Autumn head racing got underway on September 13th at Tyne Single Scullers Head which is organized by Newcastle University Boat Club and generally attracts some high calibre entries in single and double sculls and pairs.
Durham ARC had 13 entries among the 258 taking part in the time trial over 3000 metres of the River Tyne between Blaydon and Newburn, with 4 divisions starting at 2-hour intervals meaning an outgoing tide for the morning divisions and incoming tide for those in the afternoon.
Wins for DARC went to Rachel Terry in the Women’s Masters D 1x, Joyce Collett (above) in Women’s Masters H 1x and Patrick Lakey in J18 1x band 2.
Division 1 was for Senior Open and Masters Women competitors, with Quinn Mosley who moved up to J17 in September contesting band 1 of the Open single sculls and having the honour of starting first against pedigree opposition in the form of last year’s winner Ed Gardiner of City of Cambridge RC (and previously of Durham University) to whom he was giving away 10 years. Having achieved his ambition of qualifying for the Diamond Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta in July Ed was eliminated in the opening round after being drawn to race Olympic Champion Ollie Zeidler (video here).
Quinn came home second in 13.53.7 with Nick Baird finishing one place higher than last year to take 5th in Open 1x band 1 in 15.23.2.
Rachel Terry finished 3 seconds ahead of Hexham’s Catherine Bowman to win the WMasD 1x in 17.06.0.
Joyce Collett was in a WMasHI handicap with Gill Gilbert and Liz Bray of Tyne ARC, winning with a time of 18.44.7 adjusted to 16.09.1, with Gill 3rd in 26.58.3.
Senior Women and Open Masters were in division 2 in which Michael Terry took second place in MasE 1x in a close race against crewmate Craig Routledge of Tyne ARC in 15.29.2.
Division 3 was for Juniors and saw a strong George Watson’s College contingent sweeping aside the opposition to win band 1 of the Open J18, J17 and J16 1x, while George Heriot’s School won band 1 of the Women’s J18 and J17 1x events.
Patrick Lakey won band 2 of the J18 1x in 14.24.2 ahead of Tyne United and QEHS. The J16 girls had 3 entries in WJ16 1x band 1 – Iris Mitchell was 3rd in 16.43.0, Livvy Terry 4th in 17.04.6 and Gem Anderson 5th in 17.39.2 behind event winner Beau Gritton of Chester-le-Street. Olivia Tute was 3rd to Tyne United in band 2 of WJ17 1x in 17.04.3.
The final entry of the day, and the only double from DARC, was in division 4 in which Aisling Dutton and Jenny Conroy finished 2nd to Hexham in WMasC 2x in 13.00.4.
Results from the four divisions can be found here.
Photos from SI Events are available here.
Well done to those taking part and thanks to the organisers.
Local head racing continues with the Northern Long Distance Sculling Series starting at South Hylton on September 27th, followed by Tyne, Tees, Berwick and Wansbeck and finishing with Durham LDS and Autumn Small Boats Head on November 8th.
Elsewhere the Vesta Scullers Head in London is on Sunday, September 28th and the Pairs Head is on Saturday, October 4th. Entries for both have now been suspended.
Because of oversubscription of the Fours Head in previous years the Junior Fours Head has been introduced as a new competition on the Tideway on Friday, November 14th, combining with the Fours Head on Saturday 15th and the Veteran Fours Head on Sunday 16th.