ST NEOTS VS. HUNTINGDON BOAT RACE
SATURDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER 201
This Saturday 10th Sept, two local rowing clubs went to head in a celebration of the original four-oared race between the two clubs 150 years ago.
The event was held on the stretch of the Ouse outside of St Neots rowing club, with races for juniors & adults. Over 60 people turned up from the two clubs to support, to race & to enjoy the warm weather.
Kicking off the afternoon were the ‘Scratch’ eights, made up from a mixture of members from each of the rowing clubs. All the of the races in the eights were closely fought & enjoyed by all. It’s very unusual seeing both Huntingdon & St Neots blades in one boat. These were then followed by the juniors racing in quads across 500m even though windy weather made it a real effort.
The main events of the day had to be the Women’s & Men’s fours races; each club entering a boat to compete against the other.
In the women’s race, both crews put up a good fight, but the crew of Ruth Twynam, Marlene Taylor, Laura Fozzard, Sophie Robinson & Stephen Twynam from Huntingdon managed to pull away in the last 100m to secure victory over the St Neots ladies Rachel Tackley, Alison Young, Lynne Taylor, Angela DeStefano & Charmian Hardwicke.
It was then the turn of the main even of the day: a re-row of the original four-oared men’s race held in 1861 with each of Huntingdon & St Neots putting forward their top crews to compete for the bespoke, hand-crafted Trophy made for the event.
The event was raced over a longer course - 1000m - but still short of the original mile & half raced on Offord Reach in 1861. After a coin toss to decide which crew would take each side, it was a great race with the St Neots crew of Clive Emmerson, Ed Porteus, Josh Dexter, Huw Jarman (coxed by Robyn Staddon) eventually securing victory over the Huntingdon crew of Mark Smith, Iain Rickerby, Alistair Macdonald & Andy Wood (coxed by Stephen Twynam). The participating crews were the applauded as they rowed by after the event, with the trophy presented in the club house after.
