Boys Rowing
It is a truth universally known that everything has an end. This season is no exception. The season started slowly but ended magnificently: the j16 quad managed to stay unbeaten, the dynamic duo of Myles and P managed to get into the England 8+ and Durham School Boat Club first eight were at Henley.
Durham regatta was where the eight project began. The race against Bradford was slightly disappointing as we lost, however on Sunday we more than made up for it. Firstly the four won against Leeds University in long course fours. Later on the four split up and met up in the final of the champ pair’s event. The j16 quad won…again then splitting up into doubles for a fun race.
Then it was time for preparation for Henley. This year’s Henley eight was a fantastic boat and the most enjoyable crew I have been in during my time at DSBC. I think special mention does have to go out the Andrew Atkinson. He somehow took off half a minute from his 2K time; on later questioning it was revealed that he had been eating plenty of raw steak for breakfast.
All in all this has been a fantastic year but as Mr Williamson once told myself and the first four in London: the past is always history, the future will never happen but the present is where we are now. It was an unusual thing to hear, not least for the fact it was about 10 30 at night and Myles had his shirt on the wrong way round, but it is something that we all have to remember and I wish the boat club a lot of success in the next few years to come and we’ll all better see each other at Henley next year! :)
Heart and soul
Harry White
Girls Rowing
So the time has come for me to write my final captains blog and I am going to ramble on about the never ending list of the girls squads successes for the very last time! After a good weekend in Nottingham for Nat schools Durham School Boat club prepared for the always rainy even that is Durham Regatta. The two days were split into a ‘serious’ race day and a day of ‘fun’. On the Saturday the girls first quad, in preparation for Women’s Henley, won the women’s elite quads over the long course after two pleasing races. That afternoon the senior girls of Primo, Perfect, Swede and Mary teamed up with MacDonalds, Oli G, Richy...i mean Alissa and the one and only Amy D to win the J18 eights J The following fun day meant that the girls senior squad was split up into 2 coxless quads and forced to race....although it was very close, not as if im biased or anything but the amazing quad of tank Hanny, tank Alissa, tank Farmer Lamb and tank jess beat the quad of not so tank Natalie, scrawny Becca, Olivia and the amazing Kitty. 10 minutes after that race the senior girls split up again into 2 quads but this time with the PODs. Lamb and Vaslet teamed up with Smith and Ciampolillo and Hardy and Graham paired up with Deverson and Cronin. On the way up to the race I was told that the highest race rate the mams had done was about rate 28ish and that if the rate in the race was too much that I would be told to slow down....so as the race commenced and the rate shot up to 34 for the entire way and no one behind me was shouting slow down I did at one point think I had killed off half my crew, but luckily I hadn’t and I know that both crews had the time of the their lives and it that race has to go down as one of my most enjoyable races at Durham school.
The following weekend the senior girls went off to Henley. After a good race against Headington we were put against Latymer in the semi finals. Losing by just a third of a length was a bit gutting but it was defiantly a fantastic race to end our year as a crew!
Talkin Tarn regatta showed some great racing from the junior years who participated. Too many girls for my liking were ridiculously excited about getting to go in singles which to me was always an ultra scary prospect and something I try to avoid at all costs but to single keenos like Natalie and Nicole it was fab! Great racing from all the girls that weekend and when I entered Pimlico on Sunday I was greeted by all the tales of the races and all the beautiful racing photos that were taken...haha.
On Monday 27th June the day came that we had all be waiting for all year....the mighty Reverend Nic Noc lamb meister was selected to row for GB in junior world championships!!! Even though on a more selfish basis it resulted in Nicole missing out on the last week of term, this is such an unbelievable achievement and were all very very proud!!!
This weekend National Championships took place. The four of Vasley, Hardy, Graham and Frairs from tees had a pleasing race but due to bad winds they came 5th. 20 minutes earlier in a lovely rainstorm the junior pair came 3rd.
I would just like to say I have had a great year being the girl’s captain and from everything that I have taken part in in Durham school, venturing down to the Boat club in year 9 is by far the best decision I’ve made. I have enjoyed every rainy training session, ergo test and race and I urge every girl who is currently a rower to continue their keenness and like they have done to me, continue to tell next year’s captain every story good or bad from their previous games session or weekends racing because it’s great to hear!! I’ll miss you all :’)
Girls Captain- Jess Graham
