DRIVING wind and rain threatened to wash out the first day of racing in Henley but failed to dampen the spirits of Neptune or the Defence Forces, whose eights finished the day with their Thames Cup ambitions still intact.
Neptune's first race of the Royal Regatta turned out to be more of a warm up paddle. Their opponents, Wallingford B, were beaten by Neptune's Senior crew last month and the only drama was seen before either crew had made the start line. Neptune's number five, Kevin Lynch, caught a crab in a practice run and the back stay of his rigger gave way, delaying the start of the race by 25 minutes while a replacement was found.
Once underway it was a one boat race. Neptune on the Buckinghamshire station pulled away and were a length ahead by the lend of the Temple island, and another half a length on top at the quarter mile mark. The strike rate dropped to 32 for the rest of the race and Neptune crossed the line a comfortable 21/4 lengths in front of Wallingford.
The time of 7.04, almost a minute off the usual Thames pace was more a reflection of the conditions than the competition as Neptune's stroke, Colm O'Rourke, acknowledged. "We were going through at the barrier in 1.57 and the record is 1.47 it was just a matter of rowing down after that. We didn't burst ourselves and when we left the fastest time at the barrier was only a second quicker."
That time belonged to London, who race the Defence Forces in the next round later today. The other seeds, Wallingford A and Nottingham, also progressed and Neptune meet Furnivall who beat Thames Tradesmen in their heat.
The Defence Forces had to stay in the Cup the hard way, winning their first race against Durham ARC from behind. The essentially Senior three eight has undergone some enforced crew changes in the last week after their number six, Martin McCarthy, broke his leg. Ciaran Smith moved up the boat to fill his seat and Mike Curt in was restored to the boat.
By the barrier DFRA were half a length down, but a series of pushes saw them race through Durham by a canvass at Fawley, the half way mark, and a high rating stretched the lead to 21/2. lengths at the finish.
In the sculls, for most of the day it seemed the weather was a window of still wind and the Fermoy man made full advantage of it against a Australian opponent, Burton, who weighed in three stone heavier. Towey built up an early length lead from the quarter mile mark and underrated Burton throughout to win by a clear four lengths in one of the fastest sculling times of the day.
His race today promises to be a stiffer challenge against the seeded Dutch heavyweight Vervoorn who was 18th in the World Championships.
Other races yesterday saw Belfast recover from a bad start to beat Quintin in the Britannia Cup while Coleraine went out of the Princess Elizabeth Cup to finalists in last month's British schools championships, Hampton A, by a large margin.
Trinity's second eight in the Temple where also knocked out in the first round after holding Dartmouth College in the early stages. The American crew haven a good chance of going further in the Cup when they met a Queens eight.
