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The weather has not been feeling very wintery but as we turned the calendar page over into March it was time for seven hundred and twenty four crews to head north to race in the Inverness Rowing Club (IRC) Winter Head.  Unlike our November edition, this event includes eights and it was good to see a healthy entry of these most powerful of the flat water boats.  And it was eights that set the pace across the weekend with the fastest open 8+ being from Edinburgh University Boat Club, stroked by Onur Howie, coming down the 4.5 km course in a time of 13:53.1, and the fastest women’s boat being a women’s 8+ from St Andrew Boat Club stroked by B. Wall in a time of 16:11.

Racing was run over three divisions on Saturday and a further three divisions on Sunday with a gentle tailwind building through the weekend to provide some challenging conditions by Sunday afternoon.  IRC had success throughout the weekend, starting off in division one on Saturday where the IRC mixed R2 8+ stroked by Bethany Hinckley opened up a 5 minute lead over their nearest competitor to take their category in a time of 16:42.  Success continued in division two with the IRC juniors also taking medals in the J115 2x (Robin Roxburgh and Shay Hammock – 17:28).

Bethany Hinckley led the charge on Sunday, stroking the IRC womens R2 4+ to victory in the better conditions of the first division in a time of 19:43.  Mention should also go to Sam Roxburgh who, although third in the very competitive J18 1x category, set an impressive time of 18:12.  It was an Inverness masters 8+ stroked by Tim Latham which was first into the medals in the second division, setting the fastest time ever recorded by an Inverness mens 8+ over the 4.5 km course (16:16).  This was closely followed by a composite womens 4x including IRC’s Heather Gordon who won their category in a time of 16:17. The second division arguably saw the most challenging conditions with the strong tailwind kicking up some rough water.  It was therefore maybe Wilbur Grant’s win in the J14 (under 14 years of age) 1x that was the most impressive result from an IRC rower over the weekend.  Success continued for IRC in the third division with Tim Latham stroking his R1 2- to victory in a time of 18:51, closely followed by a second IRC 2- stroked by Robert Gordon.

Tough condition as the IRC masters 8+ races towards the finish line (below)

Attention will now turn to preparing for the summer regatta season which will see IRC rowers heading south to compete over 2 km multilane regatta courses.  And as always, the IRC race organisation team will go for a few weeks lying down in a darkened room.  Huge thanks to them and all involved for putting on what continues to be one of the highlights of the Scottish rowing calendar.

(or whose line is it anyway?)

Filled with enthusiasm from our own Fours head an intrepid band of Inverness rowers set out to the east to take on the bridges, stream and hail of the Aberdeen Fours and Small Boats Heads.  This is run in the lowermost reaches of the Dee, racing upstream for around 3.6 km but at high tide which lessens the stream somewhat, depending on the line you take!  Scratch fours were the order of the day for Saturday.  Division one saw us put together some rough and ready rowing to race up the course in a masters 4+ (with a helpfully lightweight cox borrowed from ASRA), beating the older ABC four by 1 min and 20 seconds but not managing to overhaul their full handicap advantage of nearly two minutes.  It was then the novice 4+ in division 2 with our own, slightly weightier but more experienced, cox on board.  Unfortunately a HWBC 4 decided to stop on the start line, and then veer into us after just 200m which was somewhat disruptive to what was already a boat of contrasting styles.  That was not the end of the excitement though with a coxed quad also appearing to be attracted by the gravity of our rowing as we rounded the final but, as our cox informed us, never ending bend (motivation stuff :-)).  Under the circumstances, no shame in a second place, 20 seconds behind ASRA.

