By May Jarvis
On the 30th of May 15 crews from Lancaster John O’ Gaunt rowing club made the familiar journey to Sir John Deane’s Collage, the home of Northwich rowing club to take place in their annual regatta. The weather was unfortunately not as pleasant as expected and rained heavily throughout most of the event and only brightening up for the last few races.
One of the first few races consisted of a straight final between the two IM3 coxed quads, both Phils, Glenn and Martin against Aaron, Oliver, IT Andy and Kieran. Aaron’s crew came away with the pots from this race through winning by 2 ½ lengths. Glenn’s quad then went on to do a coxless race in a straight final against Runcorn and made a valiant effort. It was a tight race all the way down the course but Runcorn pulled away in the last 100m to win by only ½ a length.
The women’s student coxed quad, including Mary, Annie, Laura, Caroline and cox Dylan, brought home another win for Lancaster by beating Liverpool Victoria in yet another straight final winning by 2 ½ lengths, well done girls! The same crew attempted a four as well but were beaten by Northwich due to an oar coming out of it’s gate and obviously having to stop. In my opinion this shows that the girls are too strong for that boat to handle.
Only one junior coxed quad was raced at Northwich. Hannah, Jess, Shona, Chlöe and Dylan as cox raced the girls made a great effort and held their own but were just beaten by Grange. The other junior quad was in the Duffer steered by Amy with May, Ellie and Laura. They beat Agecroft in the first round with ease but straight off the line in the final Grange pulled away but Lancaster kept up and finished only 1 ½ lengths behind.
Six doubles were entered into the regatta, three of which were in the WJ15 category. Chloe and Rihanne rowed first against Grange school in a close race and unfortunately lost. May and Ellie then raced against another Grange crew and won comfortably then went on to race the crew Chloe and Rihanne lost to and won yet again. Jess and Hannah then raced against the Northwich crew but they were a strong crew and Lancaster unfortunatley lost. In the final May and Ellie came up against the Northwich crew and throughout the whole race it was neck and neck however Northwich pulled away slightly at the line to take the tankard. An observation made by Anne Jarvis is that all of the Northwich crews were put in the inside lane so had an advantage.
Two mixed doubles entered against each other, Tom and Shona against Aaron and Laura. Tom and Shona encountered some problems at the start of the race so Aaron and Laura pulled away and won the race comfortably. Steve and Wilson also entered an IM3 double but lost in the first round unfortunately.
Finally Tom and Oliver entered Novice singles and came up against one another after after both winning previous rounds. Tom pulled away from the start but over the middle section Oliver started pulling it back however Oliver’s steering let him down and he crashed into the bank which led Tom to pull away yet again and win the race.
Overall a relatively good day for Lancaster ending in four wins and some near misses hopefully setting us up for some good regattas to come!
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