Newquay Championships Bring Rowing Season to an End

The Newquay women’s championships took place over the weekend of the 10th of September and the men’s on the weekend of the 24th September, bringing the rowing season to an end.

Both weekends of rowing proved to be very eventful and fun, with 96 women’s crews and 72 men’s crews participating, Newquay continues to be one of the top regattas to attend.

The ladies smashed a club record with the A crew finishing in 2nd place in their first row in a time of 15:55, meaning automatic entry into the next round, the first for the club! The B’s also did well and raced in a good time of 16:34, a few anxious hours of waiting followed, to find out whether they would get through to the next round on time placing and surely they did! Yet another best for the club.

As the day went on the seas picked up, the course was re-adjusted and the round competitors became more complicated to work out, as in Newquay only the top 2 boats of each round go through and the rest is down to time on the stop watch.
Never the less both ladies crews went out fighting again and put on an exceptional performance, Ladies A coming 3rd in their race with a time of 14:14, giving them a good chance of going through to the finals day on the Sunday. The ladies B finishing their race in 15:14.

It all came down to the last few crews races at the end of the day to determine whether Clevedon Ladies A would break another club record and go into the next day of racing. Unfortunately 4 seconds was the amount of time that they missed out by. There’s always next year!

The final results: Caradon A 1st place, Newquay A 2nd, Fowey A 3rd, Charlestown A 4th, Flushing Mylor A 5th, Dutch A 6th.

2 weeks later and the Men took to the water. 1 crew holding representatives for Clevedon.
The men came 57th out of 76 in the final rankings list. On the day, the crew got a good start, but was in a fast heat, against some very strong crews. They were trailing at the first mark, then two gigs ahead took the buoy turn wide, allowing Clevedon to cut in and draw level with them. A three gig tussle ensued, with Clevedon fighting hard stroke for stroke. The men stayed level with the other two gigs all the way to the finish, beating one of them by just a second.

Sea conditions were challenging, especially on the second leg of the race, but the crew rowed hard right to the finish line, surfing down waves on the last leg, taking full advantage of the swell to speed along. Although disappointed not to get into the next round, a good time was registered, and a great day was had.

The final results: Falmouth A 1st, Caradon A 2nd, Looe A 3rd, Caradon B 4th, Mounts Bay A 5th, Fowey A 6th.