Lincoln

With the cancellation of the Yorkshire Head of the River race due to rising river levels in York, the club has not had a huge opportunity to race this year.

Determined to make up for this and with our newly purchased coxed four giving club members some good incentive to get some crew training under their belts, the club travelled to Lincoln to race at Lincoln Head.

This is the first time the club had raced at Lincoln so it was a great opportunity for the club to race against crews from outside the Yorkshire Region.

The Men’s/Junior four of George, Rob, Oscar, Max with Charlotte as cox had a good row given their training in the four was restricted to one session per week, coming second to a very experienced (and not so novice) Leicester crew.

Not to be outdone in Division Two, the Women’s/Junior four of Shelly, Claire, Liz, Katy and Charlotte coxing had a great row but were up against some very experienced opposition from Peterborough. Most pleasing was the fact this was Claire’s first race after completing last summer’s Learn to Row course.

So all hopes for a win rested on Bob and Dave in their Masters H double scull and they did not disappoint! Up against a very strong crew from Nottingham they took the win (setting up a likely rematch later in the season at the British Masters Championships!) meaning that it was the Masters who kept the flag flying for the club.

It was a great event at Lincoln and a huge thanks has to go to both Lincoln and Ancholme Rowing Clubs for loaning us boats to race in on the day.

York

After the large club entry for Lincoln Head, the first regatta of this season was a much quieter affair with just Bob and Dave racing in their double at York.

The age old (no pun intended) problem of a lack of similar age opposition rose it’s head and Bob and Dave ended up racing in a Masters H/J double sculls event against York City with York having the age and handicap advantage over Hull.

Unfortunately this time around the handicap proved a couple of seconds too far over the distance for Bob and Dave and they lost by a couple of lengths to the York crew. Despite the result, it was another good experience for both of them in their first season of racing together and another marker laid down for looking at racing at the British Masters Rowing Championships in June.

While Kingston upon Hull is famous for turning King Charles I away at the Beverley Gate, a modern-day War of the Roses involving Kingston upon Hull also took place (in the more sedate and genteel surroundings of Saltaire).

Our super competitive duo of Bob and Dave, never the ones to turn down an opportunity to race against fellow Masters Rowers, travelled over to Bradford Amateur Rowing Club to take part in their annual War of the Roses Regatta.

Bradford ARC host their famous War of the Roses Regatta with Masters Rowers from both sides of the Pennines coming over for a day of scratch racing in fours, quads and eights. The whole event is then finished off with a fantastic Bradford Curry and some local Timothy Taylors.

Always up for a race (and quite probably being the oldest competitors at the event), Bob and Dave got drawn against each other in all of the events with Dave ending up on the winning side.

It was a fantastic day out for our Masters Rowers and great to see Bradford ARC looking so good after the damage caused by the New Year floods. We look forward to being back in Saltaire in the Summer for their next regattas.

 

We are pleased to announce that our 2016 Learn to Row Courses for Spring/Summer 2016 start in April.

The courses last three weeks and cost less than £33 which includes coaching, insurance and equipment use.

The courses can be booked online via Eventbrite and for a full list of the dates available and more information on the courses please visit our Learn to Row page.

Looking to stay dry and get fit during the winter? Wanting to try some indoor rowing or join a fitness session?

We’ve got something for everyone starting on Thursday 12th November.

In partnership with Hull Culture and Leisure Ltd and the Humber Sports Partnership we have not one, but THREE indoor rowing sessions beginning.

If you’re aged 9 – 12 years old then come along to the Junior StreetGames Indoor Rowing Session! Every Thursday from 4pm – 5pm at Woodford Leisure Centre. Only £2 per session Row Fun Hull Junior StreetGames Poster

We have a girls only indoor rowing session. Thanks to funding from the Humber Sports Partnership we are running a Row Fit Girls indoor rowing fitness session. Thursdays from 5pm – 6pm at Woodford Leisure Centre. Only £2 per session RowFitGirls Sportivate poster

For our club members and for the general public we have an indoor rowing/fitness session every Thursday from 6pm – 7pm. FREE for club members and £2 per session for the public – come along, do some circuits and get on the rowing machine! RowFitHull poster

Sunday 11th October saw Hull Kingston Rowing Club members travelling across the Humber Bridge to Brigg for the Ancholme Head.

Ancholme Rowing Club are our closest neighbours so we wanted to turn up with as many boats as possible. A few entries had to be dropped but we entered seven crews in the end which is our biggest entry to an event as a club so far!

In Division One we saw Bob and Dave racing against opposition from York and Bradford in the Masters F/H double sculls category, Theo giving racing a try for the first time in Novice single sculls, Oscar and George doing a Novice double scull and Charlotte, Liz, Shelley and Katy racing in Womens Novice coxless quads.

