| Club News March 17th The club mens 8 racing in the 8s Head on Saturday had a good race coming home in 191st place - probably as good as they could have hoped for bearing in the mind the severe lack of training outings! Still it was enjoyed by all the crew who perhaps realise now that with just a little bit more effort how much better it could have been. It is always good to see club members away at Uni doing well so good to report Henry Wallace winning the S4 pennant and finishing 46th for Durham Uni. Finishing higher again was his doubles partner from last summer Ben Newland who stroked the Imperial College 2nd 8 to 34th place. Finally Ed Pettinger was in the Cardiff Uni 1st 8 who finished 130th Bad luck for the Vet D 8 who had travelled up for the Vets Head the following day. The weather worsened just before the race which was then cancelled. The crew would have expected to finish towards the very top end of the Vet D 8s. March 6th Good racing at Gloucester Head with the mens 4x winning the 1st Division and a very good performance from the WJ18 2x of Rose Willoughby and Jude Rice. Other crews worth a mention were Nick Price and Mick Rolley in Vet D 2x who set a new course record, Barney Stentiford and Lewis Van Diggele who won J18 2x and Meyrick Tooley and James Lovering who won J15 2x. Interesting to see the canal now all the road works are finished and the new bridge built. I guess the regatta will return to Gloucester this summer after 2 years at Ross Feb 28th 2 outright winners, several other top 3 finishers and many members well into the top 10 at the West Region Schools Indoor Rowing Championships. As expected Barney Stentiford and Nene Nanji Rowe dominated the yr 12/13 events. Barney took the boys title in 6:24 and Nene recorded the biggest winning margin of the day winning by 41 seconds in a time of 7:18. Down the age groups Simon Kerswell-Jensen lead the Yr 8 boys event until the last 30 seconds when he was caught and just beaten by a much taller opponent. Similarly Jackie Gibbard lead the girls Yr 10 race until the last minute when she faded slightly and slipped back to 3rd place. Still 2 very promising performances from 2 [promising juniors. One other performance worth mentioning; last year Sam Pettit came last in the Yr 10 boys race. This year, after several months training he came an excellent 4th, just missing out on a medal. Shows what can be done if you make the effort. The full list of medallists is as follows; Yr 12/13 Boys 1st Barney Stentiford Yr 12/13 Girls 1st Nene Nanji Rowe, 3rd Jude Rice Yr 11 Girls 2nd Christie Rhys Brown, 3rd Amy Kirkup Yr 10 Girls 3rd Jackie Gibbard Yr 8 Boys 2nd Simon Kerswell Jensen The full results can be seen here Feb 25th Most of the junior girls squad were racing at Bristol Head last weekend. With not much competition in any of the boat classes it was more a case of getting some racing practise in regardless of the lack of opposition. Best performance of the day came from the J15 girls quad of Devon Cleal, Jess Philips, Eve Eyres and Jackie Gibbard. They started right behind their J16 clubmates and beat them by 3 secs. Jan 19th A mixture of some good performances and a lack of competition saw the Club qualify 13 boats for the West Team at the Junior Inter Regional Regatta. Racing took the form of a 1500m time trial and was held in surprisingly good conditions following the heavy rain and strong winds of the previous days. Overall number of entries were disappointing, though it was good to see the Plymstock Rowing Partnership entered for the first time under the Plymouth Rowing Club banner. Club juniors won 2 of the divisions outright - Ember Lagden and Matt Vincent winning Div 2 and J16 2x and the J15 4x+ of Elliot Legg, Lawrie Budden, James Lovering, Meyrick Tooley and cox Clare Gardener winning Div 3 and their class very convincingly. Other good performances came from Eve Eyres and Jackie Gibbard in WJ15 2x , Simon Kerswell-Jensen and Sam Richardson who won J14 2x in their first race in a 2x and Izzy Rundle and Louise Hawkyard in WJ14 2x. The general level of competition does not seem to have moved on at all from previous years with too many crews qualifying easily or with no competition. Perhaps it is time to consider whether the trials would attract more entries if held slightly later in the year. Jan 12th The Club is hosting the West Region time trial on at 19th Jan. The results from this race will determine the West Region team for the Junior Inter Regional Regatta in April. There is a strong entry from the Club and several crews and scullers stand a good chance of being selected. Jan 5th A reminder to Club members that Swansea Uni will be training at the Club for the next 5 days. There should not be any boat clashes as they will only be here for the Mon - Fri period when most members are at work or school. (or both in some cases). December 18th Several current and former Club members were in action at the 2nd Senior Long Distance Trials in Boston last weekend. The outstanding performance came from former Club member Bill Lucas rowing for Reading Uni. He was first sculler off and sculled away from everyone else to record a convincing 13 second win. Though the top 3 GB scullers were missing due to illness or injury this was a fantastic performance. Further down the field Tom Aindow showed a significant improvement from 1st trials to finish 23rd overall but 9th U23 home. In the womens lightweight race Nicola Spencer, racing for Exeter Uni came home in 22nd place. November 18th Mixed fortunes at 1st GB Junior Trials for Nene Nanji-Rowe and Barney Stentiford. An excellent scull from Nene saw her finish equal 7th out of approx 80 competitors. Barney came in 52nd out of 160 boys, some way down on what he had been hoping for. The next step for both of them is 2 months heavy training mixed up with the odd exam or 2 before 2nd long distance trials in mid February. November 17th A record entry for the Mini Head with all the local WEARA Clubs racing as well as Exeter Uni and particularly good to see relative newcomers Teign Scullers putting in an appearance. With Pete Kerswell-Jensen now Captain at Worcester Uni and Steve Wilson still a student there it was also great to see a large contingent from Worcs Uni racing. Loads of good performances from various Club members; Pete Atkinson and Gary Cairns winning the battle of the veteran 2x in Div 2, a very neat performance from the J14 boys quad convincingly beating their opposition from Reds in Div 1 in their very first race together and the J18 4x, Lewis VD, Barney Stentiford plus J16s Ollie Garton and Drew Parkinson were impressive division winners in Div 3. Other performances that stood out came from J15s Meyrick Tooley and James Lovering who deadheated with their older Clubmates Ember Lagden and Matt Vincent in J162x and from Lucy Obolensky and Laura Hutchinson who came within 3 secs of beating their vastly more experienced Clubmates Nicola Spencer and Suzanne Hutchings. November 8th Following their highly successful summer the Clubs juniors were named Sport South Hams ' Team of the Year' at the annual awards evening last night. The juniors beat off 5 other teams to take the title. The award is voted for by the approx 50 Clubs that form Sport South Hams. With over 15 team members attending varying in age from 13 - 18 they were the largest team present. This is the third time the Club has won this award since it started in the late 1990s. November 6th At the elections for Captain and Vice Captain the Club strengthened its management with the decision to appoint a second vice captain. Matt Hemings, who has recently joined the Club, has several ideas which over time should help to move the Club forward. October 5th Also winning 3 gold medals at the FISA Masters was former Club Chairman and Life Member EdgarCove. Edgar is one of the small band of Vet I rowers competing. His 3 wins came in composite crews in mens 2x, coxed 4 and a mixed 8. September 12th The Clubs Vets returned from the FISA Masters Regatta in a wet and cold Zagreb with 4 gold medals. As always Pete Atkinson put in a series of superb performances to win 3 of these medals in Vet B, Vet C and Vet D singles. The final gold medal was won by Hugh Tubbs in Vef F singles. The trip was spoilt slightly by a nasty bug doing the rounds which several Club members caught. Luckily for Pete he had finished his racing before being struck down. September 8th 3 good performances from the 3 juniors who travelled to Dorney for the South Coast Championship Regatta topped off by an excellent win from Lewis VD in the J16 1x event. Lewis qualified easily in his heat in finishing 2nd behind a Christchurch sculler. In the final he was sitting in a close second place all through the race until the final 250m when he took the rate up and pushed through the same Christchurch sculler to snatch victory by 2 feet. This win combined with him winning the West of England J16 1x title caps a fantastic season for him. On the wrong end of a 2 feet verdict was Louise Hawkyard who raced in the girls J14 1x, an age group above her J13 status. In a race where the leading 2 scullers never had more than a few feet between them but were racing in lanes 1 and 6 Louise was just unable to push through in the last 50m and came in 2nd. Finally James Lovering, like Lewis, qualified easily for the boys J14 1x final. In the final one sculler pulled clear of the rest leaving James to battle it out for 2nd and 3rd place eventually finishing in 3rd. One observation from watching the junior events is that West of England juniors seem to have the edge over their South Coast counterparts. Both Dartmouth and Bideford Reds juniors performed well. September 3rd With the WEARA season over the Club has won 5 West of England Championships and shared a sixth title. In addition the Club easily won the trophy for the Club with the most single sculling wins. The WEARA titles won are WJ14 4x+ - Laura Whittet, Eve Eyres, Jackie Gibbard and Louise Hawkyard, J18 1x -Nick Lovering, J16 1x - Lewis VD, WJ18 1x -Sophie Glenn-Cox and the Club Championship for novice singles which the Club won with 5 wins throughout the season. The 6th title came in the Club Championship for W Nov 4+ with 2 wins tied with both Exeter and Greenbank Falmouth. September 1st Every year those members who race at Dartmouth Regatta come off the water after racing and ask themselves and anyone who wants to listen why they bothered to race. This year was no exception with very difficult conditions on the course and many boats returning with a lot of water in them. However despite this the Club enjoyed a very successful days racing with a total of 8 wins and a host of top 3 finishes. The WJ14 4x+ and WJ16 4x+ put in great performances to win their races. The win for the J14 girls crew of Laura Whittet, Eve Eyres, Jackie Gibbard and Louise Hawkyard clinched the West of England Championship for them. Probably the most deserved win of the day came from the women's novice four of Lucy Willoughby, Amanda Fleming, Janet Richardson, Sarah Mackness and cox Maggie Hawkyard. In a desperately tight finish the crew just managed to pull themselves past race leaders Exeter in the last few strokes to win by 3 feet. This was a very