Ryde Rowing Club competed in very warm conditions over a 1600m course at Poole Regatta off Hamworthy Park on Saturday (30th June).
The club’s Coastal Junior Four of Josh Lee, Tye Cameron, Ben Sanderson and Austin Smith – with Dan Sanderson coxing – were competing at this level for the first time following their promotion from Novice status at Woolston Regatta the week before last. They acquitted themselves well finishing 5th in their heat but missing out on a place in the final.
The problem for any club which runs a Novice squad system is that when they win at Novice level only the four racing get promoted to Coastal Junior – and although racing in the Coastal Junior Four at Poole it was Ben Sanderson who had missed out at Woolston as it was his turn to be rested. This anomaly was corrected at Poole when Ben raced in a composite Novice Four with Southsea – in a crew coxed by ex-Ryde member Bryony Reeve – which, in spite of racing together for the first time, produced a fine performance to win the final and deliver Ben his promotion to Coastal Junior Status to join the rest of the Ryde squad.
To complete a busy day Ben also raced in the Boys J16 Single Sculls event where he finished in 4th place just beating with his club colleague Tye Cameron who finished 5th.
Josh Lee and Tom Starkey competed in the Men’s Coastal Junior Pair event where they finished in 7th place and Austin Smith raced in the Men’s Novice Sculls finishing in 4th place in his heat – just missing out on place in his final.
Ryde Rowing Club’s J16 Mixed Coxed Quad of Paddy Kearney, Tom Starkey, Josh Lee and Grace Bolland – with Dan Sanderson coxing once again, racing against all boys crews, did well to finish in 3rd place. The mixed J14 Coxed Quad of Dan Sanderson, Emily Davies, Poppy Starkey and Grace Bolland – with Paddy Kearney in the coxswains seat, again racing against the boys and in their second competitive race at this level, did well to finish in 4th place.
Finally, Grace Bolland raced for the first time in a J16 Girls Single Sculls event where she was keeping up with the race leaders before suffering from a bad back which affected her performance.
