Ryde’s female rowing team registered their fourth win this season as the competed at the competition in Swanage over the weekend. The Ryde Rowing Club is sponsored by Wightlink and they were taking part in the Swanage Regatta on June 13th. The event was organised by the Hants and Dorset Amateur Rowing Association since the town doesn’t have its own coast rowing club. Ryde was also playing a part in the organisation. Steve Bull, the secretary of the association is a member of Ryde and he was acting as safety adviser during the event and as the Regatta Secretary. The Ryde Regatta catering Team was also on hand to provide lunches for the race officials.
A win in the water
However, the club was there to do more than just help to organise the event. The Club’s teams came to compete and nothing showed this more than the Coastal Juniors Ladies Four ‘A’ crew winning in both the heats and finals to clinch yet another win in the season to make it four in total. The crew was coached by Micky Jenner and consisted of Emily Pike, Courtney Edmonds, Kate Whitehurst and Lisa Murphy.
The Ladies Coastal Junior ‘B’ didn’t, however, register the same success as they failed to make it into the final. However, considering the fact that young Freya Drage, a J16, had only just come in to cover for one of the crew members who was absent, the performance was quite good. The team was coached by Allan Evans and also consisted of Carole Beaumont, Julie Cole and Catherine Murphy. The same Freya was also in the Mixed J16 Four where she was racing together with Austin Smith, Eirann McClumpha, Tye Cameron and Josh Lee. The team was quite impressive and despite facing off against older opponents, they managed to come out 2nd.
Men’s Novice Fours
To compete in the Men’s Novice Fours, Tom Starkey replaced Freya in the crew and although they didn’t manage to make it to the final, they made a good case for themselves. Dale Buckett, the Club’s Coastal Junior Sculler, was unfortunately forced to withdraw from the event and the Ladies Coastal Junior Pair was forced to make a change with Carole Beaumont taking Lisa Murphy’s place. The late change had an impact on their performance and thus they could only manage fifth place.