Tyne Head 2019

This past weekend, our senior squads travelled down to Newcastle to race at Tyne Head. Despite predictions of strong winds that Saturday, crews were fortunate to be racing in some milder conditions throughout the day, and so it was a great day of racing for our seniors for the first time this semester.

Nearly 70 boats raced in each division, both of university crews and amateur clubs, providing our crews with some experience for the race-packed semester ahead. For the first division, the club raced in Op8+/1, W4- and W4+ categories.

Our Senior Men’s eight was the first crew to take to the water, racing in the Open Eight category. Considering this was their first race of the year in the eight, their hard work over last semester and winter training shone through; they placed third out of six in the category, securing a time of 14:54.6. The Senior Women similarly demonstrated some strong racing in the first division. The Senior Women’s 4-, who raced down the Tyne securing a time of 18:01.5, won the fastest time in their category. The two coxed fours of our Senior Women’s squad were also racing that morning, obtaining 3rd and 4th place, at 19:44 and 19:54.4 respectively.

In the afternoon, five crews raced in division two, in the Op4+, W2- and W8+/1 categories. First up were the Senior Men in the Op4+ category. Once again, they showed an impressive start to this semester where one of our crews won the category with a time of 18:19.3 and our second crew weren’t far behind with a time of 19:16. The Senior Women then showed their versatility and breadth of the squad, racing in a smaller boat category – W2-. Two of our crews competed, and the results were incredibly close with one with a time of 23:13.3 (Theos) and the other 23:13.4 (Arnott). Finally, our Women’s eight got their first go at racing this semester. They secured a time of 21:10.3 in the category, gaining some invaluable experience in the boat that will race at WEHORR later on in March this year.

Overall, it was an incredibly impressive effort from the Senior Squads, as well as the support from individuals such as our president, Matt Taylor, and one of our senior men, Oscar Nick, driving our fleet of boats down to the event in the current absence of a Director.

Photo credits: Al Johnston