Photo from bigblade-photos.com

The women’s eight made the journey down to the tideway in London to race at the annual Women’s Head of the River race, a 7.5km race from Mortlake to Putney. The women have won a pennant at this race since the clubs inception in 2006. The 2012 crew was Vicky Atkins (cox), Pippa, Catherine, Lindsay, Fiona, Laura, Katie, Ellie and Nikki.

Mild and slightly damp conditions met the crew, but this cleared up in time for the 11am race start. We started 7^th, with Mortlake Anglian and Alpha ahead and being chased by Cambridge University. A strong start saw the crew gaining on MAA from the off, and Vic steered brilliantly through both MAA and the Agecroft crew at the same time, which gave the crew a massive lift, as they then went on to chase down Oxford Brookes, who started in 5^thposition. Turning under Hammersmith Bridge, we were met with a strong headwind, which resulted in a long final 3^rd of the race! A strong wind to the finish saw us catch up Brookes further, but not quite manage to overtake.

A nervous wait ensued as the results were collated. Despite some great overtaking and a solid race, some crews that started behind us had made some ground on us. The final result was 5^th, 4 places up from last years result, and winning the Provincial Pennant. We retained the 100% pennant record, and made us the only club in the past 6 years, since NRC was formed, to stay in the top 10.