Grammar Regatta Report
Season 2023/24 is underway!
Last weekend was a very exciting time for the Shore Boat Club, with the first official hit out of the season taking ace at the Sydney Olympic regatta venue.
This regatta was the first proper regatta of the season, with the only other regatta being the Spring regatta which we entered a whole host of scullers to be eventually blown off the course.
The regatta got underway with our mighty Third Year 10 VIII. This crew found themselves in a brilliant tussle early but a very determined final 500 metres saw them fight back from a second down to record a great win by just under a boat length. In their second round of racing – the Third Year 10 crew finished in second place with the heroics of the 1st race not being able to be repeated.
The Second Year 10 VIII hit the water with lots of enthusiasm, unfortunately, they also enthusiastically hit their fin on something also in the warmup, resulting in it snapping and missing the start. Fortunately, thanks to some quick reorganising of boats, the Second Year 10 crew made it to the start line incident free. Making up for the lost chance, The Shore crew shot out to the lead by the first station and made up a lead of just over 5 seconds, a lead the built on over the second stage of the course, eventually recording a winning margin of just under ten seconds.
The First Year10 VIII rounded out the junior side of the draw with a strong first outing, coming in 2nd place in a very full field. The boys from North Sydney Boys High were able to hold their 1.3 second margin over the Newington College crew for the entire duration of the race. The King’s School were the eventual winners of this first race. In the second round of racing, the First Year 10 crew came under fire early with many crews launching of the start line. This crew found themselves in 4th place in a very tight field but with good show of character, they were able to claw back to a podium finish, rowing through Newington in the final 250 metres of the course.
Our Senior Programme had some late re-organisation to do with a very dreaded Covid-19 cases and other illness forcing the withdrawal of our Third and Fourth IV. We were able to combine what was left of our senior Third VIII and Fourth Year 10 VIII to compete in the senior Third VIII race in what was their first row together as a combination these boys showed great spirit to come in second place, splitting the two Riverview combinations and Joeys who finished in 4th place.
The next crew we had to compete was the Second IV. In both their races, this crew showed tremendous courage and fight through the middle 1000 metres, which bodes well for the future of this crew. In their first outing, they lead early, in the second race they came under fire in the first 500 metres finding themselves in 4th position but then fought back to finish second.
The First IV first outing found them in a very interesting 5th place albeit by a very narrow margin. In what was a brilliant final 500 metres they clawed back to finish in 3rd, rowing through Joeys and Scots. In the second round of racing, the crew finished in 2nd place. This time they were determined not to leave themselves with too much work to do, came out of the blocks with great energy to find themselves in 3rd position at the 1000 metre mark and with a final push through the final 500 metres and a very even split race strategy they were able to put a boat length on 3rd place to secure second.
The Second VIII recorded two 4th places from their two starts, The first race saw the crew launch out of the blocks with great speed to sit in 2nd place just behind the Riverview crew (who were the eventual winners in both rounds) but alas the transition to middle race pace was costly in both races which saw them slip back into 4th place each time.
The First VIII had a solid first hit out in the first race, with a very conservative race plan that saw their mid race beat lower than the field, the crew held their position steadily through the race. In the final 250 metres the Shore boat launched an attack on the Newington boat to see the “Sue Wright” boat get her bow ball infront of Newington to record a 4th place finish. In the second race, the crew started well but alas after what could be described as a “user error”, the crew found themselves out of the race by the 750 metre mark.