This years Henley Royal Regatta will be held between the 2-6 July 2008. This year Newcastle University Boat Club has two boats competing at Henley.  The two boats are;

Coxed 4 competing in the Prince Albert Challenge Cup- Fred Gill, Muray Wilkojc, Mason Durant, Nathan O’Reilly, Carolyn Johnson

Men’s Quad competing in Prince of Wales Challenge Cup- Andrew Corrigan, Charles Antoine D’Oncieue de Chaffardon, Dan Cupit, Will Reid

Both crews have pre qualified and as a result the first race for the coxed 4 will be on the wednesday of Henley and the quad will be thursday. A draw will follow shortly on this page.

This year there will be a BBQ on the saturday night in the field behind the boating sheds in the same position as the previous 2 years if possible. It is an excellent opportunity for past and current members of the club, friends and family to come and meet after the days racing. The BBQ will begin at around 7pm and we look forward to seeing many there.

The Newcastle women’s senior coxed four (Steph Barnett, Abby Johnston, Kate Jones, Alice Leake, Luke Birkhill) was placed fifth in the time trial for the qualification for the Frank Harry Cup. This crew then continued on through two rounds, losing in the quarter final to the very strong eventual winners Osiris by 2 lengths. This race was of a very high standard, although the girls might be disappointed not to go further, they realised that the opposition was very good having already won the Womens Head of the River Race.

Photos here http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2008/hwr08/friday_qualifiers/93%20Newcastle%20University%20Boat%20Club%20Sen%204+.html

This weekend three Newcastle crews travelled to Dorney Lake to compete in Marlow Regatta. This is a perfect opportunity for crews to test themselves against similar opposition to that of Henley Royal Regatta.

The mens coxed four of Fred Gill, Mason Durant, Murray Wilkojc, Nathan O’reilly and Carolyn Johnson were competing in the senior 1 coxed fours. A dominant performance in the heat saw them progress to the final against opposition from Molsey, Oxford Brookes, Henley and UWE. In the final the 4 came through the field after an awkward start to win this event, 4 seconds ahead of Molsey in a time of 6.50.94. This was an excellent performance that put them in a strong position for Henley.

The elite mens quad consisting of (Andrew Corrigan, Dan Cupit, Charles D’Oncieue, Will Reid) finished second in their heat behind the quad from the Dutch Federation. In the repechage the quad finished 4th which wasn’t good enough for them to progress any further.

A development crew of novices competed in senior 3 coxed fours where they found the going tough but gained some really important experience.

With Henley less than 10 days away this set of results is encouraging for the club.

Henry Pelly (President 2004-7) was selected to compete in the final World Cup event in Poznan this weekend. He was part of the second Great Britain coxless 4 which consisted of 4 Cambridge blues.(Toby Garnett, Tom Ransley, Pete Marsland and Henry)

The 4- put in an impressive performance in the heat against the crew from New Zealand and secured a place in the B final. The 4- finished 4th in the B final behind Italy, Belarus and Argentina in a time of 6.24.62. This was a very good performance from a young crew and puts them in a great position for the rest of the year.

The members of NUBC wish to congratulate Henry on his appointment as President of Cambridge University Boat Club for the 2008-9 season and wish him the best of luck for the remainder of this season and in his next year at Cambridge.

Last weekend crews from Newcastle University travelled the short distance to Durham to compete in the local regatta over both the short and long course. Durham Regatta provided an opportunity to test out crews for the summer Regattas and also for some alumni to regroup and race again. The womens squad did not compete at Durham regatta as they were preparing for womens Henley down in Reading.

Two mens coxed 4’s competed over the long course of 1800m on the Sunday of the regatta. The 1st 4+ beat Durham University to win the senior 2 coxed fours event and claim the Rushworth and Storey Challenge cup. The second 4 narrowly missed out on progressing through the competition after a close race with a Durham college.

Fred Gill and Mason Durant competed in the elite pairs event over the short course after a last minute change. They went onto claim victory over Staines RC in the final and win the Paul Brady Memorial Trophy.

On saturday the mens 4x had trouble navigating the challenging course and ended up being disqualified for racing through the wrong arch of elvet bridge. Later that afternoon the NUBC novicemen of 2004 regrouped to compete in the senior 4 8+ event after three years off the water. While this crew was not to progress past the first round they did suprise a few people on the bank.

This was a promising set of results with Marlow Regatta just a week away.