satisfying win for a crew who, with the exception of Lucy, were somewhat older than their opponents. A feature of the summer has been the success of the single scullers from the Club. Winners at Dartmouth included Merrick Tooley at J14, Barney Stentiford at J16 and Tom Aindow at SC. August 26th A great weekends racing at Gloucester Regatta and Ross Vet and Junior Regatta saw the Club win the Victor Ludorum for the most successful club over the 2 regattas. As last year there was a great atmosphere helped by the excellent weather and camping arrangements. A big thank you to all involved in organising this. With 18 wins in total it is difficult to know where to start and which performances to highlight however lets give it a go; Gloucester Regatta saw the J15 boys Ember Lagden, Matt Vincent, Ollie Garton and Will Airth show some of the great potential they have by winning all the J15 sculling events - J154x+, J15 2x (Ollie and Matt) and J15 1x (Ember). The J14 boys James Lovering, Meyrick Tooley and Elliott Legg matched their performance by winning J14 2x (James and Meyrick), J14 1x (Meyrick) at Gloucester and then repeated the feat at Ross Juniors with Meyrick and Elliott taking the 2x and James the 1x. 2 other performances stood out at Gloucester - both Jackie Gibbard and Lewis VD battled through several rounds to reach the finals of WJ14 1x and J16 1x before losing. On the Sunday Pete Atkinson completed his preparation for the FISA Masters Regatta with wins at both Vet C and Vet D 1x. It was good to the see the Club combining with members of Llandaff and Swansea to win Vet B/C eights, WVet C 4+ and mixed vet 4+. A full list of winners can be found in the Club Wins menu. August 6th Lewis VD flew the Club flag in fine style at Appledore Regatta on Sunday. He arrived back from holiday late on Saturday night, grabbed a few hours sleep and then headed up to North Devon where he made light of the challenging water conditions and sculling in 2 borrowed boats to win both J16 and novice 1x. His win at J16 extended his lead in the WEARA Championship and will make it very difficult for him to be caught. August 4th With half the WEARA Championship Regattas remaining the Club is dominating the 1x Championship events. At present the Club leads the SB 1x through Henry Wallace, novice 1x through the combined efforts of Nick Lovering and Martin Burridge, the J18 1x is lead by Nick Lovering and Lewis VD leads the J16 event. On the womens side Sophie Glenn-Cox heads the J18 list and at novice the efforts of Lucy Obolensky and Nene Nanji-Rowe ensure that the Club leads this event. The Club has also won all 3 of the mens SC events entered, however these wins have been split between Ben Newland and Nick Lovering. These positions will change over the next few weeks as many of the scullers are not competing at the next few regattas. However it will be disappointing if several of the sculling championships are not won by the Club come the end of the season. July 30th Bill Lucas won a bronze medal at the U23 World Championship in the mens 2x. He had qualified directly for the final after winning his heat on Friday. In the final a fast last 500m took them into 3rd place behind the Germans and Belarusians who were the defending Champions. Despite closing up on he leaders they were unable to improve on 3rd spot, finishing just 2 seconds behind Germany and 2.5 seconds behind Belarus. July 25th Bill Lucas will be travelling to the World Championships in late August as the reserve sculler for the 2 GB crew sculling boats. Prior to this he will race at the U23 World Champs starting tomorrow before going away with the team training in the build up to event. July 23rd 3 finalists and a silver medal for Nene Nanji-Rowe made it a successful trip up to Nottingham for the National Championships. It was wet, pretty muddy and very windy at times but for once at Nottingham the wind treated everyone alike - a strong tail wind on the Friday that eventually made the course unrowable after lunch and then a strong head wind for finals day on Sunday that made the 2000m course seem more like 2500m. None of the crosswinds that see certain lanes favoured over others. The 3 finalists were Barney Stentiford who qualified with a top 6 finish in the time trial at J161x, Nicola Spencer who qualified comfortably in womens lightweight 1x and Nene who, after withdrawals, ended up with a straight final with the time trial just being used for seeding purposes for the final. Just missing out on a place in his final was J14 sculler James Lovering who finished as the fastest non qualifier in his time trial. The other performance of note came from the mens 2x of Henry Wallace and Ben Newland. They finished in the top 12 in their time trial to qualify for the semi finals. However they could only finish 4th in that race and were some way of the pace of the leading crews. Still not a bad result bearing in mind Henry had been ill in bed for 3 days at the beginning of the week. In the finals Nene had a terrible start and was last after 250m. However she gradually pulled through to 3rd place at half distance before putting in a sustained push to take 2nd place which she then held on to comfortably. Barney had a battle down the course for 5th and 6th place with his World Class Start doubles partner of the previous week Ollie Lee which he just lost. However both these guys only took up the sport just over 12 months ago and it is a great result for both of them. Nicola had raced well in qualifying for the final but found the head wind very tough and was unable to repeat the form she had shown in the earlier rounds and came home in 6th place. 2 former members picked up gold medals - Charles Brereton won both open coxed fours and open eights rowing for Leander and Robin Dowell won gold in open coxless fours. Robin has also just been selected for the GB eight for the European Championships in September. Full results can be seen at www.natchamps.org.uk July 21st Another successful West of England Regatta saw the Club win a further 6 events at Falmouth Regatta. With only 9 juniors and 1 senior competing it was only a small team that made the long journey down to Stithians Lake. As has been the case at many WEARA regattas the Club dominated the single sculling events winning all the mens events held; Nick Lovering winning SC and J18, Martin Burridge winning novice, Lewis V-D winning J16 and Meyrick Tooley winning J14. In the crew boat events it was the J16girls who again stole the show following up their win at Exeter with another win here. This time the crew did not have a J16 amongst them, comprising Christie Rhys-Brown and Clare Gardener (both J15), J14 Jackie Gibbard and J13 Louise Hawkyard. The crew were expertly coxed as always by Lewis VD. No individual prizes but rigger jiggers for the winning cox. So we all know who to ask when we need one next time. July 18th Barney Stentiford put in a convincing performance at the Anglo French match winning his 2x race convincingly. With his team mate Ollie Lee from Agecroft they lead off the start and pulled away continually down the course to record an easy win by a distance approaching 200m over their French opponents. July 16th The juniors put in a fantastic performance at Exeter Regatta winning 11 out of the total of 13 wins the Club recorded. The highlight was the performance of the juniors quads who won 2 events, the first quad wins for the Club since Plymouth Regatta. The J16 girls quad, Clare Gardener, Christie Rhys-Brown, Judith Rice, Louise Hawkyard and cox Steve Grimes just held of Bideford Reds by 2ft with Dartmouth a further 3ft behind in the closest final of the day. At J14 quads the crew of Lawrie Budden, Elliot Legg, Meyrick Tooley, James Lovering and cox Lewis Van Diggele at last managed to beat Dartmouth to give themselves a big boost. The only success for the Club in the non junior crew boats came from the ladies novice four of Naomi Osborne, Tash Prior, Kathy Lovering, Laura Hutchinson and cox Matt Grace. This crew now move up to SC having achieved their 3rd novice win. The Club has been particularly dominant in 1x events this year and Exeter was no exception with wins in mens novice,J18, J16 and J14 and womens SC, novice, J16 and J14. 2 wins to pick out from all these were Ember Lagden winning J16 and Judith Rice winning W16. For both it was their wins. The day was rounded off in great style when the Club took the points trophy for the most successful club of the day. This was the first time for 26 years that Exeter had not won the trophy at their own regatta so cause enough to celebrate! This is also the 4th consecutive West of England regatta the Club has taken the points trophy back to Totnes. July 15th At the final World Cup regatta at Lucerne Bill Lucas showed the improvement they have made since the 2nd World Cup with a place in the B final and a final ranking of 10th overall compared to 16th last time. From Lucerne he now comes back to the UK to complete preparations for the World U23 Championships in Glasgow later this month. July 14th Pete Atkinson and Hugh Tubbs put in excellent performances at Veterans Henley to win Vet D and Vet F 1x. This is Hughs first Henley success but one of many over the years for Pete Atkinson. Also putting in a good performance at his first Henley Vets in a 1x was Nick Price who raced well in the first round before eventually losing to a sculler from Wycliffe. The other competitors from the Club had mixed fortunes; the vet E quad came up against German opposition and went out in the first round whilst the Vet D 2x would perhaps have won but for a shipwreck approaching the finish whilst leading. July 12th Barney Stentiford has been selected to race in the Anglo - French Match on Monday 16th July. He will be racing in a new event that is being trialled for the first time this year. It is for emerging new talent that has been rowing for less than 18 months. He was seat raced whilst on a recent Camp and will partner fellow WCS rower Ollie Lee of Agecroft in the boys 2x. The Anglo-French Match is an annual event for J16s that alternates between a French and English venue. This years match is being held at Nottingham. July 11th 2 recent club members put in good performances at Henley in the last few days. Best performance came from Charles Brereton rowing for Leander, who won the Thames Cup. Also racing in a final was Robin Dowell who lost in the final of the Visitors Cup. Robin was rowing in an Agecroft/Reading Uni composite crew which comprised 3 World Class Start rowers and 1 from Reading Uni. July 8th Following his promising performance at the second World Cup Regatta Bill Lucas and doubles partner Charles Cousins have been selected for the GB team for the final World Cup meeting. This will give them further experience before they head off to the U23 World Championships. They will be aiming to improve on their world ranking of 16th from the last World Cup. July 1st Wimbleball has always been a good regatta for the Club and this year was no exception with a hatful more wins which saw the Club win the points trophy for the Champion Club of the day for the third successive West of England Regatta. The regatta took place in difficult conditions, with a strong head