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01/05/12
Varsity Success for the Novice Men!
Saturday marked the much anticipated Welsh Varsity Boat Race. It was a grim day on the banks of the Taff and tensions were running high as the Swansea crews stepped off the coach. The atmosphere continued to build as the crews took part in the coin toss, weigh-ins and photographs.
Eventually though it was time for the racing to begin, the first crews to take to the water were the Novice Women. The Swansea girls gave a strong performance and lead for half of the race before they were beaten by a very professional Cardiff crew.
Next up came the Novice Men's category, a hotly anticipated race with a real chance of victory. The race began and Cardiff quickly moved into an early lead for the first half of the race before the crew of nine heroes in green and white stepped up the pace to a level that Cardiff simply couldn't match. The Swansea crew went on to win the race comfortably by two lengths.
Then came the senior events, firstly the Senior Women. Recently a Swansea women's boat cruised to a bronze medal at BUCS head race so expectation was high here. However early in the race a Swansea crew member caught a vicious crab which disabled the crew for some time so the following defeat was not a real reflection on the ability of the crew.
Finally came the Senior Men's Race, this would prove interesting as the crews were somewhat mismatched, Cardiff selected a lightweight crew whilst Swansea were represented my a crew of man-mountains, the classic brain vs brawn situation! The race began and Cardiff flew into an early lead, however the Swansea men refused to be beaten like that, in the second half of the race a powerful performance by the Swansea Men combined with some daring steering on the part of Ania Negele the cox lead to an extremely close finish with Cardiff winning by an extremely narrow half a length.
The racing, however is only half the story at the Boat Race and following the presentations the Jamaican Ginger Cake Challenge was allowed to begin here Ben Christopherson stormed to victory against a lacklustre performance from Toby Rowlands. After this came a night of eating drinking and celebrating a great day and some great performances!
Every crew competing on the day should be extremely proud of the performances they gave and proved that SURC have a very bright future in the next couple of years.
Report written by Toby Rowlands.
11/04/12
Twitter!
The finest rowing club Swansea University has to offer is now on Twitter. For more frequent news updates, social and race information follow us at @SwanseaUniRC
09/04/12
The Welsh Boat Race, 2012
The build up to this years Welsh Boat Race has begun. Let's hope this years crop of tallents can bring home victory to the Green and Whites this year on the 28th of April.
Alumni and current members get in contact with Ania to buy tickets to the post race meal and celebrations.
25/01/12
24 Hours of Rowing!
This Thursday SURC will taking on the hardcore challenge of a 24 hour indoor row! Our latest fundraiser is to raise money for a new boat so that the indoor rowing talent at Swansea can be transferred onto the water. Three teams will be participating at Tesco Fforestfach on Thursday 26th January. Hopefully there will be over 1,000,000m of rowing done by SURC! Anyone looking to support SURC can contact us on swanseaunirowingclub@gmail.com.
30/12/11
Monmouth Head
On Sunday 11th December SURC men competed at the Christmas Head Race, held at Monmouth Rowing Club, on the river Wye.
Ed Hares was the first out on the water, kicking off Swansea’s racing day with a 2250m race in the IM1 singles category. Ed had a good race finishing with a strong time of 7:37 and finishing 3rd in category.
Soon after this race came the novice coxed four. Despite large issues with equipment and boat repairs prior to the race, the novice crew finished with a good time of 7:46. The crew only raced for a time and not a position. Bowman Jake Loomes commented,
“We had a good race and now know the area’s we need to work on in preparation for the welsh boat race, that’s the goal now. It’s just a shame we had no competition today!”
Starting off the afternoon was the novice eight. The excitement of this crew was unfortunately ruined shortly after the start of the race. This crew also hampered by equipment issues were let down by the feet in the eight boat, two of the crew member’s foot plates either broke or came out during the race, making rowing near impossible. Despite this, the novice crew made the best out of the frustrating situation and rowed a good time finishing 4th in category. Strokeman Hamish Yates commented,
“Its just frustrating to know that our standard of rowing is improving so much and yet our equipment is holding us back, the crew were rowing brilliantly until the feet went.”
