Outstanding performance for Lottie

Lottie Burgess was representing Star Club at the Small Boats Regatta at Dorney Lake, the latest set of Great Britian Junior Trials.

The first action of the day was a head race to determine which semi-finals the athletes were put into. Positions 1-12 made up the A semi-finals, 13-24 made up the B semi-finals with the remainder in the C semi finals.

In the time trial Lottie came home in the second fastest time, 3 seconds behind first place. This lead to Lottie being the quickest in her A semi-final which she went on to win, pulling away from the field at 1000m.

Going into the final Lottie was 2 seconds slower than the time trials winner from the semi final indicating the final would be a close race. In the final two girls had scratched because of illness/injury leading to 4 athletes racing to be the quickest single sculler in the country. Eventually Lottie cam in second 10 seconds behind the winner but 12 ahead of third place.

This is an excellent result as in the previous trials Lottie had come in 11th place and is a reward for her hard work over the last 4 weeks.

Congratualtions Lottie.

Star secure another 11 wins on home water

On Sunday 13th April saw the last head race of the season in Bedford. The course was held over the full 2000m from the Railway Bridges to beyond the Butterfly Bridge and saw 8 divisions in total throughout the day. Yet again, Star did not disappoint and produced another outstanding result winning the most events in total from any one club.

Ewa & Mick pick up wins at the C.W. League

The Cambridge Winter League held over 3 legs, saw the 1st leg in January cancelled due to bad weather.

In the 2nd leg (February), Mick Parker had to stop to negociate round a crashed double on the worst bend of the course, luckly to find time to still stay ahead of the Vet 'D' 1xs by 32 seconds and 2nd fastest Men's Vet 1x.

After a short rest in the next division, Mick teamed up with Ewa Whiteman and again had a similar experience in the double on the same bend and had to stop 3 times to 'pull' it round, again relieved to find themselves ahead of all the Vet 'D' 2xs by some 35 seconds and beating all but 1 mixed Vet 2x and most Men's.

The next and final leg in March, Mick this time had a clear run down the course which resulted in him finishing the fastest Men's 1x of that leg and winning Vet D 1xs.

Later on (and fitted with a rudder), Mick and Ewa went out again to scull a clear course and win by a larger margin of 37 seconds and second in mixed Vet 2x to a Vet 'B' 2x by 3 seconds.......the rudder worked!

Well done to both Mick and Ewa for a superb series of result on a very challenging course.

Star Club Hat-trick

On Saturday, the 15th of March 2008, saw Star Clubs men's squad compete at the annual Men's Eights Head of th River Race which took place on the River Thames in London.

The 9km course, famously known as the Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race; but in reverse; spans from Mortlake to Putney, and is commonly known in rowing as the ''Tideway''.

In a stretch of river known for unpredictable weather, conditions were good and amongst the 420 competing crews were 3 boats from Star Club;

a Senior 1+ first eight of (from Stroke) Will Suthers, Ali Brown, Mark Bavington, Charlie Palmer, Joel Grant-Jones, Dave Kempsell, Pete Mulkerrines and Chris Callow, coxed by David White;

a senior 2+ second eight of (from Stroke) Kevin Bullard, Martin Birch, Colin Hunt, Simon White, James Black, David Osgood, Jonathon Hall and James Gani, coxed by Carrina, and;

a Novice 3^rd eight of (again from Stroke) Alex Collard, Simon Lamb, Paul Tredget, Ed Kilby, Tim Brown, Andy Chillingsworth, Aaron Bubbins and Dick Talboys, coxed by Laura Wallbank.

The 1^st eight in a time of 18 minutes, 34.94 seconds, finished the race in an impressive 29^th position, from a starting position of 43, moving up 16 places and setting a high standard for next year. Not only did they finish 29th, but they were only 17 seconds from winning the Jackson Trophy penant, which went to Agecroft RC from Manchester, who finished 11th overall.