News
Spring 2006
Mersey Regatta
Northwich Rowing Club was well represented by the junior squad, entering 16 crews at Merseyside Regatta on Sat 5th May, hosted by Liverpool Victoria RC at the West Float, Wirrall, racing over a regatta distance of 500 meters. This venue has completely different water conditions as it is a floating dock and it was the first experience of regatta racing for many of them especially the less experienced younger crews.
The club returned with 4 wins.
- Novice coxed Four, won by the junior 16 boys beating Liverpool Vics by 2 lengths. The boys are showing great potential and are looking forward to gaining experience and winning in the forthcoming regatta season. Crew - Peter Morton, Frazer Dodd, Mike Igoe, Dan Edge, cox Andrew Morrison.
- Women's Junior double scull of Jane Edwards and Amy Fallon winning convincingly against The Grange School.
- Women's Junior 13 coxed quad winning their first regatta medal against Queen’s Park HS, Chester. The cox, Liam Street 11 yr, is the youngest club cox and was delighted to emulate his father, Dave, who also won his first race at this venue at the age of 11 years. Crew - Becky Jones, Lizzy Bennett, Bethany Wynne, Chloe Weston, cox Liam Street
- Women's Junior 15 single Mary Hunt winning decisively.
Junior coaches Mike Palfreyman, Jed Barlow, Pauline Barrett and Kevin Jump were delighted with the standard of racing from all the crews with many reaching the finals. The Junior 16 double scull composite of Matt Evans (NRC) and Will Frisk (Grange Sch.) were narrowly beaten in the final by Hollingworth Lake, however this combination shows promise and hopes to develop over the coming weeks. The Junior 13 boys, Will Igoe, Adam King , Ciaran Hynes, Andrew Jackson came 2nd in a three boat, side by side final, with the NRC cox, Becky Jones, steering a good course and showing nerves of steel.
Jamie Leighton and Matt Jump represented the club at Nottingham City Regatta on Sat 28th April coming a commendable second in senior 2 double sculls, the winners being Rebecca, The Welsh National Squad. The double are setting their sights to enter Henley Royal Regatta and the National Championships in July.
The club travels to Shrewsbury Regatta on 12/13th May.
Junior Inter Regional Regatta
The National Junior Inter Regional Regatta was held at the National Rowing Centre, Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham on Saturday 21st April with Northwich Rowing Club's women's junior 15 double, Rhian Wynne and Mary Hunt returning with a silver medal!
Northwich Rowing Club was one of 10 rowing clubs, including The Grange School, Kings School and Queen's Park HS, Chester, Agecroft, Warrington, Merchants Taylor School, Runcorn, Trentham and Hollingworth Lake to represent the North West Region in this highly competitive multi lane regatta raced over 1500 meters. The crews representing the NW Region were selected from the NW Junior Time Trial held at Northwich in February.
 Rhian and Mary at the Inter Regionals. |
 Rhian and Mary being presented with their medal. |
The competing crews were made up of 14, 15 and 16 year boys and girls from 12 regions across England, racing in different categories as teams but also individually winning gold, silver and bronze medals. The racing was very exciting, of an extremely high standard with some very close finishing results. The Overall Regional Champion was Thames Upriver with the NW region in close second position. The Overall Boys Regional Champion was the North West Region.
Competing crew members from Northwich Rowing Club included: Rhian Wynne, Mary Hunt, Ellan Preece, Allie Bebb, and Amy Fallon.
Cliff's 90th Birthday Celebrations
Northwich Rowing Club members, family and friends gathered together on Sunday 15th April to celebrate Clifford Salt's 90th birthday. Cliff, from Weaverham, is a highly respected and much loved member of the rowing club of which he is very proud to be President.
Cliff has had an affinity with the River Weaver all his life. Growing up in Northwich and inspired by his father, who was a "Steam Packet Captain" of some repute. It was while he was an apprentice at ICI in 1931 aged 13 he was introduced to the rowing club and asked to cox a men's crew. Lightweight, with a natural aptitude and loud voice, Cliff inspired his crew to victory at Lancaster when they won the County Plate Trophy in 1932! He was a key figure at ICI in the development in 1939 of polythene used in radar. Cliff, subsequently, joined the Royal Navy and saw active service during the war in HMS Jamaica.
