South Coast Championships – Herne Bay
Saturday saw the staging of The South Coast Rowing Championships at Herne Bay in Kent. This brought together the winning crews from the Hants and Dorset, Coastal and West of England rowing associations with crews from as far apart as Bideford, Devon to Dover in Kent. Christchurch Rowing Club sent two crew that had been confirmed as Champions of the Hants and Dorset association two weeks earlier, as representatives in the Junior and Junior/Senior categories, to compete over an 1850 metre course running along the Herne Bay coastline.
A slight offshore breeze on the morning of the event gave a relatively flat course but the forecast for a freshening wind elevated the stress levels for the later events. There were high expectations for the Junior crew of Kit Mersey, Marcus Lewis, Isaac Gaston, Jack Gaston, and cox Sam Erwin as they had been unbeaten during the regular season, but they had only raced the champions from the Coastal association, Deal, once. Despite the rising breeze the turning tide had kept the water relatively flat as the crews rowed to the start. Christchurch were starting towards the outside of the course with their main competitors one place further out. The Deal crew, as expected, went out really fast from the start and moved into a one length lead. However, the Christchurch crew maintained their control and composure to draw level after 250 metres. Once they poked their bow into the lead, the Deal crew were struggling to hold on and the Christchurch crew began to draw ahead with every stroke. Approaching the finish, the Christchurch crew were well in control and received the finishing gun 4 lengths ahead of their nearest rival to become Junior South Coast Champions.
One of the regular Junior/Senior crew was unable to travel to Herne Bay, as he was expecting his first child. After winning the Junior race, Marcus Lewis had to jump straight into the Junior/Senior boat with George Robinson, Tom Mahy, Richard Quinn and cox, Dani Elmy-Liddiard. Again, their main competition was likely to come from another Deal crew who they had not raced before. These two crews drew away from the rest of the field with the Christchurch crew taking a slight lead. The crews were neck and neck until about 1200 metres when the Deal crew began to pull away and beat the Christchurch crew into second by 3 lengths.
An excellent season for these crews both coached by James Erwin. Some of these crew members are heading off to university whilst the others start preparing for winter training to retain their Hants and Dorset Championship title.
