Newcastle University Pre IV and Henley-on-Hunter Regattas 21 & 22 september 2019

Peter Bond.

Rowing conditions for the first regatta of the 2019-20 season were as close to perfect as the club has ever experienced. The water was flat with no debris and the weather was mild. The only negative was the swarm of flying ants that were just too friendly. These conditions continued until lunch time on Sunday when the wind increased for the second half of the Henley regatta – but at least the ants were blown away.

At a social get together in the club house on Saturday evening, Endeavour celebrated the beginning of the club’s twenty second season of competition by commemorating the first twenty one years of club achievements. The food was an artistic cornucopia “grazing table” that tasted as good as it looked, washed down with champagne and Dave Allen’s craft beer.

The Endeavour entries in these two regattas were the lowest for many years with 17 rowers contesting 19 starts for 3 wins, 4 seconds and 7 thirds. Endeavour rowers also picked up two medals in the feature Endeavour events on Sunday.

The most pleasing aspect of the weekend was the performance of our masters men with wins in the quad on Saturday and the eight on Sunday. Where-as the quad has regularly trained together, the eight was very much a scratch crew which had never rowed together before. Tim Blomfield found himself in the stroke seat via a process of elimination, but he did a great job as did the rest of the crew to overcome a 5 second handicap and win by six and a half seconds. 


Winning crews:

Mens Masters Quad Sculls: Reg Vaughan, Owen Redhead, Sean Donza, Dave Percival.
Mens Masters Eight: Al Atkins, Peter Bowman, Reg Vaughan, Roger Farquhar, Dave Percival, Sean Donza, Duncan Begley, Tim Blomfield (+ non-club coxn).
Mens A/B Grade Four: Prentice Bond (composite with NUBC).


Feature event winners:
Mens Endeavour Plate Quad Sculls: Al Atkins.
Mixed Endeavour Kings Cup Eight: Prentice Bond (coxn).