Spring can’t arrive quickly enough for rowers for whom the winter season has been beset by cancellations and curtailments through challenging weather and water conditions. A succession of storms has left rivers in a constant state of flood and fast flowing water unsuitable for rowing, particularly the Thames, Severn and Trent with their large catchment[…]
On Friday, February 23rd Izzy Maddison from Durham ARC achieved 10th place out of 44 entrants in the Year 10 girls 5 minutes race at the 2024 National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships (NJIRC) at the John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds. Izzy was one of around 900 participants at the Northern edition of what[…]
A full entry of almost 400 enjoyed a splendid day of racing over 4 divisions at Durham Small Boats Head on Saturday, February 3rd, the main competition hosted by the club during the winter season. The event was given the go ahead thanks to the river level having fallen to near normal by the appointed[…]
The results from Durham Small Boats Head are available for Division 1, Division 2, Division 3 and Division 4, as well as full results combined over all four divisions with handicaps applied and event winners indicated. Additional reports can be found on Oar-Online.
The winter season started in fine style on the River Tyne on January 20th at Tyne United New Years Head, which is hosted jointly with Durham University Boat Club. Though the viability of the competition was in doubt for some time because of concerns about Storm Isha the decision to go ahead was vindicated, and[…]
Rutherford Head lived up to its reputation for providing cold weather competition as over 250 crews from as far afield as Cambridge, London and Aberdeen took to the Tyne on Saturday December 2nd in temperatures that remained below freezing point for much of the day. With the north of England covered in a blanket of[…]
The 2023 Long Distance Sculling Series (LDS) finally reached its conclusion with a rearranged date in Durham on November 11th, after suffering consecutive cancellations at Tyne, Berwick and Wansbeck brought about by too much water, too much wind or both. Hence only three of the six scheduled LDS rounds and two of the four associated[…]
Durham Autumn Small Boats Head (ASBH) went ahead on Saturday, November 11th, a week later than planned, thanks to sterling efforts to clear debris blocking the passage through Elvet Bridge in the wake of Storm Ciaran. Indeed, the double header of the ASBH and the final round of the Northern Rowing Council’s Long Distance Sculling[…]
Results of the 2023 Durham Long Distance Sculling head are available here, and those from the Autumn Small Boats Head, combined over the two divisions are here, showing finish times, handicap adjustments and event winners.
The 2023 Fours Head and Veteran Fours Head both fell victim to Storm Ciaran, the second of two named storms to hit the UK in as many weeks. The Veteran Fours Head had been scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 4th, and the Fours Head on Sunday, November 5th, both on the Tideway in[…]
The 2023 Sunday League season reached its conclusion with the final round surviving a late weather scare to go ahead at Hexham on Sunday, October 1st. In a curtailed season of six scheduled rounds rather than the usual eight this was to be the only skills round. The League got off to a tentative start[…]
The 2023 Long Distance Sculling (LDS) Series got underway on Saturday, September 30th with the first of the six rounds being hosted by Tees Rowing Club, a double header with Tees Small Boats Head (SBH), both contested over the winding 5km course on the River Tees. The morning LDS attracted over 200 entries and the[…]
It is generally accepted that in the northern hemisphere September marks the start of the head racing season, although several national and international regattas buck the trend, such as the World Rowing Championships and World Masters Regatta, the former taking place this year in Belgrade, Serbia between September 3rd and 10th while the latter migrates[…]
Twenty Juniors from Durham ARC endured some very challenging conditions on the lake at Strathclyde Park near Motherwell for the 3-day British Rowing Junior Championships held between July 14th and 16th and performed exceedingly well to return with 3 medals and 13 appearances in finals from their 15 entries. In a break with tradition the[…]
Two DARC crews went to Henley on July 8th for the second of the two days of competition at the 2023 Henley Masters Regatta which draws entries from across the UK and overseas for the annual competition for rowers over 27 years of age over 1000 metres of the famous Henley reach. Both were handed[…]
