Manuel Marques

A few of our rowers had another opportunity to try out racing in the salty stuff a few weeks ago at Deal, Walmer and Kingsdown Amateur Rowing Club’s home regatta. Again, our many thanks to Herne Bay ARC for allowing our rowers to integrate with some of their crews!

It was the very first time our very own Lewin Hynes had a go at a coastal regatta (turns included) and in Deal’s case, he had two to contend with! Integrated in a Junior/Senior 4+ crew with fellow clubmate Mark Latymer and two HBARC lads, they finished 3rd, not too far from the experienced Shoreham crew who came 2nd. Our part-coastal/part-river rowers, twins Lewis and Bradley Perry-French formed HBARC’s A-crew in the same event, together with captain Manuel Marques and HBARC rower Luke Taylor, winning the race and securing a championship win in this category for HBARC. The same crew raced in the senior event as well, coming a few lengths behind Deal’s A-crew who won it.

The Perry-French twins continued to assert their dominance in the sculling and pairs events, coming 2nd in the senior pairs category, and with Bradley also coming second in the Junior single sculls event, followed by Lewis in 3rd. Manuel and his trusty stroke Luke Taylor finished last in the senior pair event, after battling very challenging conditions on the outside lane (and afterwards being asked whether they had brought any duty free from France, as the offshore winds kept pushing the outside crew out to sea during the race).

While it was not the first time that our new recruit Billy Baxter had rowed in coastal conditions (having done plenty of gig rowing back in the south west), it was the first time for him racing in this format. Billy partnered with Mark Latymer, and two other HBARC lads, racing in both Novice and Junior category. They came 2nd in the Novice 4+ category, which helped HBARC secure the novice aggregate trophy for this event. Sadly, the crew never managed to finish the Junior 4+ race, as HBARC stroke Tom Self suffered an injury just before the first turn and the crew had to abandon the race. 

We wish Tom a speedy and full recovery, and we again thank HBARC for the opportunity provided to race at this event. And, obviously, our thanks to Deal for organising an event that went so smoothly, bar the challenging weather towards the end!

Some photos of the racing (photo credits: M Bowerman/J Dinning)

Last weekend, some of our rowers had a taste of coastal rowing in the shores of Bexhill-on-Sea, courtesy of our friends at Herne Bay ARC. We were meant to race at their home regatta on the Saturday, but unfortunately it got cancelled due to the uncertain weather conditions. Instead, our rowers made their way in the following day to Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex to make their coastal debut in Bexhill Regatta 2021.

Some of our rowers are no strangers to the coastal rowing scene, spending half of their rowing time with salt water beneath their hulls – junior rowers Lewis and Bradley Perry-French, as well as captain Manuel “Manny” Marques, all have a few coastal rowing seasons under their AIOs. But for long-time Spitfire sculler Mark Latymer and enthusiastic new sculler George Matthews, racing in the sea was a totally new experience. Not only that, it was Latymer’s second race following his debut at Henley Masters Regatta, and Matthews’ first ever one (no, we don’t count your indoor ergometer race as a “proper” race, George! 😀).

Mark and George integrated a four-man crew with other two Herne Bay oarsmen, Tom Self and Dan Lauder, racing in the junior four event. They did exceedingly well for their very first race with an effectively scratch crew (they had never rowed with Self and Lauder until race day!), coming 3rd hot on Bexhill’s tail, in a dramatic finish.

Our very experienced junior rowers, twins Bradley and Lewis Perry-French impressed us all with the amount of events they’ve raced, both doing a total of four events over the course of the day – racing senior pair (and coming 4th amid a very experienced pool of rowers, and after suffering a crash from another crew at the turn), junior sculls (with Lewis coming 2nd, and Brad unfortunately getting held back in 5th position due to a collision at the turn), and two coxed four events, junior/senior (winning it!!) and senior (coming 4th, again amid a very experienced pool, certainly punching above their weight there!).

Captain Manuel Marques enjoyed his “nice day out on the beach” by only doing two events, coming 6th in senior pairs with his trusty strokeman HB rower Luke Taylor (who also stroke the twins’ four) and 4th in the junior/senior coxed four race.

We thank Herne Bay ARC for the possibility to race with them at Bexhill Regatta, and hope we can do that again soon, with a few more of us!

With the lockdown restrictions lifting and competitions resuming all over the country, our club has made its first appearance in on-water competitions in well over a decade!

In early June, Spitfire scullers James Knight and Lewin Hynes attended the British Rowing Masters Championship in Nottingham. They took part in the Masters C double-sculls event in James’s 30-year-old Sims double. After battling their way through the heats, James and Lewin ended the final with a fabulous podium position, winning 3rd place overall.

