Pre-Fours Head Race Round Up

Before we head off to Fours Head, let’s have a look at how the club has gotten on in our early season head races.

Chester Long Distance Sculls

LUBC rounded off their pre-season with Chester LDS on the 26th of September and put in a strong contingent of crews. In division 1, the M1xs of Scott Marshall, Callum Kemp and William Jackson (the latter his first ever race in a single scull) posted competitive times in band 2 and 3 with Alumnus and Head Coach Patrick Home winning in Band 2, beating 3 GB Start athletes in the process.

Division 2 kicked off with a second-place for the Open 2x of Luke Mellors and Scott Marshall, who were closely followed home by Lucy Fraser, who finished a strong third in a competitive W1x Band 2 race. Lucy was chased down by the winner of Band 3; medicine student Bekah Hagan who took the win with Grace Newport-Tucker close behind. Overall, a very successful day at a tough event for the club and a great way to kick off the season.

Agecroft Head

President Callum Kemp was back in the 1x for Division 1 and opened the day with a tight victory by less than a second in Band 3, giving the Men’s Squad their first medal of the 2021/22 season. The club’s next race came in Division 3, where the W4+ of Finli O’Donoghue, Grace Newport-Tucker, Anna Loughlin, Lucy Fraser and Georgia Silver (cox) were the class of the field, taking the victory over Agecroft and Northwich by nearly 40 seconds in Band 1.

Georgia and Callum were back for division 4 looking to make it two wins in one day in the Open 4+ with Scott Marshall, Jack Lockett and Will Jackson. The crew came within 10 seconds of the victory but were unfortunately pipped by two very strong crews from Agecroft and Northwich.

Dee Autumn Head

The club sent a strong contingent to Dee Autumn Head to round off October and made a strong showing at a very tough event.

In Division 1, the Band 1 W8+ of the Agecroft 4+ plus Charlie Widdowson, Jess Franklin, Tara Johnson and Bekah Hagan came second to a very strong Grosevnor crew by a mere 8 seconds. Luke replaced Jack in the Band 1 M4+ and Tariq Jameel was brought in to cox and the crew put in a spirited show after a clash with another crew to only finish a few seconds behind top crews from Lancaster and Sheffield University. Alumnus Sarah McKay took the win for Grosvenor in the W1x to round off her preparation for GB trials this month.

For Division 2, the W8+ was split into a coxed four and a quad. The 4+ was beaten on the day by very strong competition from Royal Chester and Sheffield University while the 4x narrowly missed out to Hollingworth Lake in a band where the top 4 crews were separated by less than 10 seconds.

On the men’s side, Oliver Wisbey’s first-ever race in the single was a success, finishing 2nd in Band 3 with a time that would’ve seen him also 2nd in Band 2, the 5th quickest out of the 10 entries in the Op1x boat class. The 2x of Ben Fleming and Joe Aldridge was given a tough race by three Grosvenor crews, placing 3rd out of 4 in what was both their first race for the club.

Summary

Overall, the early season races have seen LUBC compete at a high level and go toe to toe with top club and university crews in the North of England and we will be looking to build on this platform at Fours Head this weekend and into the rest of the season.

-Scott Marshall