MY first memory of Marlow Regatta is one of impending doom as the Waltzer got faster and faster and I got sicker and sicker until the inevitable happened, writes Marlow reporter David Langton.

I was eight-years-old and since then I think I have missed three regattas and in all that time I am ashamed to say I have no memory of ever seeing a rowing race. That was until Saturday when I took a trip to Marlow Regatta at its new home on Dorney Lake, near Eton.

As soon as I arrived, there was an unmistakable buzz of competition as crews from the other side of the world limbered-up for the gruelling slog down the Olympic standard lake. The regatta committee said they were going to capture Marlow's feel at the event and there was a whiff of the old regatta, but to me it was not the same at all. That's not to say it was bad. Just different. No fair, no general enclosure and more importantly no Marlow that was all left behind for the new Marlow Town Regatta and Festival, which took place the week before.

The potential is there for Marlow Regatta to blossom into something very big dare I say even bigger than Henley? The never-ending banks lend themselves to hospitality tents and the quantity of quality entrants is predicted to increase.

The one major gripe I have about Marlow Regatta is the sense of nowhere else to go. Once the rowing is over there's no stumbling off to the pub. Marlow Town Regatta and Festival may not have the reverence of the old event but it has one big advantage Marlow. I think Marlow Regatta will turn into a world-class event the town can be extremely proud of but it is for a different audience and I have to say my heart will always be in Higginson Park.