The club then decided to take things up a notch…and there’s no better way than at the emblematic Henley course, racing at Henley Masters Regatta. James and Lewin teamed up with long-time Spitfire scullers Manuel Marques and Mark Latymer to enter the Masters B coxless quad event. Not only was this going to be the first time visiting Henley for both Mark and Manuel, but it was also Mark’s very first competition! This event was shaping up to be a very special event indeed for our little Club.

Then, disaster struck! James Knight was lost to the crew due to COVID self-isolation in the week leading up to the event.

Luckily for the Club (and the rest of the crew), Leonard “Lenny” Colling from Monmouth heroically jumped into the boat as a last-minute substitute – for which we are extremely grateful. Lenny also raced with Lewin in the Masters C 8+ event, forming a composite crew with Las Vegas Institute of Sport and Monmouth RC. In the semi-final against Kingston RC earlier in the day, they battled it out in an incredibly close race, securing their spot in the finals by over a length. Our plucky scratch crew later put in a strong performance in the final against Crabtree RC, but came home with second place when Crabtree were able to open a lead of two lengths.

With the unfortunate loss of bow steersman James, Manuel was “promoted” to the role in the coxless quad event. Given his track record in steering boats during races, this could have easily ended in chaos – especially since he had only one session before the race to master the coxless steering! Despite all this, and the big wooden booms on either side of the Henley course, Manuel managed to steer smoothly and uneventfully.

Although the crew was convincingly beaten by City of Bristol, this (and the British Masters Champ event before it) was a momentous occasion for the club. Only a few years ago, Spitfire entering any competition would have been unimaginable, let alone at the iconic Henley. We owe our participation to the Ardingly Rowing Club and Falcon Racing Boats for welcoming us and lending us a beautiful (brand new) coxless quad, and we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to them.

After this spirited start to Spitfire competitions, we have a few more events planned for this summer so that even our newest members can participate and get involved! Watch this space for details!

Club junior rowers Lewis and Bradley Perry-French participated in this year’s edition of the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships, entering in the Year 12 boys event. The lads, who are also members of Herne Bay Amateur RC, completed the 2,000-metre event during the 3-day competition window, both of them not just achieving but surpassing their targets.

Not just surpassing their targets, the Perry-French twins both medalled at the event, with Lewis getting silver for his time of 6 minutes 32.5 seconds, and Brad bronze, with his time of 6 minutes 36.1 seconds. Fabulous effort from the two lads, with Lewis just a mere 3 seconds from the overall winner in their category. Really well done!

The lads’ next event will be the National Schools Regatta, where they will enter the double-sculls event – best of luck to them!

Last Saturday, February 27th, some of our rowers participated in another virtual event, but this time, with a twist: unlike previous challenges and races, this one allowed crews to race against each other in real-time, with real race commentary, all from their garages, sheds and lounges. Organised by Runcorn RC, this is their virtual take of their Spring Head, annually raced on the river Weaver by many clubs of the north-west over a distance of 3,500 metres.

Due to its virtual format, Spitfire was not the only club from far away attending the event, with crews from as far as Poole and Southsea joining in for the fun. We entered three events in total, the coxless MasC quad in the first (morning) division, and two pairs, one MasB and another MasC, in the second (afternoon) division.

Real-time racing required some more gear, and crucially… a stable connection to the Internet, meaning network cables were definitely necessary!

In the morning session, after a few hiccups with getting the racing started (just like a real head race!), and a last-minute substitution with a veteran rower from Runcorn, George Perrin, filling in for Lewin, the crew of Manuel Marques, James Knight, George Perrin and Mark Latymer came 2nd in their category, 23 seconds behind Brexbourne who won the event. George’s connection dropped off mid-race, which equated to a crewmember ejection by the system, with the whole crew suffering a time penalty as a consequence of that.

But it was in the afternoon session that the racing became interesting for the Spitfire crews, with the rowers from the morning’s quad split into two pairs, racing in the same event alongside a Lancaster crew (what an amazing coincidence!). The crew of Manuel Marques and James Knight finished first in the time trial, with a total time of 11:46, but as they were racing in the MasB category that meant that they incurred in a 13-second handicap over the MasC crew of Lewin Hynes and Mark Latymer, whose final time of 11:39 guaranteed their victory.

Full results here. More details about Runcorn’s Virtual Spring Head here, and do check out the YouTube commentary that was live-streamed throughout the day!

Some pictures (and videos!) of the Spitfire rowers in action during the event below:

Club rower Lewin Hynes contributed with this great video, showing the virtual head underway (in this case, the pairs event with two Spitfire crews).

Following the event attended by a few of our rowers in January, Bewl Bridge RC organised another virtual event as part of their series. Similarly to the earlier event, our rowers could participate in both 3 and 5k distance events, be it on the ergo or by running (or both!).

Our club entered the Masters C quad that had already entered in the previous event, consisting of captain Manuel Marques (bow), James Knight, Lewin Hynes and Mark Latymer, who again came victorious in their category, with a combined time of 19:09.9!

