Dear Everybody,
The club appeared at two regattas over the weekend. Saturday was Nottingham City, which is held over the full Holme Pierrpont course (2000m), to which we sent James Doleman in IM1.1x. He came fourth in his heat, missing a place in the final. However, he was pleased with his performance, and has gained ground on his opponents over the winter.
On Sunday the club appeared at the Nottingham Masters and Club regatta, which is held over a 1000m course. This report covers the Sunday event.
On the surface, Nottingham would appear to be a return to our current default setting, i.e. ‘All Dolemans, All the Time’, but the near misses were as good as the hits.
But first – the hits, all four of them. The first of the day was Kate Doleman racing in W.J17.1x. Kate was led off the start by Jones of Birmingham RC, but chased down her opponent steadily, putting herself in the lead in the last 250m. Jones was under such pressure that she lost control of her course, and became entangled in the bouys within a few lengths of the finish, and capsized. Will Doleman (J14.1x) then saw off three opponents, but I have no further details (a busy day), except for the fact that he came within .6 seconds of my time in the single (I’m hanging on by a thread here folks), and two and a half hours later Will (again) and Ethan Campbell-O’Connor (J14.2x), were in a two horse race where their main opposition was themselves. They tried their hardest to capsize their boat off the start, putting themselves a length and a half adrift of their opponents, whom they then caught up and passed within 250m, requiring not much further effort to win. In MasF.2x Graham Dean and Yours Truly were fortunate in both of our opposition, but had decided in advance to press on for a time, which was not impressive. I found myself fatigued from my earlier race in the single (see below), and will not be doubling up in events again until much later in the season.
In total we had fourteen entries, so the story goes a lot further. As well as the wins, we had a lot of good second places today. Rob was second out of four in IM3.1x, Josh was second out of six in J13.1x, Lucy was second out of three in W.J13.1x, Gillian, Jenny, Sue, and Harriet were second in W.MasA/B.4-, I was second out of six in MasF.1x, and (most spectacularly), Kate and James (rowing with another female/male pairing from Newark) were second in IM3.4-, an open event with three entries, the other two being all male crews. Our lot were only three seconds behind the winner, and beat the other crew, who had made the mistake of mocking them on the start (apparently they took exception to the size of our lot’s stroke, a woman of 5’2”, but height, like size, is vastly overrated.) In preparation for this ‘Folie de Grandeur’, the four had had one outing as a crew, and Kate had been learning to row sweep over the fortnight before by pairing with her brother. A remarkable performance all round.
Elsewhere we were not so fortunate; Sophie led out in W.IM2.1x, but due to lack of training (a dodgy knee preventing), was unable to sustain her lead; Gillian and Stuart (Gillian racing again within the hour after the 4- above) suffered some serious steering glitches off the start in Mixed MasE.2x, and never got back on terms; Gracie and Hannah were late on the start for W.J13.2x (about our timekeeping, more later) but managed a creditable third out of four; Paul, Gary, Dan and Stuart (Jack Hobbs-cox) were tail end of six in MasD.4+ (a tough crowd), and Gillian and the Ladies final effort in W.MasA/B.4+ was of such a nature that I have been sworn to secrecy, and you may only obtain full details by applying to members of the crew in person (Oh, the Wailing! the Gnashing of Teeth! – see timekeeping reference above).
The trailer load was a record: two fours, three doubles, seven (private) singles, thirteen pairs of sculling blades, eight of sweep, and a bicycle. Thank goodness it wasn’t far to go.
Oh, and didn’t I mention? The weather was splendid.