One of Fermanagh’s longest running annual sporting events, the Erne Head of the River, will celebrate 60 years from the original staging which took place on Lough Erne on Saturday, March 14, 1957.
This year’s event will take place on Saturday, March 4 and later that evening when racing has finished, to celebrate the milestone, Enniskillen Royal Boat Club is hosting a 60th Erne Head Celebration dinner which will also mark the awarding of the MBE for services to rowing to club stalwart Robert Northridge.
The celebration dinner will be hosted at Enniskillen Royal Grammar School on the Loughshore site and is being organised by the Boat Club’s Parent Support Group.
The inaugural Erne Head of the River saw four crews compete, Trinity, Queen’s and two Portora crews. The measure of the success of the event can be seen with now around seventy crews competing every year.
Trinity won the inaugural event and it is expected that some members that rowed in the very first Head of the River will be present this year and attend the celebration dinner.
Like all great sporting tests, the Erne Head of the River has had no shortage of drama and a UCD crew went up the inside of the ‘spit’ and gut stuck while in the 1970s when health and safety requirements may not have been as strict, some crews sank.
Times change and in 2014, the event was cancelled due to the weather for safety reasons while in 2001 the outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth saw a block cancellation of all sporting events around the Border counties with the Erne Head a casualty.
Those two years apart, the racing has been keen and the Erne Head has attracted top crews throughout its 60 years and this year will be no exception.
The emergence of Portora Boat Club, now Enniskillen Royal Boat Club, as the top junior club in Ireland, has seen plenty of home successes on Lough Erne with many rowers cutting their teeth it this demanding event before going on to great success at national and international level.
Indeed, in 2016, former participant Holly Nixon, who is pictured right preparing as a teenager for the 2007 Erne Head of the River, won a world championship gold medal.
And so, on Saturday week, crews and rowers will once again descend upon Enniskillen for some top class racing. As such then, the event first organised in 1957 by the late George Andrews and continued down the years by the likes of David Robertson and Robert Northridge, will continue to demand of its athletes and excite its spectators.
Tickets are still available for the 60th Erne Head celebration dinner. For further information contact Fiona at school office 02866 322658 or Boat Club Parent Support Group members Gaye Conway 07860888934, email gayeaconway@hotmail.com or Simon Kennedy at SD Kells, Enniskillen.