Whose line is it anyway – there must be a good line in there somewhere!Sunday was the turn of the set crews, although given one was a single it’s difficult for it not to be set.  Division one had myself racing in the novice 1x and Tim Latham and Adrian Hopkins trying to replicate their R2 2- success of the previous weekends Inverness Head.  The weather started fine but the strengthening wind felt like it was going to bring some more interesting conditions, and possibly snow!  The course had been challenging with a cox, but now coxless it took on a whole new aspect.  However, racing in smaller boats often feels a very supportive experience, as was highlighted by one sculler shouting to me to tell me that I was going the wrong way, or rather taking a pretty bad line.  The wind and the associated chop really picked up towards the end of the course and nearly forced me to a standstill where it was funneling through the King George VI Bridge but once through it was possible to pick it up again with a good run into the finish line.  Tim and Adrian had a strong row in the pair finishing third, but only being 10 seconds off the winning time.  I took the win in the novice single and was pretty happy to also come in ahead of the J18 singles and one of the open category, despite a far from ideal race – practice on more lively water is needed.  While I headed off to Norway, Tim and Adrian went for the full experience by entering the final division in their pair, this time in the open category.  Their perseverance was rewarded by a heavy sleet shower just before the start but they were treated to some exceedingly tight racing: past the boathouses with all three open pairs were head to toe as one passed the other.  Taking second place was a great effort.  A fun head weekend and one that would be great to repeat with some more practiced crews……

(not sure we need the extra boats though!)

As we are perhaps becoming rather too accustomed, the winds of the preceding month dropped, the skies cleared and the rowers arrived.  It must be time for the Inverness Fours and Small Boats Head 2024 which always forms a highlight of the Scottish Rowing Callender.  The popularity of this event seems to just grow and grow with year on year record entries: this year being no exception with over 700 crews taking to the glassy water of the Caledonian Canal and our 4500 m Head Course, with racing was divided into 3 divisions on both Saturday and Sunday.

Perfect conditions greeted rowers in the first division on Saturday with the calm on the canal only being broken by the first boat down the course, disrupting the stunning reflections of the warm autumnal colours.  The first division saw success for Inverness Rowing Club with Steven Andrews rowing in a composite with Neil Paul (originally from the Black Isle) of St Andrew Boat Club who took the masters 2- in a raw time of 17:26. Success continued in the second division with Alan Sinclair taking the masters 1x in a raw time of 17:59.  The Inverness juniors placed second in the J15 2x, stroked by Shay Hammock, and Ciaran McManus also took second place in the masters novice 1x.  Second place seemed to be in fashion for Inverness in the third division with both our masters 4- (17:48) and women’s masters 4x (19:37) both coming home one off the top spot.

Sunday dawned a little less bright and a few showers cooled things down a little but the rowing conditions on the canal remained good.  In the first division Alan Sinclair took advantage of the conditions to knock 20 seconds of his time from the previous day, this time taking the open 1x in 17:38.  Sam Roxburgh also put in a great time in the J18 1x, coming third in 18:31.  Division 2 saw more Inverness success with Tim Latham and Adrian Hopkins putting in an excellent performance to narrowly defeat HWBC, winning the R2 2- in 19:01.  Wilbur Grant also took gold in the J14 1x finishing half a minute ahead of second in 20:49, and rowing through all of his competitors after starting at the back of the field!  There was one more victory for Inverness, which came in the third division for which the sun obligingly shone: Steven Andrews narrowly pipped a SPRC sculler, by 2 seconds in a time of 18:56, to win the R2 1x after a tough battle all the way down the course.  Inverness also picked up second places in the mixed masters 2x and the women’s novice 4x+.

The fastest time of the weekend for the open crews went to GUBC in the R1 4- with a time of 15:14 and for the women’s crews EUBC went fastest with a time of 16:58 in the women’s 4-.  Interesting to see sweep rowing ruling the roost.  The overall winners were George Watsons College based on a metric of participation plus average crew performance.

As always the best performers were really those that do all the hard work to make our Head weekends run so amazingly, from the marshals that spend most of their weekend up at the lock juggling boats, to those that spend weeks beforehand taking entries and organising numbers.

