SPORT
St Peter’s School Boat Club
ANCHOLME HEAD Ancholme Head is traditionally the start of our Head racing campaign and in previous years we have been blessed with good racing conditions. This year, however, we were reminded in no uncertain terms that the weather can be a hard task master. Persistent torrential rain made the simple task of staying warm a challenge. Undaunted by the exceptional conditions 33 pupils took to the water for the Boat Club’s first race of the year. There were good performances from both the Senior and Junior Squads who raced hard through the rain. Thomas Jacques and Giacamo Grelli won the J16 double sculls and Hannah Gowland, Rachael Green, Sophie Broughton and Holly Turnbull coxed by Natasha Johnston claimed the WJ15 coxed quads title. Sadly due to the unrelenting conditions we had to cut the racing short, but it was great to be racing again.
YORK SMALL BOATS HEAD Ice on the steps greeted this year’s rowers as they gathered for the York Small Boats Head. However the conditions soon warmed up and so did the racing. The Senior boys were out in force and there were excellent performances from both the sculling and sweep boats. The St Peter’s J18 4x- Band 1 led the charge by winning their category and placed 3rd overall. The Open 4+ Band 2 and Open 4+ Band 3 also showed good progress by winning their categories with solid rows. The strongest performance came from the Open 4xwho whilst they did not take a category win sculled with maturity and recorded the second fastest time of the day ahead of the 330+ entries. The J16 Boys also continued to make good progress in their quads and the J16 1x came very close to securing a win with a strong
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second place. Similarly the WJ15 2x put in their best race to date and eventually claimed third spot in a tough field. The boys J15 4x+ showed that they are beginning to make progress by taking the win in Band 2 and rounded off a good days racing for all our crews.
“The Senior boys were out in force and there were excellent performances from both the sculling and sweep boats.” WHITE ROSE HEAD Unfortunately this event was cancelled due to high river levels.
YORKSHIRE HEAD During the half term holidays the Boat Club entered three scratch crews in the 5000m Yorkshire Head race. Despite not having trained together prior to the event all three crews performed well in good racing conditions. The open coxed 4 and the J18 eight both came second in their categories whilst the J18 coxless quad came fifth in their category. The Senior squad now turns its attention to preparing for the Schools Head of the River in London next week, whilst the Juniors are focusing on the Junior Sculling Head at Eton Dorney.
SCHOOLS HEAD OF THE RIVER RACE The Schools Head of the River Race can throw up challenging conditions on the Tideway. This year the weather reports forced
