The best of our “old boys” travelled to Munich for this year’s European Masters Regatta from 25th to 28th July with some mixed results. Tom Bishop did what we have come to expect from him with five first places out of twelve races, but the rest of the squad suffered from too many late changes of personnel and had to be content with second places at best.
Tom Bishop reports:
Having had a good result in the later winter heads in the H8, the Super Vets, over post-outing coffees, decided to go to the European Masters Regatta in Munich, and to do the Head of the Charles in October.
As the season developed, illness and people with other plans led to a bit of a melt down in Munich. Huw Jones did an absolutely sterling job under great pressure to get crews on the water and racing in all but one of the events entered. Having said early on in the planning of the trip that the boats would arrive Tuesday evening for rigging and practise Wednesday so that we would be ready to race Thursday, in the event few of the people involved arrived before late in the day Wednesday. With Ian, Huw, Charlie and I largely loading the QBC boats at the start of the trip, we now found ourselves doing the unloading and rigging of the boats in Munich. We managed to get the G4x out for an outing but that was it. A cancelled flight and the arrival of some on the Thursday didn’t make for any marginal gains. The result was scratch crews in pretty much all events with Charlie, Huw, and Lee Brown in most of the crews to fill the gaps. All things considered these crews did reasonably well. However this QBC group didn’t score any wins.
For myself, I had several races with outsiders; 12 races in all with one 5th, six 2nds and five firsts.
Starting on the Thursday a composite Masters I 4x. I steered with legend Carlo Zezza (Cambridge Boat Club Boston USA -a man in his late 80’s) at 2, Rod Stewart stroke, and Lee Brown 3 (both rowing for Upper Thames). We were slow off the start and 2.5 seconds down on the field at halfway, but got going then and passed the 3rd and 2nd positioned crews, closing fast on the leaders, however we ran out of course and lost by 0.01 second. Next was the H 1x in which Rod Stewart and I were drawn in the same heat. This was a needle match after I had beaten Rod at GB Masters. We both set off at high rates (46 I think I saw on the stroke coach) It was stroke for stroke and at 500m Rod led by .04 sec. As we came into the last 250 m it was still pretty much level and I was sprinting for the line and gradually, I thought, getting ahead, but hit a buoy and shipwrecked with 10 strokes to go. Rod won by 0.34 sec. . He was happy and I was cross with myself. A good race to watch but tough to be in! Later in the day the QBC G4x didn’t go well and we came last.
Friday brought the I 1x in which Rod and I were drawn in different heats. We duly won each, my first win. This set up the Trophy Race at the end of the day. Next I had an H4- with Migsy Milligan (Poplar), Clive Cooper and Lee Brown (Upper Thames). As a scratch crew we raced OK and had a good row but were down at half way and clawed our way back up the field to a close second place with the margin under 1 second – another tough race. That left the race off with Rod again, in the event I ran out of legs after the 4- and only went stroke for stroke for about 30 strokes after which Rod sculled away to win, and I got a silver in second place.
Saturday saw the start of mixed racing, usually on Sunday, with double sculls in the main regatta. My first Race was MXD H2x with Hilary Cook of MAA. We had to race Rod and Janet Meyer of Wallingford whom we beat, but there was a faster double in the race so another second place. Next was an H4x with the same crew as the H4-. This time the crew went well and won comfortably in an enjoyable row. In the afternoon I was in the H8 for QBC; we were not up to the standard required but another second place. Last race of Saturday was a MXD G2x with Ailie Ord (Strathclyde). We had a tough race and were led to 500m but I was confident we would get through the leaders which we duly did to a good win.
Sunday, the traditional day for MXD racing (after the Saturday night partly in the past), started with H4x of Rod, Ailie, Hilary and me. We won quite comfortably. Finally a MXD 8 of Janet Meyers (Wallingford), Ailie( Strathclyde), Hilary Cook (MAA), Sarah Kell (Upper Thames), Clive Cooper (Upper Thames) , myself, Rod (Upper Thames) and Lee Brown (Upper Thames). We went well and rowed through a stacked ‘Masters International’ 8 to a good win.
It turned out to be a hard regatta with more tough races than usual, or is it old Father Time?
A footnote from Huw Jones
It was not an ideal start but due to three key squad members being unavailable, and this happening after a commitment to entries had been made, the QBC squad were not off to the best start. This meant asking several non-club members to ‘sub in’, so scratch crews were inevitable. This is not the best way to go about a regatta of the EuroMasters standard. Further to this, our key youngest squad member had his flight cancelled on the eve of the regatta. This then meant further substitutions and these changes making any crew considerably older than the original crew entered in any event.
The main QBC squad entered 8 events with reasonable results given first time line-ups for each and every event. The closest to a win was the H4- which agonisingly came second by 19/100ths of a second. Other than that, several seconds were achieved so, given the scratch crews, arguably the club did reasonably well.
Quintin athletes were: Ian Hyslop, Charlie Harrison, Huw Jones, Jonathan Ferris and Tom Bishop. QBC raced in the following races: G4- Event 102, G8 Event 117, F4- Event 127, G4x Event 135, H4- Event 216, H4+ Event 239, G4+ Event 312, and H8 Event 343. Tom Bishop raced in our G4x and H8 but also in I4x Event 111, H1x Event 123, I1x Event 203 heat and Trophy final, H4- Event 216, H4x Event 321, Mixed H2x Event 304, Mixed G 2x Event 359, Mixed H4x Event 403 and Mixed G8 Event 412.
Full results and line-ups can be found at: https://euromastersregatta.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/EMR_2024_Results_online.pdf.
Tom Bishop now has nine wins chalked up on the Potwinners Chart.
