Notes
Sadly a new record was set at
the 2014 North East Regatta ... the record for the smallest number of
entrants!
We had 38 races on Saturday and a
disappointing 17 races on Sunday.
Almost all of these involved Aberdeen clubs
with a small entry from Dundee University making the trip north (and
going away with some of our lovely new medals!)
Inverness Rowing Club had entered a Veteran
Pair but there was no opposition so the event was cancelled.
Our final outside entry came in the form of
a single
Junior Sculler who hails from St Andrews
College Rowing Club in Christchurch, New Zealand – he is on an exchange
trip to a School in Perthshire and entered J-18 sculls and open sculls
on Saturday.
Thanks to ASRA for loaning him a boat for
these events.
The low number of entries was also due to ASRA
deciding that they would not be entering the North East in any
significant numbers this year.
Albyn Schools Rowing Club provided the only other
Junior entries and ended up having to race against each other – one
double scull capsized on the start line but were quickly rescued and
seemed none the worse for their early bath!
Other dramas ensued in the
Novice Eights final when members of each crew (ABC and AUBC) managed to
catch spectacular crabs on separate occasions shortly after the start.
Niall Young, who was commentating on the
race, was looking forward to further excitement but reported they were
both rowing in fine form by the time they shot the QE2 Bridge – they
must have honed their skills during the race!
Thanks go to the umpires;
John McKinney (senior), Peter Morrison, Carol Wallace, Neil Macfarlane,
Robert Robertson, Gary Bain, Bryan Steel, Ian Duncan, Catriona Wilson
and Fiona Murray.
They had to endure some hanging-about as
the small number of races meant it was not possible to pad-out rest time
between rounds of races so some races had large gaps.
Despite this, both days finished ahead of
time.
The weather was lovely on Saturday but
Sunday reverted to a more typical headwind which created some rough
water near the finish later on in the day.
Finally, congratulations to
Peter Morrison who was the first person to correctly answer the
conundrum that Ron set within the regatta programme - the
questions are below -
email me if you think you can answer them (but sorry, the prize is
gone!)
=>
Not
so much a rule as a question (prize for first correct answer showing
your working!)... multiply the number of arches in the Victoria Bridge
by the number of over-water arches in the Railway Bridge; then add the
minimum weight (in kg) of a cox in a junior event;
subtract the minimum rowing age of
a Veteran E sculler;
add the date in April this year
that the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race took place;
finally add the date in this month
that has the highest tides in Aberdeen.
