Tyne United

It was third time lucky for Tyne United as the majority of the club headed down to Yorkshire Head. Both of the attempts at running York Small Boats Heads had been flooded out so eventually the club got the chance to race on the Ouse. Whilst everyone else in the country was obsessing over some eights event for women that happened to be taking place in London, the rest of us mere mortals were busy heading down the A1 to York to take part in Yorkshire Head.

Gav’s usual description of Yorkshire Head was, “it’s the only event I’ve ever known where you get rain, sleet, snow and blazing heat and sunshine in the space of a 5.5k head race.” For once this didn’t happen and it was a glorious day (as usually happens when Gav doesn’t go to a race) and the river was perfect for racing.

The women’s squad had entered two doubles; a women’s IM3 2x (Barbara and Hazel) and a Nov 2x (Sarah and Jo). For Sarah and Jo this was their first time out racing together. Some very sneaky land training had been going on with the pair of them putting in the extra 5k pieces on a Wednesday evening when others were elsewhere. For Barbara and Hazel this was the reforming of their old double so confidence was high that both doubles would do well.

In the end the Novice 2x of Sarah and Jo would have the better day of the pair; second place in women’s novice 2x and 7 seconds ahead of W IM3 2x – as reports of results filtered through to Gav at TURC HQ some mental notes were made as to things to work on for regatta season with the women…

Hazel & Barbara

Jo & Sarah

The veteran coxless quad eager to find some fresh competition, were up against crews from Grosvenor and Notts and Union Rowing Clubs. This would be the toughest opposition they had come across and this was to be the case with the guys coming 4^th overall in the Veteran Coxless Quads event for Vet C/D/E events. Overall the guys came 47^th out of 193 crews and had a good row, but still room for improvement for the forthcoming regatta season.

Martin, Jim, Kevin & Les

Not to be outdone, Paul Armstrong and Ben Mitchell joined forces to try out a Veteran B double scull. To say they had only had a handful of sessions together (and this was probably Ben’s 10^th time out sculling!) the guys finished a creditable 89^th.

Paul & Ben

The juniors, fresh from their escapades at the JIRR trials a week earlier decided to do a J16 4x- and a J15 4x+ The boys coxless quad suffered with the dreaded bend in the river and were beaten by Bradford Grammar and St Peters School (both crews with more experience of the Ouse than the Tyne United boys) but still put in a result of 59^th which proved again that the hard work done during the winter was paying off. The J15 coxed quad was Tom Ranshaw’s first ever race and the boys had an excellent row coming in second in their category and 95^th overall (being typical oarsmen, they were quick to blame the cox for being too heavy – unfortunately this isn’t Josh’s fault that he’s nearly a foot taller than Tom!)

Patrick, Josh, Leon & Sam

Finn, Tom, Patrick, Sam & Josh (cox)

The final boat to mention was the “Oarsome Foursome” of Andrew, Chris, Ash and Martin with Finn coxing. In true Tyne United spirit the four jumped into the crew with a full 5.5km of preparation (i.e. the row to the start!) and had what could only be described as ‘an interesting row.’ Words along the lines of, “Next time we need a bit more practice” were muttered afterwards.

Martin, Ashleigh, Andrew, Chris & Finn (cox)

Overall, a good day out for the club – no wins, but in this case it was good to be finally able to take part in an event in York! So onwards to regatta season and Chester-le-Street…