Merseyside Regatta Saturday 4th May 2019

The club held its annual regatta on Saturday 4th May and although entries were down on previous years, a good entry from local clubs and Lancaster Royal Grammar School led to some close racing. Entries have been reduced by a lack of entries by other schools and some clubs in the North West and us holding our event on the same weekend as the universities’ BUCS regatta at Nottingham.

The weather was bright but cold, with a strong westerly wind blowing down towards the start. In the conditions, I am pleased that we had no capsizes or incidents and some excellent watermanship by all the competitors.

In addition to thanking all the members who worked so hard the previous Sunday and Friday and then on the day from 0600 in the morning, I would like to thank our visitors from Lancaster, Royal Chester, Northwich, Warrington and Runcorn Rowing Clubs. We had great support from North West Umpires and the invaluable help of our neighbours in the Sea Scouts and Sea Cadets, who together with the loan of a Runcorn Rowing Club launch, covered our event safety.

The event could not go ahead without the support of Jenkins Shipping (who allow us to use their yard for car parking and their quayside for trailer parking), Peel Ports (who licence the event), United Molasses and Storage, and Cammell Laird (who allowed us to place umpires on their quaysides). Planning the event takes four months but it was worth it to get a ‘green light’ from the North West Umpires for the management of the event.

I hope everyone enjoyed the event. On the water, we had a successful day against some strong opposition, winning nine events:

  • Open 1x – Sam Crowe beat Arvind Mahendran;
  • Open Mas A 1x – John Davies beat White of Northwich;
  • Open MasC/E 2x – Mike Egan and Roger Smith beat John O’Neill and Chris McNulty;
  • W4 x- – Hope Ball, Kate Skinner, Jo-Anna Lyons and Beth Hiorns beat Jane Kelly, Jo Harrison, Jane Good and Kate Wilson by ¼ length in the closest race of the day;
  • W 2x – Meike Donnelly and Rose Foster beat Potts and Worth of Warrington;
  • WJ17 2x – Meike Donnelly and Rose Foster beat Zhara Wilkinson and Ellie Tilston;
  • WJ16 4x- – Zhara Wilkinson, Claire McNulty, Grace Myers and Emma Large beat Wray of Warrington by a length in a very competitive race;
  • WJ16 2x – Claire McNulty and Grace Myers beat Hales of Warrington;
  • WJ15 1x – Grace McFarlane beat Cooper of Runcorn in another closely fought contest. Both scullers performed really well in some of the roughest water at the end of the afternoon.

We also had a number of finalists, with particularly close races for the Open J16 1x of Flynn Jones (who lost to Davis of Lancaster Royal Grammar School); the WJ16 4+ of .Caitlin Adams, Claire McNulty, Grace Myers and Emma Large, coxed by Edward Smith, who lost to White of Warrington; and Emily Bernhem and .Grace McFarlane in WJ15 2x, who lost to Thompson of Royal Chester.

We had some brilliant news in that Malcolm Green of the Sea Cadets has also offered to help with towing to local events. That should enable us to enter more events and show what a great club we now are. Well done everybody!!

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