Durham City Regatta marks the beginning of sprint racing in the northern region and it is a great opportunity to race down the 700m course before Durham Regatta (The Henley of the North) occurs on 9th of June. For most of these crews, this will be the first race out of five back-to-back weekends of regattas in the local area- all of which have courses under 1000m. With such short courses, the starts for all crews are absolutely critical in gaining a lead- perhaps this answers why northern crews are always so fast out of the blocks at National events over the 2k distance?! This weekend sees crews traveling from as far north as Berwick and from as far south as Doncaster- all of whom will be looking to kick off the tightly packed calendar of racing with some big wins!
Tyne ARC- Speed, Battour
Tyne ARC juniors have really started to assert themselves this year, with big entries at most events, many rowers qualifying for Team Northern and taking the VL at Ponteland Head. The Tyne WJ18 2x did get beaten by Tyne United at Ponteland head, so on Saturday it will be good to see who can take the win in the quad. The aptly named Speed boat should be able to row through QE in the Semi and challenge for the win but they would find it difficult to beat Durham School and their rivals from across the river- Tyne United.
The Battour J16 boat did enter at Strathclyde Park Regatta 2 weeks ago and put down a good time for just the beginning of summer. They have been racing sweep more often than sculling this winter, with the JIRR 8 containing numerous Tyne girls. If these girls had entered the J16 category they probably would have won, so it’s encouraging to see that they’re pushing themselves in this harder category. This crew will have a strong race but I think with 2 years less experience and training than their competitors, they will struggle to take the win.
Queen Elizabeth High School
This head season, these girls have entered many events as a composite boat with various other clubs which suggests that the combination of Berry, Hearn, Dodd and Hickling will not have had much experience racing together as a four. ¾ of this crew are J17, who did have a fairly successful J16 season, including a win at Durham Regatta 2017- only to be controversially disqualified. With a bye in the first round these girls will take on Tyne in the Semi and I would say these girls need a big performance to progress to the final.
Durham School
The Dunelmian girl’s squad seem to have been building momentum with some good performances by Julia Gledson at GB trials and a number of attendees at the recent GB training Day held at Durham University BC. This combination has only raced once before and they managed an 11th place out of 22 in woman’s championship 4x- at SCHORR. Although for the past few seasons they have struggled to field successful bigger boats, it will be great to see a quad filled with GB potential racing on Saturday. Their first race against Tyne should be very tight and great to watch from the banks of the Wear.
Tyne United
I expect this crew to be filled with the J17 girls (including Holliday, Robinson and Fraser) who have been entered into WJ18 singles. Last year these girls were easily the fastest in the region, they won JIRR trials and dominated the local regattas that they attended. They haven’t proven to have been quite as convincing this year and have tended to enter smaller boats for head season. It will be good to see how they fair in their come back in the quad and whether they are up for the challenge of some new competition in the form of Durham School and Tyne RC.
Prediction:
- Durham School
- Tyne- Speed
TheNorthener
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