Crews from all the rowing clubs on the Dee picked up medals at the North of England Head of the River Race on Saturday.   The race, from Eccleston Ferry to the Groves, is in its 78th year and is organized by Royal Chester Rowing Club who this year are celebrating 175 years of rowing on the Dee.
 
Rowing Clubs travel from all over the country to compete in the most prestigious  “Head race” in the North West.  The morning event is for Masters Men, Senior Women and Junior Quad Sculls and was dominated by Grosvenor Rowing Club.  The winning fastest time of the division was posted by their Masters B eight and the Grosvenor Women’s Intermediate 3 eight collected tankards as the fastest women’s crew on the day.
 
Royal Chester had wins in Masters E eights, a Junior 16 quad combination from Queens Park High School and Runcorn RC took their status medals coming fifth overall.  King’s School picked up wins in Women’s IM2 8, Women’s Novice 8 and Junior coxed, whilst REX BC took the Novice Masters 8 medals.
 
The afternoon race is for Senior Men, Masters Women and Junior Women’s quads and is traditionally a ‘Battle Royal” between Royal Chester, Royal Shrewsbury School and King’s School.  On this occasion however Shrewsbury School pulled out due to illness and Agecroft RC rose to the occasion to take the trophy and title ‘Head Crew’ with the fastest time of the day, beating Royal Chester and Kings by 6 secs and 15 secs respectively.
 
Royal Chester saw their dominant IM3 8 and Novice 8 win their status easily with the much younger Novice 8 only 3 seconds behind their seniors.  The final Royals win fell to the Women’s Junior 15 coxed quad.
 
King’s  School also extended their medal haul with wins in Junior 8s and Women’s Junior 14 coxed quads.

The Royal Chester Masters squad returned from the 2 day Ross Regatta laden with trophies – 46 ceramic tankards between them!.
 
The men’s squad were unbeaten in 4s and 8s over the 2 days, winning the Masters E4 on both days, the F4, the E8 and the F quad. They then teamed up with the women and won the mixed 8, overcoming a much younger Runcorn crew in the final by just 3ft.
 
The Masters women’s D8 also won, beating Bewdley in the final. In an close and exciting race the women’s D4 lost to Worcester, the  novice national  champions, by a canvas

Royal Chester celebrated the acquisition of six new boats to add to their racing fleet with a naming ceremony at their river Dee boathouse on Saturday.   See picturesWith the help of sponsors, supporters and their own fundraising efforts the highly competitive club have invested almost £70,000 in the ‘state of the art’ racing boats.  A junior quad scull was named by Simon Parrington in recognition of support from the Tessa Briggs Trust whilst the remaining boats, the women’s first eight – Charles Green, a men’s eight – Nigel Robson, two double sculls – James Carew and Sally Orr, and a pair -  Steve James, were named after club members in appreciation of their sporting achievement and dedication to the club.

After the naming ceremony club members continued their celebrations upstream at the annual summer fundraiser in the river garden of club member Robin Witter.  The recent ‘Learn to Row’ squad joined juniors, seniors and masters with their friend and family to enjoy the evening sunshine.

With less than 2 months to go before the Olympics open, Royal’s Ladies were in action at the Metropolitan Regatta, which was held last weekend on the same Dorney Lake course on that will be used by the world’s elite rowers in August.

The Royal Chester Intermediate 2 Coxed Four of Angela Sheldon, Georgina Grandfield, Caroline Ealey (Ladies Captain), Grace Long (Stroke), and Anna Tweed (Cox) won their heat to qualify for the final against crews from Agecroft, Barnes Bridge Ladies, City of Bristol, University College, Dublin and the National University of Ireland. A tough field but the Royal’s ladies won by a highly creditable 7 seconds over the 2 Km course. In doing so, they brought home the Anne Littleton Rosebowl trophy to find a place in the Royal’s trophy cabinet.

This was a fantastic win at a prestigious national event and is fair reward for months of hard work in boats, on ergos and in Chester’s gyms. The Qualifying Heat saw a decisive win in a time of 8.13.52, only to be improved yet again in the Final with a winning time of 8.08.26 setting the best time for the whole weekend. Perhaps they were inspired by the sight of the Olympic Torch leaving Chester under an arch of rowing blades earlier in the week.

Tracey Matthews and Adeline Mendoza-Capian managed to gain a late entry to the Met regatta in the Women’s Intermediate 1 Double Scull event. Despite being a relatively new pairing with little water preparation time, they acquitted themselves well with a time of 08:50.01, which would have given them 2nd place in heat 3 and 6th place finish in the final – such is the luck of the draw!

Despite these good results, the crews are keeping their feet firmly on the ground with the Henley regatta firmly in their sights. They were back training in Chester on Sunday morning determined to maintain momentum as the Henley draws ever closer.

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