The Chairman’s Scratch Regatta for eights and quads on Sunday, September 22nd took advantage of the blank weekend left by the disaffiliation of the Autumn Sprint from the racing calendar to provide a fabulous morning and afternoon of of fun racing for members from all sections of the Club.
Around 70 members drawn from junior, senior and masters squads and those in between took up the challenge of racing over a course of around 200 metres in eights and stable coxed quads with names being drawn at random to allocate members to crews, providing an opportunity for those from different groups to become better acquainted.
Chairman’s Regatta eights 2024
A BBQ was prepared ready for crews coming off the water, with numbers being swelled to 100 by family members and friends.
Crews were assigned to one of four eights and six quads, the crew-naming theme for this year being 10 bridges in Durham (not necessarily crossing the River Wear – how many can you name?), and took to the water for a series of round robin races using 4 shared boats, each crew getting 3 races with crews swapping over between races while coxes remained afloat.
Chairman’s Regatta quads 2024
After fifteen exciting races Prebends (Charlotte Foster, Izzy Maddison, Caroline Scholl, Colin Lawson, Paddy Deans, Rob Beattie, David Oliver and Angela Lund, coxed by Helen Adair and Ray Dominy) were declared winners of the eights competition, and Kingfisher (Aidan Lawlor, Taylor Casson, Sam Hancill, Elizabeth Belsey and Joyce Collett) winners of the quads, each having achieved the maximum 3 race wins.
The finish
Many thanks to the organisers for putting on such an enjoyable day.
Prebends – eights winners
Kingfisher quad sculling winners
Six rounds of the 2024 Long Distance Sculling Series get underway on Saturday, September 28th at Berwick and continue each weekend until Durham on November 2nd (the day of Durham Autumn Small Boats Head, the poster for which is now available). The Club’s annual fireworks display will take place on Sunday, November 3rd.