Juniors head the way

STAR JUNIORS have made a good start to the rowing season with wins at their first three events this year. All Junior 16 and Junior athletes competed at Wallingford Long Distance Sculls, 4000 metre course on 27^th September achieving some very encouraging results. In particular the girls coxless quad of Victoria Huckle, Eleanor Grimley, Emma North and Charlotte Cook won their WJ16 4X event.

At St Neots Small Boats Head on 5^th October the squad competed in single, double and quad events. In heavy rain and gusty winds all crews performed well and turned in some good times. There were wins for Tom Durrant in S4 1X, Tom Beechinor in J18 1X, Charlotte Cook in WJ16 1X and Ruby Ellam competing with Bethany Astell from St Neots in the WS3 2X.

Again Star Juniors achieved good results at Bedford Small Boats Head with many second and third places in single sculls and coxless quads. The WJ16 4X won their event against Dame Alice Harpur School.

Club awards announced at AGM

Club Awards for 2007- 2008 announced at AGM on 5.10.2008

These awards will be presented at the Awards Dinner on Saturday, 11^th October

Oarsman of the year - Chris Callow

Oarswoman of the year - (Jointly) Helen Thompson & Sophie Barnwell

Cox of the year - Laura Wallbank

Most improved oarsperson - Debra Scott

Veteran oarsperson of the year - Mick Parker

Coach of the year - David Swain

Junior oarsman - Sam Butler

Junior oarswomen - Lottie Burgess

Clubman of the year - Doug Carter

Clubwoman of the year - Esther Marchant

Margaret Smith award - Rachel Armstrong

John Deakin was elected a Vice President.

Oops - We did it again!

Star Club crews break course records for the 2nd year running at Sunday's Boston Marathon and mixed 8+ comes home in style for the Air Ambulance.

Sunday the 21^st of September was the date of the 2008 Boston Rowing Marathon, a 31 mile (50km) row from Lincoln to Boston, Lincolnshire, which includes a lock at the 13.5km mark, over which boats and oars must be carried and placed back in the river before continuing. 

Star Club sent four boats this year, 3 crew boats and a single scull. 

The Senior 1 coxless quad composite crew of Chris Callow, Paul Hamlett, Robert Arnold and Steve Hemsworth finished 4^th overall in a time of 3hrs and 33 minutes and broke the course record for their category by some 14 minutes. 

Twenty third out of the 200+ boats to complete the course was a composite Women’s Veteran B coxless quad of Miriam Taylor of Star club and representatives of The City of Sheffield, Bewl Bridge and York City Rowing clubs, completing the course in 3 hours, 55 minutes and 25 seconds, setting a new record for the category. 

A Senior 4 8+ mixed crew (although racing as men) also completed the course, doing so for the East Anglian Air Ambulance and a new boat for the club. The Eight came in 120^th in 4 hours, 40 minutes and 22 seconds and consisted of (from Stroke):- Wiebke Starke, Paul Mills, Trevor Barton, Andy Whale, Andy Chillingsworth, Mark Holden, Janet Tredget and Carol Usher; and was coxed by Laura Wallbank. 

Dian Macdonald-Smith, also of Star Club rowed the course for the 2^nd year running in aid of Keech Cottage and completed it in 5 hours, 4 minutes and 43 seconds, winning her Women’s Veteran D single scull category.

Together, the last 2 crews have raised over £1000 for their chosen charities.

Star heads to Ross Regatta

Over the August bank holiday weekend 3 crews headed westward to Ross on Wye for their annual regatta.  Sundays racing was dedicated to juniors and Veterans and Dian Macdonald Smith, competing in women’s Veteran C sculls, had a bye in to the final finishing a close second. 

The senior regatta takes place on the bank holiday Monday and this year we had crews entered in S2 and S3 coxed fours, and S4 mixed coxed four.  Graeme Gould (stroke), Tim Oswin, Jonathan Hall and James Herbert raced in the S2 and S3 events while Alex Collard (stroke), Graeme Gould, Kirsten Proctor and Michelle Seddon were racing in the mixed event.  Clarissa Cloveney coxed all crews fantastically in a heavy stream over the 750m course using a boat and blades kindly lent to us by Ross Rowing Club.

Having struggled out of our tent at 6:30am for the 8:40 S3 start we discovered that our competition had scratched – how frustrating.  Still we stayed focused for the second round beating a Bewdley crew by 2.5 lengths.  The heat of the S2 event followed soon afterwards where, despite a strong bend, we were narrowly beaten by a Burton-Leander crew.

Going into the afternoon we raced a 2^nd Bewdley crew in the S3 semi finals and won by a good 1.5 lengths putting the S3 crew in the final against Walbrook RC.

In between the S3 semi and final the S4 mixed crew competed in a straight final against a Liverpool Victoria crew.  Described by the crew as the strangest row ever Star was beaten by about a length.

The final of the S3 event saw yet another dominating performance by the crew who led from the start.  Tim’s calls for pushes during this race saw us surging further ahead by the bridge and we never looked back winning the race and the division by 2.5 lengths.

By Graeme Gould