More than 100 rowers from Enniskillen Royal travelled to the Shannon at O’Brien’s Bridge outside Limerick city on Saturday last. The weather on the morning was biblical, with cold, hard rain, but the water itself was flat and very rowable. There were many wins for the Fermanagh rowers, from 13 year olds to 18 years in various categories.

The girls’ Junior 18 eight had concerns before the race against the local Castleconnell club, who had beaten them at the Erne Head a few weeks ago, but a cracking start led by Kate Huddlestone and Rhea Cartin-McCloskey in the stern got them ahead and they won by six seconds – a satisfying start to the day.

Two girls’ Junior 14 quad sculls had significant wins in two divisions over Athlone and Shannon; and Cork, Castleconnell and St. Michael’s while the boys’ quad at J15 level beat Cork and Colaiste Iognaid from Galway.

A new-look boys J16 eight dominated Castleconnell, St. Michael’s and Dublin Commercial. The J18 girls had little rest before successfully racing against Lee and Galway in the quad.

There was no other entry in the boys’ J18 eights other than two of our own crews, so these were reselected to make a decent race of it, and the crew stroked by Callum Timoney won by a length.

The same situation occurred in the J18 fours event and the crew, stroked by Marcus Davis-Kunze, won by a length from their club mates.

At the lower age group of J14 girls there was a convincing win over Cork in the octuple event – eight rowers each with two oars.

Not to be outdone, the J14 boys octuple gave the local Castleconnell crew plenty to think about by winning well

The boys J15 ‘B’ eight were next up and in a thrilling race they beat St. Ignatius College and St. Michael’s – this was an historic win for this club as the stroke was Kate Huddlestone.

A sensible rule in Irish rowing allows a girl to row in a boys crew, as it is deemed not to be an advantage physically, but there are other aspects to rowing other than basic strength – as proven by Kate.

The J15’ A’ eight stroked by Luke Bailey beat Lee comfortably. Such is the strength of the boys at this age group that an octuple with one change from the B eight beat St. Michael’s, Athlone and Shannon.

The Girls’ J15 eight, stroked by Erin Trimble, beat St. Michael’s and another crew from ERBC with plenty to spare.

The girls’ J18 four won against Casleconnell in what looked like the performance of the day – technically sound and very strong. In this crew were Rachel Cullinan, Laura Turner, Chloe Thompson and Acorn Cassidy – it was their third victory of the regatta.

The day ended with conditions the exact opposite to those that pertained at the start of the event.