Berwick Regatta - Saturday 21st June 2008
Berwick Regatta Preview - Tuesday 17th June 2008
Hexham Regatta - Saturday 7th June 2008
Tyne "At Home" Regatta - Saturday 31st May 2008
Opening 139th Season & Boat Naming - Saturday 11th April 2008
Capsize Drill - Saturday 19th April
Phil wins silver at Scottish Indoors - Saturday 9th February 2008
First boats received from lottery funding - Thursday 7th February 2008
Berwick Regatta - Saturday 21st June 2008
Berwick Rowers were at home on the Tweed on Saturday 21st June for their own McCreath Simpson & Prentice Tweed Regatta. The first home rowers onto the water were club vice captain, Robin Morrison and Chris Eke in S3 double sculls. Sculling confidently from the start the Berwick pair saw off their Tees opponents. This set them up for a final against a Tyne/Cambois double which have showed great form this season. The Berwick duo used their experience and determination to take a convincing win. Both Chris and Robin then swapped their double scull for single sculling boats. Chris competing in S2 sculls. In the final Chris dominated from the start to make the line 3 lengths clear of his Tees opponent to be crowned King of the Tweed. Robin took to the water in veteran D singles. It’s always hard when you meet a fellow Berwick club member in a final but that is exactly what happened as Harry Black beat Chappel from Tyne to set up the all Berwick final. Both men sculled extremely well on their home water but Robin piled on the pressure and took the win over Harry by 1 length. Phil Craze and Rob Harvey contested novice double sculls. The Berwick men powered their way to victory over Hexham to set up a final against Tees. The Tees double had more experience and used it to take a 2 length victory over Berwick. Phil then teamed up with Estelle Dodd to compete in mixed S4 doubles. Estelle and Phil worked very hard to take victory by only a canvass over Hexham. This put them in the final against George Watson’s College. Estelle and Phil made a great start and once their bows were in front the Berwick pair knew the victory was theirs. Meanwhile Rob teamed up with Annette Wilson to race in mixed novice doubles. In a straight final against Hexham Berwick never had any difficulty and took the win by 3 clear lengths. Alison Inglis left her team mates on the bank to contest ladies S3 single sculls. In the final Alison was slower off the start but once the boat was moving she used all her strength to level with her Tyne opponent. The race remained level until the dying moments when where Alison had one bad stroke which was just enough to hand victory to Tyne. Alison then joined Rowena Park, Sam Seaton, Estelle Dodd and cox Hilary Cairns to race S3 coxed quad sculls. This was to be the most hotly contested event of the day with 7 crews looking for glory. Unfortunately after not having the best of races the Berwick ladies went down to Talkin Tarn. The eventual winners were a very fast rating Tyne/Cambois crew. Rowena, Sam, Estelle and Hilary then swapped into a coxless quad scull and raced against George Watson’s College taking victory by 2 lengths. Berwick then met Talkin Tarn in the final. After a very hard fought first half Tarn edged their bows in front and moved on to win by 1 length. Hilary moved into the bow seat of the quad and was joined by Alison Inglis, Robin Morison and regatta controller David Cairns to race mixed coxless quad sculls. Berwick and Talkin Tarn lined up both crews with contrasting sculling styles. At half way the crews were dead level, however Tarn lifted their rate and edged ahead to win by ½ length. Berwick then swapped rowing disciplines and Alan Jeffrey and Rob Harvey rowed with Trevellyan College ladies in the mixed coxed 4’s against an all Trevellyan crew the Berwick composite could not match the pace despite rowing steadily. Ian Smith and Alan Robertson had their hardest race of the season against George Watson’s College in Veteran F doubles scraping victory in the final by 3 feet. Ian and Alan then teamed up with John Matthews and Arthur Wood from Cambois to race Hexham in Veteran D fours. A 2 length victory secured their place in the final. The younger Tees crew were too much for Berwick/Cambois, and Tees won by 2 lengths. Berwick’s youngest competitor was 16 year old Jamie Martin. Jamie was taking part in his first regatta and showed real promise for the future. In his first event 16A single sculls he raced an opponent with several years experience and did extremely well, only going down by 2 lengths. In his second event 16B single sculls he showed real determination and had every Berwick member screaming from the bank as his George Watson’s opponent scraped victory by a canvass. Berwick closed their annual regatta happy in the knowledge that the young future of racing is shaping up very well. During the day there were several events held for junior rowers with no previous racing experience. This event was partly made possible by the Lottery funding stable training boats which Berwick now have. There were many victories on 21st June but perhaps the biggest victor was the sport of rowing itself with many youngsters having fun and vowing to be back next year in the main regatta programme. As always Berwick would like to thank their sponsors as without their generous support it would not be possible to stage their home regatta. 2008 main sponsor was McCreath Simpson & Prentice, race sponsors were: Sanderson McCreath & Edney, J H Wood, J H Greenwood, Lindisfarne Ltd, C M Mace, Edwin Thompson, Nixon Hire, The Cobbled Yard Hotel, Johnstone Press, J Mosgrove Ltd, Adam Douglas, City Electrical Factors, Cheviot Rentals and Lloyd Ltd.
