York Rowers' solid performances at Peterborough

On the waters of Peterborough

Last year saw the senior women's coxed four, senior men's coxed four, and sculler Ben Knowles all win the finals of their categories. This year saw more of a mixed bag in terms of results.

Two novice men's eights were entered, one drawing athletes from the more experienced senior squad and the other from this year's fresher novice intake. Unfortunately the fresher boat was knocked out in its heat, despite a very solid start which saw the men in second position at 500 meters.

Cox Sebastian Bottard commented: "It's a shame the boys couldn't hang on to the second place needed to qualify for the final, but we're not despondent about our performance." The crew achieved something of a reprieve in the Sunday 500 meter sprint, reaching the final and finishing third overall.

The senior novice boat (Ward, Moore, Coverdale, Lawrence, Nielson, Pryce, Will Harrison, Campbell) managed to sneak their bow out to clinch first place putting them throught to the final. The final was "a much tougher race" according to fresher Ben Coverdale, and York came an unfortunate third behind a very strong UEA eight.

This year's novice women's squad have been developing considerably under captain RJ Dobinson's leadership, an improvement on last year's squad, all of whom have since dropped out. The first coxed four did well to get through to the final, the second four unfortunately crabbing a blade that brought an end to an otherwise competitive race.

In the final the novices raced a rival York women's boat, keeping close to the senior four before losing by a length at the finish. Dobinson commented, "I generally think that the girls did extremely well- some of them were racing six times over the weekend. I am happy that we have got to the stage where we can enter a race with the possibility of winning."

The senior women had a less auspicious day racing. The coxed four (cox Haycock, Tongue, Odgers, Edmonds, Chowdhury) is relatively unchanged from last year's incredibly successful crew, but seem unable to achieve similar results. However, the girls were placed in a very competitive heat, and captain Odgers was keen to point out that "our time would have meant that we would have won one of the other heats and came second in the other."

'It's just so frustrating to lose by so little'.
Captain Finbarr Bevan

The Senior men's 1st eight (cox Winter, Williams, Lawrence, Nielson, Savage, Ward, Moore, Thrall, Bevan) put in a convincing performance in their heat, finishing two lengths clear of any opposition and avoiding the repechage.

The final was a nailbiting contest, that saw York come from third to row through opposition from Bedford school and come up from a length down on Nottingham University to level with them in the last 100 meters. It was neck and neck at the line, but Nottingham managed to hold off the York crew's charge for victory in the final by 0.1 of a second. Captain Bevan aptly summed up the crew's thoughts, "It's just so frustrating to lose by so little."

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