The final race of the day was the senior coxed four. This was the most anticipated race of SURC’s day. On top of this, it was the only race to have a Cardiff crew competing against a Swansea one. The senior crew finished 2nd in category, just seconds behind the Cardiff four. Senior Captain John Eardley commented,
“We rowed well and with a good time, both senior crews are looking in a strong position for the varsity race and it’s definitely going to be a close result!”
Following the Monmouth race all crews are going to be looking at their performances and work on their areas for improvement in preparation for varsity and the start of the long distance head season.
All results can be found on: http://www.monmouthrc.org.uk/events/2011/12%20Christmas%20HOR/ChristmasHOR.html
Crews
IM1 1x: Ed Hares
IM3 4+: Ed Blundell, Ed Hares, Jon Eardley, Chris Hills, Cox Phoebe Wright
Novice 4+: George Lance, Sam Cunningham, Matt Meyer, Jake Loomes
Novice 8+: H Yates, L Davis, T Rowlands, S Stoilov, C Arnold, B Christophersen, T Grimes, K Allbrighton, cox A Negele
07/12/11
The Welsh Indoor Rowing Championships!
The past weekend was the Welsh Indoor Rowing Championships held at Channel View Lesure Centre in Cardiff.
As with every year Swansea University went along to test out fitness levels, set new personal bests or receive a much needed reality check.
All Levels of rowing took part over the day with special categories for junior, students and veterans.
Well done to Jon Eardley and Bryony Lloyd who pulled the best times for their squads - Both Captains leading by example.
After last years close defeat by 1.2 seconds the senior men made up for it this year with a convincing win over their Cardiff counterparts.
Swansea University Senior Mens A team.
Full results from the event can be found at http://concept2.co.uk/nationals/results?race_name=welsh
Check out the photos in the Gallery section!
22/11/11
Bristol Head Results and Report
SURC attended Bristol Head race on Saturday 19th November, with the senior crews starting off the day racing 3200m down the River Avon.
The senior men’s first four came 4th with a time of 12:14. Men’s Captain Jon Eardley said,
“A mix up with boats meant that we were very rushed getting ready for the race and had no time to set it up for us properly but we had an ok result. A promising start given the situation” The Senior men’s second four came 5th with a time of 13:28.
The senior women entered a coxed four and an eight in the intermediate category. The coxed four came 4th out of nine with a time of 14:01. A pleasing result considering problems with the foot plate seconds before the start, causing Cat to row with one leg! The women’s eight came 5th with a time of 14:04. Crew member Lorna Carter reflected on the race.
“ It was promising start to the year with a good first race and a fair result to go with it. We know where the squad's strengths and weaknesses lie so we will now build upon this to improve for the coming year.”
The novice races were up next (their first race ever), rowing 1200m down the River Avon.
The novice men four had the best result of the day coming 3rd with a time of 5:05 beating rivals Cardiff eight by twenty seconds! The novice men’s eight came 15th out of 25 with a time of 5:00. Words from novice Captain Callum Hughes,
“So proud of the boys putting in two great performances and I'm happy that we managed to enter a coxed four in the beginner category for the first time.”
The novice women entered an eight coming 17th with a time of 6:30. The girls have had little water time due to access to boats and bad weather; with the return of boats they’ll be hoping to turn this around in time for the next race.
Crews
1st Men’s coxed four - Stroke Ed Hares, Igor Licko, Jon Eardley, Chris Ryder
2nd Men’s coxed four- Stroke Callum Hughes, Ollie Thomas, Leighton King, Chris Hill, Cox Amy drawbridge.
