In a year of consolidation 2025 started and finished with the naming of additions to the fleet and saw several success stories as the year unfolded. Ringing the changes brought an influx of new members to the club, which along with changes to directors and officers puts it in a strong position for the future.
The year started with members gathering in January for the naming of a new coxless four in honour of long serving coach and oarsman Bill Parker who died in 2021. The ceremony was covered in an article by Peter Barron for the Northern Echo here.
The popularity of competitions continued with several being oversubscribed. Durham Small Boats Head in February was typical, with a full entry meaning entries being suspended within hours of opening. Nine wins for Durham ARC included two for Quinn Mosley in single sculling, J13, WJ15, and WJ18 quads, the Women’s four, Masters E composite quad, and Women’s Masters F quad.
WJ18 4x at Tees LDS
The club has been well represented throughout the year at local heads and regattas as well as at events further afield such as the Head of the Trent, Nottingham Regatta and Dee Autumn Sculls in Chester.
There was a win for the Senior Men’s eight at Tyne Head in February, and for the Senior Women’s eight at Derwentwater Head and the Yorkshire Head in March, while the Juniors had successes at Derwentwater and Ponteland Heads. After the disappointment of last year’s cancellation a good entry from DARC produced further wins at Derwentwater for the Mixed Masters G eight, Women’s Masters F quad and Women’s coxed four.
The club had an entry in the Head of the River Race on the Tideway for a 4th consecutive year, the Senior Men’s eight coming home in 184th position. The composite MasE quad won their event over the same course at the Vesta Masters Head the following day, a race in which sadly there was a fatality to a member of another crew.
Disruption because of unsuitable weather and conditions is a continuing theme. By way of counteracting this new competitions have started around the country and others have expanded to additional days.
The National Schools Regatta moved to Nottingham for a year but is set to return to Dorney Lake again next year. Four crews from DARC entered for the 3-day competition in May which was badly affected by adverse weather conditions – the J14 boys quad reaching the B final, the J14 girls quad reaching the D final, the J15 girls placing 5th in the A final, and Quinn Mosley finishing 2nd in the A final to win a silver medal in the Open Championship single.
Quinn has had an impressive year. After winning gold for the Northern region in the J16 1x at the Junior Inter-Regional Regatta in April he went on to win silver against much older opposition in the Open Championship 1x at the National Schools Regatta in May, and was then selected along with coach Martin Tyler to represent Great Britain in the J16 GB v France Match at the London Docklands in July, which he won to help GB to overall victory in the match. A week later he represented Durham ARC in two events at the 4-day British Rowing Club Championships at Nottingham and came away with gold medals in the J16 1x and J18 1x.
Quinn Mosley winning J18 1x at BRCC 2025
Elsewhere the Junior squads have recorded wins ranging in age from J12 to J18, with the J18 girls winning four sculling events in the double and two in the quad, along with three wins for the J18 girls coxed four in junior and senior sweep events.
The younger age groups have seen numerous victories in quad sculling – six for the J15 girls, one for the J15 boys, two for the J14 girls, eight for the J14 boys and five for the J13 boys.
Twenty-three juniors attended the British Rowing Club Championships in July. As well as Quinn’s gold medals 7 crews qualified for C finals or above –
- J14 girls 2x Florence Wilks and Lucy Stewart (Lambton RC) – 2nd in A final
- J14 boys 4x+ William Tew, Hunor Pinter, Dominic Lee, Sam Hancill and cox Scarlett Nicholson – 6th in A final
- J15 boys 2x Aidan Lawlor and Simon Graham (Durham School) – 5th in B final
- J15 girls 4x+ Elizabeth Belsey, Iris Mitchell, Livvy Terry, Gem Anderson and cox Scartett Nicholson – 1st in C final
- J15 girls 1x Iris Mitchell – 3rd in C final
- J14 girls 4x+ Poppy Holmes-Morris, Eve Hollowbread, Cherry Liu-Hill, Hana Anderton and cox Sophie Hancill – 5th in C final
- J18 girls 4x- Izzy Maddison, Louisa Scott, Sophie Hancill and Charlotte Foster – 6th in C final
Durham Regatta took place on the same June weekend as the British Rowing Masters Championships in Nottingham and was reduced in terms of the number of races available because of the river conditions. The J13 4x+, J14 4x+, WJ14 4x+, WJ15 4x+, MasE 4x- and Open 4+ registered wins for DARC at Durham, while the club’s nine entries at Nottingham produced three medals, one each of gold, silver and bronze.
