Friday:

This was where racing began for the weekend with single file time trials for the senior doubles and senior quads. Racing in the senior double was Laura Champion and Ellie Whittle and the senior quad was made up of Lindsay Marshall, Catherine Lineker, Sarah Bonar and Beth Lloyd.

Both crews were off to a great start qualifying into the last 16 to then race over the Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday:
This was the first main day of side by side racing for all high performance crews. Along with the quad and double there was also Yasmin Marks in senior lightweight single sculls, Louise Hart in senior single sculls, Lucy Mason in junior singles and a junior double made up of Kyra Edwards and Olivia Kay, coached by Lauren Fisher.
The Senior Double race got off to a good start racing Ironbridge, winning by three quarters of a length, although they got off to a leisurely start they then romped through in the last 300m to take the win. This set them up for a race against a Thames double later in the day, and despite a strong effort couldn’t continue the winning streak. The Thames double then went on to be overall winners of the event.
Yasmin Marks in the lightweight senior single, was in fine form winning both her races by significant margins and setting her up for some good racing on Sunday.
Louise Hart in the senior single also got off to a strong start, after having a row-over in the first round she then went on to win her second round and progress to Sundays racing.
Continuing the Nottingham sculling domination on Saturday, the quad raced Mortlake Anglian and Alpha in the heats and then Marlow in the quarterfinals, winning both comfortably and progressing to semi-finals on the Sunday.
The Junior 2x made up of Kyra Edwards and Olivia Kay, progressed from the time trial into racing and again progressed to the Sunday having gained some good race experience and confidence for the following day.
Lucy Mason was racing in the junior singles and despite this being her first ever race on the Henley course showed steely determination and conquered the nerves with a solid  win to progress to Sunday.
Finally Caitlin Boyland was part of an Academic coxed four who came up against, bravely battled and unfortunately lost out to the eventual winners from Exeter University.
The High Performance Squad finished Saturdays racing on a high after only two crews losing out and Sunday promised some much tougher racing and the chance of some silverware!

Sunday:

With 8 crews racing on the Sunday of the regatta, it was lining up to be a busy and exciting day (if a little nerve wracking for Dez).
Nikki met her previous doubles partner in the semi final, Lizzie Polgreen of Isle of Ely and despite a close contest and an impressive wind at the finish, was pipped to the post on this occasion.
The Junior double of Kyra Edwards and Olivia Kay came up against international crew Norske Studenters - Norway in their final. Despite a solid performance from our girls the junior double was out gunned to the finish line. The Norway crew have been selected for The Junior World Championships.
Lucy Mason took on the Junior singles in the semi finals racing Upper Thames, Lucy took on an epic wind with a late surge at the finish closing the gap from four to two lengths on the finish, a great performance for her first Henley experience.
Katie Bartlett was leading out the Under 23 8+ from the stroke seat. The eight raced Boston College in a straight final and finished the race with a convincing lead. 
Louise Hart raced the senior singles final against McCarthy of Walbrook rowing club. Louise led the race from start to finish, showing off her boat moving ability in the tricky conditions yet again versus other, much larger scullers.
Yasmin Marks raced the Senior lightweight singles final, she raced Johnston of Tideway Scullers and maintained her winning streak with a convincing win of 4 lengths over the tideway sculler.
The Senior quad met Molesey in the semi final, the crews having met previously at coronation regatta with a win for Nottingham, Molesey were keen to redress the balance.  Both crews went out hard with Molesey taking the lead off the island. The Nottingham crew were a length down with 500m to the finish when Lindsay called to wind for the finish (and then some!). Molesey made Nottingham work for every inch but were unable to hold off the onslaught and Nottingham won with a verdict of 2ft.
The senior quad then met Wallingford in the final, both crews closely matched from the semi final times. Nottingham committed off the start and had half a length off the end of the island. Wallingford suffered from some erratic steering through the middle of the race resulting in some clashing of blades, but Nottingham held their line and pushed on to the finish winning in a verdict of 1 and 2/3 length.
Pippa Whittaker took on Kris Johnson of Leeds, in the elite singles, both of whom train on Holme Pierrepont at Nottingham. After a brief reunion on the start line the racing began in earnest, with both crews going out hard, Kris took the lead pushing hard. Pippa wound early and pushed Kris all the way to the finish line, but unfortunately just missed out.

