Head of the Charles

Newcastle University had 3 crews representing the Blue Star Club in their first trip over the pond to race  the highest quality Alumni rowing in the world at this year’s Head of the Charles Regatta.

The standard of the Men’s Alumni eights category was outstanding. With dreams of Blue Star crews over-celebrating on the podium the youngsters led by Barney with his broken hip came 10th (5 seconds off the podium dream) and the slightly older ones coming 13th (eight seconds behind). The Women’s Alumni eight had a good row coming 28th also in a very high quality field. There was a great energy in all the crews and it was fantastic to have so many Blue Star athletes representing.

Speaking for the more experienced crew we had 3 weeks of really fun preparation. We rowed out of Crabtree BC in Putney and had no problems finding high quality subs for our international crew members. We will certainly be heading back to the Head of the Charles going forward as the Blue Star is only getting stronger.

Crew lists

BSC-M8+ (A) – starting 47th in event

Bow – Nathan O’Reilly ’08

2 – Andrew Corrigan ’10

3 – Charles D’Oncieu ’10

4 – Murray Wilkojc ’11

5 – Tim Clarke ’15

6 – Fred Gill ’08

7 – Stephen Feeney ’07

Stroke – Chris Morahan ’13

Cox – Charles Barry ’13

BSC-M8+ (B) – starting 37th in event

Bow – Ryan Ballantine ’19

2 – James Stevenson ’19

3 – Henry Lambe ’18

4 – James Reeder ’15

5 – Alex Haynes ’19

6 – Will New ’18

7 – Michael Trevena ’17

Stroke – Oli Knight ’17

Cox – Hannah Taylor ’18

BSC-W8+ – starting 25th in event

Bow – Kelsey Stoddart ’18

2 – Brega Mullen ’18

3 – Ellie Dobson ’18

4 – Christa Browne ’18

5 – Lydia Davis ’19

6 – Leah Kindleyside ’17

7 – Megan Barry ’18

Stroke – Rachel Leigh ’18

Cox – Charlotte Hill ’17

Plus moral support from Alex Leigh ’15 and super-sub Barney Stroud-Turp ’18.

Words by Fred Gill