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Regatta revels 2002
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By Neil Lewis
Dr Peter Hoare is a teacher, runs a successful school rowing club and organises the racing for at least three regional regattas. Bob Manning is a Bowen Technique practitioner, rowing coach and umpire on the regional regatta circuit. On Jubilee Saturday they pooled their talents, and with the bankside efforts of Hexham Rowing Club members (HRC) and the drive of secretary Lucy Siddle, created Hexham's 116th regatta, possibly its most successful in living memory.
Amongst rowers it's called 'the north's friendliest regatta'. On a fine day when 'Hexham was Happening', crowds flocked to Tyne Green and lined the river-bank, shouting on their favourite crews, 170 of them, the biggest entry ever.
As event organisers HRC could not be expected to win too many races, that would not be polite, but they did show a presence on the water. Only newcomer Ben Rogers won his event, the U16B single sculls. This came as no surprise to the club's form spotters during training sessions. He exhibits sound technique, usually beyond one so new to the sport.
Many racing categories were contested by large college entries, which always means young, lean and mean rowers. It's hardly fair coming up against them, when you last possessed a muscle to be proud of some 20 years earlier. The Senior 4 men's coxed 4, formed only on regatta day, met such a crew in their first round. HRC were left for dead at the start, probably still suffering the nervy after-effects of having tipped in their stake boat marshal.
Little did the whipper-snappers of Durham's Hatfield College A boat know that the Hexham crew, twice their average age, were full of grit, determination and stamina. With cox Siddle, steering an expert course, the crowd saw the most exciting comeback race of the day end with an umpire's decision on the line. By inches, a win for Hexham. In their semi-final they met the eventual, worthy, muscle-bound and stylish winners from Van Mildert College, Durham.
Throughout the regatta water conditions were perfect so it's still a mystery why a Northumbria University ladies crew capsized the four we lent them. The beer ran out, Annie Coe's café did a roaring trade, and the club food table was empty by 4.30. The busking jazz band was a great hit, playing for its lunch, and Durham RC won a new trophy, the Victor Ludorum, for the 'winner of the games'. Produced by the Art Tour's Graham Taylor of Elsdon, it will shortly be on show in the Priestpopple window of main sponsors, Clarke Scott Harden. A second special award was made to an under-nine sculler from Talkin Tarn, possibly the youngest rower on the circuit at present.
If you are one of the thousands on Tyne Green on Jubilee weekend who got hooked on our sport, the circus moves on tomorrow to what sounds like a genteel affair. It's Tyne at Home, at Newburn, racing organised by Dr Peter Hoare, and umpired by Bob Manning.
10 Jun 2002
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