Home International Regatta 2009

THURSDAY, TRAVELLING
For most of the Scotland Team, HIR 2009 started with a coach trip from Strathclyde Park down to Nottingham, which was only slightly delayed by one of the senior men forgetting to get out of bed on time! After a few delays in queues on the M6, and having been kept entertained by the Team Manager's Quiz, the team arrived at Holme Pierpont to rig boats and, for some, to go out on the water for a quick outing.

FRIDAY, TRAINING DAY
After a slight mishap involving the senior men forgetting to bring their cox along to the practice sessions (fortunately, the juniors were on hand with a spare seat on their mini-bus), the crews got out on the course to get a feel for the water and for the notorious Nottingham head wind. Friday also brought the usual flurry of blade painting, with some team members proving rather more adept at spray painting than others. ASRA's care for their towing vehicle was shown when they decided to move it rather than risk it ending up with a slight blue tint!

Friday lunchtime brought more bad weather, with team members starting to get a sense of deja vu after last weekend's stormy weather. Fortuanately, the thunder and lightning cleared quickly (although not before everyone had to make a dash for the Sports Centre, lunch box in hand) and we could get back out on the water.

Back at the accommodation, dinner was followed by the kit-handing-out session (always a popular time) and the team photograph, with Snapper Ron on hand to make sure everyone was smiling, waving or jumping in time! In a step on from the 2008 junior girls finger-nail painting session, this year the junior boys also made sure their nails were adorned in saltires.

Saturday started hot and sunny (hooray!) with a lot less head wind than we'd been practicing in the previous afternoon. The HIR organisers made sure everyone was kept entertained during the pre-race checks with an interesting mix of English anthems, the Star Wars theme and Ride of the Valkyries being played over the tannoy. This set the theme for the national anthems during the day, which seemed to change each time a country won.

The racing started at 10.30am with the junior women's coxless four, Scotland being represented by the winners of the JW 4+ at Nat Champs and the current holders of the HIR title from Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association. Unfortunately, a repeat performance was not to be this year, with the Irish junior women rowing very strongly to take the win, and the English taking revenge from last weekend to leave the Scots third.

We didn't have long to wait for a win though, with Gillian Connal and Fiona Struthers (both SPRC) turning their Nat Champs silver into an HIR gold in the Women's Lightweight pair. Next up were the Logan brothers of Glasgow Rowing Club, who continued last weekends domination in the Men's Lightweight Pair to take Scotland's second victory.

The juniors pairs were next down the course, with the Junior Women's pair racing strongly to take second place in a close race and the Junior Men's pair of Ross McKellar (Shiplake College) and Jonny Rankin (George Watsons College) going one better to take the win. Not to be outdone, the Women's Pair of Jen Reid and Polly Swann (Edinburgh University BC) put in a great row to take the win.

After the excitment of the pairs races, where we'd won four out of the six events, came the singles races. All six rowed strongly with a second place in the Womens Lightweight Single and a good third place in a very strong field in the Men's Lightweight Single. The race that got the team on its feet though was the Men's Heavyweight Single, as we watched Andrew McConnell of Clydesdale ARC overhaul his English opposition (who'd medalled at Nat Champs) in the last 500m and take the win by a length.

The doubles provided us with plenty of excitement, with Jonny and Chris Logan back out in the Lightweight Double collecting a second medal. The Women's Lightweight double rowed strongly as well to take second place and keep the women in a strong position in the points match. There was drama in the Women's Double when stroke's footplate came loose on the first stroke - despite the set-back, the double of Amanda Larcombe and Steph MacDowall sculled strongly and put on a sprint to overtake the English crew and gain on the leading Welsh crew in the final 500m, unfortunately they ran out of water and had to settle for second place.

The last races before the break were the fours and adaptive races. Although the junior women raced well, passing the English crew who had beaten them in the morning, they were unable to catch up to the Irish juniors, who had again put out a very strong crew. The remaining fours crews all rowed well but were unable to secure any wins. Our last race before the break was the Women's Adaptive Trunk and Arms event, where new team member Caroline MacDonald (Tees RC) was racing up a category (as an arms only athlete). Caroline put in a fantastic race but was unable to match her opposition who had the benefit of a longer stroke. Unfortunately, points from this race were not included in the overall trophies (much to the senior women's team's disappointment!).

Going into the break before the big boat events, Scotland's Senior Men were in second place in the Men's Match and the Senior Women were equal first. With strong crew boats, both teams were eying up the wins!

The junior eights and quads raced first, the eights looking good despite most having only got into a boat together the day before. The Junior Men's Quad put in a really strong row to take second place over the English (who had beaten them the previous week).

The Women's Eight knew they needed to win to have a chance of taking the overall match and went out hard from the first stroke to lead at the 250m marker. They extended their lead with every push to take an emphatic win by clear water. This was a wonderful result for the crew of Imogen Walsh (Clyde ARC), Steph McDowall (Aberdeen University BC), Jen Reid, Polly Swann (both Edinburgh University BC), Amanda Larcombe (Glasgow University BC), Rhona MacMillan (Edinburgh University), Gillian Connal (Strathclyde Park), Karen Bennett (Clydesdale ARC) and cox JoAnna Collings (St Andrew BC, aka Jo Wherrett, webmaster).

In the last women's race the Scottish Quad did everything it could, but was unfortunate to be beaten into third place by strong English and Welsh crews, meaning the women lost their match to England by just one point.

The Men's Eight gave us some real excitement as we listened over the tannoy to the positions. Behind after the start, the crew pushed hard to start going through the leading English crew. With 500m to go, the eight was just quarter of length down. The win was not to be though, as the English held their nerve and took victory on the line.

Overall, the Scots came second in the Senior Women's and Senior Men's Matches (although the men did manage to bring home the trophy anyway), third in the Junior Women's and fourth in the Junior Men's.

Photographs and report by Jo Wherrett. Photograph of Womens Eight by Ron Wallace.