Great enthusiasm accompanied the formation of the Girls IV at the beginning of the Spring Term. None had rowed before and events were to dictate that none would row for some weeks yet. In fact the state of the river was such that no significant outings took place until after half term. It is a great credit to the crew that they managed to maintain their interest throughout this trying time of practice at the tank, land-based fitness and ergometers. Once afloat, however, the crew made good progress and, although still very much novices, they put in a creditable performance at the City of Bristol Head Race, coming first in their division (of one!) and managing to record a faster time than two men's Novice IVs from City University and women's Novice IVs from both the home club and Bath University.

At Avon County Head Race they found themselves racing against two seasoned crews and one Lower Sixth crew of similar experience. Their final time was within forty-five seconds of the winning crew and a full six minutes faster than the comparable Lower Sixth crew. Encouraged by this result the crew travelled to the final event of the term, the Schools' Head of the River Race, and managed an excellent ninth place in their division. Summer term brought the regattaseason and a change to a fine boat. The crew competed at four regattas and were entered in five events, reaching the final in every case. A third place was achieved at Avon County Schools' Regatta with Monkton losing narrowly to Cheltenham College and Lady Eleanor Holles School. Coate Water brought a second, by a canvas, to Henley Rowing Club. Walton, however, was a rather different propositon with twelve other crews entered drawn from both schools and rowing clubs. Nevertheless, despite a near disaster in the first round, the crew battled through to beat the home club in a nail-biting final, thus winning their first pot. This success brought with it the inevitable change of status. However, the crew achieved a win in their first Senior III heat at Thames Valley Sprint but found themselves outclassed in the final of both this event and the School Junior IVs - a reminder that further tasks remain for next season! Altogether this has been a most promising start for the Women's IV and hopefully their successes will encourage many more girls to join the Rowing Club in 1991.

(A member of the crew writes: 'The Boat Club set a challenge - to turn four uncoordinated young ladies into skilful oarswomen. The only person who was willing or naive enough to 'have a bash' was the unsuspecting Mr. Merricks. The one thing we had in common was a wish to prove to the boys and to the rest of the school that we were here to stay and win. This we did prove. We would like to thank Mr. Merricks for taking on such a motley crew and for putting up with us during the rather explosive training sessions on the river. We look forward to next season's campaign.')