wind making the course pretty choppy and certainly very challenging for all competitors particularly the single scullers. However things could have been worse with the rain being lighter than expected. The backbone of the successful day was the performance of the single scullers; the men swept the board winning all the events held - Tom Aindow winning SB and J18, Barney Stentiford novice and J16 and Ben Newland SC. They were backed up in great fashion by the junior girls with Sophie Glenn-Cox winning J18 and Nene Nanji-Rowe winning novice. In the crew boat events the SB 4 of Ben Newland, Martin Burridge, Henry Wallace, Nick Lovering and cox Lewis van Diggele looked very impressive again with a comfortable win. The only disappointment here is the lack of opposition, just 2 crews again. It was a similar story in the ladies novice event where Laura Hutchinson, Kathy Lovering, Naomi Osborne and Tash Prior had an easy win over Exeter. With only 2 crews in the event the girls crew will have to wait until at least Exeter Regatta before gaining their final novice win. The junior quads had a series of 2nd place finishes. The unluckiest crew were the J14 girls whose opponents from Bideford Reds scratched leaving the Totnes girls to row over. The best performance probably came from the J16 girls who beat Reds for the first time this season only for themselves to be beaten by Dartmouth. The Totnes crew contained only 1 J16 girl, Jude Rice, the reminder being J15 Christy Rhys Brown, J14 Jackie Gibbard and J13 Louise Hawkyard. Two juniors made their racing debuts for the Club in the junior quads, Robin Hayward and Isobel Rundle - always good to get that first race out of the way! The day finished in great style with the Club winning SA eights with a crew that included Barney Stentiford rowing for only the second time. Just goes to show that it is easy for scullers to learn to row. June 27 The wettest Totnes Regatta for many years didn't spoil a great day with a record entry, close racing and a grand total of 16 wins for the Club. Where to start when so many people won? Undoubtedly the most popular winner of the day was Lewis van Diggele taking the J16 singles event in a close final with Jamie Lock of Exeter. Louis has trained pretty hard for this over the last few weeks and it just confirms again that if you put in that bit of extra effort you get the rewards. Several people had more than 1 win however Henry Wallace was the top performer of the day with 5 wins (SA8, SB4, SC4, SB1x and SC2x) closely followed by Nick Lovering with 4 wins. These 2 were part of the small group of 5 senior men who together won all 6 events they entered. Rose Willoughby and Sophie Glenn-Cox continued their winning ways at WJ18 2x and WJ18 1x with easy wins. It was good to see Judith Rice, who trains with these girls, make her racing debut in a 1x and nearly pull off a win in a very tight J16 race with Samantha Tilley from Dartmouth. In the junior quads the J14 girls came up against a good crew from Ross on Wye and were unable to repeat their victory at Plymouth. The J14 boys quad of James Lovering, Merrick Tooley, Lawrie Budden and Elliot Legg had a very close battle with Dartmouth down the course losing by 0.5 length whilst at J16 only 6 feet separated the Totnes crew from their first win of the season. This was closer than at Plymouth but still only 2nd. More training needed to make difference. It is always good to end a regatta with a win and a combination of the winning mens SC and veteran fours did just that by winning the SA 8s race. Finally as you would expect the Club won the points championship for the most successful club of the day. June 19th All that hard training came to fruition at the National Veteran Championships held at Nottingham on Sunday. 6 gold medals was a record haul for the Club at this event and was a great reward for all the training the veteran sculling group put in. As always the winners were lead by regular Nat Vet Champion Pete Atkinson who took the Vet D 1x title comfortably. Pete has been winning titles here for many years now and must be well into double figures. Also winning in his single was Hugh Tubbs who took the Vet F title with club mate John Harris in 3rd place. Happiest winner of the day was undoubtedly Nick Price who won his first ever single sculling event when he won the Novice Vet C title. Wins in crew boats included both the Vet E and Vet F 2x titles for Ray Davis and Ian Andrews and John Harris and Hugh Tubbs. Finally Pete, Ray, John and Ian teamed up to easily win the Vet E quads event. All in all a good day for the Club - and certainly a performance that will allow them to move on to Henley Vets with some confidence. June 15th Bill Lucas has been selected for the GB team for the next World Cup regatta over the weekend of June 23/24. He is in a group of U23 rowers who have been selected to gain valuable experience as part of their build up to the World U23 Championships. He will be racing in a 2x with fellow World Class Start athlete Charles Cousins. Following the World Cup they turn their attention to the double sculls at Henley Royal Regatta. June 11th 550 miles away at Durham Regatta the Club was represented by Henry Wallace, Ben Newland and Nick Lovering. Durham is Bens old Uni and Henry will going there in the autumn so there is an explanation for the long trip! Durham Regatta is the biggest regatta in the North of England and provides a good level of competition compared to that available in the West of England. On Saturday in S3 singles Henry and Ben came through 3 rounds to meet each other in the final which was won by Ben. However the roles were reversed at S2 singles where again they came through the qualifying rounds to face each other in the final, this time with Henry winning. With 11 S3 scullers and 5 S2 scullers racing this was a good test for the 2 of them. On the Sunday they paired up to race S3 2x, however this time they went out in the semi finals by 1/2 length to Durham Uni. Nick Lovering reached the same stage of the novice 1x before losing 1 length. June 10th The first WEARA regatta of the season at Plymouth saw 7 wins for the Club. These were backed up by a series of 2nd and 3rd places which meant that the Club also took the points trophy for the most successful club of the day. In the Championship fours/quads events the junior 14 girls, Louise Hawkyard, Eve Eyres, Jackie Gibbard, Laura Whittet and cox Suzanne Hutchings, were the only winners. They rowed an excellent race, pulling away steadily to record a 5 length victory. The J16 quad of Ember Lagden, Ollie Garton, Matt Vincent. Will Airth and cox Claire Gardener came a very close 2nd to Reds eventually losing by 1/2 length. As many members will know this crew is actually J15 so this represented a good result. It is always good to get your first win and for 2 crews this happened at Plymouth; firstly a very nervous Lucy Obolensky put in a great performance in novice singles to record a comfortable first singles win and secondly the mixed novice four of Sarah Mackn, Robin Willoughby, Ed Burnett and Lucy Oblensky won their race by 3 lengths. This was a first win Sarah, Robin and Ed. Other wins came in WJ18 1x and 2x, J14 1x and WNov 2x. The most encouraging feature of the regatta was the large number of junior entries, conversely the 2 most disappointing features were the number of races with only 2 entrants and also the low number of entries in the senior events. Lets hope things improve for Tones and Wimbleball regattas later this month. May 30th The Bank Holiday trip to Monmouth and Hereford Regattas proved very fruitful for the Club as members racked up 10 wins over the 2 days of racing. At Monmouth on Sunday the mainly veteran contingent recorded 3 wins at Vet D 4+, Vet C 1x and WJ18 2x. All 3 wins were achieved easily. At Hereford the Sunday participants were joined by several more members. This proved to be an equally successful day. The Club dominated the mens singles events winning S3, S4, Nov, Vet D and Vet F 1x in convincing fashion. At S3 both Ben Newland and Rob Wilson came through 2 heats to meet each other in the final which was won by Rob. This proved to be Robs last race of the day as both his opponents in the S2 event pulled out just before the 1st race was due. Henry Wallace recorded his first win in a 1x in the novice class, winning all 3 races easily. He was followed by Nick Lovering at S4 singles who also won his first 2 rounds easily only to see his opponent in the final pull out just before the race for no particular reason. The list of singles victories was completed by Pete Atkinson taking the vet D race easily to add to his Vet C win at Monmouth and John Harris who won Vet F. Rose Willoughby and Sophie Glenn-Cox continued their winning ways with their 3rd success of the regatta season at WJ18 2x, though they did find the going slightly harder at S3. The final success of the day came at S4 2x where Ben and Henry teamed up to win the event, again easily. In the final they beat a crew from Swansea University who members will remember had a couple of training camps at the Club over the winter. May 25th Almost exactly 3 years after recording his first win in a 1x (J16 at Hereford) Bill Lucas continued the fantastic form he had shown at the BUSA Regatta by winning both U23 1x and U23 2x at Essen International Regatta in Germany. In his 1x he narrowly failed to dip under7mins for the first time over 2k, winning in 7:00.1, nearly 6 secs clear of the German 1x in 2nd place. In the 2x Bill and his partner Charles Cousins were in a class of their own winning by 9 secs in 6:19.9. The weekend could have gone slightly better for him - the Saturday racing failed to materialize after a close encounter with a buoy lead to an unexpected swim when the 2x capsized. Just goes to show it can happen to anyone! May 13th The 3 juniors who travelled up to Dorney Lake for the Ball Cup Regatta all put in good performances over the 1000m course and gained valuable multi lane racing experience. Both James Lovering and Ember Lagden were able to cruise through their heats comfortably in the first 3 places and thus qualify for their respective finals of J14 and J15 1x. Louise Hawkyard had a much tougher time of it in her heat of J13 girls 1x. In a blanket finish with a length covering the first 4 boats Louise finished in 4th place missing out on the final by 1ft. In the J15 final Ember rowed a strong first 500m but was unable to stay with the leading boats and finished in a good 4th place. In the J14 final James was in 2nd place for the whole race but despite pushing hard was unable to move on the leader and had to settle for second place, 1 length behind. A good days racing at a very well run event. Meanwhile back in Devon their junior squad team mates were racing the last Head race of the season on the Torridge at Bideford. This proved to be a very successful day out for the coxed quads entered, with wins for the J16 and J14 boys and the J15 girls. Particular mention for the J16 boys of Kestor Pettitt, Matt Vincent, Ollie Garton and Will Airth, 3 of whom are J15s and the J15 girls of Claire Gardener, Christie Rhys-Brown, Eve Eyres and Jackie Gibbard, 2 of whom are J14 still. The other notable