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Vets Use Heads
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By Rob Goddard
VETS USE HEADS
Published on Friday, March 5th 2004
Saturday saw a re-run of the Durham Small Boats Head on the River Wear.
Readers of this column will remember this event was abandoned three weeks ago following an incident in which a Hexham veteran men’s four, and the safety launch that came to rescue them, both capsized at Elvet Bridge.
This time the men’s four decided, perhaps rather wisely, not to participate and with other club members unavailable it was left to George Doody, Martin Le Tissier and Gillian Gilbert to wave the flag for Hexham Rowing Club.
Mainly because of the poor weather conditions prior to the event, the entry was much reduced, but in all some 176 boats tackled the 1,800 metre course.
George was first off for Hexham, racing as veteran “E”, and he made short work of the notorious bridge, which had almost proved to be his downfall in a similar event some months previously.
This time George powered on through, a man with a mission, achieving a time of just under eight minutes 44 seconds.
This put him in the top 100 finishers, but much more significantly it meant that he won his class.
Not far behind, George and Martin Le-Tissier came in 103rd, racing as a veteran “D” double.
George is a man with acknowledged rowing skills, but how could even he manage to be in two boats at once?
He couldn’t; the event is a time trial separated into a number of divisions, so George’s earlier triumph was followed by a short rest before he needed to take to the water again.
For Martin this was also something of a personal triumph.
This was his third rowing event in Durham, but the first in which he had not managed to fall into the River Wear – the last time as part of the ill-fated Hexham men’s four.
As it says in the song “two out of three ain’t bad”. In this case it ain’t good either, but it’s a start.
Martin happily managed to keep his feet dry, hang onto his fleece and achieve a creditable time into the bargain.
Meanwhile Gillian, racing in a single, again put in a respectable performance.
Next week she will be the sole Hexham representative at York Head, while the rest of the club return to training on the Tyne.
Previously published by Hexham Courant
05 Mar 2004
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