North of England Head Race 2012

The City of Chester was the venue for the competition over the weekend.
Royal Chester RC hosted the North of England Head Race, on Sat 10 March, on the River Dee, a 5km race from Eccleston Ferry to the Groves. The River Dee can be challenging with strong winds however on this occasion the crews raced in favorable spring sunshine. This race is only open to Eights, Junior Octuples and quads and used by many crews in their training build up for the forthcoming Tideway Head races. Many of the competing crews were visitors from outside our region heightening the level of competition.

Five eights raced over the two divisions –
Mens IM3 & Men’s Novice; Women’s Novice & WJ18; Women’s Master C/D.

Northwich RC returned with a win for the Women’s Masters C/D eight composite with Runcorn RC having a good race with a strong, experienced crew winning against Royal Chester in 21:10.
The Men’s Novice Eight made up of older junior boys performed well finishing second out of nine crews to the winners Durham University BC (17:09) by 30 seconds.

Crew win
WMas C/D coxed eight
Clare Holt, Carolyn MacRitchie, Vicky Cheshire, Elaine Young, Carole Riddell,
Val Edwards (Runcorn RC), Heidi Hackett (Runcorn RC), Clare Briegal (s),
Cox Sam Over

Forthcoming events

Head of the River, Tideway, London, Sat 17 March
Junior Sculling Head, Dorney Lake, Eton, Mon 19 March
Schools Head of the River, Tideway, London, Tues 20 March

Northwich Spring Head Sun, 1 April

At the start 5000m still to go! 5000m on the Dee and finished!

North West Junior Time Trail 4 March 2012

Runcorn Rowing Club hosted the annual North West Junior Time Trial on Sunday 4 March which is organized by the North West Regional Rowing Council.

This Head race of 1500 meters on the River Weaver is open solely to junior crews; the winning crews are subsequently selected to represent the NW region at the Junior Inter Regional Regatta to be held at the National Water Sports centre at Nottingham on 28 April. Needless to say there is strong competition between the clubs to be selected but great camaraderie within the NW Region Squad, building up the the event!

It was a very successful day attracting a large attendance of juniors from clubs all over the region, ranging from 13 to 16 years. Racing took place over four divisions throughout the day with favorable weather conditions.

Northwich RC entered nine crews made up of coxed eights, fours, doubles and singles.

Our stronger crews were the two Eights: Junior 16 boys and Women’s Junior 16 girls who have both been rowing extremely well with wins at various recent events. Both were strong contenders and hoping to impress on the day.

The Women’s Junior 16 Eight did indeed impress the selectors by winning against, a powerful Kings School WJ16 crew, by a very close one and a half seconds.
NRC/Grange Crew Win
Libby Weltman, Olivia Oaks, Sam Over, Ash Husdon, Kristian Purchase,
Issie Philps (Grange), Beth Chaplin, Kate Meehan cox Chloe Weston.

The J16 boys were beaten into second place by Kings School.

Northwich RC is delighted to recognize these are two of the best crews in the region.


NRC will attend:
North of England Head Race, Chester, Sat 10 March
Head of the River, Tideway, London, Sat 17 March
Junior Sculling Head, Dorney Lake, Eton, Mon 19 March
Schools Head of the River, Tideway, London Tues 20 March