On the next day they raced in the Watney Fours, a shorter Head race run from Hammersmith to Chiswick, and the girls (Jo King, Vicki Inness, Marianne Waggott, Judith Hopton and cox, Lindsay Daniel) managed to win their event. In the York Small Boats Head we raced four crews, two of which did the course twice in different events. The Junior four did well to come 38th out of the 279 crews overall and the girls (crew as before) were the fastest of the twenty Women's Novice fours. The Yorkshire Junior League ran a Head Race and the girls' crew (as above) was again successful, as were the first boys four (Andy Newell, Chris Rowland, Mark Pyrah, John Davidson and cox, Steve Harryman). Towards the end of the Christmas Term two crews went and raced on the Tyne in the Rutherford Head. Conditions were beautiful and the senior boys crew (as above) raced well to come second in the Senior III class. In the Spring Term we were badly hit (as was almost every other racing club in the country) by floods. Joshua Rowe, an Australian student who has just joined us for two terms, was used to rowing in the sun and could not believe our weather. The rain went on for weeks and drove us to any available patch of dry ground for landtraining. Gary "mud-bath" Lawrence did a wonderful job and drove the rowers to new depths of suffering from which they emerged fitter. At half-term we had a St. Peter's crew in the Longship racing which is part of the Viking Festival. The event was rowed in replica Viking boats in fancy dress and really was quite spectacular. We met with no great success but we will practice back-stops paddling with pencil blades before next year's attempt! More serious racing was resumed with a trip to Nottingham to row in the Head of the Trent. Conditions on the river were difficult but two of the St. Peter's crews coped very well. The Women's Novice four (crew as before) won their event, beating the other eleven crews and the Men's Novice four (Roger Sangwin, John Davidson, Andy Newell and James Mee) did the same in their event, thirty-four seconds faster than any of the other fourteen Novice crews. It was wet and cold and Steve Harryman fully deserved two "pots" for coxing in both divisions. At the time these wins counted as Novice wins and these two crews were, therefore, now Senior III. (The A.R.A. later revoked this ruling and the boys were able to return to Novice status.)
Under 15 VI The Under 15 team did not come into their best form until the first home match — two weeks before the end of term! Prior to that a punishing schedule of away fixtures had enabled our players to develop their all-round game by playing on a variety of surfaces, with mixed results. Some interesting bounces on grass courts at Scarborough (in a sea-fret) and Pocklington were especially challenging. This was all good experience, but the lads played with much more confidence and competitiveness when they had home advantage. In the match against Barnard Castle they put it all together for a powerful win, with everybody playing well. This showed how much progress had been made over the term. Team: J. Swallow, R. Pipes, D. Ellis, A. Pickard, S. Berry, P. Watson. Also played: J. Fieldsend, S. Khanna, T. Dunn, A. Martin. Results: Opponents Scarborough College Pocklington School Ampleforth College Ashville College Durham School Barnard Castle School
Venue A A A A A H
For 9 3.5 1.5 3.5 5.5 8
AGS W/D/L W 0 L 5.5 L 7.5 L 5.5 W 3.5 W 1 D. S. Newman
BOAT CLUB The Head Season We enjoyed a successful season this winter with continual improvement and some fine racing. St. Peter's Boat Club has been represented at eight Head races (including two on the Tideway) and has had nine wins in Junior, Novice and Senior III events. A lot of the basic training and technique work was done in the Christmas Term when we had four crews on the river. Peterswalk '89 fitted nicely into our distance training and two fours and a sculling boat completed the distance from Boroughbridge to York. Our first race of the season was the Ancholme Head in October which was run over three miles of the straightest river possible. With a stiff tail wind, times were fast. The Boys' Senior III crew came second whilst the girls' Novice four were the fastest girls' crew in a recordbreaking time. Our next event was a slight contrast. For the first time in several years St. Peter's Boat Club raced on the Tideway in the Head of the River Fours Race. This is a 4W mile race over the Boat Race course (but in the other direction) with 500 crews taking part. (Our girls, starting number 499, had to be patient!) The boys came 304th overall and the girls 402nd, which made them a very respectable 4th in the Women's Novice Division.
We were then back to home water for the Yorkshire Head and entered six crews. The girls (crew as before) were not daunted by their new status and won at Senior III level. The Junior four (Mark Pyrah, Chris Rowland, Joshua Rowe, Simon Bowen and cox, Alex Bailes) raced well and won their event whilst the newly promoted Senior III boys' crew only lost by a few seconds. We had three Novice crews entered with a healthy amount of inter-crew rivalry. The fastest crew on the day was the fifth year crew (Jeremy Doncaster, Chris Lloyd, Ben Miller, Tim Cordier and cox, John Muir) who showed a lot of fight and determination and put up a very good performance in some of our older equipment.
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