performance at Bideford came from the ladies SC coxless quad of Rose Willoughby, Sophie Glenn-Cox, Catherine Wiseman and Tash Prior who won the pennant for fastest ladies crew With only a handful of Clubs in the West Region putting out junior quads at the moment it looks like the juniors are going to have to travel up the M5 regularly to find different opposition. May 8th Club members now rowing for their Universities put in good performances at the 3 day British Universities Championship Regatta. Top performance - and probably the outstanding performance from any competitor in the whole regatta - came from Bill Lucas racing for Reading Uni, who won Championship singles, Championship doubles and Championship quads. Also medalling over the weekend were Nicky Spencer and Ester Vernon of Exeter Uni who took silver in Championship lightweight 2x and Katie Wilson who picked up a bronze medal in Womens Junior Quads. This was so nearly a silver medal but Katies University of the West of England crew were just unable to hold on to 2nd place. May 7th The Club got off to a winning start over the weekend recording wins at both Evesham and Wallingford Regattas. On Saturday at Evesham Regatta Rose Willoughby and Sophie Glenn-Cox won womens novice 2x with a comfortable 3 length win over Bradford on Avon in the semi final before cruising to an 'easily' verdict over host Club Evesham in the final. Meanwhile at Wallingford Regatta held on the Dorney Lake course at Eton, several good performances from the single scullers present was topped with Tom Aindow winning J18 1x. A length down after 1000m he put in a great last 500m to win by just over 1l. Tom had earlier got to the final of S3 1x but could not stay with the pace of the leading scullers led by Marco Espin, GB U23 international last summer, and paddled home in 5th place preserving energy for the later J18 final. April 23rd The Club juniors representing the West Region at the Junior Inter Regional Regatta at the weekend had varying fortunes, as did the team overall. However there were several notable performances - particularly from the Club J14s who raced; the J14 boys quad of Jack Rice, Elliot Legg, Lawrie Budden, Meyrick Tooley and cox James Lovering just missed out on a place in the 'A' final but stormed home to win the 'B' final in convincing style. This gave them a final ranking of 7th out of the 12 teams competing. These boys could do well this summer if they keep putting in the outings. The girls J14 2x and the 2 single scullers all went one better by reaching the 'A' final. James Lovering sculled an excellent race and was in contention for a medal at one point but eventually the time out of training with a broken collar bone in the winter caught up with him and he came home in 5th place. The Region's top 2 performances came with 2 fourth placed finishes from Louise Hawkyard in the girls J14 1x and from Eve Eyres and Jackie Gibbard in the girls J14 2x. Louise will have another chance next year as she is only J13 at the moment and Jackie and Eve show great promise and will surely be medal contenders next year if they maintain their enthusiasm. This strong performance from the Clubs J14s, when added to the good results from the Bideford Reds J14s in the girls quad and boys 2x left the West Region J14s with a final ranking of 4th out of the 12 regions. In the J15 and J16 age groups the West team suffered through being unable to field a full team, particularly at the J16 level. However all the clubs entries at these levels enjoyed their racing and the experience of racing on a multi lane course. An interesting point to note as the Club is about to start its 6th year of Project Oarsome; the vast majority of the Club juniors at Nottingham this last weekend started rowing through PO. The full results from the JIRR can be found on the ARA website. See the link on the home page. April 18th A large contingent of juniors are heading up to Nottingham this weekend to represent the West Region in the Junior Inter Regional Championships. The Club is providing many members of the team and are competing in the following classes : J16 4x, J15 4x, J14 4x, J14 1x, WJ15 2x, WJ142x, WJ14 1x The results will be available early next week. April 17th 3 former club members put in great performances at final GB trials in Hazelwinkel, Belgium over the last weekend. Bill Lucas, now at Reading University, continued to impress winning the 'B' final to finish with a final ranking of 7th. This must give him a chance of making the World Cup Regatta in a few weeks time. Also racing in the heavyweight singles event Robin Dowell, now at the World Class Start Centre at Agecroft Rowing Club, came 3rd in the 'C' final. Finally Charles Brereton improved his chances of making the U23 team this summer by finished 2nd in the 'C' final in the coxless pairs events along with his Leander Clubmate Josh Davidson. March 30th Wednesday 28th March saw approximately 20 of the club juniors racing for their schools at the West Region Schools Indoor Rowing Championships. 22 schools from Devon and Cornwall competed, many sending big teams for example South Dartmoor whilst other schools were represented by individuals who had entered themselves. A total of just under 350 juniors raced in what was a very efficiently run event. There were many good performances and several top 3 finishes. These included Ollie Garton in the Year 10 boys event who finished in second place with an excellent distance of 1467m and Christy Rhys-Brown who similarly took second place in the Yr 10 girls event. However pride of place must go to the 2 girls who won their events; Eve Eyres took the Year 9 girls title with 1015m in 4 minutes (she also won the yr 8 girls last year) and Louise Hawkyard took the Year 8 girls title after a real tussle with clubmate Isobel Rundle. pulling 752m compared to Izzys 748m. The full results can be found on the West Region section of the ARA website. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sept 18th
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Both Dart Totnes crews selected for
the SCC put in excellent performances at Dartmouth on Saturday.
In the Junior Championship event the crew of Owen Small, Simon
French, Henry Wallace, Nick Lovering and cox Steve Grimes rowed
a great first 1000m to lead at half distance. Passing the Higher
Ferry they hit some bad boat wash which knocked them out of
their rhythm and Itchen Imperial took advantage of this to row
through them. However the crew settled down again and started to
close the gap. However the Itchen, who are the Hants and Dorset
Champions, held on to the finish to win by just under 1 length.
Controversy surrounded the Veteran
Championship race. The Dart Totnes crew of Pete Atkinson, Ian
Andrews, Colin Souch, Ray Davis and cox Lewis Vandiggele rowed a
storming last 500m to win the event. However after the event
second placed Folkestone complained that the Totnes crew had
broken South Coast rules by not competing in 3 events on the
WEARA circuit. After much discussion the Umpires upheld the
complaint and the Totnes crew were disqualified. A disappointing
outcome in a veteran race - the best way to win a race is to be
the fastest crew in it! With vet 4s not being a Championship
event in WEARA and composite vet 4s often racing, how should
representative crews be selected? Something for WEARA to think
about.
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Sept 12th
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Pete Atkinson returned from the FISA
Masters in New York with yet another gold medal to add to his
collection, this time in Vet D 1x. This was one of his more
comfortable victories with Pete able to sit comfortably in the
lead. He missed out on a double success by less than a second in
the Vet C 1x.
Also competing at the Masters was
former Club Chairman Edgar Cove. Now living in Norway Edgar was
competing in the Vet I category (Vet J is not a recognised age
group yet!).
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5th Sept
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2 crews from Totnes have been
invited to represent WEARA at the South Coast Championships in
Dartmouth later in the month. The SC 4 of Henry Wallace, Simon
French, Owen Small and Nick Lovering will race in the Junior
event whilst the crew of Pete Atkinson,Ian Andrews, Colin Souch
and Ray Davis will compete in the veteran championship event.
The Club also had its SB Crew qualify for the Championships,
this time in the Junior Senior fours. However with 2 members
returning to University and a 3rd inexplicably choosing to do
the Boston Marathon instead (yes, he's never done it before)
this opportunity has had to be turned down. This is particularly
disappointing as this crew has only raced 3 times this summer
and has easily beaten all the other West of England SB crews
each time.
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4th Sept
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The West of England season drew to a
close in disappointing fashion at Bideford on Saturday. Strong
winds meant the cancellation of all junior events from J16
downwards and the cancellation of all the small boat events.
However the Dart Totnes J14 quads didn't seem to let this get
them down and appeared to have a thoroughly entertaining day off
the water!
Back to the rowing that did take
place; the course was shortened to avoid the very rough water at
the 1100m start and racing got underway 90 minute late. There
were 3 very good performances by Dart Totnes crews; the J18
4 finished the season unbeaten with 5 wins out of 5 with an easy
win over Christchurch. This makes them the WEARA J18 Champions
for this year. The novice ladies crew followed up their win at
Dartmouth with another comfortable win, coping with the rough
water very well. Finally in the best and largest race (6
crews) of the day the SB 4 of Stephen Wilson, Simon French,
Peter Kerswell-Jensen, Ed Pettinger and cox Lewis Vandigelle
rowed an excellent race to finish 2nd, 1 length behind Bexhill,
the Coast Champions, who had also pipped them to the post at
Dartmouth. The Hants and Dorset Champions Itchen Imperial were 4
lengths back in 3rd place with the West of England Champions
Exeter in 4th. This Dart Totnes crew would have had an excellent
season if they had been able to race more often - they have
beaten the Exeter Championship winning crew on every occasion
they have raced this summer.
Finally members will be pleased to
hear that the surprise announcement over the PA system at
Bideford that Dart Totnes had a new Club Captain was incorrect,
Rob Wilson is still the Club Captain.
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| 29 August | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A large contingent of juniors
travelled to Ross on Wye for the weekend to compete in
Gloucester Regatta (held in Ross this year because of roadworks
in Gloucester) and Ross Vet and Junior Regatta. Both Regattas
had a very large junior entry with many of the single sculling
events having 14 - 18 entries. With all the Club juniors in
singles at least once over the weekend actually winning a single
sculling event was going to take a considerable effort and a
sensible approach to each race.
