Nottingham Rowing Club’s Junior Double Scullers won the Raynor Trophy at the Women’s Henley Regatta on Sunday 18th June. The girls Charlotte Brown and Lucy Holgate have been part of the club’s high performance section coached by Dez Atkins and Nikki Spencer.
In the first round on Saturday they beat the Swiss double from Vevey Rowing club in a time of 5 minutes 58 seconds which was the second fastest time of the day only Llandaff and Tideway scullers coming close. In the second round they beat City of Oxford by 2 lengths in the fastest time of the round but the remaining opposition all recorded very similar times.
On the second day in the semi-final against Marlow one of the fancied crews, the girls were behind by a length for more than half of the race. They remained very composed and sculled strongly through the last 250m to come through to win by a length and record a time of 5 minutes 40 seconds which was the fastest time of the event. In the other semi-final Tideway Scullers beat Llandaff from Cardiff by only ½ length in a time of minutes 44 seconds.
In the final the girls decided to try to lead off the start and stay there. They established a lead of about a length by the end of Temple Island and this was maintained all the way to the finish line. Their sculling looked much more composed and efficient than the Tideway Scullers who were always chasing the race.