Pairs: 1 A Partridge and A Hodge (Molesey) 6:52.62; 2 T Garbett and R Dunn (Leander) 6:55.07; 3 T James (Cambridge Univ) and J Devlin (Oxford Brookes Univ) 6:56.00; 4 T Stallard (Broxbourne) and D Ouseley (Imperial Coll) 6:57.96; 5 S Williams and J West (Leander) 7:02.20; 6 P Reed and D Livingston (OUBC) 7:07.68; 7 R Bourne-Taylor (Leander) and P Simmons (Molesey) 7:06.34; 8 R Davies and H Bailhache-Webb (Oxford Brookes Univ) 7:08.22; 9 E Coode (Leander) and K West (Kingston) 7:10.51; 10 H Adans (ULBC) and S Trapmore (Notts County) 7:12.90; 11 R Smith and T Broadway (ULBC) 7:17.02; 12 J Livingston (Molesey) and J von Maltzahn (Leander) 7:30.49. “I think it is hard to qualify for the Olympics and then do well there,” she said. “But in the future, yes.”Top men’s sculler was Matthew Wells. Cracknell had a gritty weekend as a surprise entry in the singles, finishing by winning the B final.GREAT BRITAIN TEAM TRIALS FINALS(A finals, places 1-6; B finals, places 7-12)MEN: Single sculls: 1 M Wells (UL) 7min 15.74sec; 2 M Langridge (Leander) 7:19.27; 3 S Rowbotham (Molesey) 7:25.41; 4 S Cottle (Leander) 7:27.64; 5 A Campbell (Tideway Scullers) 7:27.76; 6 P Gardner (Leander) 7:30.60; 7 J Cracknell (Leander) 7:29.96; 8 I Lawson (Leander) 7:33.29; 9 C Sith (OUBC) 7:33.80; 10 J Dunley (ULBC) 7:34.30; 11 S Fieldhouse (Molesey) 7:35.77; 12 P Wells (ULBC) 8:07.26. Still, this is what these trials are for – a real test in tough racing conditions against the people you train with month in month out. “We come here to find things out,” Tanner said.On the women’s side, things are clearer cut. There is no competition as lead boat for Katherine Grainger and Cath Bishop, 2003 world champions in pairs who were totally dominant.

Frances Houghton won the single sculls with conviction, while surprising herself in the way she did it.”I wouldn’t have raced it like this in my dreams,” she said “Debbie Flood always leads me. When she didn’t, I thought that someone else would be ahead.”Although she may be turning into a single sculler, Houghton is likely to be in a double or a quad because these boats are already qualified for the Olympics, whereas the single is not. In terms of the membership of that four there is a question mark – there has to be,” he said.Toby Garbett and Rick Dunn who came out of the four to allow Cracknell and Pinsent into it, were beaten into second place, the winners being Alex Partridge and Andy Hodge from the eight which won a World bronze medal last year. Tom James and Jonno Devlin from that boat were in third place, and Dan Ousely, paired with Tom Stallard, was the fifth man from the eight in the final and finished in fourth place.Of the remaining three from the eight, Robin Bourne-Taylor and Phil Simmons won the B final in a much faster time than the sixth-placed Oxford students, Peter Reed and Dave Livingston, who certainly made an impact by reaching the last six and put down a marker for the future, but are unlikely to displace anyone in the Olympic line-up.This leaves Ed Coode, world champion in fours in 1999 and 2001, who with partner Kieran West, the Olympic champion from the Sydney eight, managed only third in the B final, giving them a ranking of ninth.Stallard stands in his way.

He has to pick crews for the first World Cup regatta in Poznan, Poland in three weeks.The strategy announced in February is that the coxless four is the lead boat of the men’s team when it comes to the attempt to win gold in Athens in August. But yesterday’s result could throw its membership into disarray, as Britain’s performance director, David Tanner, admitted “This challenges the make up of the lead boat. Perfect conditions for the finals of the British rowing trials rocked a few boats yesterday, particularly among the top end of the men’s team. He popped out of the stalls today and never got in the race, which is completely out of character.”We were wondering about how we were going to settle him but now it’s about getting him to go It’s time to fire him up again. I worry about him and, dare I say, Attraction, as we’ve been concentrating all winter on slowing them down.”. “He’s in the German and Italian Guineas, and he’ll probably go to Germany because that gives us more time and I want to space his races out a bit,” Willie Haggas, the winning trainer, said.

“It’s great to get the show back on the road with him because he’s always been talented.”The disappointment of the race was Russian Valour, and the manner of his defeat possesses dark overtones for the prospects of stablemate Attraction in the 1,000 Guineas. “He was never ever going,” Mark Johnston, the trainer, observed. “We’ve been teaching him to stop all the time and it’s probably been a big mistake. Red Bloom, the ante-post favourite, conducted a fly-past in the hands of Kieren Fallon, readily outpointing her stablemate Strider.The Free Handicap perhaps gave most succour to backers of Milk It Mick, a runner in Saturday’s Greenham Stakes at Newbury, who beat yesterday’s winner, Brunel, by around two lengths in the Somerville Tattersall Stakes here in October.Brunel’s mid-term target is the St James’s Palace Stakes at the Royal meeting. “But she’s been working well this spring.” Silca’s Gift has been exercising, in by no means domineering fashion, on the West Ilsley gallops with Majestic Desert, the runner-up to Carry On Katie in the Cheveley Park Stakes last October.