It was to be a tense Sunday at Monmouth for the first head race of the season. Only a second separated the Minerva and Alkmaar crews at the AA race in April and Minerva was keen to regain the shield on home ground.
Two crews from each club headed into Wales for the race. The women's 4+ of Laura Cowen, in her first head race, Arianna Granziera, Emily Porter and stroked by Sarah Moon knew they had a tough job on their hands facing a far more experienced Dutch crew. Nerves were starting to show on the way up to race but as the boat turned the crew settled and focused on the task ahead. With every call from the cox the crew responded, managing to stay ahead of the doubles chasing from behind. A good time of 9:30 and an exhausted crew meant that the hard work was over, now it was a wait to see how the other three crews faired in the second division.
The men's Minerva crew of Neil Billett, Ian Burdis, Mike Ashman and Andy Hoyes faced an equally tough race, compounded by the failure of the rudder wire on the way to the start leaving the crews course completely reliant on their luckily very experienced cox Sue Lees. The crew put in an exceptional performance and despite covering slightly more of the course than planned they finished the course in 8:44, nearly 10 seconds faster than their Dutch counterparts.
This left everything to play for as all waited for the women's crew from Alkmaar. They had a strong race, being coxed rather too effectively by Sarah Moon and finished in a time of 9:22. Once again the race for the challenge shield was separated by only a couple of seconds, with this time the victory heading to Minvera Bath.
A great day was had by all and we look forward to the return visit in April for the 25th Anniversary.
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