HORR & BUCS Surprises
It has been many weeks since the University of Salford Boat Club appeared on these pages, but this does not mean that nothing has been happening. Quite the contrary, SUBC has had a fantastic couple of months, setting many club and personal bests. The beginning of this successful patch stretches as far back as 13th March, with the Woman’s crew representing the University at Women’s Head Of The River coming 184th in 21:45.47, as already reported some weeks ago, the fastest Salford’s women have done for many years. The 20th of March saw both Senior Men and Women’s VIII’s and a Men’s Novice VIII take part in the North of England Head Of The River at Chester. All crews performed to the best of their abilities, and placed high in their respective divisions. This was an especially important race for the Senior Men’s VIII, as the following week was their chance to prove that they could perform as well as the women at the men’s Head Of The River in London. And they did not disappoint, completing the gruelling 6.8k race in 19:35.41, placing them 247 out of 388 crews. This was outstanding considering their starting position of 353, and was made all the more special because it was the highest position a Salford Men’s crew have ever achieved. With those results the head race season finished, and training switched from long distance racing, to shorter regatta training. However success for SUBC did not finish their, off the water they have been just as successful as on. At the recent university awards SUBC not only had its Senior Captain, Alan Moore, awarded sports personality of the year, but the club also picked up club of the year. A reflection on just how hard the members have worked this year, and perfect reward for all the great results, and numerous wins for SUBC this year so far. The racing calendar for rowing never ends, the seasons simply change. With the summer come the shorter 2k regattas, and the first of the year for SUBC is arguably one of the most important. The BUCS regatta was the last chance for SUBC to pit themselves against pure university opponents, and over the bank holiday weekend of 1-3rd May they did not disappoint. High numbers of entries saw the Senior VII, Senior IV, 2 Novice IV’s and Women’s Senior VI have to face the pressure of time trials in order to get through to the side by side racing. ON the Saturday the 2 Novice IV’s both performed well, but just missed out on qualifying. The Men’s Senior VII was successful in qualification, but were somewhat overcome by the excitement and failed to perform to the standard which they have rowed at all year and did not progress further than the heats. The conditions for Sunday and the Senior IV could be described as less than perfect, alternatively, and more accurately, they could be described as sea like. With waves rolling down the course due to winds gusting above 25 mph the crew battled the elements, and failed to pass the time trials, not helped by a slight incident where one of the rower’s oars decided to make a bid for freedom halfway down the course! However this was more than made up for when the lightweight pair of Alan Moore and Patrick Salmon braved the elements to compete in their event. Due to small numbers of entries in this more elite event, and crews backing out because of the adverse conditions, the pair found themselves immediately lined up against crews from Oxford, Birmingham and Reading Universities. But this did not phase them, and with a thrilling finished they picked the Oxford crew on the line by less than a second, winning the heat and placing them straight through to the finals, the first crew to achieve a BUCS final from Salford since 2003. The final was a different story, as the other crews consisted of many GB team potentials and rowers, and the pair managed a solid 5th place. Monday was the chance for the Women’s IV to prove its worth, and they did this in emphatic style. An aggressive time trial saw them come down 13th fastest out of 39 crews, putting them safely through to the heats. The heat proved to be an intense event, with Salford pushing for the coveted 3rd place in a tight duel with University of West England to put them into the finals. With mere meters to go disaster stuck as one of the SUBC women rowers hand the misfortune of missing a stroke, which allowed University of West England to retain their 3rd position, and leaving the question of ‘what if’ hanging in the air. So despite not bringing back any medals, SUBC proved that they are more than ever able to compete at a high standard with the big universities. Hopefully this will prove to be key when they tackle Manchester University at the Two Cities Boat race, in pursuit f that ever elusive varsity victory.
This entry was posted on Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 11:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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