A chance encounter brought Cliff back to the club 60 years later in 1992 where he resumed his eloquent duties as a coxswain with senior and junior crews. He was delighted, in 1997, to win a tankard at Warrington regatta in his 80th year with a Novice Women's crew.
 Cliff the cox. |
 Cliff with the juniors past and present |
We believe he is the oldest active cox in the UK. His last win was coxing the Northwich Junior girls Eight at Northwich Regatta in 2006.
He was in action once again, on Sunday, with the same crew to race 350 meters against two eights comprising of former "junior" members now in their early twenties, in honour of his birthday.
Cliff was presented with a memorial display trophy: The Cliff Salt Boxing Day Trophy which features the bow section of "Brunner" an old wooden rowing boat. Boxing Day Eights is a very traditional, good humored race and this will be a much coveted award presented to the winning crew.
For more pictures see the Flickr page.
Northwich Spring Head, 2006
NORTHWICH welcomed 154 crews to the River Weaver on Saturday and their Spring Head was launched by a sparkling performance from an old boy. William Laughton, now a London University student and a Great Britain Under 23 international, won the Elite Sculls in a time of 8mins 53secs over a 2,600m course. He was not the only individual to grab success. So too did Sian Murray, a former junior international out of retirement following illness. The 23-year-old Castle woman won the Senior IIs in 10.33. Northwich's Jamie Leighton triumphed in the Senior IV event in 9.34, Matthew Jump the Senior I race in 9.35 and John Cowan the Senior IIIs in 9.43.
The Second Division was won by the Northwich SII coxless quad in 7.59 and clubmates in the Vet C Eight sped home in 8.14. The junior girls won two medals in WJ16 double, Rhian Wynne and Mary Hunt, and WJ15 double Jane Edwards and Amy Fallon, beating opposition from local rivals Royal Chester and The Grange School. This division was not without incident when an eight rowed by Chester University crashed at speed into the bank, smashing off the bow end of the boat. Though shocked, all crew members were unharmed.
Northwich were delighted in the final division to win back the Walter Benyon Trophy, presented to the fastest boat of the day which was won by their own SII men's eight in 7.41. Mike Bulmer, Doug Pickup, John Ford, John Cowan, Matt Jump, John McDonald, Jamie Leighton, Martin Chandler (Trafford RC) and cox Jonty Moore were in the boat. Steve Wignall, Simon Bannister, Mike Francis and Neville Hand won the Veterans E coxless four in 9.21. The promising combination of Kerry Briggs and Laura Hind raced well, convincingly beating their opposition, to win the Women's Novice doubles in 10.06. Junior boys Henry Bellis and Matt Riddell were presented with their first major race medals in J13 doubles. They were timed at 12.57.
Pictures, including that broken eight, are on the gallery page. Paul Barber won the sweep prize of £ 34 for correctly guessing the Boat Race winning time.
Report from the Northwich Chronicle
Head of the River, 2006
ONE of the main reasons for an entire winter's training was ruined by freak weather for four Northwich eights at the weekend. They were on the Thames among 400 crews to cover the four-and-a-half mile Putney-Mortlake Boat Race course at the London Head and at the start conditions were calm. But of the first 50 boats off only 29 staggered to the finish line as a combination of an ebbing tide and sudden headwinds made conditions dangerous. Boats struggled back to their boathouses in frightening and horrific conditions with many being swamped by high waves and some even sinking. All Northwich crews made it back safely.
However, Northwich's Olympic hero Matthew Langridge was at bow in the Leander first eight who finished second, narrowly beaten by the Cambridge University Boat crew who completed the distance in 18 mins 29 secs, using this race as a practice run for their race against Oxford at the weekend. Other ex-Northwich men in action were Will Laughton in the Imperial College boat finished fourth, elder brother George, rowing for Newcastle University finished eleventh and Ronan Lomas in a Molesey boat that was forced to abandon.
Some pictures of the conditions from Nature's images
 Ronan at three, somewhere. |
 An eight sinking. |
Conditions improved for the Vesta Veteran Head on Sunday and Northwich completed the course and were pleased with their performance.
Report from icCheshire onLine