On Monday 28th May we took a trailer-load of boats to Northwich Regatta for a sweltering day of sun and successes.
First to race was our women’s coxed four comprised of Andrena, Eloise, Karen, Jess and, popped in for the day, Clare coxing in the bow. Northwich operates a “Round Robin” style of racing where all boats in each division race each other over a 500m stretch. The women’s four won their first race against Liverpool Victoria comfortably and returned to the start line for what they expected to be a harder second round against a stronger and lighter-looking crew from Chester University. Despite this they achieved a secure win of one boat length and returned to land to claim their pots, a ritual which was all the more exciting to the least experienced member of the crew who was shocked to discover “we can actually win a thing from being here??”
In the next division were Jill, Rachel, Clare, and Andrena in a masters quad and Ed in a single. Ed took by far the best racing line to be seen in this division, and the only one to not evoke sharp intakes of breath from the bank, but was beaten by his two opponents. The masters quad continued the women’s side successes and brought home four more pots for JOG.
In Division 3 our two junior 15 singles, Saam and Jacob, rowed solidly against their competitors with Jacob bringing home another pot for Lancaster (technically for LRGS, but we’ll claim him for JOG just so long as he’s winning) and division 3’s first Smith-family win was swiftly followed by a second…
Truly putting the “mixed” in mixed quad (word on the bank of a one foot height difference between 2 and 3-seat) were Steve, Eloise, Richie, and Jess who took to the water with a grand total of zero previous outings yet stormed to victory against Bangor University. The first race felt less than triumphant as the other crew’s 3-seat took a blade to the oesophagus giving Lancaster a row across the finish line without their opponents in sight. Ever considerate, Lancaster gave Bangor a good 10 minutes to recover before leading them back down to the startline to be beaten again, this time in a far more competitive race with the finish bells ringing out only 3 seconds apart. A thrilling win made all the more unexpected by the fact that one quarter of the boat had never done a racing start with two blades in hand (shh, don’t tell Steve).
Division 4 was graced by two JOG doubles; first to race in the novice classification were Jill and Rachel, followed by Karen and Clare as intermediates. Karen and Clare faced two unfairly youthful pairs of 17-year olds from Northwich and, despite a strong start, were beaten by both while Jill and Rachel were one of four boats entered in their classification and so had to race three times. In their first two races they were beaten but they managed to end the day on a high with a win against Liverpool Victoria. Whatever about official results, the true test presented by this fourth division was whether one made it to the end of Northwich’s 10th hour of racing without burning to a crisp or diving into the Weaver for relief. On this challenge I am happy to report a 100% success rate, just.
Thank you to all participants and supporters for contributing to a great pot-gathering day! As ever, special thanks to Karen for towing and shouting, Steve for boat-knowledge, and Martin for van-donation.
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