Summer round up
Summer round up
The Summer 2006 regatta season was never going to be easy for D.R.C, with a relatively novice and un-motivated team. However with a ltitle bit of encouragement, the scullers started to come out of the woodwork, and we finished on a definate high! What follows is my vague account of th seasons highs and lows!
St Neots sprints
Mills and Harris racing in Novice 2x, in the newly painted janosek double raced in one of the first races of the day, and also lost in that same race supposedly due to 'steering malfunctions', all beit to the eventual winners! a quote from Uncle T- 'Your opposition looked like they may have actually trained a bit!'
Will Notcutt was next to give the sprinting lark a go, perhaps a little bit tentively, after the previous three 'practice outings' had all ended in getting wet- 'it all seems to go wrong when i start piling on the power and trying to go fast'- it was the experience that counted will- and atleast you didnt fall in in the race, and it wasn't a complete row-over, the teenager still seemed to be putting a bit of pressure in when he sculled past us! - all joking aside, great effort will, pity you wimped out of the 'apres race' party due to adverse weather conditions!
Sunday brought better weather with it, and a shorter 500m course, the clubs only competitor for today came in the form of Alex Lockhart- fresh from an intensive week of training with Eton Rowing Courses down on dorney lake. Hopes were high, and continued to stay high throughout the race, until about 100m from the end, at which point Alex appeared to fade somewhat....mabe a bit of ergo work is needed!
Northampton Hollowell regatta
After a bit of a 'summer break' 'Team Deben' returned to the racing scene on the august bank holiday for The Northampton Holowell reservoir regatta- an itneresting event to say the least! Non the less, Deben made use of the trailer for the first time, taking a team to compete in no less than 7 events! With conditons being described as 'survival' club member, chris jillings, the racing was always going to be pretty hard. However the bumpy conditions were exactly what Deben rowers are used to, which may explain why The club came away from the regatta with no less than three wins; First of all Lockhart won WJ16 1x, then mills and Harris Blitzed the novice 2x fleet (unlucky not to qualify for points and race out of novice) and to round off the day, Jillings and Lockhart won mixed Vet/Junior 2x, proving that D.R.C is no longer a club to be laughed at!
Cambridge Autumn sprints
For the final Sprint regatta, Deben managed to field an impressive number of competitors. A special mention must go to the Evans family, who competed in an impressive number of races! Yet Again, Mills and Harris were amongst the first boats to race, and yet again they lost in the first race, yet again due to a steering malfunction...(maybe something to work on for next season will!) J Evans then took to the water to compete in Novice 1x, effectively scoringa rowever, winningconvincingly, by atleast 5 or 6 lengths... Mills then also raced in Novice 1x, again, winning by a significant margin, this time due to competitors gear failure! It was then the turn of the Evans brothers to race J16 2x, sadly not quite managing to hold on to their advantage gained by a good start all the way down to the finish, none the less, a pretty awesome effort from a slightly nervous crew! Sadly Mills and Evans lost in their next N1x heats, as did Lockhart in WN1x, leaving it to C. Jillings to re-vitalise D.R.Cs winning streak in VetC 1x. Mark Evans then gave it his all in his forst ever J16 1x race, giving his opposition a run for his money, but sadly it wasnt quite enough to clench a victory! The next boat to race was the first of our quad entries- Mixed S3 4x. With differing levels of experience spread right through out the boat, nerves were certainly a bit on the anxious side, but the team managed a good race, winning by half a length. No sooner had Lockhart and VErril stepped out of the quad, than they were getting back into a double, to compete in mixed S4 2x. With both member seen to be 'getting keen' they managed a convincing win, raising Debens medal tally to 3 wins so far, with 1 more quad to race, and Uncle T and JC to race in the last races of the day. The quad set out early for a bit of a practice session, since they had never rowed together before, and hopes were high as we headed up to the start. Sadly half way through, as 'up, up, up' was called, a certain No. 3 managed to fall of his seat, bringing the four man baot to a complete halt...ooops. With one Race left, all Deben hopes were pinned on the Chairman and vice chairman bringing us home another pot, in their Vet F 2x race. The final race of the day was un doubtedly alos one of the closest, with Deben being overtaken in the last 10 m of the race.
