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Here’s a summary of what the club has been up to these last
past months…
A hard winter season leading up to Easter has paid off for a
fruitful summer of pot hunting. Crews have won at every regatta the club has entered
and novices were lost all over the place.
Leicester Regatta
DMURC - massive underdogs. We won the Leicester boat race.
Enough said.
(British Rowing article - http://www.britishrowing.org/news/2013/april/24/dmu-wins-first-leicester-boat-race-crown)
Shrewsbury Regatta
As always Shrewsbelly never fails to impress. Old boys
turned out for some great catch ups and the fresher challenge was epic.
I thought it only right that the winning crews told their
own versions of their exploits at Shrewsbury.
Keiron’s account of the Nov.4+ DMU vs DMU final (yes, even
though there were loads of other crews in the category this happened again,
must be the 500th time this has materialised) - on the Saturday we won our
first round and semi-final pretty comfortably and started to click together as
a crew, only having two outings beforehand and myself and Michael having rowed
much less this year due to injuries or what not the final we were against st
hughs college, who had beaten Shrewsbury school, and were neck and neck for the
first 750 odd metres where their fitness and composure shone through for them to
take victory, Oli (cox) reckons we would have been perhaps only about half a
length behind had our blades not clashed with an 8 who had strayed too far off
of the boating point by the bridge, where we were 2 strokes into our big push.
learnt from it, we were too keen on the start and needed to compose ourselves
next time first round the next morning, bit hung over, Michael takes a few air
strokes on the draws, cox calls us to stop, realigns us and we hoon it for a
good 15-20 strokes, catch up, take the lead and win by 4.5 lengths; good
recovery. Semi-final we had an immense start and flew for the first 400 metres,
Oli saying it’s the smoothest crew he's ever felt in a boat and we were flying,
start was immense and we win comfortably. Final against the other DMU crew,
ahead just the entire way, final 150m Oli calls a final push, we probably
thought it was a push we needed to win rather than to hold off as we about
quarter of a length ahead coming round the bend and under the bridge, lose a
bit of composure and the other crews fitness and more outings showed and they
knicked it by a photo finish, on paper though we should've got smacked. made 2
finals to lose them by very little, but fucking gutted. Crew: Russell (stroke),
Keiron (3), Michael (2), bob (bow). cox in first round of both days: Chloe Santiago,
cox in semi's and finals of both days: Oli Collington - rowed in Wyvern.
Dan’s account - After a morning of fairly relaxed races, it
was a DMU vs DMU final in the men's novice coxed fours. Our boat was given the
quarry station and so the other crew were granted a couple of boat lengths lead
at the start. Thanks to a good start we managed to reduce this lead to about
half a length, which the opposing crew held up until the Shrewsbury bridge. At
the bridge we called for a push and brought the other crew on dead level, bow
ball to bow ball. It was soon a wind to the finish from both crews with the
crowd on the bank roaring. Crossing the line neither crew was sure who won and
the mention of a "dead heat" over the tannoy caused all competitors
to despair at the thought of doing it again. As we drifted down stream, utterly
spent, the silence was broken by the announcement "And the winner of the
novice men's coxed fours, by a distance of two fee, was crew number 50".
With this realization that we had lost our novices the boat erupted into
cheering and splashing.
Cat’s race - This is the four that was selected to the East
Midlands Regional Training camps, and have been together since early October.
So it is understandable that the four stepped up to their final on the Saturday
of Shrewsbury with high hopes (if not nervous stomachs) for a win after winning
their last two races with flying colours. Their opposition, Agecroft RC, was a
length behind during the majority of the race making the girls believed they
had it in the bag. But after a sudden technical failure with Taylors oar, they
didn’t even get to cross the finish line. The tears were well earned and a
determination to win on the 600m Sunday race course was born. With only race
between them and the Sunday final, they smashed both and came away with a
status change to IM2 pots and points. Well done ladies! - Stroke to Bow-Demi
Johnson, Catherine Maude, Rachel Taylor, Amy Mathers, William Lewis (Cox)
Elliott Ryder & Charlie Fox (Keen coaches)
Monmouth Regatta
To sum up this regatta everyone came back with a tan like
the members of TOWIE… only real.
The Women senior 8+ won, the crew consisted of: Amelia Lohan,
Emma Smith, Julia Jackson, Hazel Ward, Sophie Richardson, Rachael East, Chloe Santiago,
Rosie Kirk and coxed by Wills.
The senior men who very narrowly missed out at Shrews won as
well, the crew consisted of: Nov.4+ Russell Theobald, Keiron Piper, Matt Hamlyn,
Bob Fairclough and coxed by Chloe Santiago.
Peterborough Regatta
Always an heroic way to end regatta season with lots of
racing and the committee handover on Saturday night.
I also overheard a randomer say “De Montfort are looking
good this year” which is always sweet.
All crews did well over the two days but didn’t manage to
take a win on the Saturday.
The Womens senior 4+, who competed at Met the previous day,
won their WIM3.4+’s category convincingly.
Have a look at the past victories page in the history
section of this site to see all the wins this year.