Durham Sunday League 2024

On October 6th Durham ARC played host to the final round of the 2024 Northern Rowing Sunday League. In the best attended round of the season 16 crews representing 10 clubs from the northern region enjoyed a series of races over a 350 metre course in glorious autumnal conditions.

The league is organized by the Northern Rowing Council to help novice, recreational and returning rowers take part in some less serious competition. It involves different clubs hosting an event on the first Sunday of each month during the summer. The 2024 season consisted of 6 rounds starting in May at Tynemouth and subsequently visiting Tyne ARC, Hexham, Tyne United and Talkin Tarn (the intended opening round at Berwick in April was cancelled because of the weather conditions).

For the Durham round crews raced side by side in stable coxed quads over the Racecourse straight, a departure from the ’round the bend’ course used in previous years as a safety measure to avoid the shallow water in the silted up part of the river closer to the DARC clubhouse, the downside of this being that the additional time needed for crews to row down to the start limited the number of races that could be accommodated to three each rather than the usual four. Thanks go to Durham University for the loan of their two stable quads to supplement DARC’s two.

For the first time in the season DARC was able to enter two crews – DARC Humour having attended every round were standing third in the Open league at the start of the day, while DARC Angels (Samreena Riaz, Emily Jack, Katherine Young and Jacqueline Lynch) were making their first appearance in the Women’s league.

On completion of twenty five races the focus shifted to the gazebo for the end of season presentations and the BBQ. A fabulous day was widely acclaimed by all who took part. The results of racing at Durham are shown below.

A very successful event for the Durham crews saw DARC Humour winning their 3 races to move into 2nd place overall, while DARC Angels won 2 races on their first outing in the league having only recently graduated from the Learn to Row course. Dave, Steve, Paddy and Gabby provided coxing for DARC as well as for some of the visiting clubs.

Details of each round can be found on the Sunday League page of the Northern Rowing website.

 

The end of season prizegiving included special achievement awards as well as prizes presented to the winners and runners-up. See the Durham page for details and photos.

Summary of end of season results

Open league

• winners – Wansbeck Wanderers (Cambois RC) on 44 points
• runners-up – DARC Humour (Durham ARC) on 37 points.

Women’s league

• winners – Tyney Temper (Tyne ARC) on 41 points
• joint runners-up Turcles (Tyne United RC) and Cambois Cavalry (Cambois RC) with 32 points.

The final league tables are shown below.

Grateful thanks are due to all those involved in the organization and running of the event.

The 2025 league will get underway next Spring and further details will be published over the winter. Background to the event and details of how to take part are available on the Sunday League page.