Nottingham City Regatta

O! For a NRCHPS of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of Nottm city
A Hpp for a stage, Thames to Tyne did fall
And NRCHPS to behold the name on the boatman’s victory board.

Can Boyland and Jones ease to victory hold
The vasty fields of Novice scullers?
Within this carbon fibre oar O the very easy heat
That did affright the air at Nottingham

Consideration, like a carrot out of noses and unpaid memberships
And whipped the offending Exeter and Newark out of gold

Turn Boyland a monarch of all novice scullers,
MacCartney and Taylor, that when they row the third intermediates
The air, the water, is still

O noble choppers! That could entertain
With half entries a thorny heat and full forces the full pride of Grand Britannia
And let another half stand rowing by,
All out of work, MacCartney proceeded forward action.

For so work the elite sculling-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in oarsman teach
The act of double sculls of order over watt bike office smelly banter;
They have a match a half past eleven,
Where some, become victors, on home soil
Leading way Maxfield Spencer O to the kilometre
Others, like soldiers, armed in their filippi
Make boot upon the course, Lloyd Lineker
Which pillage they with merry march bring gold home
To the Desmond Atkins of our fearless-leader O to Caversham!
Let us swear,

Our Champion and MacCartney don’ed intermediate two sculls
That those who you call’ed friends, hold hard the breath and bend up every stroke
Whose blood is felt from all of war
Have in these parts from morn till even fought hard, bravo!

Once more unto the lake, dear friends, once more; race again
Or close the final with our Nottingham pride!
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a winner
As modest melt Maxfield claims Intermediate uno singles
Marks and Spencer gracious row truly
Whose limbs were made in England show us here

Even at the turning o’ the tide
All one does is win win win, has rowing on thy mind.
Onwards and forward to journey south, Metropolitan regatta awaits

Translation: 

Catherine and Beth Elite double - GOLD

Kirstie - IM1 1x - GOLD

Caitlin and Vicky - Novice double - GOLD

Caitlin - Novice single - GOLD

Kirstie and Nikki Elite doubles - 2nd

Yasmin - Elite 1x - 2nd

Abi - IM3 1x - 4th 

Vicky Jones - Novice 1x - 4th 

Abi - IM2 1x - 5th

Champs - IM2 1x - 6th

Rosie - IM3 1x - 4th in heat

Last weekend the squad stayed close to home and raced at the Nottingham City Regatta. With events still being cancelled due to the weather, there was a larger than usual entry, with crews travelling up from Wallingford and Thames amongst other clubs.

Abby started the racing in the novice singles. This was Abby's first race, and although she didn't win, she had a good race and felt that she learnt a lot, predominantly that a monster grip is not the way to tackle a headwind.

Next down the track was the IM2 women's quad of Beth, Sarah, Ellie and Laura Champion who won their heat, and went on to dominate the final. This was Laura's first win for NRC, and Ellie's first ever win - celebrated with an involuntary dunk in the lake thanks to Sarah.

The Elite Lightweight women's singles race had both Yasmin and Nikki in, with Nikki winning, being followed by Yaz, with the rest of the field some way behind. Yasmin raced IM2 singles in the second division, where she had another good race coming 6th in the final, but was out powered by some of the bigger girls into the strong headwind. One of the closest races of the day was in the Elite singles, with Catherine, Lindsay and Louise all racing. Lindsay lead out of the blocks and built up a lead, but a strong second 1k from Cathers meant that they crossed the line together, only being split by a photo finish, with the win being awarded to Lindsay. Following close behind was Louise, making it a 1, 2, 3 for NRC.

Caitlin Boyland joined with another member of the senior womens squad to race in the IM3 doubles, where they came in third against some strong opposition. Caitlin is just coming back from injury so this is a great step in the right direction. Caitlin was a member of the Loughborough Talent ID programme, and has made the jump over to the High Performance group this year.Our newest member of the squad, Laura Champion, has made the move after a successful season last year at City of Bristol rowing club, and judging by the start of this summer season - their loss!

Following her strong performance at April trials, which she backed up with a 2k erg PB the next week, Laura Wheeler has been invited to train at Caversham with the senior team, and is currently training in a quad. This is a huge step towards her goal of racing at the World Championships in South Korea this summer, and we wish her all the best 'down south'. 

Our next competition will be the Metropolitan Regatta at Dorney Lake, where we will be racing in singles, doubles, pairs, fours and quads - it will be a busy weekend!

After a successful training camp in Brive the squad came home to a cold and windy Nottingham. Determined not to be beaten, we braved the water each day, despite being laughed at by the boatmen for trying to go out when the lake resembled the North Sea (more than it normally does). Secretely I think some of the squad are hoping for some terrible conditions for racing - we will be well practiced!

Laura W and Nikki travelled down to Caversham to race at the senior squad final selection trials. a good performance here against the established squad members would get them one step closer to a seat in a boat for the World Championships. Laura continued her great progress and finished 14th overall, beating many of the development athletes that GB Rowing have supported as having the potential to go on to compete in Rio. With 17 seats available for the World Championships this is a fantastic result, and she is now seat racing for the second World Cup at Dorney Lake. Fingers crossed! Nikki had a tough task ahead with only four athletes being taken from the trial for further selection, and although she had a good final, was not quick enough to beat the top 4 athletes, three of who have raced and medalled for the senior squad consistently in the past 2 years and have recently come back from the first World Cup in Sydney.

Next weekend we have athletes racing for their respective universities at the annual BUCS Regatta, a three day regatta and showcase of university rowing. Ellie and Philly will be racing for Nottingham Trent, Yasmin will be racing for Derby, whilst Pippa, Louise and Caitlin will be racing for Loughborough Uni. Loughborough topped the medal tables last year at BUCS and hope to repeat this achievement this year.

Happy racing everyone!