Rutherford Head of the River Race, our largest home competition of the year, was held on Saturday, 1 December 2018. We were lucky in having excellent conditions for rowing - low wind and fairly calm water - but crews had to suffer rain and cold temperatures, especially in Division 1. Launch drivers, marshalls and umpires also suffered! But the racing was as firece as ever.
We had just under 130 crews in each division, with eights and coxed and uncoxed fours and quads. Some of the best rowers in the country were there from some of the leading rowing universities including Newcastle, Durham, Glasgow, Edinburgh and University of London. We had visitors from as far north as Aberdeen and a three way international in the open masters F eights, between clubs from Scotland, Northern Ireland and England; Scotland won (Tay Rowing Club, with a bit of local help admittedly).
Fastest boat in Division 1 and the day on a dead high tide was a Newcastle University open eight stroked by Costley, coming in at 14:03. The fastest women's boat in that division was also from Newcastle Uni, the coxless quad stroked by Anderson in a time of 17:36. The special prizes for fastest Durham College Rowing (DCR) open eights and the women's coxed four both went to Hild Bede College. Tyne's women's masters C/D/E eight was fastest on raw time, but lost out by 12 seconds to Durham ARC on handicap.
Fastest boat in Division 2 was an open coxless quad from Edinburgh University stroked by Horsburgh in 14:38 (against the tide by this time). Fastest in the premier women's eight event was University of London stroked by Davies in 16:10. The winner of the newly created university Alumni open eights event was University of London Tyrian, stroke Clarke in 15:29. Tyne ARC's masters E eight won their C/E category in a very creditable 16:49, beating a younger York crew even on raw time. Prizes for the fastest DCR women's eight went to Hild Bede and open coxed four to Hatfield College.