Berwick Regatta Preview - Tuesday 17th June 2008
Preparations are now almost complete for The McCreath Simpson & Prentice Ltd Annual Tweed Regatta. Berwick Rowers have been busy training and preparing for their annual event which takes place on the Tweed at West Ord on Saturday 21st June from 11.30am. The Tweed course must be unique in that at the race start 1 crew will be in Scotland and the other in England because the centre of the river forms the boundary between England and Scotland at that point. Which ever country your allegiance lies with there is sure to be some good competitive rowing taking place. With clubs from George Watson’s College in Edinburgh to Talkin Tarn from Brampton, Cumbria and as far South as Stockton on Tees and several clubs in between all coming to enjoy a good days sport. The members of Berwick Rowing Club are as always extremely grateful to their sponsors because without their support it would be impossible to keep Berwick on the Northern Rowing Regatta circuit as the costs involved with staging a regatta are currently like every thing else rising rapidly. The 2008 main regatta sponsor is McCreath Simpson & Prentice Ltd race sponsors are J H Wood, Sanderson McCreath & Edney, J H Greenwood, Lindisfarne Ltd, The Cobbled Yard Hotel, Johnstone Press, J Mosgrove Ltd, Adam Douglas, C M Mace.
Hexham Regatta - Saturday 7th June 2008
Berwick Rowing Club travelled to Hexham on Saturday to the biggest single-day rowing regatta in the UK with more than 400 crews taking part. The success of last week’s event emulated this weekends racing with all of Berwick’s competitors winning at least one event. Races were run every two minutes to accommodate all 289 races, most had to start before the previous race had reached the finish of the 700m course. Estelle Dodd and Rowena Park were first on the water at 9.15 in the women’s novice double sculls. They had a great start but by half way were down by a length, they worked hard to close the lead to half a length just finishing behind a younger Tees crew. Robin Morrison raced veteran D single sculls against Talkin Tarn winning to go through to the final where later in the day he raced against a Tees crew to win comfortably. Rowena Park left her doubles partner on the bank while she took to the water as a substitute for the women’s novice single sculls straight final. Racing against a Chester-le-street crew she held it half way down the course then made a push for the finish crossing the line a confident three lengths in front. Winning the women’s novice sculls cup. The veteran F composite coxed four of Berwick’s Ian Smith and Alan Robertson with Cambois’s John Matthews and Arthur Wood won their heat and final with ease. Ian Smith and Alan Robertson also raced in veteran D double sculls unfortunately they weren’t as successful as the four. Park and Dodd paired up with Alison Inglis and Sam Seaton to compete in the women’s senior 4 coxless quad, racing a category above their status the girls pulled through the heat against a tight Tees crew to compete, in one of the last races of the day, in the final against Talkin Tarn. Between the quad heat and final Alison Inglis teamed up with Hilary Cairns in the women’s Veteran C double their opposition were given a 6 second handicap start but the pair worked hard right to the line to win by a canvas. Through to the final against Tees who had a 12 second head start the girls kept up a high rating to close the gap and pull into the lead around halfway winning effortlessly. Inglis and Cairns also raced in S2 double sculls against Durham losing on the line by a canvas it was a close fought race with the lead passing between the crews. In two hours Alison had raced 4 races and still had the final of the S4 quad as the last race of the day at 7pm. Talkin Tarn were the favourite to win but with Rowena steering a brilliant straight course as the girls reached half way a length down they pushed on to close the gap and edged in front in the last few metres winning a qualifying event and losing their novice status. It was an exceptionally successful, if long, day for the club with 10 medals to add to the records.
