Saturday 27th March is the biggest fight in the rowing calendar. Every rowing establishment in the United Kingdom sends their manliest of men down to scrap it out over 4.2 miles of the most famous tidal course in the world. Not wanting to be left out, and knowing that strength comes in numbers, NUBC sent four of their eights down to London to represent the university. Three seniors crews racing for prime positions, and a novice eight gaining valuable racing experience. All three senior crews had experienced different build ups to the race, but all had high hopes of a decent finish position. The first eight, low on confidence but with vast experience were looking to win their category, the seconds who had had a storming season so far fell victim to a late illness, as their seven man was brought down by a viral infection. This meant the thirds lost Henry Hilder and had to draught in able ‘super sub’ Jesse Burgoine. Not to be outdone the firsts decided to join in the drama and promptly rammed some Dutch veterans in a re enactment of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. Luckily our boatman, Brad Jewell arrived on the scene and re attached the bows.

Race day dawned with it’s customary swirling headwind and jangling nerves. The firsts, boating in 51st were handicapped by a Taurus crew who had started out of their position and decided the best way to get back into the race was right in front of the Newcastle boat. Confident coxing from Becky Palmer ensured that a clash was avoided, but Newcastle suffered from the wash created by the Taurus boat. However, no sooner had they overtaken Taurus then they began to enjoy a rapid race down the course. They kept the rate high and the rhythm fresh, and stormed to Hammersmith. From then on the fitness played its part and they finished in a hugely impressive 22nd place. They were agonisingly close to top 20 but managed to destroy Durham by a massive 0.52 seconds. Considering the build up and the crash and the distance they finished behind Durham at BUCS head, this was a truly impressive result, winning the Intermediate 2 pennant and the Halladay Trophy.

In contrast, the second VIII, suffered all manner of problems in the immediate build up. After losing their seven man they needed to reorganise the entire of the bow side to try and get a shape back into their rowing. With a problematic order they rowed up to the start hoping to defy the odds and claim the top 60 slot that looked so achievable two weeks before. However, Latymer Upper School had other ideas. Coming round the St Pauls bend, Latymer used their home advantage to try and push Newcastle over. However, cox Joanne Rea does not take nothing off of no one and, using her north east upbringing, did not give an inch. This resulted in a clash and a boat stopping crab that cost the crew dear meaning they finished in 104th which was a disappointing result in comparison to their expectations.

The Third VIII had a solid row, benefitting from Jesse’s rhythm and experience they had a good race culminating in 209th position. The novices, in a composite crew, looked impressive and finished in a respectable 278th, 15th in the novice category. Both crews had far from ideal preparation but managed to overcome adversity to finish strongly.

Many thanks to all who came to support what turned out to be a successful day’s racing. We hope it was as enjoyable in the Rutland as it was on the water and hope to see you hall at future racing events. Your support is invaluable and proves the theory, most recently displayed by messrs Pelly and Gill, ‘Once a blue star, always a blue star.’

Expectation weighed heavily on Newcastle women’s shoulders as they prepared to take on the rowing world at Women’s Head of the River on 19th March. Both crews lacked experience but were determined to power to a high placed finish.

The 1st VIII had a storming race, starting fast and powering through Barnes Bridge, they lengthened out and found their race rhythm. With the rate lower down than expected they were able to have a very long and solid row that powered them through Hammersmith. Coxed by veteran Caz Johnson, they looked like consummate racers and surged past numerous opposition. Mixed emotions at the finish promised a make or break moment when the results came out. However, all fears were wasted as a superb 28th place came down the wire. Finishing 5th in their category the girls achieved the top 30 that had been their aim in the long, arduous build up to the race. All in all the future looks bright for the NUBC women.

The shine to the 1st VIII was reinforced by a hugely pleasing race for the novices. Coming off the back of a disappointing BUCS performance they were looking for revenge and found it. Led by Captain Liz Cleeve, Elite Athlete Amy Jessett and ever optimist Milly Faulkner Lee they had a great race, overtaking numerous crews to finish in 150th overall and 8th in the novice category. This is a much better result to take in to the summer sprints and will fill the novices with confidence that all their training and hard work had not been in vain.

Many thanks to all who came to support the girls. Women’s Head does not enjoy the same exposure as the Men’s Head, but the racing is equally as tense, exciting and important so thanks to all those who hit the Rutland and cheered on NUBC.

Henry Pelly (left) and Fred Gill (right) after Henley wins in 2008

Newcastle University Alumni, Frederick Gill and Henry Pelly represented Cambridge in the 156th Boat Race, wining by a length and a half.

