Dover Rowing Club were in action on the 5km Itchen River Course in the Southampton ARC Head of the River. The competition was in coastal boats and run in a time trial format with each crew starting 20 seconds apart. This was Dover’s second outing on the Itchen and Will Coleman and Jasper Mallet were hoping to better their second place in the BTC head where they missed out by 4 seconds in the Open Senior Pair. In a 10 boat field Dover were the third to start and were chasing BTC’s crew off the start line. A strong start saw the pair slowly grind down the gap to the BTC crew and both crews closed down the lead Eastbourne boat comfortably passing them before the half way point. In the final third Dover eased past BTC to take the lead position in the race and were driving hard to the line to what felt like a good finish. The long wait for the timing results led to disappointment as they were once again second to Lymington for the second race running, by the tiniest 1 second margin, in a time of 18 minutes and 39 seconds.
Tom Stothart competed in the Senior Sculls event starting in sixth place and chasing the Eastbourne Sculler with a slightly longer 29 second gap to close down. Stothart showed his strength and closed steadily. Through the bridges of the course he got closer to Eastbourne coming past around the 3.5km mark. Pushing for a good time Stothart came home in 18 minutes and 53 seconds. The timings showed that he finished third behind Coalporters and Poole by 12 seconds.
The Novice Women’s Four of Elizabeth Strong, Evia Holland, Holly Young, Poppy Worthington-Taylor coxed by Vanessa Ware competed in a large field. Starting ninth the young crew found themselves under pressure early in the race as the fast moving Lymington crew, starting 18 seconds behind them, were soon closing. Rather than be disheartened they focused on their race and building experience in these longer events. Two crews would pass them by the finish but a good performance saw them finish tenth in 22 minutes 39 seconds.
The Junior Women’s Four of Janice Bradford, Rhiannon Castree, Holly Hannington, Emily Harvey, coxed by Lee Stampton competed for Dover. Starting first, Dover’s crew were chased by a strong Itchen Imperial boat. Dover came under increasing pressure through the first half of the course before eventually slipping behind their opponents who were on home waters. The finish saw the Junior crew finish tenth in a time of 21 minutes 16 seconds.