James Lovering judged his J13
singles events perfectly both days; on Saturday he came through
3 rounds to reach the final against Notts County which he won by
2 lengths. On the Sunday he again won through 3 rounds before
coming up against a sculler from Gloucester in the final. This
turned out to be a very close race until the Gloucester sculler
misjudged the notorious bend at Ross and hit the bank leaving
James to scull through to the line.
Louise Hawkyard followed the example
set by James and recorded wins both days in WJ12 1x. On the
Saturday she had 3 races, each time having to beat a sculler
from Ross Rowing Club. Sundays racing was a closer affair and
she had to battle hard to win her first race by 1 length over
Upper Thames before a more comfortable win in the final. Several
other juniors won through 1 or 2 rounds including Matt Vincent,
Ember Lagden and Tim Whittet.
Shock of the weekend was undoubtedly
the win by the J15 boys quad of Tim Whittet, Stewart Cock, Matt
Vincent, Lewis van Digelle and cox Clare Gardner. The crew
managed to get their act together, stop talking and concentrate
for the duration of the race and were rewarded with their first
ever win! Just goes to show......
The other junior win came from Rose
Willoughby and Sophie Glenn-Cox in WJ16 2x on the Sunday.They
were in control for both their races and were comfortable
winners by 3 lengths over Staines in the final.
Several Club veterans were also
competing; Pete Atkinson used the weekend as his final
preparation for the FISA Masters Regatta in New York in the
first week of September. He won both vet C and D singles both
days. Hugh Tubbs backed him up by winning vet F singles on
Sunday. The final 2 wins of the weekend came from the Vet D
coxed 4 who had an easy win over Worcester and the mixed vet
4 who beat Warrington comfortably.
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| 26 August | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dartmouth Regatta lived up to its reputation as a great day out that also includes some rowing in pretty bad conditions caused by continual boat wash. 4 wins for the Club including a well earned first win for the ladies novice four of Naomi Osborne, Amanda Fleming, Kathy Lovering and Laura Hutchinson. Coxed by Gill Pedrick the crew lead from the start and finished comfortably clear of their opponents. The J18 boys continued their unbeaten record with their 4th win of the summer. The other winning crews were the vet D 4 and the womens open 2x. Other good performances came from the SB men who beat all the West of England crews in finishing 2nd behind a good Bexhill crew and the womens SC crew who finished 3rd in a event with 8 entries. The umpires initially tried to run this as a straight final but eventually accepted that getting everyone lined up on an outgoing tide with a tail wind was going to be impossible and held 2 heats of 4. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 23 August | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A minibus load of Club juniors
travelled up to Dorney Lake to watch Mondays racing and to
participate in the various junior events laid on as part of the
Championships. The group were also taking part in the 'adopt a
nation' scheme and had adopted Belarus as their team of the day
(green and red if you didnt know).
As well as the racing the group
enjoyed the chance to meet and talk to several medallists from
the last 2 Olympics, collecting many autographs. Tim Foster was
a particular favourite , showing a great willingness to spend
time with the juniors.
The group also had some success in
the 1 minute ergo competition that all the 'adopt a nation'
juniors participated in. James Lovering won the gold medal in
boys J13, Louise Hawkyard and Clare Gardner won silver medals in
girls J12 and J13 respectively and Ollie Garton won bronze in
the boys J14 category. Full results can be found on the ARA
website.
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July 23
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Wimbleball Regatta has been a happy
hunting ground for the Club over the years and this years
regatta was no exception. A series of good performances from the
juniors and senior men saw the Club win 9 events plus the Points
Trophy for the most successful club at the Regatta.
Best performance came from the J14
boys squad who swept the board in their age group, winning J14
coxed quads, J14 doubles and J14 singles. The squad
comprised James Lovering, who was in all 3 events, Ollie Garton,
Matt Vincent and, making his racing debut, Dan Green. The J14
girls nearly matched them, winning their quads race and
finishing 2nd in J14 2x. In the girls quad Eve Eyres was also
making her racing debut for the Club.
Surprise win of the day was in SB 4s
where the scratch crew of Ed Pettinger, Henry Wallace,Stephen
Wilson and Matt Grace rowed through the other 5 crews after a
slow start to win the event by a canvas. Not sure what this says
about the standard of SB racing at the moment but a good
performance non the less.
Several other members also made
winning racing debuts for the Club; Nene Nanji-Rowe won girls
J16 doubles with Rose Willoughby, and Barney Stentiford and Ben
Bryon-Edmonds won J16 2x.
Other wins came easily in J18 fours
where the crew extended their unbeaten run and impressively in
SA 8s when the SC 8 stepped up a couple of levels because of the
lack of opposition and still won comfortably.
The regatta also saw the first
fruits of the tie up the Club has with Britannia Royal Naval
College when Theo Stocker from the College raced in Dart Totnes
colours and finished in a good third place in a field of 14
novice scullers in his very first sculling race.
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| July 18th 06 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bill Lucas put in a great
performance at the National Championships at the weekend taking
2nd place in the senior heavyweight 1x event fully justifying
his decsion not to enter either the junior or U23 events, both
of which he was eligible for.
Qualification for the final was a
matter of making sure he finished in the first 2 in his heat
whilst expending as little effort as possible in the very hot
conditions. He did this comfortably, finishing just behind
former clubmate and training partner Robin Dowell, now part of
the World Class Start group at Agecroft,
In the final the main competition
was always going to come from Richard Ockenden of Molesey, who
had finished 9th at final senior trials in Hazelwinkel and who
had qualified equally comfortably from the other heat. The 2 of
them steadily pulled away from the rest of the field with
Ockenden holding on to the 1 length lead he built up in the
first 500m. In the final push for the line he extended his lead
slightly to win in 7.09 with Bill 4 secs behind in 7.13. Robin
Dowell put in a good performance to take the 3rd palce slot in
7.24.
Bills time of 7.13 would
have smashed the existing Junior Nat Champs record of 7.21 if
he had been competing in the junior singles event
Full results from the Nat Champs
can be found at www.natchamps.org.uk
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July 10th 06
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A good days racing for the majority
of the Club at the latest West of England Regatta at Exeter on
Saturday. Exeter Regatta always sees some exciting races with
crews having to adapt to the short 400m course.
The Club recorded a total of 8
wins, 5 of them in junior events and a series of 2nd places. The
junior 14 girls quad of Clare Gardener, Louise Hawkyard, Jackie
Gibbard and Christie Rhys-Brown recorded their first win of the
summer and in the process beat the previously unbeaten girls
from Bideford Reds. The mens SC crew did things the hard
way having to win their reparcharge after finishing 2nd to
Exeter in their heat. However in the final they turned the
tables on Exeter and recorded a win by 0.5 length. Other winning
crews were the mens J18 four and SB pair and the womens SB 4,
who recorded their second win on the trot. Unfortunately for the
womens crew there were only 2 crews in the race again so it was
non qualifying from the point of view of the West of England
Championship.
The Clubs junior scullers had 3
good wins; Tim Whittet at J15, James Lovering at J13 boys and
Louise Hawkyard in J13 girls. In addition, there were good
performances from Matt Vincent, Sophie Glenn-Cox and Rose
Willoughby.
Next Club action is Falmouth
Regatta on Saturday. The weekend also sees Bill Lucas in action
in his single at the Nat Champs.
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| July 9th 06 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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4 finalists for the Club at Henley
Veterans Regatta but no winners for the first time for many
years. The vet D group of Nick Price, Mick Rolley, Alan Langmaid
and Steve Lamkin reached the final of both vet D coxed fours and
quads but were unable to win either. They had a good race in the
coxed fours final but were well beaten in the quad final.
Sculler Pete Atkinson suffered a rare defeat, losing in vet D
singles by 1ft to his opponent from Durham who went on to win
the final.
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| June 15th 06 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Clubs strong veteran section
returned from the Nat Vets with a clutch of gold and silver
medals. As always top performer was sculler Pete Atkinson who
took his 3rd succesive title in Vet D 1x and his 9th singles
title in the last 11 years. He followed this up with a gold
medal in the Vet E quad sculls along with club mates John
Harris, Ray Davis and guest Ian Andrews. Hugh Tubbs in his first
season of racing won the veteran novice 1x and John Harris took
silver in Vet E 1x. Next event for the veteran group is Henley
Veterans Regatta on July 8th.
Meanwhile, back in the West
Country, the main Club had gone down the road to Plymouth for
their annual regatta. Conditions on the Plymouth course can be
variable but this time the wind relented and the water which was
slightly choppy at the start of the event flattened out
completely as the day went on. Tom Aindow followed up his novice
singles victory at Totnes by taking the J18 title comfortably
from Storey of Exeter. The ladies SB 4 of Jess Carter, Georgie
Cleasby, Emily Palmer and Maya Maloney won their event, though
unfortunatley with only 2 entries this does not qualify for the
West of England Championship. The final win of the day came from
the SC coxless pair of Peter Kerswell-Jensen and Nick Lovering
who had a comfortable win despite one of the strokes shoes
coming away from the footplate half way through the race. Other
good performances came from the 2 J14 quads who both finished in
second place. The girls crew comprised Clare Gardener, Louise
Hawkyard, Crhistie Rhys-Brown and Jackie Gibbard and the boys
crew were Josh Pernett, Ollie Garton, Ember Lagden and James
Lovering. Both crew are a mixture of Project Oarsome juniors and
club juniors.
Next event for the Club is Exeter
Regatta on July 8th.
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| June 3rd 06 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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98 races in 6.5 hours of racing
starting at 9am lead to a hectic days racing with the last race
being completed just before the tide fell too low to allow
racing.
