By Mrs Reeves (Director of Rowing)

On Sunday 1st October, 45 BGS rowers from Years 10 to the Upper Sixth travelled to St Neots to compete at St Neots Head. A head race is our winter format of racing, where rowers compete over a set distance against the clock in a time trial race.

Competing in the first race of the 2023/2024 season, our rowers were very excited to get back out racing and certainly kicked off the new season in style!

Over half of the students that competed raced in small boats for the very first time. Racing in a single scull can be a daunting experience, and we were very proud to see so many BGS rowers put in some brilliant performances in their small boat categories, resulting in BGS winning the single scull category in all age groups. Racing over four divisions, the majority of rowers completed the course more than once and we certainly returned to Bedford with a fantastic set of results, recording nine category wins:

WJ15 1x Zena Breed

WJ16 1x Bella Moretto

WJ17 1x Ellie Mullan

WJ18 1x Lottie Giles

WJ15 2x Rosemary McGregor & Zena Breed

WJ18 2x Elyse Vickers & Ellie Mullan

WJ15 4x+ Olivia Danks, Marcie Butler, Kara Farquhar, Rebecca Lock & Rosemary McGregor

WJ16 4x- Eve Moriondo, Issy McCarthy, Moksha Sunkara & Elizabeth Julyan

WJ18 4x- Emily Dyall, Martha Ibbott, Pam Achari & Millie Partridge

A special mention to Lower Sixth rower Ellie Mullan, who was also awarded the medal for fastest female single sculler of the day, recording the fastest female time of the day across all categories including the senior women!

Well done to everybody who raced at St Neots last weekend, and thank you to all those that travelled to support our rowers in action.

We now look forward to our next race, Bedford Autumn Head this weekend. BGS crews will be racing from 9.15am until 5.00pm on Sunday 8th October on our home water, please do come down to support!