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News Archive:

2005
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2002

30 July

Golden girls.
The Scotland women's junior coxless four who won gold last weekend at the Home International Regatta in Cork.

From left to right (which is also bow to stroke) Alex Wessel (Aberdeen Schools), Alex Gemie (Nithsdale), Morag Emslie (Aberdeen Schools) and Anna Anderson (Nithsdale). (photo courtesy Mansour Gemie)

28 July

Heriots threat to 'Auld Alliance'? George Heriots School made a decisive contribution to Great Britain's third consecutive win in the Franco-British rowing match at Nottingham on Saturday. The match is contested annually between the selected under 16 crews from each nation in 1x, 2x, 4-, 4x and 8 for girls and the same events for boys with the addition of 4+ and 2x.

The Heriots crew of Emma Guy, Karina Williams, Stephanie McDowall and Gemma Lumsden - already the National Champions of Great Britain at both J 16 and J18 levels - took an early lead and, although the ever-present Nottingham headwind put paid to any record time aspirations, romped home 24 seconds ahead of their French opponents.

The British girls team won their match 4-1, the French boys won 4-3, leaving GB as overall winners 7-5. This was the 24th staging of this challenge: France won the first 21 matches, with Britain winning the last 3 on the trot.

Scotland pleased with Home International showing - Mike Haggerty's report in today's Herald on HIR at Inniscarra on Saturday. Full results are on the Irish Amateur Rowing Union site.

Shaw performs at U23 Worlds: I haven't been able to find any reports from the World Under 23 Rowing Championships in Belgrade - even the official results site is pretty hard to decipher (waft your cursor between the horizontal lines on the page to find ghostly grey links to the individual days' results!). In a field of 23 scullers in lightweight single sculls, Gavin Shaw came 4th in Friday's heat behind Germany, Turkey and Hong Kong. In Saturday's repechage he finished 2nd behind Australia - then 5th in Sunday's semi-final, this time behind France, Turkey, Spain and Austria. This put Gavin in the B final, where he finished 4th (ie 10th overall in the competition) behind Germany, Belgium and New Zealand.

Let the Sprints begin! Yes, that time of year is fast coming round again. First up this year is the Inverness Hawco Sprint on Saturday 23rd August, with a full spread of fours, pairs, doubles and singles events from J14 to Veteran. In addition to the poster, rules and entry forms are also here.

23 July

Good luck to the Scottish team! The Scottish rowing team leaves on Thursday for the Home International, which this year is being hosted by Ireland at Inniscara Lake near Cork. As Mike Haggerty reported in the Herald on Monday, Scottish club crews did particularly well at the National Rowing Championships this year so, with luck, we can look forward to some good performances. Good luck, guys.

Thinking of buying a single scull? Nice one newly appeared on the Sales & Wants page.

Advance notice of SARA AGM: the annual general meeting of the Scottish Amateur Rowing Association will take place at 1.00pm on Sunday 2nd November. Picking up on the 'discussion' format of the half yearly, the Executive are inviting clubs to submit questions or topic suggestions to the secretary, Paul Mackie, in advance of the meeting - though that old stalwart of meeting agendas 'AOCB' will still be there for afterthoughts.

22 July

Caitie Gorton, Fiona Struthers, Louise Kelly and Amanda Hinds of Clyde and Clydesdale: National Champions of Great Britain in women's quadruple sculls.

Colin Wallace, Ross Cruickshank, Kerr Neave, Michael Anderson & cox Jamie Steel of Aberdeen Schools, National Champions of Great Britain in junior men's coxed fours. With Ben Ramsden in place of Kerr Neave, they also won junior coxless fours, while Cruickshank and Wallace took silver in junior coxless pairs.

At this early stage it was a Scots 1, 2, 3 in women's junior coxless fours. At the line, however, it was George Heriots School (Emma Guy, Karina Williams, Stephanie McDowall and Gemma Lumsden) who were crowned National Champions of Great Britain, with Nithsdale taking silver and Aberdeen Schools being edged into 4th .

Alastair Warnock of Glasgow RC showing full extension at the placement on his way to silver in men's single sculls

Preparation going well for Shaw: word from national coach John McArthur that Gavin Shaw's preparations in Hazewinkel for his race for GB in the World Under 23 Rowing Championships have been going well. The low-30s temperatures have been good acclimatisation as Shaw heads on to Belgrade for this weekend's racing - in which he faces 20 nations, which means heats starting on Friday.