There were a series of good
performances from club crews of all ages from J13 up to veteran
E and a full list of club winners can be found under the Club
Wins 2006 heading. However a few performances were particularly
impressive; the mens group, a mixture of J18s and senior men,
won all bar 1 of the races they competed in. Their wins
included SC and J18 fours, SC coxless pairs, SB 1x, nov 1x and
J18 1x. They then rounded off the day by winning SA 8s, a rather
unexpected triumph as they had been entered to race SC8s but had
no opposition. It is difficult to pick out any particular
performances but Pete Kerswell-Jensen won a total of 4 events
and Tom Aindow got his first win in novice 1x.
The Regatta had a large junior
entry, with Bideford Reds, Ross RC and Dart Totnes having
particularly large entries. Many of the Dart Totnes entries were
products of Project Oarsome, with last years intake getting
their first experience of regatta racing. All the juniors
performed well in the ideal racing condtions but special mention
but go to James Lovering, Jackie Gibbard and Louise Hawkyard who
won J13 1x and WJ13 2x respectively.
Pete Atkinson has been the best
veteran sculler in the Region for many years now and completed
his preparations for the National Veterans Regatta by winning
vet 1x, vet 4x and vet 4+.
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| May 15th 06 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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There were a mixed set of results
for the 11 Club juniors who travelled to Holme Pierrepont as
part of the West Region Junior Team for the Junior Inter
Regional Regatta. Best result came from the J14 2x of Ember
Lagden and James Lovering who won the B final. Particularly
promising bearing in mind that James is still only a J13. Other
Club juniors were getting their first experience of multi lane
racing. As at the Ball Cup the previous week all participants
had an enjoyable weekend.
The event did highlight the work
that still needs to be done to develop junior rowing in the
West. Only 2 West Region crews reached the A final, with a
highest placed finish of 4th.
Full results can
be found here.
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| May 7th 06 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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3 junior scullers travelled up to
Dorney to race in the Ball Cup Regatta. This Regatta combines 2
events; the Ball Cup for schools with smaller boat clubs or
schools that have links to local clubs, and the Championship
events for J11s to J13s. The Championship events are, in effect,
the unofficial national championships at these age groups.
The 3 juniors put in an excellent
performance with all 3 finishing in the top 3. James Lovering
was the only one racing in a Championship event, J131x and
picked up a silver medal with an excellent 2nd place. In the
Ball Cup J121x Louise Hawkyard had her first ever race and put
in a great performance to win the event. This is the first win a
Dart Totnes based junior has had in the Ball Cup Finally Ember
Lagden raced to a good 3rd place out of the 11 juniors entered
in the J14 singles.
The whole event was very well
organised and the excellent weather made for a great day out.
Definitely an event to take more juniors to in the future.
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| March 14th 06 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On Saturday the Club hosted the
West Region trials for the Junior Inter Regional Regatta. The
JIRR is a team competition between the regions of the ARA for
J14s - J16s. 7 clubs from the West Region sent competitors, with
Bideford Reds, Grenville College and Dart Totnes entering large
contingents.
Particularly impressive
performances came from the J14 entry from all over the Region
which bolds well for the future. Click here for the full
results.
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March 5th
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Following
his excellent performance at final long distance trials in
February Bill Lucas has been invited to attend senior trials at
Hazelwinkel, Belgium over Easter. Bill is one of a group of 10
U23 scullers invited. With A levels on the horizon rowing
ambitions will be put on hold after trials until exams have
finished,
Further good news for the Club came
when members Charles Brereton and Rosie Cardale received invites
to Junior Spring Assessments at the National Water Sports
Centre. Both are hoping to be selected for the GB junior team to
go to the World Junior Championships.
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March 2nd
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Following the recent WCS testing in
schools throughout South Devon and Plymoutth 4 students have
been identified and have joined the WCS Group training out of
Dart Totnes. This takes the Group to a total of 8 athletes. The
4 newcomers are all J15s or J16s and ccomprise 2 boys and 2
girls. 2 come from King Edward V1 College, Totnes and on each
from Torquay Boys Grammer School and Torquay Girls Grammer
School.
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| Exeter Head Race | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Exeter hosted the second of it's winter Head races and this time in
perfect conditions. Rowed over the same 3500 metre course the
pre-Christmas event was shrouded in freezing fog. By contrast this
race enjoyed warm and dry conditions and a healthy entry of which
Dart-Totnes rowing club was no small part, though blighted by thinly
spread competition over a wide range of categories.
Fastest Totnes crew was the mens senior B eight with John Harris,
Pete Atkinson, Hugh Tubbs, Simon French, Colin Souch, Gary Cairns,
John Poland and Ray Davis, steered by a borrowed Exeter cox
coming home sixth overall in a time of 12 minutes 58 seconds. They
were beaten in their class by Christchurch and Bournmouth University
crews by just over half a minute. Totnes veterans were without their
regular bowman and had to row their aging veteran coxed four D
crew of Mick Rolley, Simon Gifford-Mead, Alan Langmaid, Steve Lamkin
and coxed by Steve Grimes in the vet B category in the first
division and vet C in the second, but coming out winners in both
with similar times of 14:12 and 14:19 respectively.
Suzanne Hutchings and Tracy Corbett also entered both divisions in
their pair, first as senior A, then senior B but with no competition
at A their race was a virtual row over, though they demolished a
single Exeter entry at senior B by over 2 minutes. John Harris and
Colin Souch also suffered from a lack of competition in ther vet C
double scull with only Christchurch to beat there was no trophy.
Hugh Tubbs was the only other trophy winner from Totnes winning his
vet E single scull event in a time of 17:08. Totnes womens junior 18
coxless quad was another single entry with Catherine Wiseman, Sophie
Glenn-Cox, Helen O'Hara and Rose Willoughby doubling in the second
division as senior C with Georgie Cleesby replacing Sophie. Again,
no competition meant no trophy. Sheila Lamkin and Jane Alce entered
womens veteran double sculls in the same spirit. It was a different
story for Donna Throgmorton and Jackie Crang who entered womens
senior A coxed fours in a composite with Greenbank Falmouth.
Unfortunately beaten by Exeter University into second place they
were well ahead of Poole and Greenbank Falmouth.
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| Oct 26 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Robin Dowell put in an excellent performance at the 1st senior
trials in Boston finishing in 29th place. He was one of 5 World
Class Start athletes in the top 30. His performance gave
encouragement to both Bill Lucas and Rob Wilson who were unable to
participate because of illness. This was Robins last appearance for
the Club as he is moving to Manchester and will be joining the WCS
group training out of Agecroft. For the full results of the senior
trials see the link on the ARA website www.ara-rowing.org
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| Sept 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plans are beginning to take shape for winter training sessions. Friday nights sees the introduction of a new 'Sports Specific Pilates' class from 6.30pm to 7.30pm.If there is sufficient interest this will be followed by a normal pilates class. Interested people should contact Gilly Green on 01626 330282. Classes start Friday 16th Sept and will be held in the new training room at the Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aug 27 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Club returned to racing in the West of
England at Dartmouth Regatta yesterday.As is often the case at
Dartmouth rowing conditions were far from perfect with a strong
wind combined with continual boat wash.
The large mens contingent, both senior and junior, put in a series of good performances. The novice group continued their excellent season recording a fourth win from five races. A steady stream of rowers have gained their novice wins this year and will form an excellent group for next season. The scratch mens SB coxed four of Ed Pettinger, Stephen Wilson and juniors Will Hampton and Matt Grace moved from fifth and last place at half distance to an impressive 2nd place at the end of the 2000m. Both mens SC fours came through their heats and qualified for the final. The 'A' crew came agonisingly close to winning, eventually losing ti Exeter, whilst the 'B' crew would have taken 3rd place if they had not been hit in the stern by a poorly steered Paignton crew. Great to see the Club boating 3 J14 coxed quads, with the crews finishing 2nd,3rd and 4th in the five boat field. On the sculling front Bill Lucas returned to local action after the World Junior Champs with wins at both J18 and SA 1x. It cannot have been easy to perform well in such rough conditions when you are expected to win. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Aug 10
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| Charles Brereton and Bill Lucas returned from the World Juniors disappointed with their crew results; the 8 finished with a ranking of 8th after finishing 2nd in the 'B' final whilst Bill Lucas in the quad finished 5th. Once the disappointment has passed they can both reflect on a great achievement and move forward. Bill Lucas moves on to U23 whilst Charles has 1 more year at junior. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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July 12
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Both Bill Lucas and Charles Brereton have been selected for the GB
junior team for the World Junior Championships. The selection
of Bill Lucas had been expected following the excellent performance
of the junior quad he has been training in. However Charles had to
compete to the very final day of trials on Saturday to confirm his
place in the junior 8. Both are now in Chester on a training
camp.They will remain in training camps until they travel to
Brandenburg for the World Champs in early Aug with the
exception of a brief visit to Nottingham for the Nat Champs.
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| July 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Club vets returned from Henley Vets with 2 wins; Pete Atkinson
recorded his 6th succesive Henley Vets single sculling title
with a 3 length victory in the final of Vet D singles. The
other winners were the Vet D 2x of John Harris and Colin Souch
who were making their racing debut as a 2x. Their win was
particularly rewarding as it included victory over their Clubmate
Ray Davis in an earlier round.
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July 4
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Bill Lucas reached the final of the Mens
Quadruple Sculls at Henley this week. Rowing as a Club composite
Northwich/Dart Totnes the crew comprised the 4 top junior scullers
in the country.
The crew came through the early rounds
fairly comfortably beating Henley and Molesey composite crews in the
first 2 rounds. In the semi-finals they came up against Leander, a
crew containing GB international Ian Lawson. The juniors got a
length up and then held off a sustained push from the
Leander crew to win by 0.5 length.
