This coming Saturday (3rd September) the Wightlink-sponsored Ryde Rowing Club will be competing at the South Coast Rowing Championships being hosted by the Coast Amateur Rowing Association at Herne Bay in Kent.
The Regatta, a Coxed Fours only event staged over a straight 1800m course is the culmination of the Coastal season where the representative crews from the 3 South Coast Rowing Associations – the Coast ARA, the West of England ARA and the Hants & Dorset ARA – meet to decide who are the South Coast Champions at various statuses. Each Association can have 2 representatives in the Championship events and a third if one of the Associations fails to fill its quota.
Ryde had originally entered 4 crew in the open supporting non-championship events, but 1 of the Coastal Junior Ladies Fours and the Men’s Coastal Junior Four have now been selected to represent the Association in the Championship events as West of England ARA have failed to provide a full quota of Ladies Junior Fours and the Hants & Dorset ARA has struggled to find a second representative crew in the Men’s Junior Fours. The situation has resulted in an appeal to all Hants and Dorset clubs for an open crew to switch, which Ryde have responded to.
The club has now been selected to represent the Association on 36 occasions and has 17 South Coast Championships.
The last time the club competed at Herne Bay was 31 years ago in 1985 in what was one of the most significant days in the club’s 139 year history.
In the same season as the club won its first ever Hants & Dorset Senior Fours points and the Association Senior Four Championship, the crew was selected to represent the Hants & Dorset Amateur Rowing Association in the Senior event at the Championship Regatta and went on to win one of the closest ever Championship races in an epic struggle with the host Club from Hearne Bay.
The club also had 2 open event wins that day – the Men’s Junior Fours and the Men’s Novice Fours, won after a re-row and in a borrowed boat.
Ryde’s winning Senior Crew, which went on to win 2 more Hants & Dorset ARA and South Coast Senior Fours titles in 1986 and 1987 in the most successful period in the club’s history, is pictured above with the Trophies won in the 1985 season including the famous Bideford Bowl for the South Coast Senior Championship.