The same rowers also competed in pairs, with Mark and Manuel finishing 3rd in the Masters B category, and Lewin and James taking 4th place in the Masters C category. Individually, in addition to these four rowers, Nigel Weaver also competed in the Masters G category, finishing 8th with a time of 20:50.5.

James, Manuel and Mark also chose to do the 5k running option, with James winning his category with a very respectable time of 20:35.1, and Mark managing to get his fastest 5k run time of this year – well done to both!

Full results below and spreadsheet with all the details accessible here. Our thanks to Bewl Bridge RC for organising this event, which is keeping us motivated throughout this lockdown.

5,000-metre ergo

• 1x MasC (Lewin Hynes) – 5th place, out of 24 entrants;
• 1x MasC (Mark Latymer) – 14th place, out of 24 entrants;
• 1x MasD (James Knight) – 10th place, out of 21 entrants;
• 1x MasG (Nigel Weaver) – 8th place, out of 12 entrants;
• 1x MasA Lwt (Manuel Marques) – 1st place, out of 2 entrants; 🥇
• 2x MasB (Marques/Latymer) – 3rd place, out of 4 entrants; 🥉
• 2x MasC (Knight/Hynes) – 4th place, out of 7 entrants;
• 4x MasC (Marques/Knight/Hynes/Latymer) – 1st place, out of 3 entrants; 🥇

5,000-metre run

• 1x MasA (Manuel Marques) – 3rd place, out of 7 entrants; 🥉
• 1x MasC (Mark Latymer) – 5th place, out of 5 entrants;
• 1x MasD (James Knight) – 1st place, single entrant. 🥇

Some images from our Spitfire rowers taking part on the challenge:

Along with taking part in virtual head races, our Spitfire rowers have also been busy throughout the first month of 2021, taking part on Concept2’s Virtual Team Challenge. This challenge, part of a series that ergo and oar manufacturer Concept2 regularly features in their online log tool, saw rowers from all over the world competing in teams across several categories, rowing as many metres as possible from January 1st until January 31st.

Spitfire competed alongside other on-water clubs in the 2-5 member category. Amazingly, with 1,110,780 metres, our club placed third in this category’s leaderboard, with a considerable distance from the fourth placed club, Mighty Crabs from Maryland in the USA, and a mere ~ 150 km from second placed Bezzers Boozers from Cornwall. Full results here.

To put things into perspective, the cumulative distance rowed by these five Spitfire rowers would allow one to reach (starting from our boathouse, and as the crow flies) the whole of the British Isles, the north of Spain, and even the southern end of Scandinavia, just to name a few – this is visually represented in the map below. Impressive work, everyone!

Despite current lockdown restrictions preventing any kind of organised on-water competitions, Bewl Bridge RC has very successfully organised a virtual head race (5,000 metres) which took place between the 28th and 31st of January, 2021. Along with other 40 rowing clubs from all over the country, our club was well represented with 7 our members taking part in various categories, even forming virtual “crews” of pairs and fours.

Club members who lacked access to a Concept2 ergometer were also able to take part, as the event allowed competitors to run the length of the head race, with chairman Tom Hurst, captain Manuel Marques, and veteran rower James Knight all taking part in that format. Among a competitive field of over 500 athletes, Spitfire crews did very well, with some crews and individuals finishing in podium positions.

Club member Lewin Hynes competing in the 5,000 m ergo event – with a very supportive audience!

The composite Masters C virtual quad of Manuel Marques, Lewin Hynes, James Knight and Mark Latymer finished first in its category, with a time of 18:50.3 seconds. New members Jeremy Hewlett and Nigel Weaver, competing in the Masters F category in a virtual pair, placed fourth with a time of 20:34.3.

Full results listed below (results correct as of 8pm Sun 31st). We congratulate all members who took part in this event, and look forward to the follow-up event at the end of February!

5k ergo

• MAS D 1x (Knight): 6th (out of 10 entrants)
• MAS C 1x (Hynes): 2nd 🥈 (out of 16 entrants)
• MAS C 1x (Latymer): 10th (out of 16 entrants)
• MAS F 1x (Hewlett): 6th (out of 15 entrants)
• MAS G 1x (Weaver): 3rd 🥉 (out of 5 entrants)
• MAS A 1x(LWT) (Marques): 2nd 🥈 (out of 2 entrants)
• MAS F 2x (Hewlett/Weaver): 4th (out of 5 entrants)
• MAS C 4x (Marques/Hynes/Knight/Latymer): 1st 🥇 (out of 4 entrants)

5k run

• U23 Lwt (Hurst): 6th (out of 9 entrants)
• MAS A Lwt (Marques): 2nd 🥈 (out of 5 entrants)
• MAS D (Knight): 1st 🥇 (only entrant in category).