The crew met at MCS on the Wednesday before the regatta, and went to Bewdley in two cars and the Land Rover. We trained on Thurs- day and Friday on their very short stretch of water; Thursday's outing was a bit rusty, but the old form came back quickly, and by the Satur- day, the crew was ready to meet anyone.

SATURDAY

The first round in Senior B VIII was against Grosvenor, the club from Chester. Their crew was made up of two Senior B fours, one of which had done well at the National Championships the week before. Monkton started at about 46, and quickly gained a length. At the camp site (about 200m from the finish) the Monkton rate was 40, and by the finish it was a confident 38. In the other semi-final, Cherwell (of Llandaff fame) rowed against the local club, and beat them by 1.75 lengths. After this rac the Cherwell cox was weighed, and found to be under 7 stone, when she should have been 7st 101b. The umpire quite correctly disqualified them, but there was much argument (discussion?), and after about 20 minutes, it was agreed that there should be a re-row. Cherwell won this as well. So the final gave us an opportunity to beat the Cherwell crew that (according to the Monkton coach) should have been beaten on a fairer Llandaff course. There was a strong tail wind for the final, and Monkton sta ted at about 50, dropping the rate gradually to 40. The way, and Monkton won by a third of a length. Cherwell had pre- viously taunted the crew, saying they were a 'bunch of schoolboys' — true or not, this remark had helped to raise steam in the Monkton boat, and the coach was more than pleased so shout 'Well done, schoolboys' to the crew after the race. (Our stroke was heard to say something in somewhat stronger language..) This win put us up to Senior A classification. We have been Senior A only once before, but only as a result of the last race of the year. This time, our new status was to be tested out on the Sunday.

Sunday — Senior A

We met Thames Tradesmen in the semi-final. The very name is enough to put fear into most crews, but the Monkton crew went up to the start hoping at least not to disgrace themselves. They went off at an astounding 48 (indeed they put 24 strokes in the first half minute), and TFRC hardly had time to see what had hit them. Monkton were up after a short time, and pulled ahead confidently at over 40 all the way, with good cover and plenty of confidence to gain a win by one and a half lengths. The inal was against City of Oxford. Once again Monkton started at well over 50, and put in 24 strokes in half a minute, but Oxford were not put off by this, and were about a canvas up half way down the course. Towards the end of the 500m, Ox- ford edged ahead a little more. They had taken the best part of the stream for most of the course with some aggressive coxing, but towards the end where the advantage (if any) was on our side, they veered well into our water. They were warned by the umpire, but cannot possibly have heard the warning. Our cox hesitated, and just after the coach had said to himself that we ought to steer into Oxford, the cox did just that. We were well on our station, and Oxford's cox was certainly in the wrong. We broke two oars, and both crews protested that there had been a foul. The umpire awarded a re-row, so we sorted out two spare oars (one of our own, and one kindly lent by Bewdley), and went back to the start. While this was being organised, the Oxford coach was heard to say that they were lucky not to have been disqualified... We went back to row the race again. The pattern was much the same, with a very high (too high) rate from Monkton, and a more controlled row from Ox- ford. Once again, they pushed out onto our station at the finish, but this time, they were two thirds of a length ahead, and got away with it. The crew enjoyed camping for a few days at Bewdley, and although the trip is not as glam- orous as going abroad, the racing was excellent, and cost low. The crew got no coaching, and perhaps next time we must think of a way of giving a bit more help. (It can't have been right to let the rate go off the clock!)

'The Umpire is always right', or so they say, but it must be recorded that both at Llandaff and at Bewdley, the umpires seemed to fear disquali- fying crews that had clearly infringed the rules. At Llandaff, one of our J14 IVs drove sideways into its opposition three times in one race, and there had to be two re-starts — and yet they were not disqualified. At Bewdley, a very light Ox- ford cox should have been disqualified in the semi-final. In the final against us, they were well out of their water, and should have paid the penalty.

The crew dispersed on their various ways soon after the final. They had all enjoyed one of the best seasons ever; their record of achievement will be hard to better. Their successors in seasons to come may well have more physical strength and weight; let us hope that they also develop the loyalty and sense of purpose that the 1987 crew had.