Enniskillen Royal Boat Club (ERBC) will send three crews to the prestigious Henley Women’s Regatta, which starts on Friday.

All three crews will face time trials with the aim of qualifying for further rounds.

Head of Rowing, Derek Holland, is happy with how the preparations have progressed for the crews in such a challenging year.

“Preparations have gone well for this event, all things considered. We have had a few injuries and had to change so we got consistency with the crews going into the event,” explained Derek.

He added: “We expect to perform to a high standard and are ready for whatever the draw will put in front of us. As long as we perform to our best in each race, all the crews will be happy and the results will take care of themselves.”

Indeed, the club is able to welcome some famous names back to rowing in Enniskillen colours, with former Irish champions Maeve Donnelly and Zoe McCutcheon representing ERBC after spending the academic year rowing at Oregon State University and University of Southern California respectively.

Time trial

They will race in the Championship Two – Redgrave Challenge Vase against crews from Cambridge, Oxford and Newcastle Universities and Leander Club, to name but a few. They face a time trial on Friday morning at 10.25am for seeding for the next round of races.

The Coxed Four crew of Aine McCaffrey, Jenny Little, Abigail Linton, Niamh Campbell and cox Georgia Maxwell take on crews such as Headington School, Henley RC, Kingston Grammar School in their time trial on Saturday at 9.15am.

There are 17 crews entered in the time trial, only 16 go through to the next round.

The Junior eight of Nikki Kernaghan, Laura Turner, Zoe Elliott, Chloe Thompson, Niamh Cassidy, Martha McBrien, Caitlin O’Hare, Katie Donnelly and cox Grace Ralph are hoping to go one step further than the crew of 2019 and bring the Peabody Cup back to Fermanagh.

Their time trial will take place on Saturday morning at 9.30am. They face crews from Henley RC, Latymer Upper, Tideway Scullers; 16 of the 17 crews entered will progress to the next round.