York Autumn Sculls 2015

On Saturday 19th September as the senior crews were steeling themselves for what turned out to be an outstanding performance at Boston the following day, this year's learn to row graduates were at York for their first ever race at the York Autumn Sculls alongside 110 boats from York, Tees, St Peters, Yarm, Lakeland, Guy Fawkes and Bradford.

The head race was run over a 4,500m course starting some 5,000m upstream of the York City boathouse. The women's race in division 1 was marred a little when a blade broke free from a gate that hadn't been tightened sufficiently but though that put paid to their chances of a competitive time they regained their composure and looked pretty damn good as they entered the finishing straight by St Peters boathouse. The men's race was not incident free either, as their bowman misjudged the chicane bend in the middle of the course and they familiarised themselves with some low hanging vegetation. Despite this their time of 21.09 placed them 22nd in their division.

Our attendance at this inaugural running of the Autumn Sculls was warmly appreciated by York RC and we had a grand day out, complete with great weather, bacon butties and some friendly banter with the other crews. We all left keen to build on this experience during the rest of the head season.