave the Towy girls their best race start of the season, battling for position with the league’s top crews. They came in 12th in class and 14th overall.
It was clear from the ladies race there was a clear advantage in being beach side of the start line and this resulted in a lot of jostling for position at the start of the Mens race. Our Mens Super Vets were out in Dirty Gertie with Bryony coxing, Jake in stroke followed by Jim, Nigel and Nick. A great and hard fought race resulted in the men coming in 11th overall out of 13 and 1st in class!
Next up was the Junior / Novice race. Dirty Gertie was out with our novice crew of Lois (stroke), Harry B, Sioned (Newquay) and Katy (Aberystwyth). Nat was rowing for the Towy juniors and Harry G was in with the Llangrannog under 14s. The Novice crew came in 4th overall and 1st in Class.
It was Natalie's turn to join the reunited Towy junior crew in bow this week. The crew flew out into an early lead, leaving everyone else in their wake. They continued to keep up the blistering pace, completing the race in a spectacular sprint finish, leaving the other competitors far behind them. They came 1st in class and 1st overall.
Finally it was the mixed race and with depleted numbers we decided to go for a relaxed pace and try and enjoy the race. This started well as our mixed crew in Dirty Gertie with newbie cox Lois, Bryony in stroke followed by Sian, Jake and Nick gave all the other boats a lead off the start line. Unfortunately the relaxed pace didn’t last as we got closer to the Llanion vets crew. After a couple of scuffles on the buoy turns the Wisemans mixed crew managed to pull a boat length lead over the Llanion Vets on the finish, coming in 12th overall out of 23 and 8th in class. What a fantastic and much talked about coxing debut by Lois and a great result.
Big thank you to our hosts Aberporth, and also to Towy, Newquay, Aberystwyth and Llangrannog for helping get all our guys a row.