Henry Pelly, who graduated from Newcastle in 2007, represented Cambridge in the race for the 3rd time. He was Newcastle University BC President from 2004-2007 becoming the World University Champion in the men’s heavyweight double in 2006.

Fred Gill, stroke of the victorious Newcastle Prince Albert coxed 4 at Henley Royal Regatta in 2008, moved up from Goldie, which he stroked last year, to stroke the blue boat this year. Fred, who learnt to row as a novice at Newcastle in 2005 and was Men’s Captain from 2007-2008 also made the GB U23 team in 2008.

It is the first time that Newcastle University BC have been represented by 2 alumni in the same race and they are only the 4th and 5th Blue Star oarsmen to compete in the race after David Walker (Cambridge 1974), Ed Coode (Oxford 1998) and Andy Stubbs (Cambridge 2004).

We especially enjoyed the big blue stars on their wellies!

After countless weeks of training, seat racing and practicing, NUBC decided to go on tour.  Sick of the rough and windy tyne, we headed down to Peterborough to sample the snowy and blustery Nene.  Joyous.

Almost the entire squad were involved at some point in the weekend, hell bent on keeping rowing at the top of the BUCS points list.  Although the success was not quite as sweeping as our own high standards demand, we were still relatively pleased with the results.

First up on the gloriously sunny Saturday was the Novice Squad, eager as beavers to test what they’d learnt.  As this event proves to be the first real test in their racing calendar, it was always going to come down to luck as to how they did.  They raced well and learnt valuable experience but, sadly, were unable to row as well as they can.  The women faced all manner or rowing related disasters with crabs, clashes and broken equipment, but still managed to race the course and finish in a respectable, if disappointing, 17^th place.  Still, as Megan Thompson-Green put it, ‘we must take the positives and do better next weekend.’

The Novice men steamed down the course and, although they went hell for leather, were unable to match their passion with the technique that had previously served them well.  They too did respectably, finishing in 13^th and 34^th place, but will be determined to march up the rankings come the Head of the River in March.  With both fours making some solid headway in difficult surroundings, it proved a good start point for our Novice squad and there is hope for things to come.

The Sunday was to prove the day for the point takings.  Although not as prepared as we hoped, the senior squad began the day with high expectations.  Looking outside at 7am that morning and seeing torrential snow gave us hope, as we knew the southern fairies can’t quite handle the cold as well as us tough northerners.  First up were the Championship Coxed and Coxless Fours and the Championship and Lightweight Quads.  The Coxed four, starring Ed Ford, Andrew Corrigan, Charles D’Oncieu and new boy Andrew Hatzis powered to an impressive third place.  The Coxless four, featuring Mark Bowers, Murray Wilcojx, Mason Durant and Tom Wright were agonizingly pipped to the gold by Durham, something that will not happen again we can assure you.  The women’s championship eight claimed they’d raced horrendously, had eight very prolific hissy fits and blew every other crew out of the water save Brookes who just edged them into silver, (mind games eh?).  The lightweights, (Artjom Neprahayin, Duncan Oliphant, Edward Stephenson and Andrew Curry) paddled up, waited for an hour in the freezing snow, nearly caught hypothermia and raced into 7^th place which wasn’t bad considering their lack of preparation for the event.  Just as we were wondering if we’d see gold this year, our Champ. Quad (Murray, Mason, Ed and Andrew Corrigan) came saw and conquered, winning by an impressive 26 seconds.  So far, so good.

Next up were the eights in what had turned out to be a nice-ish day.  The championship boys, underprepared and not exactly fresh, had an average race and did well to finish in fourth place.  However, the distance between them, Brookes and Durham is something that needs to be rectified; by our own standards fourth is three places lower than acceptable.  The 2^nd VIII, rocked out in a boat they’d never used with a cox they hadn’t seen for months and stormed into second place and sixth overall, a mere fourteen seconds behind their own champ 8.  However, yet again the thirty seconds between us and Brookes is one which will keep us on our toes. The 3^rd VIII did not quite execute their race plan and ended up in 26^th place, which is not disastrous but not quite where they wanted to be.  The racing done, and with a massive 75 BUCS points claimed, we returned to our home in the toon to hit some more training before the big one, Head of the River, March 27^th.

This is the recent NUBC newsletter that was sent out by email.  It details club news along with upcoming events. The newsletter can be viewed or downloaded here:

NUBC Newsletter, Issue 2

If you would like to receive future newsletters by email then please email me on r.j.copsey@ncl.ac.uk