Warwick Boat Club clean up at the Masters Championships

The 18th of May was the British Rowing Masters Championships. Only open to rowers over the very mature age of 27, this year’s competition turned out to be bathed in sunshine and the biggest one-day rowing regatta ever held in the UK. The conditions for racing were well-night perfect at the National Watersports Centre at Holme Pierrepoint- with the exception of the usual strong headwind at the start-line, which made life difficult for some of the smaller boats to stay in their lanes.
The Masters Championship is always a target event for the Warwick Boat Club rowers, and this year 24 Warwick members took part, across a range of events, in boat sizes which ranged from eights to single sculls, and from races which ranged from Championship to Novice status races.  Warwick Boat Club rowers collected 12 medals over the weekend, 7 of which were gold and 5 were bronze.
The big success of the day was our men’s intermediate coxed four, who won their age category. All four of the crew learned to row in the shadow of Warwick Castle, and three of them only finished their Learn to Row course in the summer of 2013. Alison Tonkin, the experienced cox of the boat said of the win, “I was a bit surprised, but quite pleased!”.  We hope that this will be the start of a golden season for Phil Tonkin, Andy Collett, Jez Waterman, and Chris Bailey.
It was a good day out for Warwick’s women, who entered two women’s fours and a novice eight. One of these crews raced in the Championship event for coxed fours, and took home bronze against fierce competition. The novice women’s eight also deserve a special mention for missing out on a surprise gold medal by only 0.2 seconds- not bad for their first outing together as a whole crew! Two of our most successful rowers, Chris Skuse and Jon Charlseworth, also took a home medals in an eight, rowing “in disguise” as part of a composite crew alongside rowers from Crabtree Rowing Club.
Overall it was a fantastic expedition for Warwick BC, and an optimistic spring-board into the rest of the regatta season which will finish at the end of August. Emma Pinchbeck, Rowing Captain at Warwick Boat Club and a member of the women’s coxed four which took home Championship bronze said, “I’m delighted for all of our rowers. Often considered underdogs at the national events, I’m very proud that we’ve had our day today”.