York small boats head for success

Written by Will Lawrence

York Small Boats Head, held around this time each year, sees crews from all over the north compete in a three kilometer time trial from the A 64 motorway bridge to the River Foss opposite the Lowther. As the name suggests, no eights are permitted in the competition. Hence, the women's eight and the men's senior eight were split into two fours each, which unsurprisingly led to more than a healthy level of competition within the club between the competing fours.

The women's novice four, captained and coxed by RJ Dobinson, and crewed by Charlotte Macdonald, Heather Mallet, Alex Hassel and Emily Hatton, put in a respectable performance. Captain Dobinson was impressed. "All four rowed extremely well for a crew that have only been learning how to row for four weeks". The girls finished with a competitive time of fifteen minutes twenty-two seconds, placing them in the middle of the novice category and were only overtaken by a more experienced Leeds Uni crew.

The senior women's four was the most successful of the club's teams last year, racing this year at senior 3 level (senior 1 being the highest and senior 4 the lowest). The graduation of mainstay Sarah Woods marked the first change to the four in quite some time, which was crewed on Sunday by Jillian Tongue, Harriet Edmonds, Alix Odgers, Raeesa Chowdbury and cox Ashleigh Haycock.

The girls race was impressive to watch, with the top women's boat boasting some characteristically deft blade-work. However despite this the four finished with a time of 13 mins 7 secs, some way behind the winning York City crew, but in a respectable third position. Cox Ash Haycock said "the race was really long and strong, it was just a shame the course was so rough towards the end".

Sunday saw the men field a lightweight (senior 4) and a heavyweight (senior 3) four. The heavyweight four was first to boat at 10 am. The crew of Finnbar Bevan, Mike Williams, Will Lawrence, Oscar Nielsen and cox Theresa Dolan were confident of a good result after some promising training sessions. Opposition however was stiff. Crews from Durham, Liverpool Uni and arch rivals Leeds Uni were clustered around the York four as the race began.

I didn't think we'd done that well!
Mike 'suicide' Williams

But within 200 meters of the start the four began rowing through their opposition. At millennium bridge the crew's passing of a second opposition boat was greeted with a roar from supporters on the bridge above. The crew reacted by powering their way past yet another boat. After an anxious wait until 4pm for the times to come in, (nursed by quantities of beer), the crew were declared the fastest coxed four of the race, posting the winning time of 11 minutes 8 seconds. Mike 'suicide' Williams commented "I knew we'd rowed a good race, but I didn't think we'd done that well".

The lightweight men's four (Jack Savage, Matt Thrall, Olly Ward, Dane Moore and cox Rosie Winter) boated at 1 pm, with the rain beginning to recede. The crew more than made up for what they lacked in power through sound technique, calmly pushing past the opposition. The grimace on the face of stroke man Savage as the boat passed under millennium bridge was indicative of the difficulty faced by all crews rowing on the choppy stretch of water between the bridge and the Foss.

It's a great start to my rowing at York, just an awesome experience.
Dane Moore

Spectators cheered the crew home to the finish, as they completed the course in 11 minutes and 46 seconds. Only 7 seconds separated the top three crews, as York's lightweight four finished in third, only seconds behind the Leeds Uni crew in second, and Tyne Rowing Club who won the category in 11 minutes 39 seconds. Fresher Dane Moore was pleased to have beaten over fifteen other crews in the category. "It's a great start to my rowing at York, just an awesome experience", with Moore having joined the club only four weeks ago on the back of four successful years rowing at Bedford School.

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