The side by side regatta season has arrived and accordingly Enniskillen Royal Boat Club entered Neptune and Commercial Regattas on the upper Liffey on April 1 and 2, respectively.

The contrast between the fine weather experienced in Spain the week before, when over 80 rowers improved their skills on the 1992 Olympic rowing lake, and the rush of water on the Liffey could not have been greater. March has been the wettest on record and even the river produced different conditions depending what station you were on.

At Neptune the Boys’ J15 eight of Christian Timoney, Jamie Dunlop, Charlie Lynn, Jake Sembhi, Eoghan Campbell, Ethan Downey, Andrew Cuthberstson, Ryan Topping and cox Iain Fleming won well over the local Neptune crew.

They were followed shortly after by the J15 quad scull of Luke Bailey, Evan Donaghy, Lorcan Sreenivasan, Austin Cassidy and cox Ben Cameron who beat the host club again.

The J16 equivalent of Justin Smith, Joe Murphy, Hugo McChesney, William Bogle and cox Dan Montgomery had a tougher passage to the final and narrowly missed out to Neptune in a very close finish.

At J18, ERBC entered a young eight to race against Blackrock College and ‘won’ comfortably only to find there was an unfortunate steering infringement which resulted in their disqualification. However, much was learned by Jacob Halliday, John O’Kane,Thomas Murphy, Rory Keogh, Joshua Coalter, Hugo McChesney, Justin Smith,William Bogle and cox Iain Fleming. Narrow river racing presents different problems than the wide reaches of the Erne.

On Sunday, the girls group and a few boys raced over the same stretch organised by Commercial Rowing Club.

The J14 octuple beat Carlow with a crew of Aimee Turner, Brooke Ewing, Ciara Sreenivasan, Eva Fowler, Charlotte Bukowski, Amy Williamson, Penny Huddlestone, Aoibhin Campbell and cox Errie Powell. A nice first win in open competition.

At J15 quad sculls Isabella Wright, Zara Welsh, Erin Trimble, Grace Collins and cox Abbey Wilson dealt comfortably with Carrick on Shannon.

The J15 Octo had a more difficult issue to deal with when the race had to be re-rowed - due to a broken oar - against St Michael’s Limerick. However, they coped well and won a tight race. Milena Remedios, Mya Morris, Zara Lindsay, Annie Fowler, Amy Lipscomb, Siena Howe, Isabella Wright, Abbey Magwood and cox Abbey Wilson will remember this one.

The Boys’ J15 crew of Cillian Donaghy, Harley Shephard, Bruno Maguire-Favro, Joshua Ihnat and cox Iain Fleming beat Waterford - a very unusual pairing for a crew from Fermanagh to be racing a club from deep in Munster. Such are the benefits of Irish rowing.

The J14 Octo of Adam Bullock, Harry Welsh ,Caelan Moore, James McAleer, Evan Clarke, Lewis Coalter, Joel Crean, Felix Holland and cox Fleming beat a crew from their own club - a long way to go to face your own mates but both crews will have learned much about racing away from home on strange waters.

The attention now turns to Limerick regatta on April 22 when the whole club will travel to test themselves against top opposition on the river Shannon at O’Brien’s Bridge Much is promised as the season progresses.

Meanwhile, Portora Boat Club also travelled to Neptune Regatta on Saturday racing over 1,200m on the River Liffey, entering four crews.

The women’s quad crew was coxed by Siobhan O’Hare whose last outing steering a boat was in 2019 when she led Portora’s men to the British title. The crews average age was nearly 50 but they entered a club event where their opponents were mainly young enough to be their children.

In the opening heat Portora beat Portadown by 12 seconds, rowing the last quarter of the race at a composed 24 strokes per minute.

In the semi-final the crew from Fermanagh pulled ahead early but Carlow hung on doggedly with a race all the way to the finish, Portora winning by three seconds.

The final was against local Dublin opposition from Commercial Rowing Club, again the ‘Mums from the Erne’ took on the Leinster youngsters. Portora went off at 38 strokes per minute and just held on, Commercial eventually broke the Fermanagh crew and won by nine seconds.

Portora Women’s captain Helen Hughes-Flanagan also entered the Masters single as age category B.

In the opening round a mere 30 minutes after racing in the quad, Flanagan competed against an older racer from Neptune Rowing Club in Dublin. Using handicap rules the Dublin rower was given a 16 second head start, unfortunately Fermanagh’s female Masters sculler was unable to catch her.

The Portora Men’s Masters eight was forced to withdraw. The Masters women’s eights was won by Belfast Rowing Club who Portora’s women beat at the Erne Head. Again the Portora women could not compete as the eights racing clashed with the quad.

Over the next ten weeks Portora crews will be training hard for the British Masters Championships taking place at the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham in June.