19 December 2025

By Mrs Caldecotte

Guest contributor Mrs Caldecotte* reviews the 2024/25 racing season of the Women’s masters sweep squad at Milton Keynes Rowing Club.

Northampton Head of the River – Saturday, 18 January 2025.

Northampton Head in January is no place for the faint-hearted. As there was no competition for the W. Mas E 8+ crew, they were ‘upgraded’ to Women’s Band 1 rather than having them race for time only. The bow pair and the stern pair later combined to race an F 4+ and posted the fastest time of the day in women’s fours. Sadly, Northampton chose not to combine the fours into a single category. When the timing system failed to play its part, results had to be calculated by hand, and the journey home was delayed to well beyond sundown.

Bedford Eights and Fours Head of the River – Sunday, 9 February 2025.

Bedford’s course is just shy of 2000m, and February’s race was good preparation for tackling the longer races to come by allowing the squad to race in eights three times throughout the day. All the masters crews were lumped together with a handicap applied to adjust the times. Milton Keynes put out C, D and E crews, but despite posting the fastest time of the day, the D crew lost out on the handicap to a Bedford/Star composite, but the Star ladies were impressed and began to pay close attention to their rivals from the ‘New City’.

Nottingham Head of the Trent – Saturday, 22 February 2025.

This 5600m time trial was a big step up in competition. As the only C 8+ entry, the MKRC crew was only eligible for the headship pennant based on adjusted time. Unsurprisingly, Leander A and B finished as the top two women’s eights in that innovative way of classification (Northampton take note). Eight women’s masters crews from age categories B to F started consecutively, with many of the top crews, like Wallingford, Warwick and York City, showing good speed. Milton Keynes finished second on raw time, and despite dropping to fifth on handicap, knew that they were on track for the ‘Vets Head’ in London.

Vesta International Masters Head of the River – Sunday, 23 March 2025.

In 2023, Vesta Rowing Club changed the name of their head race from Vesta Veterans to Vesta Masters and at the same time they changed the start order, allowing the women’s entries to set off first, followed by the mixed and then the open crews. Alternating each year, 2025 once again saw the women lead the way from Mortlake to Putney. Milton Keynes entered a Women’s D 8+, and they started in the lofty position of 24th. The crew had a day to remember, finishing fourth of 20 crews in their division.

Bedford Small Boats Head of the River – Sunday, 13 April 2025.

Greg spent most of the day in a small, cramped space going up and down the 2K stretch of the River Great Ouse, sometimes competing against himself, and even managed to win a couple of nice Bedford Rowing Club medals along the way. In the Women’s Masters F/G 4+, a single second separated the two MKRC crews, and both overcame the handicap of 17 seconds (for the G crews) to finish first and second. Star crews filled the next three places, and their interest in forming a composite with MK went up a notch. There was a similar story for the Men’s 4+ crews as they also finished in the top two places. After 50 years, it was déjà vu all over again for the young man!

Peterborough Spring Regatta [Day 2] – Sunday 1 June 2025.

One of the problems faced by masters rowers is the lack of competition at the regional regattas, either in the provision of events or by the dearth of direct competition when events are included.

The masters’ handicap system facilitates competition across age bands, but there is a serious flaw when it is used to group crews across several age bands with wide time gaps between them. For most masters rowers in England, the big two competitions are the British Rowing Masters Championships in June and Henley Masters Regatta in July. Getting race practice is vital if you want to perform at these premier events. Thankfully, this event offered the women the chance to get multi-lane race practice before the championships.

Peterborough offered masters events on the second day of their Spring Regatta, and the MKRC women took to the water in the D 8+ and E 4+ events. The eight finished second to a strong Marlow crew in a four-boat final, whilst the four took the win over a Bedford/Star composite, Saint Neots R.C., and Lea R.C.

British Rowing Masters Championships, Nottingham [Day 2] – Sunday 15 June 2025.

The first of the three big events for masters saw a large contingent of Milton Keynes crews take on the challenge of fierce opposition and the notorious Holme Pierrepont headwind. In truth, those that raced on the first day had the worst of the conditions, but day two wasn’t without its challenges, with the wind keeping times on the slow side and favouring the heavier crews.

