The Ross Moodie Memorial Regatta

On Sunday, May 16^th, an event the likes of which the Tyne has never seen before will take place.  It is the race that, unbeknownst to some of you, all your training has been aimed towards.  In memory of one of our members, Ross Moodie, who died during a climbing accident we have decided to host a regatta.  It is time for the Ross Moodie Memorial Regatta, an event previously described by Steve Redgrave as ‘the toughest, most competitive race a rower can undertake.’  Luckily, Redgrave didn’t really know how to pivot properly so it won’t be as hard for you.

The event takes place at the Newburn Boat house at 12pm on Sunday, 16^th May.  Entries are now closed and crews that have pre qualified through other such prestigious races such as ‘Scotswood Splash and Dash’, ‘Newburn Turn and Burn’, ‘the Dunstan Derby’ and ‘Wylam Sprints’ have been noted by the stewards and will be seeded accordingly.  These crews include: Any Alumni, Any southern Boat Race veterans and anyone who will row with Angelo.

The event will put all novice and senior rowers in ‘randomly’ selected coxed fours and will race over 350 metres to separate the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff and Mason from everybody else.  This event is extremely serious and competitive, Jesse Burgoine has come out of international retirement to compete and Ed Ford has been getting massive[r] to give him the edge.  This is a ‘winner takes all’ regatta with the loser of each race being eliminated and the winner securing a route to the next round.  It is similar to a lesser known regatta down south called Henley, so if anyone has been to that they will know the rough layout. The event is light hearted and meant to be a day to enjoy.  It would be against the spirit of the club to have a sombre occasion, but respects must be paid to a tragic loss to our club.  So please come along and have as much fun as you can, but all the time remember who this is for and why we are hosting it.

The event costs £5 to enter which includes: entry, guaranteed selection for a crew in the ‘Princess Eugenie Cup’ and a chance to win.  There may be a super special prize for the winning crew, but in all honesty, the lifetime sense of achievement should be enough to spur most rowers on.  .

The crews will comprise of one senior man, one novice man and one senior and novice woman.  There will be some tampering to ensure that no one crew gets stacked with too many lightweights (we’d all know they’d win) and to make sure that Mason Durant gets knocked out first round (he’ll probably be ill anyway).

There will be a carbo-load dinner hosted the night before in the Copthorn Hotel called ‘The Annual Dinner’ so please make your way there and join us in the pre race build up.  Anyone who doesn’t want to race but wouldn’t mind helping out marshalling will be laughed at initially, but welcomed afterwards.  Lateness to the start is not permitted and anyone caught using the ‘place and drift’ tactic will be instantly disqualified and banned from all future regattas.

We look forward to seeing you on race day.