Junior Inter Regional Regatta – Nottingham 20th April

This is the first year that Scotland were invited to attend the Junior Inter Regional Regatta and 2 Inverness athletes were selected for the squad, following their excellent results at the Inverness Head in March.  Both did extremely well in what was a new experience for them with Sam Roxburgh finishing in 12^th in the J16 single and Shay Hammock taking bronze in the J15 1x A Final (2nd boats), just missing out on silver  one 100^th of a second.

Beach Sprints GB Trials & English Beach Sprint Championships – Bournemouth 27-28th April

Heather Gordon has been taking to the choppier waters of the beach sprint world, competing at a number of sprint regattas that have been held throughout the UK.  Most notably she placed fourth in the GB trials that were held in Bournemouth and followed that up with a third place in the English Beach Sprint Championships that were held the following day.

Scottish Spring Regatta 27-28th April

A large Inverness contingent headed south for what was the first multi-lane regatta of the season for many of them.  The weather smiled and the water was a lot less challenging that we have come to expect at Strathclyde Park.

Great performances on the Saturday saw Inverness take home silver in the J14 1x (Shay Hammock), narrowly squeezed out of the gold position, gold and bronze in the Novice 1x (Sam Roxburgh and Victor Atkinson) and a strong 4th in a hard fought final of the WJ15 4x with Hannah McManus taking a seat in a composite crew with members of Stirling RC.

Sunday was busy for both the juniors and the seniors who joined in the fun.  Lots of experience was gained throughout the club with a number of first time races at a multi-lane regatta and those that competed in singles over 1000m on the Saturday stepping up to the 2000m course on the Sunday.  Notably Sam Roxburgh came away with a bronze in the J16 1x.  It was the turn of the J14 doubles next, and somewhat mixed fortunes with Felix Latham and Wilbur Grant unfortunately capsizing after tangling with a buoy (although dealing with the situation admirably) and Robin Roxburgh and Shay Hammock storming through their heat and final to take a convincing gold.  The two crews then combined to take a well earned silver in the J14 4x+ with Hannah McManus coxing.

For many of the seniors competing it was the first time racing in a side by side regatta and although no medals were to be making their way back up the road with them, lots of experience was gained which will stand them in good stead for upcoming events.  A special mention must also go to the junior, Jessica Douglas, who traveled all the way down just to cox the senior crews.  Now everyone is looking forward to the rest of the regatta season.

With 682 entries received across all boat classes, fingers, and anything else crossable, was crossed that the weather would be kind, and no freak localised and stubborn fog patches would stop play this time.  Cool with a gentle breeze was on order and it was therefore a bit of a surprise to pull back the curtains on Saturday morning to see to snow falling.  Luckily the snow cleared and all looked set for a great weekends racing.  To try to lessen the time spent marshalling each day was being split in to three divisions for the first time.  This also seemed to make getting on to the water a bit more relaxed.

The first division went off bang on time but unfortunately for most of the small boats this coincided with a brief but almighty downpour of sleety rain – unlikely to have been able to get more wet if the racers had capsized!  The water was however perfectly flat and the drenching distracted minds from the effort that was being applied. Luckily that was the last of the precipitation to be seen and the sun had an ever increasing prominence in proceedings.  EUBC sent down the fastest boat in the first division recording an impressive 14:08 in their Open 8+.  IRC had to settle for some very tight second places.

Division 2 produced the first medal for IRC with Bethan Hinkley and Heather Gordon leading the way in their WR1 2x (18:36).  EUBC were back in their 8+ for Division 3 as a time only entry and managed to set the fastest time of the weekend by knocking 7 seconds off of their morning effort.

Sunday dawned bright and still.  Tom Baker and Jim Smillie took advantage of the fantastic conditions to win the Mas 2x.  And the medals kept coming for IRC in Division 2 with Shay Hammock taking first place in the J14 1x (19:59) and Mary Clouston winning the WMas Novice 1x. The success continued in Division 3 with Heather Gordon winning the WR1 1x in 19:51 and Gary Hunt and Sophie Baker sharing the Mix Mas 2x spoils with Dave Rothwell and Jude McManus in a dead heat.  The fastest ladies crew of the weekend was St Andrew Boat Clubs WR1 8+ with a time of 16:48.

