ERBC’s boys and girls 1st eights competed in the Schools Head in London last Friday and produced the best results ever by an Irish Club at this event. They faced competition from some of the best rowing schools in the UK and raced extremely well indeed.
The boys finished a fantastic sixth place out of 16 top crews. Shiplake College, Eton College and St Paul’s School took the medal positions and the boys finished ahead of Westminster School, Kings College School and Kings, Chester among others. Their time over the course was 18.09.04.
The crew was Michael Stewart, Jack Kennedy, Rory Gamble, Peter Murphy, Odhran Donaghy, Nathan Timoney, Sam Balcombe, Jack McDade and cox Rory Farragher
The girls crew of Maeve Donnelly, Caragh Leonard, Martha McBrien, Victoria Wilson, Zoe McCutcheon, Jenny Little, Katie Donnelly, Abby Corry and cox Sarah Dolan finished in an incredible fourth place ahead of Headington School and St George’s College in a time of 18.57.9.
Monday saw the Junior Crews from the Club compete at Junior Sculling Head at Eton Dorney lake, the location for the London 2012 Olympics’ rowing events.
The WJ14 8X+ came away with a fantastic third place out of 35 crews beating crews from Henley Rowing Club and Lady Eleanor Holles Boat Club among many others. The crew of Laura Turner, Chloe Thompson, Clodagh O’Donnell, Cristiona McCaffrey, Scarlett Keys, Zoe Elliott, Rachel Cullinan, Keeva Corry and cox Georgia Maxwell were delighted with their performance.
Another notable performance came from boys J15 4X+ of Tim Murphy, Lewis Nixon, Charlie Smith, Luke Paton and cox Georgia Maxwell who came ninth out of 73 crews.
Racing at Eton Dorney was a fantastic experience for these young crews and they all performed extremely well and should be very proud of themselves. The J14 boys Octo finished 20th out of 43 crews which was a great achievement. The crews will return to Eton Dorney at the end of May for National Schools Regatta where they hope to repeat the success of 2018.
That is the Head season finished for the year with Regatta season just around the corner. The Club will travel to Neptune Regatta on Saturday, April 6.
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