The Henley of the north returns for another year of intense side-by-side racing on the River Wear. A fantastic event for northern clubs to test themselves against their nearest competitors, Durham Regatta holds the position of the most prominent town regatta in the country. Racing over 700m for the majority of events over the ‘Racecourse’, the straight section of the river, means that crews will be near on flat out the whole way and the winners will be the crews that can reach the highest top speed and hold it for as long as possible.
Open Eights
On Saturday, the Open Elite Eights event will be contested by nine crews, creating a bit of an awkward draw. Collingwood College have been given a bye straight into the quarter-final where they will race against the winner of Grey College and St Hild & St Bede College. The other three quarter-finals (the first full round) consist of races between Durham ARC and Tyne ARC, Durham ARC and Sheffield University, and Stephenson College and Hatfield College.
My prediction is that the overall winner on Saturday will be Tyne ARC.
On Sunday, the A tier of the Open Championship Eights will be contested by four crews, two each from Newcastle University and Durham University, the big clubs gracing the event to go head-to-head once again. Over the last couple of years Durham has risen and overtaken Newcastle, who for a long period had these events all but guaranteed against Durham. With the script now flipped and Durham performing so well, they are the obvious favourites in this match up.
Open Quads
In Saturday’s Elite Quads event, there are four crews entered, making for a nice draw of semi-finals straight into a final. Sheffield University will be hard pressed to beat Durham University in their semi, though this may not be the club’s top athletes, in any case, they should be quick enough to dispatch Sheffield. Similarly, Tyne ARC are the clear favourites in their semi-final as they will line up alongside Leeds University. For the overall win, one can’t look beyond the obvious choice in Durham.
Sunday’s event is sparsely entered, with three entries from Tyne, Durham ARC, and Yarm School. This one is wide open, with the result entirely dependent on the quality of the crews from the two clubs.
Open Coxed Fours
The entry list for Saturday’s Elite Coxed Fours is mainly made up of Durham college crew plus Tyne ARC and Lancaster University. With the possibility of a strong entry from Tyne, they could be strong favourites, but a strong college crew could overturn them if the crew is made up of rowers from outwith their senior men’s squad.
Sunday is a more interesting affair, with some bigger names entered in the Open Championship Coxed Fours. One of Durham University’s crews is listed as ‘Graf’ which indicates it contains Levin Graf, one of their top athletes. If this is a potential Prince Albert crew then it will wipe the floor with the other entrants.
Summary
With the Saturday of Durham Regatta playing host to more club and school crews, this is likely to be a more relaxed opportunity for local clubs and dare I say it, less high-performing crews, to pick up some silverware. With the arrival of Durham and Newcastle universities on the Sunday, the competitiveness will heat up and the event will be more exciting for spectators as these two titans of northern rowing go up against each other across the events list.
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