Young rowers set the pace
The end of the regatta season for the Newark Rowing Club junior boys ended with a set of stunning results, with the highlight of the two-day event at Peterborough City Rowing Club being a series of wins by the young senior coxed four who took the regatta by storm.
Sam Bonser, Edward Cottrell, Nick Parnell, Ollie Saunders and cox Dominic Parnell started this year’s regatta season in April as the novice coxed four and have now moved up three senior classes to finish as a senior-2 coxed four, winning all five of the events that they have entered, with victories at Nottingham City Regatta, St Neots Regatta and three events at Peterborough.
They faced some tough opposition from Peterborough, Cambridge, Thames, and Blue Coat at Leeds to win one of the fastest senior-3 races that Peterborough Regatta has seen.
They were stroke for stroke against Thames in the final, with Thames taking a slight lead at 250m before cox Parnell called ten stroke pushes to get the crew back on terms with the very strong Thames crew.
The cox kept a close eye on the opposition and the crew responded to what they were asked to do, and with ten strokes to go, the Newark youngsters broke through with style and composed maturity.
Stroke Bonser kept his cool under severe pressure to take his crew through to the amazing win — the slightest error from any crew member would have been costly but they were 100% committed to their task and the hours of training on the water and the gym paid off.
They were warmly congratulated by the defeated Thames crew and were nick-named the “schoolboys” by Peterborough.
Parnell and Bonser went on to compete in the men’s novice double sculls and recorded an emphatic win to move up to senior-4.
It was their first attempt at novice double sculls together and again they surprised the opposition and coaches alike with two wins to take the title.
Younger doubles sculls entry Tom Selby (14) and George Greenfield (14) showed that they have the strength and talent to go far in the sport by taking a great second place in the J15 a year above their age-group.
Callum Jones (13) the world 2k ergo record holder, showed that he’s not only the best in the world on the ergo at his age- group but also recorded two course records, again in the next age group, at J14 1x and is a promising talent for the future.
Another top notch performance was produced by Rob Oakley (16) at the St Neots Regatta when he won the men’s novice single sculls at the first attempt.
He now becomes a senior-4 sculler after racing against 15 other senior men to take the title.
The Newark junior rowing and sculling boys team may be a small tight-knit group but, with five status changes, a world record, course records and three GB ergo medals as well numerous wins in 2007-2008 they have shown that they have the determination to compete in the tough sport.
