Queen’s Rowing has been shaking off the snow and enduring the freeze as it begins the New Year and pushes on through the winter season. The weather has been particularly erratic this year around the Lagan, with shifts between snow, ice, hail and the odd ray of sunshine. (Credit to Adrian Lavery for this photo below)
January Exams
As well as enduring the drop in temperature, the majority of Queen’s Rowers had to prepare for and take their January exams. The whole club made a good account of itself in maintaining a good standard of training in the face of tough weather conditions throughout the exam period. Queen’s Rowing hopes that the work has paid off for all rowers at the club and that you have achieved what you were aiming for in your results.
Lagan Mini Head 26/01/13
The January Mini Head was a great opportunity for Queen’s Rowers to re-focus and de-stress after the January exams. The Men’s Senior Eight rowed gave a fine performance considering some recent changes to seat positions and individuals changing rowing sides. The eight finished first with a time of 16:48.9, with Rupert Crowley coxing. The second quickest Queen’s Crew was the Men’s Intermediate coxless quad, which was only recently put together for the Mini Head but still gave a good performance. There was some close contact with the Coleraine Inst. J18 Eight as steerer of the Quad James Cooke was forced to take difficult lines due to tight racing with the school boy crew. The quad finished seventh, with a time of 17:20.7.
The two Men’s Novice Eights gave great performances, with the ‘A’ Novice Eight, coxed by Peter Ramsey, finishing just behind the Queen’s Intermediate Quad in eighth place, with a time of 17:46.3. The crew was unfortunately beaten by the Belfast Rowing Club Novice Eight who finished sixth. BRC have been providing strong novice competition this season and this result is something that the Novices can push on from. The ‘B’ Novice Eight, coxed by Stacey McGaughey, finished at a respectable 12th with a time of 18:29. For a ‘B’ Novice crew this result is still commendable and it is very encouraging to still see the men’s club being able to produce two novice eights to race almost immediately after the exam season has finished.
The crew of the Women’s Intermediate Eight, coxed by Carol Moorehead, proved their worth once again, finishing 16th with a time of 19:09.4 and as the fastest Women’s crew on the water, keeping at bay the challenge from the Belfast Boat Club’s Senior Women’s Double Scull by ‘point one’ of a second. One of the Queen’s Rowing ‘stand- out’ performances once again came from the Novice Women’s‘A’ crew, coxed by Catherine Campbell, who finished with a time of 19:27.8, within twenty seconds of the Women’s Intermediate crew. The Novice Women’s ‘B’ crew, coxed by Victoria Miller, finished thirty-third, with a time of 22:31.1, unfortunately just a few seconds off the Coleraine Inst. J16 Eight. Once again, these are two great performances and like the novice men it’s very encouraging to see two novice eights from the Women’s club being produced at an early stage of the head season.
The Queen’s Rowing Alumni Group, Lady Victoria Boatclub had a post-race talk with the club, with current Club President, Ricky Carruth introducing himself to student rowers new to the club and promoting the benefits of rowing at Queen’s and the importance of contributing to the Queen’s Rowing Academy. Current Club Captain Maurice Warnock, taking over from David Storrs, also introduced himself to new club members and talked about some of the benefits of being part of Lady Victoria Boat Club, including maintaining lifelong friendships established while rowing for Queen’s. Maurice also introduced some of the other Queen’s Rowing Alumni who talked about some of their highlights while rowing for Queen’s.
Lady Victoria Boat Club Winter Dinner
The annual Lady Victoria Winter Dinner also took place last Friday evening, February 1st, at the Ulster Reform Club on Royal Avenue in Belfast City centre. The guest speaker for the evening was journalist and sports broadcaster Adrian Logan. The current Queen’s Rowing Captains Andrew Little and Rebecca McGookin were in attendance, for whom it was their first Lady Victoria Winter Dinner. Three of the four girls who represented Queen’s and Ireland competing in the Ladies Coxless Four at the World University Rowing Championships in Kazan during September last year, were also present: Hannah Lavery, Alex Greene and Emma Kerrigan. Unfortunately Claire McIlwaine was unable to attend. The girls received a commendation and an ovation from all present for their efforts last season in the coxless four and also for their previous achievements throughout their rowing careers at Queen’s. Current Queen’s Head Coach Mick Desmond was also in attendance. Lady Victoria member Allan Leonard provided some photos of the occasion, some of which can be seen here and the remainder in a previous update on this blog.
Upcoming events, races and reminders
- Irish Trials and British Trials: Irish and British Trials will be taking place over this weekend. Donald Evans will be travelling back over to Boston, England to trial. Unfortunately no Queen’s athletes will be competing at the Irish trials this weekend. Queen’s Rowing wishes Donald the very best of luck!!
- Lagan Head, Saturday, February 16th, River Lagan, Belfast
- Erne Head, Saturday, March 2nd, River Erne, Enniskillen