The Northern regatta season drew to a close at a windswept Talkin Tarn on Saturday, July 1st. The Regatta was in doubt because of the wind forecast until the go ahead was given the day before, by which time it had also been decided to shorten the course from the usual 700 metres to 500[…]
Following their success at Durham Regatta the Senior Men stepped up their preparations for Henley Royal Regatta by entering a Tier 2 coxless four and a Tier 2 coxless quad at Marlow Regatta on the 8-lane course at Dorney Lake on June 17th in what is traditionally the last opportunity for crews looking to pre-qualify[…]
Henley Women’s Regatta (HWR) on June 16th to 18th attracted a record entry of 547 for the 35th edition of what is the premier rowing regatta for women in the UK. Crews were required to take part in a time trial for each event over a course of around 1400 metres of the Henley reach[…]
Several members of the Masters squad went to the British Rowing Masters Championships at the National Watersports Centre at Nottingham on June 10th and 11th. After initially announcing that the Championships would take place over one day British Rowing decided to revert to the usual two days, and to again include Non-Championship events in the[…]
The 190th Durham Regatta took place on June 10th and 11th 2023 and was well supported by Durham ARC with 28 entries on Saturday and 20 on Sunday. A successful weekend saw DARC emerging second only to Durham School in terms of victories with 9 event wins on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. On Saturday[…]
After 3 weeks of subdued activity and no entries at Wansbeck Regatta or the National Schools Regatta the season continued with Hexham Regatta on June 3rd, always a very popular event particularly with students, falling towards the end of the academic year and the week before Durham Regatta. As Durham ARC provides transport for Durham[…]
Another weekend of divided loyalties saw some squads making the short trip to Tees Regatta on May 13th while others went further afield to the National Watersports Centre at Holme Pierrepont for Nottingham City Regatta on May 13th and Nottingham Masters and Club Regatta on May 14th. Racing at Tees took place over the 800[…]
A clash of dates between the 2023 Durham City Regatta and the Coronation Day of King Charles III and Queen Camilla meant that the regatta moved forward a day, taking place on Sunday, May 7th and Monday, May 8th. Billed as the Coronation Regatta, Sunday had a full entry of 246 competing over 700 metres[…]
The first action of the 2023 regatta season for Club members came on April 22nd and 23rd when the Junior, Senior and Masters squads visited two of the UK’s three multi-lane international courses at Nottingham and Strathclyde Park. Junior Inter Regional Regatta Durham ARC had members in six of the entries selected to represent the[…]
A successful day at the Junior Inter Regional Trials for the Northern Region at Cambois Rowing Club on March 11th led to 6 of Durham ARC’s 12 participating crews and scullers gaining qualification for the Junior Inter Regional Regatta (JIRR) which takes place at the National Watersports Centre at Nottingham on April 22nd. The time[…]
On Saturday, March 18th the Senior Men entered 2 eights for the Head of the River Race (HoRR), their best entry since the 1990s and indicative of their continued expansion. The race traditionally takes place a week before The Boat Race over 6.8km of the Championship Course on the Tideway between Mortlake and Putney, and[…]
Several years of planning came to fruition on March 4th as the first rowing competition to take place on Derwentwater in over 150 years went ahead. Fifty-four eights, fours and quads from sixteen clubs across the North of England took to the placid waters, launching from the beach at Keswick foreshore and paddling to the[…]
The 2023 World Rowing Indoor Championships, presented by Concept 2, went ahead as a hybrid event for the first time on February 25th and 26th, with an impressive entry of around 1600 athletes taking part, some competing in-person at the host venue at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga, Toronto, Canada while others took[…]
Winter heads on the River Tyne are an important part of the rowing calendar, providing challenging tidal conditions for crews preparing for the Tideway Heads at the end of the season in March. Rutherford Head opens the season for eights racing over the 5km Championship course in December and is followed by Tyne United New[…]
Durham Small Boats Head went ahead on February 4th in pleasant conditions and without undue incident. A full entry of 388 for the time-trial in four divisions over 1800 metres included large contingents of 48 from George Watson’s College and 56 from George Heriot’s School, both travelling from Edinburgh to compete, as well as local[…]