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Committee of the Dee          

2003 North East Regatta - River Dee, Aberdeen  17th & 18th May

Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association wins Championship of the Dee award at 2003 North East Regatta.

FULL RESULTS are listed in this pdf file

picture and article from the Aberdeen Press & Journal       (Link to P&J site)

Championship of the Dee results                   Historical entry statistics

General Notes

Winning Names (Saturday 17/5/03)  

Winning names (Sunday 18/5/03)


       

 

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North East Regatta 2003           17th  & 18th May 2003
                                      click here to go to the table listing winners from 1989 to present

Championship of the Dee

 The Championship of the Dee is the victor ludorum award for the main rowing event in Aberdeen.  It is calculated over both days of the North East Regatta.  Each winning finalist in an event earns his (or her) club two points.  Runners up (losing finalists) are awarded one point.

Club

Saturday Points

Sunday Points

Total Points

Final Position

Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association (ASRA)

106

3

109

1

Aberdeen University Boat Club (AUBC)

50

57

107

2

St Andrew Boat Club

35

28

63

3

Aberdeen Boat Club (ABC)

28

28

56

4

George Heriots Rowing Club

30

0

30

5

Inverness Rowing Club

9

19

28

6

Robert Gordon University Rowing Club (RGU)

4

20

24

7

Strathclyde University Boat Club

7

13

20

8

Glasgow Rowing Club

5

14

19

9

Dundee University Boat Club

10

0

10

10

Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club

1

2

3

11

 Congratulations to ASRA for winning the Championship of the Dee and commiserations to AUBC for losing by the narrowest of margins.  Our new “Generation” Double Sculls event on Sunday gave ASRA the extra 3 points they needed to maintain their lead from the Saturday.  It was, of course, the large number of wins on Saturday that secured them the title. 

Special mention should go to Kerr Neave of ASRA who was part of the winning Mens R1 Four and also came up two awards later to collect his Mens Novice Fours award.  Not many people can say they have won tankards for two events across the rowing spectrum on the same day!

 AUBC were extremely disappointed to have missed out on the award after entering a large number of crews on both days.  They had some impressive victories but also some disappointing results (especially on Saturday).  Perhaps next year!

RMW 18/5/03

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North East Regatta 2003           17th & 18th May 2003

Notes

 Our first challenge this year was the clash with the Glasgow/Edinburgh Universities Boat Race which was taking place this weekend on the Clyde.  We were concerned that this event might draw a lot of competitors and officials away from Aberdeen.  As it transpired, we had a good entry with 92 crews on Saturday and 73 on Sunday (a total of 30 more crews entered than last year). 

 We were also extremely well supported by umpires and grateful thanks go to the following SARA officials; Neil McFarlane (senior umpire), Gary Bain, Brian Gillion, Ian Duncan, Gill Laing, John McKinney, Raymond Dixon, Peter Morrison, Hugh McGoldrick, Sandy Walker, George Lawson, Angus Campbell, Bryan Steel, Terry McNeill, Robert Robertson, Bob Reid, Catriona Norris.  We again manned a “floating umpire” in a launch above the Suspensions Bridge – this seemed to work well but there were, inevitably, a few complaints about launch wash disturbing crews heading to the start.

 Our second worry was the weather forecast for the weekend which was predicting rain (no real problem) and winds of 35-42 mph on Saturday (a very big problem).  Happily, by Friday, the forecast was improving and in reality we had reasonable weather on Saturday with some showers mixed with sunny intervals. On Sunday the wind was stronger and colder.  Conditions about 2pm were challenging with a very strong downstream (tail) wind. 

 Only two “casualties” from Sunday may have had a weather component – the St Andrew BC Womens R2 Double Scull elected not to compete in the rough conditions at the time of their race so Inverness rowed over for the award.  Inverness did not have things all their own way, however, when their Mens Novice Four managed to collide with the City pillar of the QE2 Bridge during their race.  All the more embarrassing when they had borrowed the boat from Strathclyde UBC

 We were delighted to christen the new extension to the balcony of Aberdeen Boat Club.  This provided a superb viewing (and commentating) platform – it would be even better in warmer weather.

 Sadly, we lost our largest sponsor, Aberdeen Asset Managers, but we continue to enjoy support from a lot of individuals and small businesses who sponsor single events.  Special thanks go to Roddy McNeil of The Tastie Tattie who continues to sponsor our two major eights events.  His support over many years has helped us to maintain a standard of prizes which is unique in Scotland with every winner receiving a quality engraved tankard.

 We had a full days racing on Saturday and the last race started about 25 minutes late due to crews doubling-up (or their turn-around times slowing as they got tired, perhaps?).  Competitors and officials did a great job to finish Sunday’s racing ahead of time.  There were no disqualifications during the weekend although a few crews were warned for lateness and some for not racing in club colours. 

 This was the first NER when winners of qualifying events had to have their plastic SARA licences punched to record their victory.  This caused a few difficulties with absent licences and Sandy Walker was threatening to find something else to punch if a licence could not be produced!  Hopefully by next year everyone will be more familiar with the system.

                                                                                    RMW 18/5/03

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