A great event to draw a close to our head season and great to hear so much chatter already about the upcoming regatta season – all looking forward to what we hope will be some warm summer days competition.  Finally, it was brilliant to see so many people enjoying the racing and so many of our own crews progress in experience and seeing their times coming down.  And as always a huge thanks to all of those involved in the organisation and running of what is the largest head race in Scotland.

As now seems traditional the winds dropped and the sun began to shine, lighting the burnt autumn colours that line the Caledonian Canal.  It could only mean that it was time for the Inverness Fours and Small Boats Head once more, this edition sponsored by Caley Marina.  With six hundred and fifteen entries the waters were only going to stay calm for so long!

As always it is fantastic to see some truly quick crews making the 4500m course fly by.  The fastest crew of the weekend was the University of St Andrews BC R1 Quad stroked by Aidan Graham making it down the course in a time of 14 minutes 48.55 seconds (that’s holding a split of 1:29 for the whole course!) and the fastest women’s crew was also from the University of St Andrews BC with their R1 Quad stroked by Lizzy Adlam in a time of 16 minutes 12.89 seconds.  The overall winner of the Head of the Caledonian Canal 2023 was St Andrew BC, breaking the strangle hold that the University of Edinburgh have had on this award for a number of years.

It was hugely unfortunate that when Sunday came dawn never really appeared on the canal due to dense fog which persistently sat in the Inverness basin while the surrounding hills basked in the sun under clear blue skies.  The water remained flat calm and provided a beautiful row for those that could head on out after the racing was unfortunately called off for the day.

Inverness was well represented throughout the races which did go ahead on the Saturday.  A notable mention goes to the Novice 4+ stroked by Sam Roxburgh for making 2^nd in their event despite being relatively new to sweep rowing.  There were wins for Inverness in the J14 singles, with Shay Hammock coming home 45 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor, and the reunited composite pair of Conor Burgess (Chesterton Rowing Club) and Steven Andrews who took first place in the Masters 2- despite having a 2 year gap since their last outing.

Thanks to Stanislav Vohnik for documenting the weekend superbly – his photos can be found here.

Weblink to the events page: events.invernessrowing.uk/nov2023

The Aberdeen Sprint Regatta is a favourite event in the Inverness Rowing Club road-trip calendar and memories of the sun-drenched banks of the Dee sat well in our memories from last years event.  With a large IRC contingent heading east it was going to be a busy day of racing. We had a bumper entry of 29 crews racing across all boat categories (it was a very full trailer!) and crews included juniors, getting their first taste of sprint racing, to experienced masters and even generational doubles.

The short, 500 m, format of the Aberdeen Sprints always provides some exciting racing but to add to this IRC came away with a number of great performances and, as a consequence, not an insignificant number of medals. The first of these came from a close race between two Inverness crews in the R2 Mixed 4+ (winning crew: were Harry Ratcliffe, Euan McLeod, Bethany Hickling and Hannah Luke with cox James Luke).  Other wins were earned in the Novice 2x (Victor Atkinson and Samuel Roxburgh) and Open J14 1x (Shay Hammock) categories.  One of the most deserved of victories was in the Generational 2x with Gary Hunt and James Luke battling through two heats before winning in the final with a convincing lead.  A further medal was earned in the Masters 2- (Robert Gordon and Dave Rothwell).  Having won their heat against a Masters “A” crew they met their long time and well-known competitors from Aberdeen Boat Club.  Due to age differences in the masters crews, the Inverness crew had to win their race by a handicap of at least 10 seconds.  The final result was declared a draw when the timing team recorded a difference of only a tenth of a second between the crews, meaning that the medals were shared.  Races certainly don’t come much closer than that!

It was a fabulous day and a great experience for all those involved.  Thanks go to all the organisers, coaches, drivers and supporters that made the day a huge success.