After flooding caused a postponement of the final event of the Northern LDS series last weekend, credit to the organisers for enabling the race to take place a week later. Durham Amateur rowing club are the hosts and are holding three divisions of small boats following the early morning sculls race. The combined entries through the day look to exceed 340 boats which on a tight 1800m course, featuring the infamous Elvet Bridge, should provide both close racing and great entertainment for spectators. In the article below, we’ll cover the long distance sculls and our small boats head preview will follow later this afternoon.
Womens J18 4x-
Tyne Amateur (White) head the field which includes two local crews, Durham Amateur (Foster) and St. Leonards School (Philliips) and a crew heading north, Tees (Pickering). There looks to have been some crew changes in the Tyne and Durham boats since we last saw them; Tyne had the edge early in the season and it’s likely they will finish ahead of Durham with St. Leonards and Tess battling for third place.
Open Masters DEF 4x-
Three entries from Durham Amateur dominate the Masters quads this year with the Durham/Hexham (Oates) composite the standout crew. This crew could beat the Open J18 quads to fastest overall boat, with the other two Durham Amateur crews of McCarthy and Seed having to settle for second and third. The Chester-le-Street (Burford) crew is a little unknown, however they did not challenge the top crews at Tees and may struggle to do so this weekend.
Womens J15 4x-
A strong looking quad from Hexham (Longlands) will be clear favourites to take home a second victory of the season. Durham School has two crews racing, McDonald and Mole and the former may pose a challenge to Hexham although it is more likely they will be competing for second against either St Leonards (Phillips) or Tyne Amateur (Goldie).
Open 1x
Although there is a large number of entries in the open singles, it will likely be a case of four scullers battling it out for third place (Kinghorn from Durham School, Macmahon from Tyne United plus O’Neil and Barwick from Tyne Amateur). First and second will be taken by Cleugh and Baird from Durham Amateur given the pace they have both demonstrated through the season so far.
J18 1x
Starting just behind the open singles, the J18s should give us a much closer race. Davison from Durham Amateur goes in as the favourite with Cardnell (Durham School) and Bruce (Durham Amateur) close behind, but with a clean race Davison will probably be too strong. Smith (Talkin Tarn) and Hulse (Tyne Amateur) may challenge for third if they have a strong race.
Open Masters ABD 1x
A familiar face, Heslop (Hexham) is the favourite in the masters singles. Bainbridge (Hexham), Eke (Berwick) and Wilson (Talkin Tarn) will be close matched for second place and it could well come down to who handles the course best of these scullers to determine which takes the runner-up position.
Women’s J17 1x
This could be a very tight race, with Youlton (Chester-le-Street) and Stoker (Sunderland City) separated by only two seconds in their last meeting. Scott from Cambois and Pollard from Durham School have shown good speed this year but are not likely to challenge Stoker and Youlton for the win on Saturday.
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