In the final they raced a composite
crew from Ireland. The Irish crew went out very hard and had a
2 length lead by half way. The junior crew cut this lead back in
the final stages but where unable to catch them. The final verdict was
1.25 lengths. Full results at www.hrr.co.uk
The weeks racing has given the crew valuable racing experience against high standard oppostion. What next? Final trials start this Wednesday which hopefully will culminate in the quad being named for the World Junior Championships when the team is announced this next weekend.
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July 3
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Sunday July 3 saw Dart Totnes ARC saw the finale to
another extremely successful Project Oarsome programme, as the club
hosted their annual fun regatta. This years PO, run by the club and
their three partner schools, has seen record numbers participating
both on and off the water. This was reflected at the regatta, with 30
year 7 pupils taking part in the event, which was the culmination of
the 10 week Wet Start course they had all attended. Sunny weather and
flat conditions provided the perfect setting for numerous parents,
siblings and other family to view the skills learned by the course
participants both on and off the water since January.
The competitors were split into ten teams of three, who began by rotating around a series of water and land based activities designed to test their skills. This included sculling skills tests in singles, and a series of ergo games, competitions and technique tests organised by club junior Catherine Wiseman as part of her Junior Rowing Leaders Award course. There was also the opportunity for parents, brother and sisters to have a go on the rowing machines. The grand finale of the day was the quad racing, where the teams of 3 experienced side by side racing for the first time, assisted by club juniors from previous years PO programmes. All the participants received a certificate for their effort, along with medals and tankards for the overall winning teams. This year is likely to see the largest ever number of course participants retained by the club, with those that do being offered 2 sessions per week run by the partnerships recently appointed community coach Rob Smith. Thanks go to Project Oarsome Co-ordinator Shelia Lamkin for organising another excellent programme, and to all those who helped both at the fun regatta and throughout the dry and wet courses.
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June 26
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| The Clubs mens, junior and senior, travelled
in force to Wimbleball Regatta only to find conditions windy and
misty. This lead to the cancellation of all the small boats events and
disappointment for many members. However those that did race put in a
series of good performances winning SB4+, Nov 4+ and Vet 4+
as they had done the previous week at Totnes Regatta. There were also 2nd
place finishes at SC and J18 coxed fours. Good strength in depth
with both Louis King and Nick Lovering slotting into the novice
four without upsetting its winning ways.
Also continuing their winning ways was the only womens crew to race, the W164x+. They had to work all the way to the line but kept together to record a 0.5 length win. The Club took the Victor Ludorum for the most successful club at the regatta. Something it has done several times in the last few years. An updated list of winners this season can be found under Club Wins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| June 21st | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Whilst Totnes Regatta was taking place Bill Lucas was racing in elite quads at Marlow Regatta. The crew, a four club composite heading, we all hope, for the World Junior Championships later in the summer cruised through their heat very comfortably before rowing through their main opposition from a Tideway Scullers composite containing 2 U23 internationals to record a 0.5 length win. This win qualified the crew directly for the mens quadruple sculls at Henley. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| June 20th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The biggest entry for many years took part in Totnes
Regatta over the sunny and very hot weekend of 18/19 June. Keep
out of the sun and keep covered up when on the river was the message
for the competing crews.
The Club put in a very strong performance across a wide range of
events with the senior and junior men doing particularly well
in the coxed fours events winning SB,Nov, J18 and Vet D. Grudge
match of the day was in the SC 8s when the 2 J18 fours from Totnes
and Grenville came together to beat eights from Totnes and
Exeter. There is nothing worse for seniors than losing to
juniors.......
Problems for crews doubling and trebling up have been noted by the organising committee and changes in the racing timetable are planned for next year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| June 14th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Nat Vets Regatta was a big success for the Clubs veteran scullers who won 6 gold medals. As usual pride of place goes to Pete Atkinson who won Vet D 1x and Vet E quads to add to his innumerable titles over the years. At the other end a great performance from Debbie Hutchings saw her win her first ever sculling race and take gold in the veteran novice category. Henley Vets next. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| June 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Club is delighted to announce the
appointment of Rob Smith as the Community Rowing Coach in South
Devon. The 12 hour per week post is funded by Dart Totnes and its 3
partner schools; Paignton Community College, Ivybridge Community
College and South Dartmoor Community College.
Funding has been secured for 3 years and
will allow the Club and its partners to follow through some of the
ideas they currently have.
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| June 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The junior boys quad put in a good performance at the National
Schools Regatta, reaching the semi finals in the Club's first
appearance at this Regatta. With the crew being first year juniors
they can look forward to an improved performance next year.
This made up slightly - and only slightly- for the disappointment of the first day of the Regatta which was cancelled due to high winds. This left Bill Lucas frustrated at losing the opportunity to race in the Championship 1x in which he would have been one of the favourites. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bill Lucas and Charles Brereton put in very
encouraging performances on their GB debuts at Munich Junior
Regatta last weekend. On Saturday Bill won his heat of J2x to qualify
direct for the A final. Competition was a little bit hotter in the
final and the GB double came home in 4th place behind 2 German 2x and
a French boat. On the Sunday the 4 top junior scullers raced together
in a junior quad. Again they won the heat to qualify for the A final.
The final was a close race with the GB boat rowing though a German
quad comprising the 2 doubles that had beaten them the previous
day and just failing to catch the leading German quad who
finished 1.5 seconds ahead of them.
Charles Brereton also qualified for the A final of junior coxed fours on the Saturday and raced well to finish in 4th place. On the Sunday the coxed fours was a straight final of 5 boats, which the GB crew won. Next up for both juniors is the National Schools Regatta where Bill will be racing for Dart Totnes in the Championship 1x and 4x and Charles will be racing in Championship 8s and 4s for his school. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Continued Progression For Juniors at Ball Cup | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| On Sunday May 8th four juniors from the club travelled to Dorney Lake to compete in the Ball Cup. The event, designed for smaller school boat clubs, is open to all schools clubs with less than 40 members. The massive increase in schools rowing brought about through the advent of Project Oarsome has seen the event increase significantly in size in recent years. The event one again provided great experience of multi-lane racing for the club’s younger juniors, in what proved to be very testing conditions. Luke Chapman and Tim Whittet, competing for one of the club’s PO schools South Dartmoor Community College, got off to a good start in the J14 2x. Having established themselves in second place they set about chasing down the leaders from Peterborough. Looking comfortable in second place they unfortunately caught a crab just before the line ultimately finishing third. The event also incorporates the J11-J13 club sculling championship, which provides junior events not available at the Nat Champs. Competing in the J13 2x, Will Airth and Ember Lagden were third at half way, a length down on the crew in second place. In a titanic effort they managed to put themselves a canvas up 50 metres from the finish. However a last push by the other double saw them just pipped on the line. A bronze medal however was a good result in their first ever multi-lane race. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Click Here for the latest Junior News and Results. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| April 20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2004 junior boys squad were named South Hams Team of the Year at
Sports South Hams annual awards presentation. The squad of 11
J16 and J18 boys won all 4 West of England junior boys
Championships, the first time this has been done by one Club. These
covered J18 4+, J16 4x, J18 1x and J16 1x. Click
Here for picture.
Charles Brereton and Bill Lucas from the squad have gone on to gain
GB junior selection in 2005.
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| April 14 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bill Lucas got the regatta season off to a flying start at Gent
Regatta. He travelled to Gent with 5 other top junior mens scullers
for a weeks training camp which culminated in a days racing at Gent
Regatta. Racing in the a large field of over 60 scullers Bill
recorded the fastest time over the 2000m course to win the JM 1x.
This was a good event for the GB junior mens scullers with his
Munich bound teamates Ben Duggan and Will Laughton finishing
2nd and 3rd.
He followed that up with a comfortable win in the J2x with his
doubles partner Will Laughton. The other 4 scullers in the group
completed a clean sweep of junior sculling events by winning J4x.
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| March 29 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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World Class Start athlete Bill Lucas
finished in an impressive 2nd place in his 1x at the Junior Trials
last week. He followed that up with 2 goods wins in a double scull
with trials winner Will Laughton. These performances were sufficient
to gain Bill selection for the GB Junior Team to race at Munch
Junior Regatta on May 7/8. He will racing in the 2x with Will on
May 7th and the 2 boys will form the basis of a quad to race on
the 8th May.
Bill will be joined in the Munch team by
Clubmate Charles Brereton who had a tough fight through many rounds
of seat racing before hearing that he had got one of the 16 sweep
places. Charles is likely to be racing in a coxed 4 on the first day
and an 8 on the final day.
These are the first juniors from the Club to gain international selection. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| March 28 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Schools Succeed at Regional Indoor
Championships
The club’s Project Oarsome schools South Dartmoor, Ivybridge and Paignton were all well represented at the West Region Schools Indoor Rowing Championships, held at Plymstock School in Plymouth on March 16th. The event attracted 14 schools from across the region, including the schools from the region’s other two PO clubs, and others from as far a field as Newquay and Penzance. Club junior members Stuart Cock and Tim Whittet competed successfully in the Year 9 category, with Tim picking up bronze, and Stuart finishing 5th. It was Bideford College who took the overall title for most successful school of the day, with South Dartmoor and Ivybridge showing the strength of their programmes by coming second and third respectively. The event was particularly successful for the large number of year 7s from the club’s three PO schools, who got their first taste of racing since beginning Dry Rowing in January. There was success for South Dartmoor who won the hotly contested ‘Project Oarsome Cup’ for winning the most points overall in year 7 events.
