Tyne Head (aka “The Veterans Strike Back)
It was that time of year again for the finale of serious head racing on the Tyne with the annual Tyne Head. This year it was being described on the poster as the “ideal Tideway tune up” – well Tyne United had decided not to play out on the Tideway this year but it didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be some fun on the Tyne…
As previously reported on the website, the site was more akin to Glastonbury than a rowing club due to site maintenance, however this wasn’t going to stop the masses from Durham (and a Bradford ARC quad) boating from the club.
Race day was a mixed bag for the club with both women’s crews having to scratch due to illness and the junior boys quad not racing due to lack of opposition, so it was down to the vets and the men to fly the flag for the club.
The eights were always going to be the hotly contested and talked about event for both the men and the vets – Gav had already been over at Tyne in the morning collecting race numbers and was feeling rather queasy after Guy Clack had explained how the Tyne 1st VIII would be doing the course at rate 36+ (this stomach sickening sensation may have had something to do with Gav remembering his last encounter with a piece of high rate work on the ergos involving Mr Pennington Snr and a 1 minute burst of rate 47 after doing a 60 minute ergo…) – would the Tyne United men’s squad and vet’s be able to match this prowess?
The TURC vet VIII was untested, unrehearsed but full of enthusiasm – a last minute crew change due to injury led to Kev Corker being asked (or should that be Jim Pitt telling him) to be in the crew.
Chris had decided on the strategy of all-or-nothing so out went the nice warm up in fours up to the start and it was warming up full crew and just going for it. The crew’s cox, Scott from St Aidan’s College drilled the crew hard up to the start and there was a feeling in the crew that this would be a surprise. Off the start, Chris Smith stroked the boat to rate 29 – the other seven guys were happily waiting for that rate to drop to 26, and they waited, and waited and realised by the Blaydon straight that the rate wasn’t dropping but going up! A call of “we’re at rate 32 and we’ve got Tees in our sight” somehow managed to shock but motivate the eight into keeping the pressure on and pushing harder.
Scott kept the crew disciplined and the TURC vet VIII rowed through Tees’ vet VIII with style on the Newburn straight and the crew, spurred on by this, looked for their next victims.
The Newcastle University Elite 4+ looked in some shock when they saw the Tyne United vet VIII making a push off them past Newburn Bridge (we are yet to confirm that it was the shock of being challenged by some old men in a wooden boat or whether they were concerned that they may have to provide medical assistance to the crew…) Sadly this push didn’t last for too long as Newcastle wound up for the finish and rowed off into the distance but the TURC vets maintained their average rate of 31 and powered over the finish.
An excellent race from the crew – everyone was very surprised by how good it was and even more so when the results came out and the VIII placed 21st/55 crews, being less than a minute behind Tyne’s vet VIII and less than two minutes behind Tees’ top vet VIII.
The second division would prove to be no less memorable with two vet quads and the men’s VIII.
The men’s squad was struck down with injuries leading to a number of substitutions from their regular crew so again this would be a bit of an unknown variable as to how they would perform. Despite a kamikaze attempt to wipe out St Mary’s VIII in the start area (again we do apologise and we are very aware that we could have been disqualified!), the VIII had a solid row and came away feeling that it was a job well done. Jonny was waiting in anticipation as to whether he would have the honour of finding out he had won IM3 VIII’s and then being told that he was disqualified… However neither of these happened and the crew settled for 3rd in the IM3 VIII’s behind University College, Durham and Cambois RC. Overall the crew placed 8th/62 crews in the second division – an excellent overall result.
So back to the vets… the vet coxless quad was the lead boat for the veteran squad: Jim, Kev, Les and Martin were disciplined, motivated and had spent the previous season developing into one of the top veteran coxless quads in the North of England. Today was their first run out for Tyne United and they were ready to prove their mettle. They were confident of their sculling but uncertain whether they could take the Berwick veteran quad.
Sometimes a race is won on tactics and this was no exception – Les Maccabe’s steering “I had to be a bit cheeky at times, but then you have to be to win” was to prove the winner with the rest of the crew full of praise for taking some excellent racing lines.
No-one knew whether the quad had won until Kev Corker came over Newburn Bridge holding some tankards in his hands – winners of Veteran D/E 4x- coming 33rd/62 crews and beating Berwick’s quad by just over a second!
The final boat of the day was the Veteran D coxed quad. They were a new crew and keen to get stuck into some racing, for Dave Smark and Rick Evans, this was their first taste of a competitive head race and they wanted to show that the weekend outings and evening ergos were paying off. With their usual stroke away, Chris Smith had happily volunteered to jump into this one.
As ever at Tyne United, we don’t like to do things the “traditional” way and decided that the best way to race this event was in one of our C Class coxed quads which we use for Learn to Row courses – the rules of the event did not stipulate that it had to be a fine boat so amid looks of bewilderment and confusion from the students on the Tyne United and Newcastle University steps the coxed quad of Evans (bow), Dodds (2), Smark (3), Smith (4) and Coates (cox) set forth…
The quad had a solid technical paddle down to the start (which for the quad felt like Millennium Bridge given how far we were from the marshalling area!) and spirits on the very cold and wet start were kept high with Paul Dodds descriptions of the nearest takeaways to where we were positioned… There was a moment where the crew nearly did paddle into a slipway and head off for a cup of tea and a bag of chips given how long it was taking to get the second division going…
But all talk of kebabs and well, kebabs were ended when the crew were told to start racing. Chris kept a solid (and thankfully slower!) rate for the race which enabled Dave and Paul to power the boat along. Rick was as focused as ever in the bows keeping the boat in time and showing his excellent sculling technique (honed through a combination of nagging from various people!) The aim of this race was truly to give these guys a taste of competitive rowing and they rose to the challenge, when the boat speed dropped, Gav would call for the crew to sharpen and it would, when a push on the legs was needed, it was delivered.
An excellent row from the newest competitive vets in the club and hopefully the start of some great things to come!
As ever, while the racing took front stage and for Tyne United it was a very good day with some excellent races and our first win of 2010, we never want to forget those who support in the background. Sincere thanks go to those who staffed the kitchen all day providing a full food service from breakfast until late afternoon (food was being served at a rate that would put the Army Catering Corps to shame!). The constant hot food and drinks that were available were just what was needed after the afternoons racing in the cold and wet!
Thanks go to those club members who volunteered on the steps – despite having the majority of the boats for the head, the Tyne United volunteers managed to get all crews boated and were late by only six minutes! We are happy to hire out Claire Smark to any club needing a boating coordinator – at one point she seemed to be coordinating boating for both steps the second division and putting the fear of God into crews who weren’t ready to boat at the correct time – including her dad, not bad for a J15!
And finally thanks to all those who braved the cold, wind, wet (and mud!) to come support those racing (even those who had travelled from as far away as Washington (that’s DC, USA and not the place near Chester-le-Street…)
But the person with the most to smile about on the day seemed to be Alex Pattinson. The boatman’s shed was looking fairly empty in the morning, by the end of the day it seemed to be rather full – “I like race days, you can all come again – it keeps me in profit…”
Nothing like Tyne Head to help keep the repair bills up!
