Durham ARC crews led the way with victory in 10 events at the 193rd Durham Regatta on June 13th and 14th.
DARC’s 28 entries were among 530 or so from 55 clubs accepted for this year’s showpiece regatta on the River Wear, with those racing on Sunday enjoying better conditions, without Saturday’s fierce headwind.
Saturday
Saturday started well with three wins for the Junior squads in the morning. The J15 boys coxed quad overcame Infinity Boat Club and St Paul’s School in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively before victory by 4 lengths in the final against Yarm School.
A strong squad from St Paul’s travelled from London for the weekend and enjoyed success in the J15 octuple on both days of the Regatta.
The J14 boys coxed quad won their semi-final against St Leonard’s School by 3 lengths to qualify for what was to be a hotly contested final against Yarm School in which the DARC crew got the verdict by 1 foot to take the Vaux Trophy.
Aidan Lawlor J16 1x
Aidan Lawlor had the first of his two successes of the Regatta, overcoming St Leonard’s and Chester-le-Street scullers to go through to the J16 1x final against Harry Shaw of Cambois RC in which he took victory by a quarter of a length in a closely contested race to secure the North of England Sculling Championship.
MasD 2x
The DARC/Durham School J18 girls 4x- composite won against St Leonard’s in the quarter-final but went out to Hexham in the semi by quarter of a length, while the J16 girls 4x- lost their semi-final against Yarm School.
Steven Pill and Paolo Fortis in the MasD 2x contested a straight final against Tyne ARC MasF 2x but were unable to overhaul the handicap.
WMasF 8+
DARC entered Women’s Masters D and Women’s Masters F eights, the F crew (Caroline Scholl, Hazel Stainforth, June Davison, Rachel Terry, Helen McMillan, Gabrielle Moore, Sam English, Christine Heppell + cox Dave Green) having a bye into the final of a WMasDF contest to face the winners of the semi-final between DARC D and Tyne ARC D. The DARC D eight (Julie Wilmore, Elizabeth Quincey, Manush McConway, Hannah Gravatt, Hannah George, Liz Baker, Julie Walker, Jill Rudkin and cox Anya Ilsley-Taylor) overcame Tyne by a length to set up a Durham v Durham final. Despite their best efforts the D crew found the 11-second handicap insurmountable, and victory went to the more experienced F eight.
Ellie Cushen was in a straight final of the Women’s Elite 1x but lost to Susanna Youlton of Chester-le-Street.
Ellie Cushen W Elite 1x
The DARC/Durham School J14 girls 2x and DARC/Tyne ARC J15 girls 4x+ composites went out in quarter-finals, both against Yarm School opposition. The DARC J15 girls 4x+ progressed through their semi-final against Tees but also lost in the final to Yarm School.
The Senior Women’s Elite 4x- lost to Durham University alumni from the 1877 Club in the semi-final.
Seren Williams WJ18 1x
In the WJ18 1x Seren Williams won against Tees RC in the semi-final but lost against Olivia Tute of Chester-le-Street in the final.
Matthew Wheeler was beaten by Hild/Bede by a bow ball in the semi-final of the Open Intermediate 1x.
The last success on day 1 went to Quinn Mosley and Patrick Lakey who won comfortably against Trevelyan College in the semi-final and Tees/Burton in the final of the Open Elite 2x, to secure the Norman Richardson Trophy.
Sunday
The Senior Women were among 8 entries for the Women’s non-Championship A 8+ on Sunday morning and went out to Sheffield University in the quarter-final by one and a quarter lengths.
WJ Ch 2x
Seren Williams and Charlotte Foster beat Yarm School in the semi-final of the Women’s Junior Championship 2x on the long course but lost against Cambois in the final.
Championship 4x-
In the other long course entry Aidan Lawlor, Hunor Pinter, Quinn Mosley and Patrick Lakey were majestic in winning the Open Championship 4x- semi-final against Tyne ARC and final against Yarm School.
The DARC/Durham School J14 girls coxed quad lost to St Leonard’s in their quarter-final.
Ch 4x-
The Open J14 octuple lost in the semi-final against a Cambois/Chester-le-Street/Tyne ARC composite.
The J15 girls octuple consisting of 6 DARC and 2 Durham School members won their final against a Cambois/Lambton composite by 4 lengths.
J15 4x+ v St Paul’s School
The J15 boys coxed quad of Hunor Pinter, Sam Hancill, Luigi Fortis, William Tew and cox Scarlett Nicholson had their second success of the weekend in division 2, overcoming St Leonard’s in the quarter-final before coming through another tussle with St Paul’s School in the semi which they won by three quarters of a length, and then claiming victory by 2 lengths in the final against Chester-le-Street.
Matthew Wheeler took his place in a DARC/Durham School/Hexham composite to win the Open non-Championship B 8+ by winning 3 rounds against Grey College, Van Mildert and York University.
The J16 girls entered a sweep crew in the Women’s non-Championship B 4+ and suffered a narrow defeat to Yarm School in the semi-final.
The last victory of the second day went to the Women’s Masters F coxless quad of Sam English, Gabrielle Moore, Helen McMillan and Christine Heppell who won by 6 lengths against Lancaster John O’Gaunt E in a straight final of the WMasEF 4x-.
NC B 8+
Summary of wins –
- J14 4x+ Mitchell
- J15 4x+ Hancill
- J16 1x Lawlor
- Open Elite 2x Lawlor
- WMasF 8+ Heppell
- Open Championship 4x- Lawlor
- Open non-Championship B 8+ (Durham ARC/Durham School/Hexham) Cantwell
- WJ15 8x+ (Durham ARC/Durham School) Liu-Hill
- J15 4x+ Pinter
- WMasF 4x- English
Clubs recording the most event wins were –
- Durham ARC 10
- Durham Univ BC 9
- Tyne ARC 9
- Yarm School 8
Over 30 different clubs won events, including some for the first time, including Infinity Boat Club, The Gorse BC, St Paul’s School, South College, Newark and Broxbourne.
Results are available in a variety of formats on the Competitors page on the Durham Regatta website and on Oar-online.
Congratulations to all and many thanks to the organisers and volunteers for enabling it to happen.
Live broadcasting of both days was again provided by PalTV – available to watch on YouTube for Saturday and Sunday.
British Rowing Masters Championships
As usual the British Rowing Masters Championships took place at Nottingham over the same weekend as Durham Regatta, and this year attracted a record entry, among them being 6 entries from Durham ARC.
On Saturday Deirdre Bruce was in the final of the Women’s Lightweight E 1x but did not finish, while Aisling Dutton placed 4th in the W D 1x Eliminator and didn’t qualify for the final.
Aisling and Jenny Conroy were 3rd in the time trial for the W C 2x and qualified for the final as a fastest loser from the 3 heats, going on to finish 6th in the final.
On Sunday Jenny Conroy and Deirdre Bruce took 3rd place in the final of the Women’s Intermediate 36+ 2x Final.
The pair went on to race in the singles events, with Jenny taking 5th place in the final of the W Int 36+ 1x band 1, and Deirdre 3rd in the W Int 36+ 1x band 3 final.
Well done to everyone
Results of all events are available from Rowresults here.
Photos by Allmarkone are available here.
Local regattas continue with Talkin Tarn on July 4th.