Head of the River 2012

Saturday was the annual 'Head of the River' rowing regatta, contested by the 'Great Public Schools' of NSW. It is the pinnacle of the school rowing season and sees around 10 000 people from each of the 9 GPS schools - boys, families, staff - descend on the National Rowing Centre at Penrith on the Nepean River; which was originally constructed for the Sydney Olympics in 2000.


The regatta dates back to 1893 and is one of the biggest days in the school calendar. In the big race of the day, the 1st VIII, Newington finished joint 3rd in a very unusual dead heat with Sydney Grammar School; the race being won by Shore (Sydney Church of England Grammar School) with Scot's College 2nd.


 After the NSW floods and the massive amount of rain over the past few weeks, the weather cleared for the weekend and it was a beautiful sunny day out by the river.


It was Patrick's 3rd birthday yesterday, so afterwards I drove out to Kings Langley for an evening of bbq, babies, birthday cake and, of course, dragons.

The final stages of the 1st VIII race