Nottingham therefore finished the day with a win in the senior singles, senior lightweight singles, senior quadruple sculls and as part of the winning composite U23 Elite 8+.

As a squad we would like to thank all the organisers, officials and fellow competitors for making this, the 26^th Henley Women’s Regatta as special as ever. Also a special thank you to Lauren Fisher for helping out with coaching duties over the weekend.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Queen's coronation, a 1000m regatta held on the Thames in the grounds of  Windsor Castle was organised. This was a one-off regatta, with special medals commissioned to celebrate the occasion. This event was perfect as a warm up for Henley Women's this weekend with side by side racing against the stream. It also made a nice change from the sterile environment of multi-lane racing - it's always more exciting when your opposition start rowing at you!

The newly formed quad of Lindsay, Catherine, Sarah and Beth raced in both Senior and Elite quads. With a by through the first round, the quad raced Molesey, who will also be racing at Henley Women's, and beat them by half a length. In Elite quads, for the Herbert Challenge Cup, despite some creative steering from the Eton crew pushing the Nottingham crew out of the racing lane the girls maintained a cool head and executed a powerful push to take the lead to the finish.

Due to illness the IM1 double of Ellie and Laura had to withdraw, leaving Pippa and Nikki to contest the elite double sculls. The girls had a straight final against 2012 World University gold medallists. With both girls racing their singles for Henley Women's, this race was mainly to get used to racing the shorter distance on the river. Despite struggling a little with the wind blowing the boats across the river, the girls managed to hold off a strong surge to the finish by Wallingford to win the Gooch Challenge Cup.

The next day, Catherine, Lindsay and Nikki were pitted against each other at the Nottingham Sprint regatta in the elite singles, raced over 750m from suspension bridge to the buttress just past the landing stages. Nikki and Lindsay raced first, with Nikki maintaining a narrow lead through Trent Bridge, to win by half a length. Nikki met Catherine in the final, and went on to win by 2 and a half lengths.

The Senior 4x (L-R Sarah, Laura, Beth, Louise)

The Metropolitan Regatta once again fell on a warm and sunny weekend. The squad had a variety of boats entered at this high standard event, and a good performance here would boost confidence in the run up to Henley Women's Regatta. Met is run over two days, with each day being self contained.

On the Saturday Pippa and Nikki came up against each other in the final of the elite single sculls. In a close race, which was won by Olympian Debbie Flood, Pippa came third, closely followed by Nikki in fourth. Also racing was Yaz in IM2 singles. Yaz continued her great racing season by coming home second in her heat, allowing her to progress straight to the final, where she stepped up again and won.

The Elite 4- had a hard lead up to the regatta, with illness preventing the crew from training as a unit, meaning the girls sat on the start line having not actually done more than paddle in this combination - not the best prep! Despite this they were in the mix for most of the race, but the early pace showed towards the end where they came in fourth. On the Sunday, despite making improvements from the day before, they came 5th.

Sarah and Beth from the GB Rowing Start programme raced in a double where they came in second, and then moved in to the senior 4x with Laura and Louise. Despite lying in fourth, and close to taking the final qualifying position from their heat, the wavy conditions got the better of them in the final 300m. They made amends for this performance by dominating the event on the Sunday, winning their heat and then going on to win their final as well.

The last of the Nottingham crews to race were Nikki and Yaz in the Elite Lightweight singles. Nikki built up a strong lead off the start, but couldn't quite maintain her speed through to the finish and came home in second place. Yasmin came fourth with a very strong finish in the final 500m.

