There's only annual race that gets the whole club involved, and that's the Dewar Shield. Sunday, 12th February saw all of our six eights on the water racing on the flood tide from Hammersmith to Mortlake. A resurgent Auriol and Kensington won the shield last year, and they were always going to be hard to beat. Their mens' Henley crew of 2016 seem to have retired from competitive racing, but returned as a formidable "vets" crew.  Our own vets squad was missing four regulars through absence and injury but still managed to put out a crew that finished sixth in 11.41 - as against the day's fastest time of 11.12 set by Sons M1.  M3 crewed by novices from our learn to row course, posted a respectable 12.28 in ninth place. 

Amongst the women's crews, Furnivall posted the fastest time of 11.52, emphasising their traditional strength in women's rowing.  AK were close behind with 12.00 but Sons crews took third, fourth and seventh places showing strength in depth.

The result, announced by Colin in an absurdly packed Linden House bar was, AK: 27,  Sons: 25 and FSC 22. It's been noted that if scored using the established system for this event, the result was even closer - AK 45, Sons 44 and FSC 39. So not a bad result - just one place better for one crew could have won us the competition. 

Big thanks are due to the volunteers from all three clubs that made the event possible, particularly Mel as host club organiser. 

Mirko, Dave, Tomaso and Pete won their pennant at the Veteran Fours Head, holding off strong opposition from City of Cambridge and Las Vegas Institute of Sport.   It was a fine day for a head race, sunny with just enough breeze over the flood tide to bother those unaccustomed to the Tideway.  Six Sons crews got to the start line despite boat damage, work pressure and crew illness.  (Thanks to Anna for subbing in as a launch driver at the last minute.)  The sculling crews all avoided humiliation and the sweep crews raced well:  the WMasC4+ were 3rd in their division, the MMasC4- 2nd and the MMasA4- 1st. 

22 October: Sons Vets left the safety of the Tideway this week and travelled to the US to put up a strong showing at the Head of the Charles in Boston. The event - a 4.5km race along Boston's famous river - attracted 11,000 rowers of all ages from around the world. Boating out of Belmont Boat Club in Harvard, the Sons contingent - Bruce, Stephen, Emile, Brad, Les, Nic, Dave and Andrew - came 24th out of 62 boats in their category. They were helped in no small part by some cleverly tactical steering from cox Hilary Cook along the famously-difficult course. It was good to see other British crews there too - Molesey, Xpress, Quintin - as well as Sons supporters who cheered the crew on from the bridges. A big thanks to every one who turned out.

The 2016/17 season kicked off on Sunday with the Pairs Head.  The river was in a tricky mood for both competitors and marshals, with a strong flood tide running and a southerly breeze.   Pete and Mirko in MSen.2- rowed the course from Harrods to Chiswick Marina in 15:36, which was the club's fastest time on the day.  Brad and Les carved through the MMasE.2x field to take their pennant by just 0.4 seconds. The other Sons crews generally performed respectably as did the seven entries from City of Cambridge.  The sun came out and the club was buzzing with home entries, visiting crews, dinghy sailorsand spectators.

Sons is looking for experienced female rowers who want to join the squad with the aim of racing at Henley Women’s Regatta 2017.  This season the squad produced a crew that qualified for the Invesco Challenge Cup for Club Eights at HWR and progressed to the quarter finals.  

Looking ahead to 2016/2017 season we are keen to build on this and get more boats competing. We are looking for strong motivated rowers who are willing to put in the work. The training program will be a mixture of on-the-water training, ergo and weights that can fit in with a busy work schedule.

Our coach is an ex-international rower with more than 30 years of experience. For those with less experience and maybe less time to train we also have an intermediate women’s squad. Our fleet includes brand new Hudson and Wintech boats. Interested? Come and say hello at the club house or contact us on enquiries@sonsrowing.com

Ed, Brad, Les and Bruce cruised serenely to the MasE.4x final at Henley Masters but were then well beaten by a Newark / Hollingworth Lake composite.

The veteran men (aka the breakfast club) have been working hard on their sculling technique this season with coaching from Katie & Kate in the winter and Sam in recent weeks.  Our MasD and MasE crews have on occasion achieved a common and efficient style that makes them hard to beat.  Unfortunately, the Henley final was a tense race in choppy water so that long ingrained faults and quirks of self-taught technique resurfaced.  This was disappointing but the overall performance was a step up on previous years, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of the coaches.

Sons entered three events in the British Masters Rowing Championships at Holme Pierrepont.  The weather gods had laid on heavy rain showers for the weekend, perhaps with the Queen's outdoor birthday party in mind.  Conditions were nevertheless good for sculling and the regatta was as sociable as ever.  Ed sculled 1000m in under 4 minutes but that was not good enough to qualify for the final in a strong M.D.1x field.  Bruce, Les, Ed and Dave then came 4th in the M.E.4x final, a disappointment having beaten two of the medallists in the qualifying heat.  Les and Andrew comfortably won the M.D.IM3.2x final.   Among old friends, Rory narrowly missed bronze in an Agecroft M.D.4+ and Hugo took silver in M.F.4x for Star Club.

Sons entered 2 crews from their Mens squad at Barnes & Mortlake, a local regatta organised by their upriver neighbours at Mortlake Anglian & Alpha. This involved a particularly early start for the Hammersmith contingent (boating before 7am!) for Mat, Dave, Nic, and Greg and last-minute substitute cox Peter Horton (coming to the rescue of our crews once again!). 

The IM3 4+ race involved some of this season's regulars from the men's squad but was a relatively scratch crew having never rowed in this configuration in a 4+. Although they showed that they could get off to a clean start and almost achieve clear water a third into the race, their Vesta rivals were determined not to give up and slowly ate it into that gap. As much as the old saying is to "get ahead from the start so you can see your competition", it's never enjoyable to see your rivals gradually come back at you and just inch past you on the line. (Nothing that a few more water sessions couldn't have helped for future races!) Verdict: A canvas for Vesta over Sons of the Thames

Greg raced in a straight final in IM3 1x and finally managed to get his second sculling point, almost exactly 7 years, to the day, after the first one.

After a strong start he almost had clear water but the experience and skill of his Quintin rival started to show through and with some serious cheering from squad members, he just about managed to hold on. All this despite some particularly dodgy steering towards the finish... Verdict: 1/4 length

Sons sent a strong entry to Twickenham on 28 May.  Crews and spectators enjoyed fine weather, good racing conditions and club wins in four events.  The M.IM1.4- raced above their status but nevertheless performed respectably.  The scullers found steering difficult on a tricky course in a crosswind but coped well enough to bring home the pots for M.IM3.1x, M.MasD.4x and M.MasD.2x.  The highlight for Sons was the commanding win for the W.IM3.8+ over East Anglia University in the last final of the day.

SONS OF THE THAMES IM3 CREW COME HOME WITH A COMMANDING LEAD OVER UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

An unsatisfactory win for Ed in Vet D 1x, after a first round on very rough water on the flood tide. With a flooded footwell it was a relief to pass under Hammersmith Bridge and find slightly calmer waters. The final, in the afternoon involved 45 minutes of waiting in the boat, which apparently gave time for the organizers from Auriol and Kensington to go and look for the other competitor at Putney Town RC, the rules about late arrivals apparently having been waived. It was finally decided that Mr Journeaux definitely wasn't coming and the resulting row over past the club somehow lacked the excitement of side by side racing. The women's eight narrowly lost to St Paul's. Half a length up approaching the bridge, our women had the outside of the Hammersmith bend, and couldn't hold off St Pauls in really awful water, but were comfortably ahead of Putney Town.