100 rowers from Enniskillen Royal Boat Club (ERBC) travelled to Lagan Head of the River last Saturday to compete in their first race of 2022 and the club came away with a superb 12 category wins over the two races with the rowers making up a total of 22 crews.

19 crews

In Race One, ERBC had entered 19 crews in 16 different race categories and won nine of them including a win for the Women’s Junior pair, Acorn Cassidy and ERBC girls’ captain Laura Turner who completed the 2,700m distance in a time of 14 minutes 38.8 seconds, almost a minute and a half ahead of the City of Derry crew.

There were also wins for the Men’s Junior double of Marcus Davis Kunze and Charlie Smith and the junior pair of Tom Blake, ERBC’s boys’ captain and Tim Murphy. The Men’s Club 1 4+ crew of John O’Kane, Joseph O’Kane, Conor Richardson, Kyle Abraham and cox Frankie Rehill also won in a time of 12 minutes 55.6 seconds.

Younger rowers

There were also great wins for the younger rowers from the club.

The MJ14 4X- Evan Donaghy, Tom Fallis, Lorcan Sreenivasan, Luke Bailey and cox Conor Taylor beat the crew from Bann RC by almost 2 minutes.

The girls J15 4x+ of Kate Huddlestone, Hannah Armstrong, Zara Welsh, Molly Rice and Cox Ruby Hamill overcame crews from Coleraine Grammar School and Methodist College Belfast to win their category.

There were three Enniskillen WJ 15 eights entered in that age category and it was great to see them encouraging each other down the course to the finish line at Belfast Rowing Club.

In the Men’s Junior 15 eight category, the Enniskillen crew of Harley Sheppard, Callum Noble Charlie Lynn, Jacob Woods, Joshua Inhat, Bruno Maguire Favro, Joe Murphy, Cillian Donaghy and cox Cameron Bell overcame the crew from Methodist College to take the win by almost four minutes. There was also a win in the MJ15 2X for Ethan Rusk and Christian Timoney.

ERBC’s Men’s Junior Eight were the overall winners of Race Two completing the 4,200m course in a time of 16 minutes 13.6 seconds, 11 seconds ahead of Queen’s University Senior Men’s Four and a composite Men’s Masters crew who took the second and third places.

The crew of Tim Murphy, Tom Blake, Marcus Davis Kunze, Oran Harty, John O’Kane, Charlie Smith, Nathan Kelly, Luke Paton and cox Frankie Reihill beat Commercial RC Junior eight to second place in the category by almost two minutes.

The girls J16 eight of Eva Johnston, Victoria Breen, Aimee Elliott, Annabelle Kingston, Rhea Cartin McCluskey, Ellen Graham, Erin Trimble, Molly Nixon and cox Sarah Bell had a great win over Bann RC and Coleraine Grammar School in a time of 20 minutes 08.7 seconds.

In the Men’s J16 eight the ERBC crew of William Bogle, Andrew Cuthbertson, Matthew Shaw, Hugo McChesney, George Kernaghan, Owen Kelly, Jacob Halliday, Joshua Coalter and cox Katelyn Fee beat both Commercial RC and RBAI to win their age category by almost two minutes.

Overall it was a great event for the rowers from Enniskillen Royal Boat Club with some fantastic results right across the board. Next up for the junior rowers is Newry Head of the River on Saturday, February 5.