Conditions were near perfect for the eights Erne Head of the River event on Saturday, with no wind or rain, and strong river flow which made for competitive racing. For the third time since 1957, there were separate races for women and men, with 34 female teams and 59 male teams a record entry for the event. Clubs from all over Ireland travelled for the race which is one of the most popular events in the spring rowing calendar. Many former rowers came back to help at the event, including former head of rowing Robert Northridge who was in the starter team. He reminded us that he won the event 59 years ago.
In the morning womens’ race there were excellent wins for the J18 eight crew Kate Huddlestone, Eva Johnston, Naomi Robinson, Rhea Cartin McCloskey, Isabella Wright, Emily Black, Sienna Howe / Zara Welsh and cox Jessica Thompson coming home 18 seconds ahead of second placed St Michael’s and claiming the Sir Tony Hart trophy. Not to be outdone, their J16 colleagues claimed the Kemp Cup with Tori Davis, Brooke Davis, Grace Collins, Darcy Balfour, Abbie McCarthy-Magwood, Amy Williamson, Eva Fowler, Cadence Binu (rowing in her first Erne Head having just started rowing this season) and cox Milena Remedios recording an impressive one minute win over second place Coláiste Iognaid RC.
In the Club class there were no competitors but the crew of Freya McNeary, Caithlin Tisha, Maebh Murphy, Annabelle Kingston, Zara Lindsay, Mya Morris, Ruby Hamill, Hannah Armstrong and cox Abbey Wilson finished with a strong time of 22.39 minutes.
The J15 Octo of Aimee Turner, Clodagh Donaghy, Kaitlyn Read, Maeve Rolston-McAuliffe, Madeleine Curran, Flavia Remedios, Leah Topping, Penny Huddlestone, and cox Rachel Cathcart had a big 2.49-minute winning margin over Carlow RC.
The fastest women’s crew were Trinity College Dublin who deservedly claimed the Brian Kidd Cup with a fourth fastest ever recorded at the event.
In the afternoon, the sun made an appearance and the men’s’ crews had better conditions to contend with. In the hotly contested J18 class with nine strong crews, Enniskillen crew of Lorcan Sreenivasan, William Bogle, Andrew Cuthbertson, Christian Timoney, Ryan Topping, Luke Bailey, Austin Cassidy, Evan Donaghy, and cox Abbey Wilson claimed the win and the Devenish Cup with a 14 second margin over second placed Neptune. In the J18B class, Enniskillen crew of Justin Smith, Ben Cameron, Hugo McChesney, Charlie Lynn, Harley Shepherd, Joe Murphy, Harry Coalter, Jake Sembhi, and cox Jessica Thompson also won with a twenty-two second margin again over Neptune.
There were also good second places for the Enniskillen crews in the J16 eight, J15 octo and J14 oct classes, with many junior rowers racing in the age group above. The J16 crew losing margin to old rivals St Joseph’s was only half a second.
The fastest men’s crew overall were University College Dublin who claimed the Rowing Cup with a time of 18.27 minutes. Enniskillen also won the Waterways Ireland sponsored Best Junior Club.
The focus is now on the training camp in Banyoles in two weeks, and then onto the side-by-side racing season starting with the Neptune regatta on April 5th. Some senior rowers will also be travelling down to the Irish Rowing Centre near Cork next weekend to compete in the Irish trials for a place in the summer international competitions.
