A Tale of Two Races
For coxes, no test of conventional rowing can compare with steering on the Tideway, especially on that 4.25 mile stretch of river between Chiswick Bridge and Putney Bridge during a 420 boat race. A coxes primary skill is to steer a 55ft arrow with a rudder the size of a credit card, while motivating the eight oarsmen sitting in front of him or her, driving them when the oarsmen are desperately tired.
Bedford Rowing Club was fortunate to have four excellent proponents of the art of coxing to guide their crews in the 1998 Head of the River Race, which was held at the weekend. Bedford's top crew moved up 18 places, to finish 61st overall and 6th out 54 in Senior I. The crew consisted of cox Imogen Bowis, Gwyn Williams, Steve Breed, Blaine Castle, Patrick Doyle, Dan Pounds, Michael Hardy, Adam Wood and Jon Lemon, who had won Gloucester Head outright the previous week. Interestingly, Adam Wood was the Bedford and GB Junior International cox last year, this was his first Tideway Eights race as an oarsman.
Proving that the competition is strong, Bedford's second eight, who were also winners of Senior II eights at Gloucester Head, finished 201st overall. The crew of cox Christina Webb, Blair Clow, Mark Hammond, Pete Stasiuk, Dave Edwards, Tom Robb, Jeremy Collet, Paul Temple and Jon Melrose were 30th out of 54 crews in Senior I eights.
Two Bedford crews started at the back of the back and lanced through the opposition, the novice eight going up 52 places to finish 363rd, while the puffers eight went up an amazing 140 places to finish 261st.
On Sunday was the turn of the Veteran crews to race over the Boat Race course. Again due to excellent coxing, Bedford's Veteran B crew (average age 36) moved up 26 places to finish 3rd. The crew, cox Haydn Bass, Paul Knights, Huw Maltby, Blaine Castle, Richard White, Rob Morgan, Andy Major, Bill Sadler, and Steve Breed, won the Veteran B category, despite a strong Italian challenge from Moto Guzzi rowing club.
Also finishing well, moving up 24 places to 14th overall , was a Star/Bedford composite containing Pete Stasiuk and Dave Edwards.
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