Tyne "At Home" Regatta - Saturday 31st May 2008
Berwick Rowing Club sent its biggest entry of rowers this season to the Tyne at Newburn for their annual regatta on Saturday 31st May. The Club was extremely successful turning 10 events entered into 6 event wins. Chris Eke took to the water first in the elite single sculls. In the final Chris made a good start out rating his bigger opponent to give him a length lead. Chris then sculled well, but had to work very hard to maintain his lead and took the well deserved win by a close half length. Chris then teamed up with Robin Morrison in the S3 double sculls. The new Berwick pairing sculled in their usual strong style but could not overcome the extremely well drilled pair from Nithsdale. Alison Inglis and Hilary Cairns raced in S2 double sculls. The Berwick pair was slower off the start than their Tyne opponents, but by 600 meters into the 1200 meter race Alison and Hilary worked hard and took a slight advantage. This gave the ladies the edge and they went on to win by 2 lengths. Ian Smith, Alan Robertson together with Arthur Wood and John Matthews of Cambois competed in Veteran F coxed fours. The very experienced crew rowed with their usual skill and beat the Tyne crew by 2 lengths. John Matthews then stepped aside and the crew were joined by Robin Morrison to compete in Veteran F coxless quad sculls sculling well together Berwick won by 3 lengths. Harry Black contested veteran C/D single sculls. Harry used all his experience to take a straight line up the course but was extremely narrowly beaten on handicap by the Talkin Tarn sculler. There were two local crews in the mixed novice double sculls. Annette Wilson and Rob Harvey and Estelle Dodd and Phil Craze. Both Berwick crews sculled well with Estelle and Phil pushing Hild Bede (Durham College) right to the line narrowly missing out on victory. Annette and Estelle then joined forces in the ladies novice double sculls and proved that a race is never over until you cross the line. They were down from the start but kept fighting and with only 200 meters remaining made a huge effort to take victory by a canvass. Phil Craze and Rob Harvey took part in their first regatta competing in novice double sculls and going down in the final to Cambois/Tyne, but agreed that they had learned lots about racing. Indeed the new Berwick paid had learned because they also contested veteran novice double sculls and used all their new found racing skills to delight their club mates by winning by 1 length. An excellent end to a great day’s racing for Berwick.
Many thanks go to Lloyds Tractors for sponsoring the transportation of boats.
Opening 139th Season & Boat Naming - Saturday 11th April 2008
Berwick Amateur Rowing Club were pleased to welcome the Civic Party, Sponsors, guests and members to their annual opening of the season wine and cheese evening. This year’s opening was made a little extra special as the new boats purchased with the Awards 4 All lottery grant and club funding were named and on display in the boathouse. The boats were named Jus Rol and Silvery Tweed in recognition of the support that General Mills (Jus Rol) and Silvery Tweed Cereals Ltd have given the club. A third boat was named Douglas Turner after the Late Mr Turner who began his rowing at Berwick. Two further training boats were also purchased but as yet no names have been decided upon. If any business or individual would be interested in sponsoring a boat please contact Berwick Rowing Club through their web site. With the arrival of the new boats the Club is well placed to race in 2008 and beyond. The first competitions of 2008 are at Chester Le Street and Strathclyde Park on 26th & 27th April. Anyone wishing to try rowing is very welcome to attend club training sessions on Tuesday’s at 6.15pm at the boathouse. Come and try out some of the new training boats for yourself. Members and prospective members please remember the safety capsize practice 4pm at the Swan Centre Swimming Pool Saturday 19th April.
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Capsize Drill - Saturday 19th April
Berwick ARC are holding a capsize drill on Saturday 19th April, 4.00 pm - 5.00 pm at the Swan Centre for Leisure. This is open to everyone who is planning to row this season.
Phil wins silver at Scottish Indoors
The Annual Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships this year took place at Herriot Watt University Sport Centre in Edinburgh on the 9th Feb. There were a record number of entrants with over 400 individual and 33 teams competing from all over the UK. The event was well organised with races taking place on 20 indoor rowing machines in front of a large cinema sized screen showing rowers and spectators the race order as it was happening. Berwick sent one rower, Phil Craze of Chirnside, to compete in the Over 30’s Mens Hwt 1000m and the Open Mens Hwt 2000m. The first event was the 1000m where Phil got off to a steady start, after 250m he was down in 8th place of 14. By halfway he was up to 6th and closing in on the men in front, he steadily moved through the field and with 100m to go he took 3rd spot and in the final 3 strokes edged in to 2nd to earn the silver medal with a time of 3:00.1 minutes. Phil was delighted with his time taking almost 3 seconds off his personal best. Still feeling the effects of the tough encounter of the 1k, Phil sat down to take on all age groups in the 2000m Open Mens Hwt mixed with some of Scotland’s finest University rowers. Phil had a very steady row throughout with a final burst at the end to move him into 8th position with a time of 6:30.5 . Phil hopes that all the hard winter training on the ergo can now be translated onto the water when the outdoor season starts.
First boats received from lottery funding - Thursday 7th February 2008
Berwick ARC have received the first instalment of boats as part of the funding received from Lottery Awards for All. The club now has two TS515 training sculls which will be ideal for any new junior or adult members wishing to learn to scull or improve their technique.