Whilst the rest of the squad were at Dorney lake, Abby travelled with the senior men to Peterborough where she raced in novice singles. Despite showing speed in training, Abby is still struggling a little with her start. After remembering how to row in the second half of the race, she managed to make a 50 second improvement in her 500m time, yet despite coming back at the field like a steam train, she didn't manage to make up the time lost over the first half of the race - next time!

Next up is the Coronation Regatta in Windsor on the 15th, followed by Women's Henley Regatta on the 21st-23rd June.

Last weekend the squad stayed close to home and raced at the Nottingham City Regatta. With events still being cancelled due to the weather, there was a larger than usual entry, with crews travelling up from Wallingford and Thames amongst other clubs.

Abby started the racing in the novice singles. This was Abby's first race, and although she didn't win, she had a good race and felt that she learnt a lot, predominantly that a monster grip is not the way to tackle a headwind.

Next down the track was the IM2 women's quad of Beth, Sarah, Ellie and Laura Champion who won their heat, and went on to dominate the final. This was Laura's first win for NRC, and Ellie's first ever win - celebrated with an involuntary dunk in the lake thanks to Sarah.

The Elite Lightweight women's singles race had both Yasmin and Nikki in, with Nikki winning, being followed by Yaz, with the rest of the field some way behind. Yasmin raced IM2 singles in the second division, where she had another good race coming 6th in the final, but was out powered by some of the bigger girls into the strong headwind. One of the closest races of the day was in the Elite singles, with Catherine, Lindsay and Louise all racing. Lindsay lead out of the blocks and built up a lead, but a strong second 1k from Cathers meant that they crossed the line together, only being split by a photo finish, with the win being awarded to Lindsay. Following close behind was Louise, making it a 1, 2, 3 for NRC.

Caitlin Boyland joined with another member of the senior womens squad to race in the IM3 doubles, where they came in third against some strong opposition. Caitlin is just coming back from injury so this is a great step in the right direction. Caitlin was a member of the Loughborough Talent ID programme, and has made the jump over to the High Performance group this year.Our newest member of the squad, Laura Champion, has made the move after a successful season last year at City of Bristol rowing club, and judging by the start of this summer season - their loss!

Following her strong performance at April trials, which she backed up with a 2k erg PB the next week, Laura Wheeler has been invited to train at Caversham with the senior team, and is currently training in a quad. This is a huge step towards her goal of racing at the World Championships in South Korea this summer, and we wish her all the best 'down south'. 

Our next competition will be the Metropolitan Regatta at Dorney Lake, where we will be racing in singles, doubles, pairs, fours and quads - it will be a busy weekend!

After a successful training camp in Brive the squad came home to a cold and windy Nottingham. Determined not to be beaten, we braved the water each day, despite being laughed at by the boatmen for trying to go out when the lake resembled the North Sea (more than it normally does). Secretely I think some of the squad are hoping for some terrible conditions for racing - we will be well practiced!

Laura W and Nikki travelled down to Caversham to race at the senior squad final selection trials. a good performance here against the established squad members would get them one step closer to a seat in a boat for the World Championships. Laura continued her great progress and finished 14th overall, beating many of the development athletes that GB Rowing have supported as having the potential to go on to compete in Rio. With 17 seats available for the World Championships this is a fantastic result, and she is now seat racing for the second World Cup at Dorney Lake. Fingers crossed! Nikki had a tough task ahead with only four athletes being taken from the trial for further selection, and although she had a good final, was not quick enough to beat the top 4 athletes, three of who have raced and medalled for the senior squad consistently in the past 2 years and have recently come back from the first World Cup in Sydney.

Next weekend we have athletes racing for their respective universities at the annual BUCS Regatta, a three day regatta and showcase of university rowing. Ellie and Philly will be racing for Nottingham Trent, Yasmin will be racing for Derby, whilst Pippa, Louise and Caitlin will be racing for Loughborough Uni. Loughborough topped the medal tables last year at BUCS and hope to repeat this achievement this year.

Happy racing everyone!