Celeste

December 2021

President’s Welcome

Welcome to the December issue of Celeste! This semester has seen a welcome return to head racing for the club, with the senior and club squads racing at Clyde 3 Heads, Aberdeen Head, the GB Rowing Team 1st Assessment, and Inverness Fours & Small Boats Head - please read on for all the race reports.

Membership across all squads has also seen promising growth post-pandemic, with an impressive five EUBC men’s eights racing on the Clyde in October (if you can remember the last time we managed an entry of this size please get in touch...). While adverse weather conditions called off our usual trip to the Tyne for Rutherford Head, both the athletes and the coaching team look forward to carrying all the training and racing experience gaining over the past few months into the new year, particularly looking towards BUCS Head at the end of February and the Men’s & Women’s eights heads in March.

Aside from the racing, the club committee has been hard at work organising events for both current and former members, including our annual Bow Ball (tickets will be going on sale imminently - keep an eye on your emails & our website), but also for an inaugural Alumni Dinner at London Rowing Club on Saturday 12th March 2022. If this is something that interests you please get in touch as we are still trying to gauge numbers before we confirm any bookings.

Please read on to find out more about all that I have mentioned, and as always if you have any memories from your time at EUBC that you’d like to share we’d love to hear from you!

 - Euan Dickerson, President 2021-22

    president@edinburghrowing.co.uk

Alumni dinner 12th March

We are looking to host a dinner for all alumni on the evening of the 12th of March 2022 at London Rowing Club. The event would be a chance to catch up with old friends and hopefully raise some money for the Boat Club too. It would be wonderful to have as many people as are available so please tell your friends! If you would like to attend, please register your interest by emailing rowing.alumni@ed.ac.uk as soon as possible, no firm commitment is required just yet. Ticket information will be sent out in due course.

I look forward to seeing many of you there!

Bow Ball 2022

EUBC’s annual Bow Ball will be held on the 29th of January 2022 at the Caledonian Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Edinburgh. As ever, the ball promises to be a night to celebrate the achievements of the Boat Club past and present and we would love to see as many alumni there as possible. Ticket information will be released very shortly so if you are interested in attending, please let me know by emailing rowing.alumni@ed.ac.uk.

Inverness Head

Our senior squads headed up to the Caledonian Canal for a return to Inverness Head in what turned out to be the last competition of 2021. Once again the squads delivered a strong set of results with several category wins in each of the four divisions, all of which contributed to EUBC once again taking home the VL. Our R1 4x also claimed the prize for the fastest time of the weekend with their performance on Saturday morning. With wins in the Open 1x, Open 4x, WR1 2x, R1 4-, R2 2x, WOpen 1x, WOpen 4x, WR1 2-, WR1 4-, R2 4+, Open 2x, Open 4-, R1 4x, R1 4+, WR2 4x, Open 2-, WOpen 4-, WR1 4x, WR1 4+, and WJ18 1x. With the cancellation of Rutherford Head EUBC will not race again until 2022, though our athletes have laid down some strong foundations this semester to take into the winter training block and through to the new year, and we’re excited for what’s to come.

GB trials first assessment

A large contingent of current and former EUBC athletes made the journey to take on the 2k erg and 5k small boats assessment in a return to GB Trials in Boston, Lincolnshire, for the first time since 2019. Jack Burns (representing Edinburgh University and Leander Club) won his second successive trial in the Open 1x, having taken victory back in April, a pre cursor to his International debut at the World Cup in Sabaudia and move to the GB squad at Caversham.

Dale Flockhart made a highly encouraging return to the lightweight class, finishing a competitive 2nd overall to established international Jamie Copus. Hugo Oglina backed up a 2k PB with a solid 5th overall, also in lightweight, in his first trial at Senior level. EUBC has had much success at U23 level in recent seasons, and many of our new and younger athletes made a first impression that promises another good representative season. Matthew Fielding, having made his GB debut at the European U23 Championships in the summer, made a very strong start this season with a 2k PB and by being 6th U23 in the 1x on Sunday, one place behind GB Start athlete and Edinburgh student Cameron Kemp.

Lily Young produced the fastest U23 lightweight Women’s 2k, and was 4th U23 light- weight in the 1x. Hannah Supple and Catriona Taylor produced strong 2k PB’s. Claudia Rossington was the fastest U20 2k, and all 3 produced good performances in the 1x, Hannah in particular impressing as the 4th quickest U23 sculler. Cameron Bradley, who came through our Beginner Programme, and new member Matt Morgan teamed up in the M2- having both produced 2k PB’s on Saturday. They finished 16th overall in a highly competitive field that was topped by EUBC Alum Oli Wilkes, now part of the national squad at Caversham and representing Oxford Brookes. All these athletes, and a few more who missed out due to injury this time around, will be looking forward to strengthening their claim for a GB vest when they return to Boston in February.

- Lucy McCoy

Aberdeen Head

Whilst many of the squad were at GB trials, the rest headed up to Aberdeen for the day to take part in Aberdeen Head. Despite windy conditions and five bridges along the Dee to navigate through, EUBC took home the wins in W Open 4x, Open 4-, R2 4+, Open 4+, along with Colin Williamson’s win for St Andrew BC in the Masters Open4+.

Coastal Rowing

Thanks to generous financial support from both Scottish Rowing and University Sport & Exercise, the club has been able to invest in a costal rowing fleet consisting of 2 singles and 2 doubles from Swift. Our hope is to start developing competitive coastal athletes in time for the discipline’s debut as a BUCS and Olympic event. It also presents another exciting opportunity for athletes to get involved with EUBC without the necessity of travelling over to Strathclyde Country Park several times a week.

The taster sessions run by Swift in September were very much enjoyed by all as a fun way to start the year while the Scottish weather was still nice and sunny!

Clyde Head

A full EUBC squad of Senior and Club members made the short trip over to the Clyde for the first race of the Semester at Clyde Head. The men’s 8+ was the fastest crew of the day and further Senior wins were as follows: W8+, W1x, O4+, O2x, O2-, W4x

Our Club squad came away with wins in the following categories: OR2 4+, WR2 4+, and WR2 8+.

This was a great event for both squads to showcase what they are capable of, putting down a solid benchmark to start the season off right!

Semester Two Racing Calendar

27th/28th February – BUCS Head (Newburn, Newcastle)

12th March – Women’s Head of the River (Putney, London)

26th March – Men’s Head of the River (Putney, London)

23rd/24th April – Scottish Rowing Spring Regatta (Strathclyde Country Park, Motherwell)

30th April/1st/2nd May – BUCS Regatta (Holme Pierrepont, Not- tingham)

3rd/4th/5th June – Scottish Championships (Strathclyde Country Park, Motherwell)

17th/18th/19th June – Henley Women’s Regatta (Remenham, Henley-upon-Thames)

18th June – Marlow Regatta (Dorney Lake, Windsor)

28th June – 3rd July – Henley Royal Regatta (Henley-upon- Thames)

23rd July – Home International Regatta (Location TBC)

Get in touch with EUBC!

Twitter: @EdinburghUniBC

Facebook: @edinburghrowing

Instagram: @edinburghrowing

Email: rowing.alumni@ed.ac.uk

Website: www.edinburghrowing.co.uk