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| March 17 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dart Totnes Go race Indoors - Report
10th March 2005 saw students from South Dartmoor, Ivybridge and Paignton community colleges competing in an innovative indoor competition. The three schools, all linked to Dart Totnes ARC via the Project Oarsome scheme, rather than running the event on one site as had been the case in previous years, decided to hold a multi site competition with each school hosting their own event. A schedule was set up in advance to allow all the year group events to run simultaneously at each site, with all results being compiled together into a final table at the end of the competition. This format allowed the competition to quadruple the number of students participating compared with last years event, with over 100 competitors taking part across the three venues. The planned internet relays, which had been scheduled as the finale of the competition, unfortunately did not have time to take place. However all schools are keen to take this multi site format further, and introduce internet racing between the schools as soon as possible. Results Summary
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| Click
Here for full Totnes Go Race Indoors Results
Many thanks go to PO Coordinators Dave Carpenter, Kim Eschbaecher, and Andy Delafield for their hard work with the organisation of the competition. Tom Pattichis HSCT Scholarship Coach – West Region
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| March 16 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The West Junior Inter-Regional Team annouced today contains 7 Dart Totnes juniors. The majority of the team were selected following the time trial held at Totnes in January. However the team was finalised at Exeter Spring Head Race on Sunday. The Dart Totnes team members are: J14 1x Ember Lagden J14 2x Tim Whittet and Luke Chapman W151x Catherine Wiseman W15 2x Rose Willoughby and Ellie Peck W16 4x Rosie Cardale (in a composite crew with Exeter and Grenville College) As well as Dart Totnes, Grenville and Exeter, other team members come from Bideford Reds and Castledore.
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| Mar 08 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The junior boys coxless quad of Bill Lucas, Peter Kerswell-Jensen, Matt Grace and Owen Small put in a fantastic performance to finish in 3rd place in the junior coxless quad category in the Schools Head yesterday. This category saw the closest finsh of the day, with only 1 second separating the top 3 crews. Winners were Sir William Borlase School in 18 mins 39 secs, Windsor Boys School came in second and Dart Totnes were third in 18 min 40 secs. This crew includes 3 members with another year in the junior age group and therefore another chance to compete in this event.The full results can be found at www.wsbc.org.uk/shorr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feb 21 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bill Lucas has moved
himself into contention for a junior squad place this summer with a
series of good performances over the last few weeks. He topped the the
latest junior 5k ergo test with a time of 16 minutes 30 secs and has
backed this up with very good 30 minute and 12k pieces.
Having missed the first long distance trials through illness it was important for him to put in a good performance in the second trials to show that he could convert his ergo times into boat speed. Racing in his single on the Saturday he finished in 3rd place despite losing a lot of time in the very rough conditions over the last 1500m of the race. The top 4 scullers were put into 2 doubles for the Sunday trials. Bill was paired with trials winner Will Laughton from Northwich Rowing Club. Despite being put under early pressure from the double behind them they remained calm and rowed away from their opponents to record an impressive win by 16 seconds in a very quick time of 17 mins 13 secs. Charles Brereton also kept up his hopes of making the junior squad this summer with a good 10th place finish on Saturday and 14th on Sunday. He was racing in a coxless pair in both trials. The next step for both juniors are the Spring Assessments at Nottingham in the week before Easter. This involves a series of races over several days in various boat types. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec 14 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The recruitment drive for Project Oarsome 2005 began in
earnest, with each of the three Project Oarsome schools, South
Dartmoor, Ivybridge and Paignton, hosting a year seven assembly to
advertise the Project Oarsome scheme.
Year seven pupils from the three schools had the exciting privilege of being visited by Olympic champion rower Ben Hunt-Davis, who was part of the triumphant Men’s 8 in Sydney 2000. The visit of Hunt-Davis was greeted with much enthusiasm by pupils from the three schools, who listen to him speak about how he got involved with rowing at school, and what it was like to compete at three Olympic Games. The Year 7s then watched and cheered along to video footage of Great Britain’s dramatic race at Sydney 2000 where Ben and his crew mates ultimately won gold. All then had the opportunity to hold a genuine Olympic gold medal, as Ben somewhat bravely allowed this to be passed around the room. It was much to the relief of the school’s senior management when this was returned to Ben in one piece! All then had the chance to come and speak to Ben, get his autograph, and be pictured wearing the Olympic medal. Judging by the amount of teachers joining the queue, it clearly wasn’t only the year 7s who were inspired! The day concluded with Ben being given a tour of the club’s new facilities, and meeting some of the club’s existing juniors. Those pupils that do join the project will begin by learning to row on indoor rowing machines in their schools from January through to Easter, in the ‘Dry Start’ phase of the project. These pupils will then be given the opportunity to learn to row on the water, during the ‘Wet Start’ phase, taking place at the club in the summer term. The success of Ben Hunt Davis’s visit, and the enthusiasm with which he was greeted by the year 7s suggests that the project will continue to go from strength to strength. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec13 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In preparation for Project Oarsome 2005 a ‘Dry Instructors’ course was held, primarily for teachers and sixth formers within the club’s three partner schools. The course was hosted by Paignton Community and Sports College, who have recently joined the scheme. The course enabled the college to get seven qualified Dry Instructors in place for ‘Dry Start’ phase, which begins in January. The two existing schools, Ivybridge and South Dartmoor, also had teachers and students represented on the course, further adding to the existing pool of coaches already in place in these schools. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nov 22 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Mini Head was held in excellent conditions on Sunday. It
attracted a record entry of 114 crews, with most of the West of
England clubs sending crews. Fastest Dart Totnes crew on the day
were the J18 coxed four of Owen Small, Will Hampton, Matt Grace,
Peter Kerswell-Jensen and cox Gill Pedrick. This was an good
performance from a squad that have spent the last few months
sculling. They finished in 5th place in Division 1, beaten by
several SA coxed fours and a SA double.
Dart Totnes class winners included the impressive WJ164x+ of Rose
Willoughby, Rosie Cardale, Ellie Peck, Catherine Wiseman and cox/coach
Pete Knapman. This was their first win in a coxed quad.
Another junior crew recording their first win were the J142x of Luke
Chapman and Tim Whittet. Singles wins came from Alan Langmaid
at SC1x and Peter Kerswell-Jensen in J181x.
The most impressive performance from a visiting Club was that of the
Plymouth Uni squad who won both mens and womens SC and Nov coxed
fours.
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| Dec 12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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An excellent days racing for the Club at Exeter Winter Head. Many
of the Club juniors took advantage of the excellent conditions to
record good performances.
Fastest Totnes crew were the SC quad of Pete KJ, Matt Grace, Owen Small and Bill Lucas, who won Div 1 outright and finished 2nd overall. They were beaten only by the SA 8 from home club Exeter. Another good performance from this junior crew. Bill followed his quad race with an outstanding win in his single in the 2nd Division. In his very first Head Race in a single he was the fastest overall sculler. Definitely a name to watch in the future. The J15/16 girls put in another very accomplished performance in both the coxed quad and the double scull. The double of Rose Willoughby and Catherine Wiseman beat several older doubles on their way to winning the J15 category. the J14 boys crew of Will Airth, Jordi Tate, Ember Lagden, Stewart Cock and cox Lewis Van Diggele also had a great day recording their first win in a coxed quad. This was backed up by Tim Whittet who followed up his J14 single win at Totnes MiniHead with another win. The highlight from the senior crews present was the veteran coxed who won the Vet C class pretty comfortably. For full results and photos from Exeter see www.tfpro.com/exeterrowing
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| Nov 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The junior quad of Owen Small, Matt Grace, Peter Kerswell-Jensen and
Bill Lucas put in an excellent performance in the Fours Head on
Saturday. In their first race on the Tideway the crew finished in
112th place and were also well into the top half of their boat
class.
In the Vet Fours Head held the following day the Vet D four of Nick
Price, Simon Gifford- Mead, Mick Rolley, Steve Lamkin and cox
Steve Grimes had a steady row finishing in 29th place.
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| October 25 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dart Totnes hosted the second J16 autumn sculling camp over the last
weekend. 5 West Region Clubs, Bideford Reds, Grenville College,
Exeter, Castledore and host club Dart Totnes sent a total of 27
juniors to the weekend camp. The Camp provides on water and off
water coaching and includes a series of tests and assessments that
form part of the ARA selection process for the National J16 Easter
Camp. The Camp also forms the first part of the selection process
for the West Region team for the Junior Inter Regionals in Spring
2005.
Despite the bad weather the Camp went off well, with the time
trials (all held in singles) being won by Zoe Gent of Grenville
College from Rose Willoughby of Dart Totnes in the junior girls
race and the Appleyard twins from Castledore taking the first 2
places in the boys race.
This weekend will be followed up by a further training day early in
the New Year.
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| October 22 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Work on the extension to the Clubhouse continues to move forward and
a further 3 weeks should see all the work finished.
The new training room should be completed within a week or so and
will enable all the ergos and much of the weight training equipment
to be moved upstairs out of the boathouse.
The new changing rooms will be finished within 10 days and will
provide nearly double the previous changing area.
The final part of the building work, the boathouse extension should
be ready within 2 weeks and will allow all the main Club boats
currently stored outside to be brought indoors. Some extra storage
will also be available for private sculling boats.
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| September 19 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Club has christened its new coxless quad 'Titchvet' after Club
member Pete Atkinson. Pete has been one of the most successful
veteran sculleries in the country in the last few years, winning 8
gold medals at the Nat Vets, 8 gold medals at the FISA Masters and 6
wins at Henley Vets.
The boat was purchased from Lola Aylings with help from an 'Awards
for All' grant.
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| September 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dart Totnes veterans returned from the FISA Masters Regatta in
Hamburg will 4 gold medals to their name and a string of good
performances. Best performance came from Pete Atkinson who gold in
Vet D 1x and recorded the fastest time in his age group. He
followed this up by taking gold in Vet D4x with his Clubmates John
Harris, John Poland and Ray Davis. John Poland also put in an
outstanding performance in his single, winning gold in both the Vet
E and Vet F categories.
Other good performances came from the Vet D four |