VESTA SCULLERS HEAD

Mortlake to Putney

Saturday 26 November 2005

Once again the Tideway produced challenging conditions for the 365 scullers who made it to the start line for this year's event, and a combination of wind against tide meant that many of the lower order competitors did well against the early starters.

None more so than Leander's Josh West, who was 278 away from the Start at Chiswick Bridge but produced the fourth fastest time of the day. It was Tom Gale of Tideway Scullers who went Head by beating the 2005 world single sculls champion, Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, into second place ahead of Daniel Harte of London RC.

There were a total of three pennants for Leander when Ross Hunter and Al West won the Men's Senior 2 open and lightweight events respectively, and Simon Jones won the Men's Senior 1 Lightweight event, albeit in a slower time than that recorded by the Senior 2 winner!

The usual clutch of winter illnesses and injuries meant that five Leander competitors withdrew from the race, while many of Leander's women athletes are out of the country at GB training camp in Cyprus. That just left Jane Hall to contest the women's lightweight event, where she finished in second place behind Mathilde Paul, the stroke of this year's winning Cambridge crew in the Women's Boat Race.

The man who had arguably the toughest race of all was Mark Hunter, attempting to become the first sculler to retain the Head title since Peter Haining achieved that feat in 1994. But the advantage of the early tide was nothing compared with the north-easterly wind which caused sinking conditions past Barnes Bridge and up towards Chiswick Eyot in the early stages of the race.

"It was extremely rough for the early starters and I came to a virtual standstill through Barnes Bridge. My boat was filling up and I had to look for shelter just to survive" said Hunter afterwards. The Leander captain did well to hang on to fifth position overall, one place ahead of Matt Beechey, but relinquished the Head title to Tom Gale, of Tideway Scullers, who started down the field at 121.

Leander finish positions:

Full information regarding the event can be found here

Report by Leander press officer Robert Treharne Jones