Boat Club

Wednesday 17th Oct. Ashville .. .. Saturday 20th Oct. Denstone .. Saturday 3rd Nov. King's Pontefract Saturday 10th Nov. Ampleforth Wednesday 14th Nov. Bradford .. Saturday 17th Nov. Durham .. Wednesday 28th Nov. Worksop .. Saturday 1st Dec. Pocklington Saturday 8th Dec. Giggleswick

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1978-79

When I arrived at St. Peter's I didn't know quite what to expect from a Boat Club which had spent the most important period of the year without recognised coaching, and certainly my hopes for the summer term were not very high. However, the emergence of two crews which won open regatta events and the fact that many oarsmen in the club are now rowing to a high technical standard pay tribute to the hard work of the boys during that Easter term and especially to David Hughes, who ran the club, and whom I cannot thank enough for the help given to me.

The first task of the summer term was to sort out regatta crews and, whilst David Hughes and Barry Daniel looked after the Juniors, the Senior oarsmen found themselves changing side, position and crew quite regularly to establish the best order. Obviously selection was almost totally subjective, but by half-term the crews had started to settle. It was then that illness struck and we had to begin all over again.

The regatta programme was changed slightly this year, we went to fewer regattas but took more crews to those visited, a move which has been largely responsible for generating tremendous club spirit. Trips were made to Bradford, Tyne, Durham and Leeds, and crews were entered for both York Spring and York Summer. On many occasions crews were unlucky, losing to the eventual winners, often by the smallest of margins, or suffering equipment failure, but there were times when crews rowed so abysmally it made me wonder if the outing had been worth it. Our two wins of the season were in the Novice divisions at York Spring and York Summer Regattas.

At half-term we made the annual trip to Cambridge, entering two scratch crews for the regatta. It rained all day Saturday and both crews were eliminated in their first races but the Cambridge Old Peterites managed to dry our dampened spirits and slake our hunger and thirst at a marvellous party that evening. On behalf of the Boat Club I must thank them for their kind hospitality.

In mid-June we held our junior Invitation Regatta and had entries from various schools in the north. Thanks to the work of many boys the racing ran to schedule and St. Peter's was able to produce the winner of the U-16 division. Two crews went to the Bradford Junior Invitation Regatta in July and were beaten semi-finalists.

The Boat Club Dance was held in May and splendidly organised by the Supporters Committee and Mr. John Morris at the School. The event was a great success and enabled a significant sum of money to be contributed to the cost of the new four and the new blades, which were delivered at the 94