After the drama of Leander’s dead heat with Oxford Brookes at last year’s HORR, Leander were determined to retain the Head outright in 2019.
Leander boated three crews to race over the famous four and a quarter mile course from Mortlake to Putney.
Leander 1. Bow: Harry Glenister 2: Tom Ford 3: Tom Ransley 4: Tom George 5: Tom Jeffery 6: Olly Wynne Griffiths 7: Jacob Dawson Stroke: Matt Rossiter Cox: Henry Fieldman Coach: M Banks
Leander 2. Bow: Charlie Waite-Roberts 2: George Rossiter 3: Barney Stentiford 4: Calum McBrierty 5: Cam Buchan 6: Adam Neil :7 Ed Grisedale Stroke: Sholto Carnegie Cox: Morgan Baynham Williams Coach: M Beechey
Leander 3 Bow: Harry Higginbotham 2: Richard Hawkins 3: Tom Ballinger 4: James Robson 5: Seb Devereux 6: Ryan Todhunter 7: Alex Ball Stroke: James Stanhope Cox: Whitney Powell Coach: Clive Cooper
Fulham Reach Boat Club kindly hosted the squad all week in their amazing new boat house situated near Hammersmith Bridge. Leander are very grateful to them for their hospitality.
The race started at 11:30am with Oxford Brookes going off first ahead of Leander 1. The crowds gathered on Hammersmith Bridge in beautiful sunshine with temperatures much higher than we have seen here in the UK for a while.
The top five crews started fast as they raced through the line at Chiswick Bridge, but it was only going through half way that the live results showed that Oxford Brookes had pulled away from Leander 1 by a few seconds. Unfortunately, Leander 1 were not able to turn this around in the second half. This resulted in Oxford Brookes winning and Leander 1 coming home in 2nd place.
Leander 2 had a solid race but couldn’t manage to finish higher than fourth place overall and finally Leander 3 came home in 11th place.
Congratulations to Oxford Brookes for an impressive win.