The highlights of the regatta were the silver medal won by the Women’s E 4+ and the bronze by the Women’s D 8+.

First to race was the eight, eligible for the E 8+, they approached the D 8+ final with amor fati and a race plan which they executed to perfection. At 500m, three crews were fighting for the minor medals behind Marlow R.C. Holding good form into the last quarter, they secured third place, sprinting clear of the Star/Walton R.C. composite.

A few hours later, the bow pair joined the stern pair in an E 4+ and picked up a silver medal behind a British/Hungarian composite.

Henley Masters Regatta [Day 1] – Friday 11 July 2025.

A month is a long time in sport, and so it was in the lead-up to the Henley Masters for the MKRC women. Firstly, getting a place in the regatta can be difficult, and the club’s E4+ did not secure one; the eight ended up in the WC8+ event. To make things more difficult, the 1K stretch of water the club rows on at Caldecotte Lake was reduced to 500m when blue-green algae took hold, eventually causing the club’s regatta in September to be cancelled.

It also impacted the training plan, but the whole crew accepted personal responsibility and went out to train for the race. However, three weeks of spinning the boat every 500m was no fun. In their heat, on a scorching Friday afternoon, the crew held the lead against Putney Town R.C. for half the race, but the extra stamina of the Londoners saw them home by two-thirds of a length.

Peterborough Summer Regatta [Day 1] – Saturday 9 August 2025.

With all the club’s entries for the masters’ events rejected by Saint Neots for their regatta at the end of July, the next outing for the MKSweephearts was a return to Peterborough for their summer regatta. And it was déjà vu all over again with the D 8+ (in a men’s heavyweight boat) unable to overcome the handicaps The F 4+ had little trouble taking the win, with their only real opposition being York City, with whom they started on level terms.

World Rowing Masters Regatta, Banyoles – Wednesday 10 to Sunday 14 September 2025.

And so to Spain:

The club’s sweepers were joined by their scullers and a team of twelve made their way to Banyoles in the province of Girona in Catalonia. Not surprisingly, the ladies made the most of the 5-day regatta by racing in multiple events and in composite crews, particularly with Bedford Star, with whom they formed a formidable Women’s G 8+.

Of the 18 races that involved Milton Keynes rowers, only six were for the sweepers. Late on Thursday evening, three MKRC ladies took their places in the stern seats in that  composite G 8+ and stormed to victory over international composite crews from the Netherlands, Ireland, Britain and Australia, and the Brazilian crew, Sport Club Corinthians, Paulista, winners of the most successful club trophy at both the 2024 and 2025 World Masters Regattas.

The following morning, they joined the rest of the MKRC ladies and dropped down three age brackets to race the women’s D 8+. They put in a credible performance, finishing sixth in a time of 3:45.

In the coxed fours events, both the E and F crews lived up to expectation, delivering the best two results of all the Milton Keynes entries. The F crew was 3.6 seconds behind an American composite, while the E crew was denied the gold medal by the smallest margin of the whole regatta, with only 0.03 seconds separating them from Warwick Boat Club.

After a short season-end break, the squad committed to another year of training. The club has a new coach, and the aim is to surpass the achievements of 2025. However, my advice to the squad is still the same: If you work hard in the gym Monday to Friday, you can have the weekend off to go rowing on the lake.

Stop Press: As this piece was being finalised, the unlucky four from Banyoles had a stunning victory at the Veteran Fours Head on 16 November 2025. Racing in their proper age category of Masters F, they took the combined E/F/G class.

 *Mrs Caldecotte, who took the helm in writing this piece, wishes it to be known that she is not related to Mrs Caldicot, the heroine of Mrs Caldicot’s Cabbage War (2002), a film that is the ultimate fantasy for anyone terrified of ageing. It teaches us that life doesn’t end at 65 and that if you push hard enough, a great many things are possible [both in and out of a boat].

Read also Milton Keynes R.C.’s cox Greg Denieffe’s piece from yesterday, here.