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By Peter Bond.
What a beautiful day! What great results!! The weather for the CDRA Sprint Championships regatta was perfect – the sun shone, the rain and wind stayed away and the tide was benign. The only hiccup was the BRO imported from Sydney who didn’t know how to use his red flag. 126 races were conducted at 2½ minute intervals with the regatta running to time despite two double scull crews (not Endeavour) who went swimming but failed to delay the regatta by more than 5 minutes that were quickly caught up both times. Fourteen Endeavour rowers attended the regatta with twelve taking home medals. In 15 starts our squad had 8 wins, 2 seconds and 2 thirds, possibly the first regatta we have ever attended with a better than 50% win rate. Sean Donza had 4 wins from 4 starts including 3 championships while Luke Budworth and Dave Percival each won 3. Luke will be moving to Lake Cargelligo in the centre of NSW next month and the boys wanted to send him out on a high note – they did! Championship Winners:
Non-championship winners:
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By Peter Bond.
Saturday’s regatta was run in perfect weather with warm sunny skies and no wind while Sunday’s weather was overcast, cold and windy. The tides on both days flowed quickly due to the full moon on Friday night. The effect of the tide was most significant on Saturday afternoon after the tide had turned, with the many novice crews having trouble with the outgoing tide carrying them over the start line and being unable to back their boats to return. One race had to be abandoned with it being impossible to form up the 6 crews on the line. Eight hours of racing were required on Saturday to cater for the large number of entries. Both Hunter Valley Grammar and Newcastle Grammar Schools used the regatta to introduce their new novices to racing as did visitors SCEGS Redlands. Nepean Rowing Club from Penrith added to the numbers. Over the two days, 23 Endeavour crews started for 5 wins, 6 seconds and 3 thirds, all wins going to our masters men’s squad. After success at Port Macquarie last week, our masters women had their crews disrupted due to two rowers having to withdraw for medical reasons. Owen Redhead and Greg Cook had a great weekend, each winning 4 medals while Roger Farquhar and Sean Donza each won 3. Winning Crews Saturday:
Winning Crews Sunday:
Newcastle University Pre IV and Henley-on-Hunter Regattas, 8 September and 30 September, 20185/10/2018 By Peter Bond.
In previous years these regatta have been held on the same weekend. This year, Endeavour decided to hold Henley-on-Hunter later in the month and that decision paid off with excellent entries. Henley was well patronised by Sydney clubs with multiple entries from Sydney Womens MLC and North Shore as well participants from Mosman and Glebe. Over the two regattas, Endeavour had 16 starts for 1 win, 6 second and 3 thirds. Three Endeavour rowers and a coxn also picked up medals in the Endeavour events at Henley. Our numbers are down at the moment with racing squad members restricted to masters rowers only. Over the past few years, our junior numbers have diminished as students reach year 12, leave school and start university study or get a job, leaving them no time for rowing. At the moment, the last members of our junior squad are studying for their HSC exams and our active junior numbers are at zero. The Endeavour win came at the Pre-IV regatta to the crew of Owen Redhead, Roger Farquhar, Sean Donza and Luke Budworth in Mens Masters Quad Sculls. The winners at Henley were Roger Young in Mens Endeavour Quad, Katrina Whitely in Womens Endeavour Quad and Di McShane with coxn Prentice Bond in Mixed Endeavour Eight. The Mixed Endeavour Eight was a magnificent race with the three crews neck-and-neck all the way down the course. Although the ages of the competitors ranged in age from 31 to 77, the combined ages of each of the crews were 461 years, 462 years and 462 years. The crews’ performances were as close as their ages with lane 3 winning by a foot from lane 1 with lane 2 half a canvas behind (foot and canvas being terms understood by masters if not by younger rowers). By Peter Bond.
Drummoyne Masters Regatta 22/4/2018 Luke’s coaching efforts over the past season have inspired our squad of masters men and with extra encouragement from Sean they are building themselves up to tackle the State Masters regatta. Nine masters attended the Drummoyne regatta on Iron Cove for 4 wins, 3 seconds and 2 thirds from 9 starts. Al Atkins in his Ancient Mariners crews and Sean Donza both did well with two wins each. Winning crews:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Iron Cove Masters Regatta 6/5/2018 Al Atkins rowing with the Ancient Mariners was the only Endeavour contestant and he did well, winning both the Mens Masters F-K Quad Sculls and Eight. . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Australian Masters Championships 10-13/5/2018 Sean Donza was the sole Endeavour representative to travel to Lake Barrington in Tasmania for the National masters Championships. He had an outstanding regatta, coming home with an Australian Championship plus two silver medals as well as two wins in divisions of mixed events. Results:
By Peter Bond (coach) A small squad of 8 rowers and a coach attended the NSW grade championships at SIRC. Originally, 8 rowers and a coxn were entered but the coxn had to withdraw at the last minute leaving no-one to steer our sweep crews. Substitute coxns from other clubs were considered but the rowing association would only accept an Endeavour substitute. It had to be the (very) overweight coach or nothing. Our juniors had two races in the four on Saturday. The crew of Mitchell Scales, Ayden Shepherd, Robert Weatherall and Prentice Bond with coxn Peter Bond could only manage seventh in the C Grade Four, but they were just warming up. In the D Grade Four, the Endeavour crew started fast, to be second after 100 metres. The third and fourth placed crews sat just behind Endeavour waiting for the crew to fade as the extra weight of the coxn took its toll. But the crew did not fade, holding them at bay by half a length then pulling away in the last 100 metres to finish a length ahead for a silver medal. The crew had all been there before but this was the first time the coach had ever stood on the podium at SIRC. Sunday’s racing saw the juniors joined by 3 masters. The squad could not progress to the finals from the heats of MCQx and MD2x then they all got together in the D Grade Eight with the crew of Mitchell Scales, Ayden Shepherd, Isaac Shepherd, Owen Redhead, Dave Percival, Sean Donza, Robert Weatherall, Prentice Bond and Peter Bond. The row to the start was their first ever training session with practice starts cancelled due to the time it took to adjust foot stretchers and move the slides. Could they row together at a rating higher than 24? - they would have to wait for the race to find out. Endeavour blasted out of the start at 40 strokes per minute and settled to 36 for the rest of the race. It was their first row together and they didn’t miss a beat. They were fast - but four other crews were faster, although they did beat two crews home. It was a lot of fun!     STATE'S BEST: Jack Davey (left) and Robert Weatherall on podium after winning gold in the NSW men’s under-19 double sculls. |
