Rec Squad Update 2019

The Recreational Squad began its journey in June 2018 and after starting out with just a couple of enthusiastic novice rowers.

We soon grew in numbers and within a few months had enough members in our group to enable us to become a ‘squad’.

We decided we needed a challenge that would suit our ethos, which is to enjoy rowing, to benefit from the positive impact it has on our health and mental wellbeing, to enjoy the sense of camaraderie it brings and to have a good rowing/work /life balance.

We entered the Northern Region Sunday League series which consisted of eight rounds, one per month, which were a combination of sculling, sweep and skills events, culminating in a final round at Tyne United RC at Newburn on October 6th. So in March 2019 we apprehensively took part in the first round at Tyne ARC.

This was a sculling event and after a nervous start and feeling very apprehensive, coupled with very cold weather and racing on a choppy tidal river which we were not used to, we were very pleased to come away with one win out of three, which immediately put us in 3rd place with 4 points.

We were up against strong competition from the out start from the other women’s team’s but we persevered and in October for the final event came a very close third with 33 points, to Tynemouth Gulls who had 34.5 points and the winning team Tynequilla with 38 points.

Feeling inspired the ‘Steel JAKS’, Jenny, Alison, Karen, and Steph are feeling full of optimism for their next round of events and would like to thank Olly and Laura for subbing, John J. and Gareth for coxing and Elinor Turner for being an excellent coach, as well as every other member of the club who has helped us out in many ways.