Shanklin Sandown Rowing Club enjoyed two more wins and a host of other fantastic results as the Hants and Dorset season rolled into its sixth regatta at Poole. This marked the sixth year the regatta has been held at Hamworthy Park in the Dorset town, and still water graced the difficult harbour.
Shanklin had a variety of entries for the regatta, with Joe Robertson kicking the day off in the Mens Novice sculls heats. Joe had an electric start to his race and despite falling back slightly, qualified for his final in third place. In the final Joe was more conservative and this paid off, as he finished sixth, well amongst the main field in his first ever Novice sculls final.
Joe would be followed by the Ladies Junior Four of Lisa Robertson, Stella Gamble, Juliette Wrixon, Emily Faithfull and cox Lesley Walters. They raced in what is proving to be one of the most competitive categories this season. They had a great race, holding well onto the main field and finishing seventh, an impressive row particularly considering the Novice status of two of the ladies.
The second four of the day would be a Mixed J16 boat. Ethan Walters, Hannah Cusworth, Joe Robertson, Emily Faithfull and cox Juliette Wrixon formed an unlikely combination to race in the half course event. Disaster struck for the crew however on their first stroke as Hannahs' footplate snapped. Despite this setback the crew rowed fantastically well to hold onto to the tails of their Poole rivals, finishing eventually only two lengths down.
Pairs rowing is a difficult discipline, the unofficial verdict of the rowing community being that they can often be 'unguided missiles!' Hannah Cusworth and Juliette Wrixon have been slowly finding their feet in the Ladies Junior Pairs and in their third race of the year showed the development of their nous for the event as they finished a very impressive fourth place, a vast improvement on previous regattas.
In the Mixed status double sculls, brothers Alex and Joe Robertson had a strong start and held onto the stern leading BTC boat into their turn. However, the second placed crew struck a problem at the turn, Alex's blade became tangled on the slack buoy line and the boat was stuck dead on the turn. After untangling themselves they rowed back to come over the line in last place.
Joe found redemption for the disappointing doubles result however in his following J16 sculls race. Joe took to the water alongside Ethan Walters. Fifteen year old Joe had an understandably better start over his eleven year old cousin and quickly took a commanding lead over the race which he held all the way through to the line to take the win. Ethan showed great skill and persistence however to not only hang close to his Shanklin team mate and Poole rival, but also beat some of older J16 girls scullers, a brilliant row from him too!
The clubs second win of the day came for Alex Robertson in the Mens Senior Sculls. In a two boat race, Alex faced Riceman of Itchen whom he had lost to last time out. Good starts from both scullers saw a close race to the turns. Alex had a great turn, allowing him to take out a good lead on the Itchen sculler which he was able to hold on the return leg to take his second Senior Sculls point of the year.
Shanklin had a regatta which was filled with yet more promising results, the Advanced Automotive sponsored club now look forward to Newport regatta next weekend.