Women’s coxed four- Stroke Ania Negele, Georgina Watling, Cat Long, Phoebe Wright, Cox Kate Godding
Women’s Eight- Stroke Dani MartinTaylor, Jenni Pearson, Lizzie Urry, Natasha Cook, Ruth Worgan, Kate Housby, Lorna Carter, and Elizabeth James Crook.
Novice Men’s coxed four- Stroke George Lance, Sam Cunningham, Tom Rowlands, Dave Marsh, Cox Ed Hares Novice Men’s Eight- Stroke Hamish Yates, Jake Loomes, Adam Walton, Stephan Stoilov, Matt Mayer, Sam Pyzer, Rob Dodd, Alex Edwards, Cox Dani Martin Taylor.
Novice Women’s Eight- Stroke Ruth Worgan, Clarice Watkinson, Rhiannon Price, Issy Smith, Estella Thomas, Noami White, Kate Godding, Lucy Walsh, Cox Phoebe Wright.
For full results, please visit http://ubbconline.co.uk/UBBCHeadrace/
Well done to all that raced and survived the night out after!
15/11/11
Bristol Uni Head this weekend.
The four squads at Swansea university are all gearing up for their first race of the year at Bristol.
On Saturday the Senior men will be represented by two Fours, the Novice men an Eight and a Four. The Senior Women will feature in an Eight and a Four whilst the Novice women will be racing an Eight.
For the novices it is their first ever race, so best of luck guys.
05/11/11
Old news page.
To reduce the load time of the website, particularly for mobile devices older news is now stored on a new page.
This can be found on the bottom of this home page or by clicking here.
31/10/11
New boatman, at last!
Chris Hills has undertaken the huge task of being the SURC Boatman for 2011/12. Whilst the club members will give him any help he asks for it will be no easy task and a full time job.
Good luck Chris!
Happy Halloween!
25/10/11
New members, Broken boats, Hill walking and a new sponsor!
At the start of the 2011/12 academic/rowing year SURC racked up an impressive 108 signatures, with around 70 actually turning up for training, as the weeks go on, the squads will with no doubt get smaller as people decided that the sport is too hard, and not for them. However with the remaining members it is looking to be a good year for depth of squads.
On a slightly less upbeat note, the novices are still awaiting their first water training session due to lack of rowable boats. Over the last few years boats have taken wear and tear and a few accidents it seems to have all finally given in at once, with one Women’s eight and a four being the only usable boats.
Over the summer 7 members of the SURC team did between 20 and 30 miles sponsored walking for the Brecon Beacons Challenge to raise money for the club, between them they managed to raise a very impressive and much needed £1000. Special thanks to Kate, Caroline, Phoebe, Cat, Lorna, Georgina and Leighton.
Our new sponsor for this year is RETRO. The majority of our socials will be meeting here to start off our wild nights, so support our sponsor and turn out in force!
28/09/11
Freshers Fair starts today + Resignation of Boatman.
Today and tomorrow SURC will be at the freshers Fair taking all signatures of any one who wants to start their rowing career with us here in Swansea, so come and sign up.
Yet again, this years elected boatman has already resigned before any rowing has taken place as happened last year. Is this position cursed? If any members of SURC are interested in filling this position contact the club with the usual AGM format of proposer and seconder etc...
See you all at the fair.
10/09/11
Swansea Freshers, we need you!
As the new year approaches, as always we need new members to fill our novice and possibly senior ranks. We welcome all abilities of rowing so don't be afraid if you're a total novice who has never rowed before. You can find us in freshers fair or if you would like some information in advance please don't hesitate to contact the club's email account that can be found on the Contact page listed in the navigation bar - Dont forget to include which squad your enquiring about!
Hope to see you all soon for another successful year at SURC.
22/07/11
Committee Page updated for 2011-12
As with every year, a new committee has been voted in by the other members of the club. The full list of names and positions as well as a short message from each elected member can be found on the Committee Page in the upper navigation bar.
Click here to view older news articles.