Further afield at Tewkesbury the rest of the club was enjoying the warm weather and the relaxed style of this regatta. The J15 eight managed to fight their way through to their final where they had to content themselves with a third-place. High hopes had been placed on the octuple but they failed to find any rhythm and frantically chased ratings without getting any boat speed. Their performance was bitterly disappointing and they knew it. With firm resolve they decided to put matters right when it came to racing in the quads. Here they were far more efficient and I was pleased with the second-place medals the club won at the end of the day, being pipped by Bryanston by just under a length in the final.

The same boys, with one or two modifications because of prize-giving, appeared at Thames Valley Park Regatta the following day. The sun continued to shine and the regatta took on the air of a mediaeval jousting tournament with tents and flags. The J15s had a very short regatta, but the J14s managed to get themselves through to a number of finals. I was very pleased by the performance of the top octuple and the top quad, but the most pleasing performance of all was the second octuple which had a storming race and showed that they could be efficient at a high rating. The standard of the opposition in all of our races with very high and we were certainly not outclassed. Over two days the junior crews had raced 10 times and were now battle hardened veterans.