The Senior Men’s four who won at Durham Regatta continued their preparations as they strove to qualify for a place in the draw for the Wyfold Challenge Cup for coxless fours at Henley Royal Regatta by going to Dorney Lake the following week for Marlow Regatta. Alas twenty-third place in the time trial for the Wyfold a week later wasn’t quite good enough for a place in the last 16 at Henley.
As well as the Men’s and Women’s eights Nick Baird has regularly represented the club in senior races in the Open 1x, winning at Durham LDS and Tees SBH.
In the Masters squads Michael Terry and the Hexham/Tyne composite MasE coxless quad had nine event wins during the course of the year.
WMasF 4x- at Tees LDS
The Women’s Masters F quad of Sam English, Helen McMillan, Gabrielle Moore and Christine Heppell had a successful year that included victories in seven events including a bronze medal at the National Masters Championships, as well as forming part of the winning WMasG eight who won gold at the Championships.
Andy Jaggard and Richard Court had further successes winning four events in the MasG double sculls, one coming in the World Masters Regatta in Banyoles, Spain, and Rachel Terry and Joyce Collett each won four single sculling events in WMasD 1x and WMasH 1x.
Roger Stainforth (above) continued to have great success in Indoor Rowing, winning a bronze medal in the 80+ 2k at the World Championships in February, following it up with a double success over 2k and 500 metres in the 76+ age category at the English Indoor Championships in September, before rounding off the year with another double at the British Rowing Indoor Championships in the 80+ group in December. Sadly this was another competition that was marred by a fatality.
As well as aiming for open competitions new members have taken part in seven rounds of the Northern Sunday League at locations around the region. Five new Masters quads and fours also took part in Durham Long Distance Sculls and Autumn Small Boats Head.
The addition of the new Junior Fours Head on the Friday before the Fours Head and Veteran Fours Head has seen the Fours festival on the Thames in November grow from two days to three. However, none of the competitions had an entry from DARC.
Following the successful Durham Autumn Small Boats Head competition on the water rounded off with Rutherford Head at the end of November, prior to which members enjoyed the opportunity to row in the dark with the innovation of A Light in the DARC.
Octuple negotiating Elvet in the dark
In May we commemorated the 80th anniversary of VE Day with a row past in an 8+ by eight active octogenarian members.
The club has been offering Learn to Row courses throughout the year, including courses for anyone affected by cancer, in partnership with the Northern Cancer Alliance.
In a change to its usual timing the Annual General Meeting took place on a Sunday morning on September 21st and saw new appointments of Nigel van Zwanenberg as Chair and Darren Smith as Captain for the coming year, with Jess Harris, Elliot Kay and Dan Lockey also added to the Directors.
The year concluded as it started with the naming of boats, this time five of them, one being in honour of former coaches Fred Snowdon and Gordon Beattie, with another named after retired captain George Adair.
Entries are open for Tyne United New Years Head on January 24th. The first competition of 2026 in Durham is Durham Small Boats Head on February 7th.
Concerns remain about the condition of the river, with ongoing silting being compounded by a dry summer and damaged weir to make the running of regattas very challenging, but overall we can look forward to the year ahead with some optimism.
The archive of event wins over recent years can be found on the Club Results page, previous blog posts are available here and Barry Hudson’s Club History timeline of the first 150 years is here..
Best wishes and the compliments of the season to all.
Photo: Kevin Creaghan