Division Two saw Liz and Olivia racing against Shelley and Charlotte in Womens Novice Double Sculls and George trying his hand out in Novice Single Sculls.

Everyone did fantastically well with many of the crews racing for the first time and for some getting that important first ever race out of the way.

In the end the biggest cheer of the day came when the results (round the corner at the pub!) were announced and Bob and Dave had won the Masters E/H double sculls category again! A great result for the guys again showing everyone else in the club that age is but a number!

A final thanks must go to Ancholme Rowing Club for a brilliant day out and for the loan of many boats on the day which really helped us out. Some good relationships with our neighbour club remade!

 

The 2015 Annual General Meeting took place on the 10th October at the East Park pavillion and there was a good turnout for this years AGM – over double the attendance of last year.

The Club Officers gave a brief report on the years progress with highlights including the huge growth in club membership, the new equipment that had come through (including four new rowing machines and two new coxed quads/fours) and the rent being secured.

The club membership agreed on the new membership subscriptions and payments methods from January 2016 as recommended by the committee and also approved changes to the training times.

In addition a new committee was elected to serve for one year until October 2016. The committee is as follows:

Chair – Gavin Coates

Captain – Sunil Mukerjea

Secretary – Charlotte Wilkinson

Treasurer – Shelley Main

Club Welfare Officer – Liz Bramhall

Junior Co-ordinator – Michelle Hopson

Club Water Safety Advisor – Gavin Coates

Marketing/Business Development – Rob Aitken

Our dynamic duo of Bob and Dave were back racing on a busy weekend for Hull Kingston Rowing Club.

While Gav and Charlotte were away representing the club at the British Rowing Conference in Leeds, Bob and Dave were in Doncaster racing for the club at the Head of the Don, Doncaster Rowing Clubs new Head Race.

Racing again in their Masters H double scull, Bob and Dave took on the lessons learned from racing at York and put it to good use in Doncaster coming away with the first ever win for Hull Kingston Rowing Club!

With a winning time of 16.37, their time put them as one of the fastest crews of the day and ahead of their Masters E opposition (as well as many university crews!).

We would like to congratulate Bob and Dave on being the first crew from Hull Kingston Rowing Club to win and it was fitting that two of our most dedicated club members would be the ones leading the way.

A huge thanks goes to Doncaster Rowing Club for the loan of a double for the event and for a fantastic first event – we hope that the event grows more and more each year.

The start of the 2015/2016 racing season has kicked off with our Masters Scullers racing at the new York Autumn Sculls Head race.

The 4500m time trial on the Ouse run by York City Rowing Club is a new event for September and was the perfect opportunity for our Masters Double Scull of Bob Jones and Dave Wilkinson to get a feel for how their training has been going.

Racing as Masters H (70 – 75 age category), Bob and Dave’s opposition was nearly 25 years younger than them but that did not stop them. They came a creditable 85 out of 109 and were commended by York City for showing many of the competitors on the day that age did not matter and you could still be competitive with an average age of 73!

Many thanks to York City Rowing Club for the loan of a double scull for the day and for running a great event.

We are pleased to announce that our next Learn to Row courses will be running from late July 2015.

We have a junior and adult Learn to Row course starting on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

For more information go to our Learn to Row page.

With the winter/spring long distance racing season behind us, club members have spent their weekends at East Park practicing their race starts and sprints in preparation for the beginning of regatta season where races move from the winter long distance processional time trials to the side by side sprint racing.

The first regatta of the season was York Spring Regatta, run by York City Rowing Club. 800 metres of side by side sprints though the heart of the city centre with crews entered from across Yorkshire, North East and even a crew from Thames Rowing Club in London!

We had two crews entered for what was a very full and busy regatta with Amy Hopson, Olivia Mukerjea, Charlotte Wilkinson, Shelly Main and Gavin Coates (coxing) in the Womens Novice Coxed Quad racing in the morning division and Charlotte Wilkinson and Shelly Main racing in the Womens Novice Double Scull in the afternoon division.

For half of the Womens Quad this was their first ever regatta and the whole quad handled their race incredibly well. A strong start and a good row, sadly beaten by a very well drilled and experienced York City junior crew, this was a great first regatta experience for Amy and Olivia.The double scull of Charlotte and Shelly had to contend with the deteriorating conditions in the afternoon division which had caused other scullers to capsize. Despite the harsh crosswind which affected their racing lane, they had a solid scull and the foundations for a strong sculling partnership have been created.For all of the club members, supporters and volunteers who came along it was a fantastic day – a big thanks to York City Rowing Club for a great event and special thanks to Bradford Amateur Rowing Club for the loan of a quad and double to help us race.As always a huge well done to the athletes who raced and special thanks to Dave who transported the blades over.Next races coming up… York again and then Bradford!