The strength in depth within the CUWBC squad was on show yet again on the TidewayBjorn Zeeb

Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club (CUWBC) maintained their successful start to the new season on a rainy Saturday, as they fielded the fastest women’s coxless four at the 2016 Fours Head of the River race in London.

The annual 4 ¼ mile (6.8 kilometre) race, which takes place on the Tideway of the River Thames in London along Championship Course from Mortlake to Putney, provided CUWBC with another chance for success in the capital after last year’s disappointing Varsity loss. And it was a chance they took: having entered seven boats in both the coxed and coxless categories, superb performances from all the crews saw the Light Blues make a noticeable mark on the regatta.

The time of 20:02 put in by CUWBC I’s crew of Myriam Goudet, Alice White, Melissa Wilson and Holly Hill was the fastest time of any women’s coxless four boat at the event, as they first outstripped their competitors by over 30 seconds in a demonstration of their undeniable quality that had seen three of them win gold at the British Rowing Senior Championships earlier this season.

The Light Blue dominance of the category was reinforced by CUWBC II’s crew of Imogen Grant – fresh from finishing as the top Under-23 sculler at last weekend’s GB Rowing Team trials, as Varsity reported – Tricia Smith, Oonagh Cousins and Karolina Farr, who together took second place with a time of 20:40. This was a continuation of their fine run of form, having won the bronze at the British Rowing Senior Championships last month.

The strength in depth available for the Light Blues was further illustrated by the performance of CUWBC’s III crew who – despite all being members of the CUWBC Lightweight Squad –  remained competitive with their openweight rivals by posting a time of 21:20. The crew, which consisted of Iona Casley, Dorottya Nagy and Izzy Edwards alongside new American recruit Olivia Jamrog – who had raced at the 2015 World Rowing Under-23 Championship – fine tactical choices paid off, with Nagy describing how the Light Blues “used our tech focuses and length calls to get us to Hammersmith and finally hammering down on the power and rate for the final 750 metres”.

CUWBC were also dominant in the women’s coxed fours category thanks to fine performances from several returners from the 2015 and 2016 Blue Boats and the victorious 2016 reserve boat, Blondie. CUWBC IV took a well-earned second place while CUWBC V’s crew, which included Claire Lambe as she made her debut for the Light Blues, having represented Ireland at the Rio Olympic Games, secured third place.

The fifth and sixth places for CUWBC VI and VII respectively were made all the more impressive by the fact that a number of the rowers were making their debut for Light Blues, having only begun training very recently. As CUWBC’s VI stroke Sally O’Brien – who has joined the Light Blues from Trinity College Dublin – explained: “Despite having only been in the crew for one day, we put in a committed performance. We are excited to build on this platform in the next few weeks.”

CUWBC’s rowers now return to training for little under a month, as they prepare for ‘trial races’ on the 11th and 12th December, events that they will surely approach in a confident manner. Certainly, the successes that CUWBC has recorded continuously this season are laying the foundations for an excellent season, as recognised by White. She noted that despite the race being “more challenging” than she had expected, “Holly, Melissa, and Myriam were relentless throughout” and “that gives me a lot of confidence as we push forward”.

Meanwhile, there was more Light Blue success, as the rowers of CUWBC's male counterpart, Cambridge University Boat Club (CUBC), also performed strongly in both categories having entered five boats into the event – four coxed and one coxless.

In the coxed fours, the CUBC I crew of Lance Tredell, Ben Ruble, Henry Meek and Patrick Eble and cox Ian Middleton crossed the line ahead of two boats from Oxford (one of which contained two athletes from Rio 2016), finishing in 18:41 to claim first place and the Elite Coxed Fours pennant for the second year in a row. Meanwhile, CUBC II, CUBC III and CUBC IV all finished within the top 10 of the four hundred competing boats.

And in the coxless fours, the crew of Sam Wilson, Louis Margot, Charlie Fisher and Freddie Davidson finished in second place with a time of 18:45, 13 seconds adrift of the winners, but ahead of both of their Oxford rivals in the same category.

CUWBC I – Coxless Fours: Goudet, White, Hill, Wilson

CUWBC II – Coxless Fours: Grant, Farr, Smith, Cousins

CUWBC III – Coxless Fours: Jamrog, Casley, Nagy, Edwards

CUWBC IV – Coxed Fours: Pike, van Fossen, Zabell, Andrews, Holland (cox)

CUWBC V – Coxed Fours: Lambe, Elwood, Brown, Belais, Lindsay (cox)

CUWBC VI – Coxed Fours: O’Brien, Wulff, Faulkner, Nicholls, Schofield (cox)

CUWBC VII – Coxed Fours: McLuskie, Hopgood, Abbott, Thompson, Klavenes (cox)

CUBC I - Coxless Fours: Wilson, Margot, Fisher, Davidson

CUBC II - Coxed Fours: Tredell, Ruble, Meek, Eble, Middleton (cox)

CUBC III - Coxed Fours: Newman, Tracey, Malowany, Ponte, Ramabason (cox)

CUBC IV - Coxed Fours: Bachele, Rees, Letten, Kases, Bose (cox)

CUBC V - Coxed Fours: Langslow, Ringer, Carroll, Strudwick, Hashmi (cox)