The Vesta Veterans' International Eights Head of the River Race is a rowing race held annually on the River Thames over the Championship Course. This year the course was shorter due to flood tides. The men's race was cancelled the day before due to dangerous conditions, so it was a nervous women's 8 from Ross Rowing Club, who entered the 'Vesta Head' on Sunday, March 30th.

Despite a long wait on the river (a two and a half hour delay) they set off at number 181. The women's squad trained hard over winter following the directions of coach Dave Sykes, despite 16 training, only eight members were available to row on the day.

Of the crew that entered, three women in the crew had never rowed the Thames before and, having only had three outings as a team, the expectations were realistically low.

The crew was delighted to come 14th out of 22 in their category (Vet C, average age 43-50) and even more delighted with being placed 136 out of the 220 crews that rowed. The whole crew enjoyed the atmosphere of a wonderful festival of rowing.