21 July

Nat Champs - what the papers say: Home sweet home as Scots claim record haul (Mike Haggerty, The Herald), Royal Chester's late selection sparks protests (Chris Dodd, The Independent), Joy for Juniors (Mike Rosewell, The Times), Chester cause ripples (Rachel Quarrell, Daily Telegraph). Full results day-by-day are on the Nat Champs web site. Also, on the Rowing Service, you can relive your race with commentary written during the race (Sunday's junior and senior finals only)

Great photos Andy! Some excellent photos from the National Rowing Championships of Great Britain have come in from Andy Dunn. I'm up to my eyes at work but will try to publish them tonight. If anyone else has goodies they'd be prepared to share, please do e-mail them to me

16 July

Traffic update on routes to Strathclyde Park: I hear from Scotland's rowing development officer based at Strathclyde Park, Callum Macdonald, that the cones and queues have been on the move. The info from Callum and others (thanks Fraser, Katy, Peter, et al) is

• Traffic from the south (M74): resurfacing south if J6 (the turn off to Strathclyde Park) is causing delays. No real alternative route.
• Traffic from Edinburgh: best to come through Motherwell or, if using the Bellshill by-pass, to enter the Park at Raith Interchange (north end).
• Traffic from North: M74 restricted width from J5 south. Recommend visitors leave the motorway at J5 and take the road round within the Park, past the funfair.

In general terms, it looks like a case of 'allow extra time'.

Nat Champs on the Web: there will not be detailed coverage of this year's National Rowing Championships on the SARA web site. The event is in Scotland, so hopefully the Scottish rowing community will be there to watch! For anyone who really can't get to the event, however, Rachel Quarrell will be doing live commentary on the web for The Rowing Service during the finals on Sunday.

New Sales and Wants: check the sales and wants page for some new additions

13 July

Inverness winners at Henley Veterans' Regatta: Mandy Towrie and Susanne Hunter of Inverness RC beat Cambridge (USA) in yesterday's final of women's veteran C double sculls - by half a length. It was almost an Inverness double win: Vet D pair of Tom Baker and Brian Bell were leading UK Masters champions from Greenbank Falmouth with 5 metres to go - but then hit the booms and crashed out of contention. Both Inverness crews will be off to do it all again at the FISA\World Masters Regatta in Vichy later in the summer.

12 July

Heriots power through to GB selection: at today's race-off for places in the GB team for the Franco-British J 16 match, George Heriots School came out tops in the girls fours, wining by over 3 lengths. Congratulations to the Heriots crew of Emma Guy, Karina Williams, Stephanie McDowall and Gemma Lumsden who will now represent Great Britain in the coxless four. Congratulations also to the Heriots coaching team of Bob Neil, Jim Wilkinson and Nick Rankin.

Don't be late for Nat Champs! A bit of advance warning that there are roadworks on the M73/M74/M8 interchange causing long tailbacks at peak times. Traffic from the south (i.e. coming north on the M74) or coming across from Hamilton is generally OK. But anything coming by the main routes from the Glasgow, Edinburgh or Stirling directions should be prepared for delays and allow extra time.

11 July

National Rowing Championships of Great Britain draw now up: the full provisional draw and race timetable is now up. The total entry is 674 crews or 1603 competitors, an increase on the last time the championships was held in Scotland. Racing starts at 0830 next Friday, with around 100 races per day on Friday and Saturday. Finals day, Sunday starts at 0930.

10 July

Heriots in race for GB selection: a George Heriots' School women's J16 4+ is today heading south for the final race-off on Saturday for the right to represent Great Britain in the annual Franco-British match.

Winter sun rowing adventure? Try this! How about a regatta in Martinique in November? A really attractive colour PDF information leaflet for you to download, together with the entry form. Did I REALLY see an offer of free accommodation and boat loan?!

Racking arrangements for Nat Champs: advance information from Strathclyde Park that additional small boat racking for 1x and 2x/- will be erected in the car park area behind the National Rowing Academy. This means that the permanent racking in front of the centre will be for larger boats only.

Racing starts tomorrow at Lucerne: the BearingPoint FISA World Cup regatta gets under way on the Rotsee at Lucerne tomorrow. The special interest for Scots will be to see how Katherine Grainger and her partner Cath Bishop can do in the W 2- (they got silver in Munich and gold in Milan - but the field is getting larger and more competitive as the season progresses). No Pinsent and Cracknell this time: they're back in training following the competition at Henley. You can follow racing on the FISA race tracker.

