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Hexham Rowing Club emerge from their winter hibernation
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By Neil Lewis
Durham Head 3,000m on a rising river
"Nice? It's the only thing," said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke. "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absoultely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing." "Look ahead, Rat!" cried the Mole suddenly. It was too late. The boat struck……….
…..the stern of Berwick RC's Senior 3 double, slewed as it was across the entrance to the 'easy arch' of Durham's Elvet Bridge. Brown and Christer, for it was they, fresh out of hibernation, paddled on dreamily, having drawn first blood of the year at the recent Head of the Wear race, happy in the thought that they had literally punctured the ambitions of their main competitors.
In Kenneth Graham's classic of the riverbank, Wind in the Willows, Rat goes on to explain…… "…..whether you reach somewhere else or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and never do anything in particular". Those could be the coach's comments to Lewis in his second attempt at single sculling a heads race. "It was my trousers coach, too shiny. Up and down, up and down and I slid off the seat. I'd have been faster if I'd been towed" Old 'Otter' Mulholland fared no better, it took him three goes to get through the bridge, and he's got a schoolboy's vest with the letters GB on it".
Never mind, Hexham's blushes had been spared as ever, earlier in the day when the Old Otter and his partner Paul 'the Watervole' Jaconelli sped to one of the fastest times of the day in winning their veteran's class.
The creatures of the riverbank get their next airing at the Tyne Head at Newburn on February 17th.
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