The Enniskillen Royal Boat Club Boys’ J14 Octo made the A Final of the National Schools’ Regatta at Eton Dorney to headline a great weekend for the club at the very highest level of schools rowing.

Elsewhere, the Girls’ J14 Octo made the B Final, while there were top-class performances from the Junior Championship coxless Quad who made the C final, and the Boys’ Championship 8 were second in the B Final.

It was an excellent day for the talented J14 Octo crew of Evan Donaghy, Austin Cassidy, Ryan Topping, Lorcan Sreenivasan, Luke Bailey, Christian Timoney, Eoghan Campbell, Andrew Cuthbertson and cox Harry Coalter, who made the final with a superb row in the time trial to complete the 1,000m course in a time of 3 minutes, 16.04 seconds to finish sixth.

Top-class

This qualified them for the A Final, where they finished sixth after a poor start, but overall will have been delighted with their efforts against top-class opposition.

The final was won by Windsor Boys’ School.

The Girls’ J14 Octo made the B Final after coming 12th in the time trial in the time of three minutes and 47.99 seconds, after which they finished sixth in the B Final to complete another excellent day for this young team.

The crew was Rhea Cartin McCloskey, Molly Rice, Zara Welsh, Erin Trimble, Hannah Armstrong, Naomi Robinson, Jessica Thompson, Errie Powell and cox Zara Lindsay.

The Championship Coxless Quad of Kyle Abraham, Callum Timoney, John O’Kane and Conor Richardson were 17th in their time trial, in a time of six minutes 21.24 seconds. They then finished fourth in the C Final.

The Boys’ Championship 8+ crew came 15th in their time trial in a time of five minutes 51.97 seconds to qualify for the A/B semi-final.

They finished sixth in that semi-final to earn a place in the B Final, and they again performed well to finish second in that final, significantly finishing ahead of St. Joseph’s, Galway whom they will no doubt meet again at the Irish championships in July.

The crew was Tom Blake, Marcus Davis-Kunze, Oran Harty, Tim Murphy, Lewis Nixon, Charlie Smith, Nathan Kelly, Luke Paton and coxed by Frankie Reihill.

Head Coach Derek Holland was pleased with the performance.

“It was obviously disappointing not to have made the final in the Junior Boys 8s, but the British Championship standard is very high, so they still put in a very good performance and the positive was that we beat last year’s Irish champions, St. Joseph’s College, Galway,” he said.

On the Boys Junior 14 reaching the final, he added: “They did great to make that final, and become the first of our Junior 14s to do so, and hopefully they can take the positives out of this, going forward.”