Boat Race 2010

NUBC have retained the boat race crown they claimed from Durham last year as the 2010 race ends in a draw after another thrilling afternoon of rowing on the River Tyne on Sunday 9th May.

NUBC claimed comfortable victories in both Novice events and only narrowly lost by feet in both senior races to earn a well deserved draw this year and ensure the crown stays away from Durham for another year.

In an exciting curtain-raiser to the University races, a closely-contested showcase race between composite crews from schools in the Tyne and Wear areas was won by the Durham boat. Only a few inches separated the Durham and Newcastle boats as they crossed the finish line, with victory eventually being awarded to the Durham crew.

In the first University race of the afternoon, Newcastle’s novice women stormed ahead in the early stages of the race and never looked back, showing a ferocity and control of senior women to eventually win easily by five lengths; it was perhaps a sweet victory for the girls having just missed out on a place in the final at BUCS last weekend.
Not to be outdone by their female counterparts the novice men too won comfortably by a distance of two lengths after pushing hard in the closing stages of the race. This race once again proving their dominance over their Durham rivals this year having rowed through them at BUCS regatta last weekend, an event which eventually saw them miss out on the bronze medal by the narrowest of margins.
We now hope many of them will come and join the senior squad and help us crush Durham in 2011!

The Senior Women’s race was the first nail biter of the event with Durham eventually winning by 1/4 of a length. The crew, four of whom were novices only a year ago, performed out of their skin to get as close as they did to one of the top women’s crews in the country and having lost by a length at BUCS it shows there is a lot more to come this summer!

With the results standing at 2 – 1 to Newcastle, the Senior Men’s race was set up to be tense affair and on paper it was just as close as in reality. Having had to race with a sub at BUCS and eventually finishing a creditable fourth (one place and two lengths behind Durham) the crew were back up to full strength for this the main event.  Newcastle started well and lead coming out of the swing bridge into the final 500m. However Durham pushed hard to try and fight back drawing level just meters before the line before eventually scraping to victory by a foot in the last few strokes.
The disappointment was clear from the boys, who had picked up a lot of speed in the week since BUCS; but it was perhaps the culmination of a very hard season catching up with the boys, some of who had over 10 races last weekend. However they will surely be looking for redemption come Marlow and Henley, so watch this space for some explosive results if we are to draw Durham again this summer!

Newcastle University Boat Club’s President, Andrew Corrigan, said: “To lose such a close race is devastating. We set off ahead of Durham at the start of the race, so we were able to see them, and to be rowed through in the last few metres of the race is really painful”. However he added: “I’m very proud of the Freshwomen and Freshmen, who put in really great performances”.

The result shows how much progress Newcastle have made since the beginning of the boat race 14 years ago and although it wasn’t quite the result some of the squad new we were perhaps capable of it was job done in keeping the title out of Durham hands for a second year.