4 July

Shaw to race U23 1x for GB: Following performances in the 4- at Essen, in training and in his 1x at Scottish Championships - where Shaw bettered his personal best by 5 seconds - Gavin Shaw has been selected to represent Great Britain in the lightweight single scull at the Under 23 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade. Gavin is currently in full-time training at the National Rowing Academy, Strathclyde Park under his coach, John McArthur. They leave early next week for team preparation at Hazewinkel before traveling on to Belgrade.

Glasgow University miss out in Temple: racing yesterday evening, Glasgow University (Scotland's last remaining crew at Henley Royal Regatta) lost by 1 1/2 lengths to Imperial College 'A'.

Don't miss the Nat Champs entry deadline! This weekend is pretty much last chance to get your entries in for the National Rowing Championships of Great Britain at Strathclyde Park on 18-20 July. Junior heats start on the Friday, senior heats on the Saturday, and it's a rare opportunity to race in Scotland at a regatta where all events are over 2000m and with a repechage system - oh, and the chance of being crowned National Champion of Great Britain at the end of it. Entries (there is a full on-line entry system) close 10.00 am on Tuesday 8th July

3 July

Watson's battle hard, but Tiffin/Walton pull through: George Watson's led Tiffin School and Walton RC to both the Barrier and Fawley in the Fawley Challenge this morning, but Tiffin & Walton came back to take a 2 foot verdict at the finish.

Aberdeen University go out to Harvard: having drawn a seeded Harvard crew in the first round of the Visitors', Aberdeen University knew they were really up against it. The verdict was 2 1/4 lengths to Harvard. Other Scottish crews racing today are George Watson's vs Tiffin School & Walton in the Fawley at 1045 and Glasgow University vs Imperial College in the Temple at 1730. Full Henley results are coming up very fast on the official web site here

Britannia set to be a beezer? First round racing in the Britannia Challenge at Henley yesterday showed close racing (half the verdicts were under a length) suggesting this may be a rewarding event to watch during the regatta. Unfortunately for the Scots, Aberdeen University went out to Isis BC, but did so in the second fastest heat of the 16 matches raced in the event yesterday - and then only by 3/4 length.

2 July

Some photos from the Aberdeen Inter-Company Regatta. Above. The winners, Aberdeen Asset 'Reloaded'. L to R; coach/cox Pam Stevenson, Michael Ross, Tom McCormick, Kelly Newlands, Margaret Cottam. Left: The lighter (fluffier?) side of the event. The 'Petrofac Pink Panthers' won the best dressed crew prize. Below: The winning stroke. Aberdeen Asset Reloaded come to the line with quality of technique which belies the fact that this was only their 6th outing! (photos courtesy Tom McCormick)

Glasgow go through at Henley: in the Temple, Glasgow University beat Abingdon School by 3 1/4 lengths. You can follow Henley results in full on the official web site

Myles in front: following a strong performance in GB junior trials, George Watson's sculler Kirsty Myles has been selected for the GB double scull to race in the Coupe de la Jeunesse.

Hiring SARA boats for the National Rowing Championships of Great Britain: any club wanting to hire SARA boats for the championships should contact Callum Macdonald by phone (01698 250206) or e-mail ASAP, but at the latest by Monday 7th July.

New coaches qualify: Congratulations to eight new coaches who have completed the Rowing Instructor's Certificate RIC) course: Damien Ward (Inverness RC), Stuart Vallance (Aberdeen Schools RA), Jim Wilkinson (George Heriots School), Donald Harley (Nithsdale ARC), Maureen McGarvie (Glasgow RC), James Fullarton (Clydesdale ARC), Karen Barton (Strathclyde Park RC) and Kevin Watson (Stirling RC)

Coaching Register reminder: a reminder that all coaches must return the new-style registration form to Callum Macdonald by 17th July.

Assets 'tied up'?: SARA's insurance company has emphasised that all SARA boats racked outside must be tied down. Anyone using a SARA boat must ensure that, when not in use but kept outside, it is well tied down. (Good advice for any boat anyway!) On the same subject, any damage to SARA fleet boats must be immediately recorded in the damage log which is kept in the boat bay.

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