Four young Dover RC rowers completed their 24 hour rowing challenge in aid of Cancer Research UK and Dover Rowing Club. Tom Stothart, Cameron Mackintosh, Austin Mills and Chris Hall exceeded their distance challenge by 3320 metres with a grand total of 337,920, the equivalent of 210 miles.

Using a 30 minute rotation they started at 17:00 hours on Friday with Stothart, rowing in memory of his father who he lost to cancer recently up first, Mackintosh then took over with Mills followed by Hall finishing each round. The group set off strongly and received good support from both Dover and Deal Rowing Club members. The early hours brought their own challenges including a short blackout during which Mackintosh had to row torchlight. Having survived the challenges of the night the four rallied as the morning brought fresh food supplies and visitors.

The last rotation saw the Dover Grammar School sixth formers give everything as each in turned finished. Between the four of them they used over 21,000 calories and are very close to achieving their target of £1000 from the Just Giving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/dover-rowingclub and cash donations. They would like to thank everyone who has supported their efforts through help and donations with a special mention to Jacky Silk who stayed overnight and made the challenge possible.

The Charity Row was supported by:

Support Team: Jacky Silk, Mary Newcombe, David Newman and Julie Hall

Food provided by: Alison & Darren Mackintosh and Joy & Tony Whiting

Special mention to Paul Scrivener for the inflatable bed!

Dover Rowing Club’s Cameron Mackintosh, Austin Mills, Chris Hall and Tom Stothart will be aiming to complete 334,700 metres which is 208 miles (roughly the distance of London to Manchester) in a 24 hour row from 5pm on Friday 11th until 5pm Saturday 12th November. They will be rowing on a Concept 2 rowing machine and are not allowed to let the flywheel stop spinning at any point.

The Dover Grammar School Boys are donating 2/3 of the money they raise to Cancer Research UK as this charity means a lot to all members of the crew; especially as one of the young rowers has recently lost his father to the illness. The other third will be donated to DRC who are kindly letting them use their facility to complete this challenge. DRC is the oldest rowing club on the South Coast and is a big part of their lives. Donations can be made via JustGiving.com searching Dover Rowing or by using the following web address https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/dover-rowingclub

The sixth formers are aiming to raise £1000 and are very thankful for any donations. The boys welcome you to come down and support them at Dover Rowing Club situated in Dover Sea Sport Centre on the beach.

Sunday saw Dover Rowing Club in action on the River Medway in the Maidstone Autumn Head. Dover entered 4 scullers in the competition, Chris Price, Robin McCorkell, Nick Bailey and Jo Johnston. With Dover rowing in their shorter, heavier coastal sculls it was always going to be a challenge racing against the sleeker river boats, but as Price and McCorkell lined up in consecutive places in the Men’s Novice event they were determined to give coastal rowing a good showing. Price started first in the race’s time trial format and started hunting down the rower ahead of him. By the first bridge he had closed on the Gravesend sculler ahead of him and had stretched away from McCorkell. The diminutive Price showed his experience as he passed both the Gravesend and the Globe rowers ahead of him by the 2nd bridge where he easily dealt with the challenging dog leg before laying down the power to finish in 10 min 34 sec. McCorkell in his first outing on the Medway was a little more tentative but caught the Gravesend rower and was closing on the Globe rower who started three time slots ahead of him to finish in 10 min 49 sec. Price’s time was good enough to place 3rd with McCorkell 4th in a competitive division. Had Price been in a river scull it is likely he would have been competing for the win.

Veteran rower Bailey was entered into the Masters F1 category and found himself in the same division as Johnston the sole entrant in the Ladies Novice. Bailey was two time slots behind Johnston and he tried to chase his younger teammate down. Johnston pushed hard to maintain her lead over the wily veteran and by the second bridge it was clear that Johnston was holding her own with Bailey only managing to close the gap slightly. By the end of the course Bailey had moved to 2nd in his category with a time of 11 min 35 sec and Johnston, the defacto winner of her category, finished in 11 min 45 sec; 3rd amongst the adult women rowers beating a number of intermediate rowers on the day.

Saturday saw Dover Rowing Club in competition at the 60th annual South Coast Rowing Championship held at Herne Bay. Dover mustered four crews in the open competitions with the Ladies Junior 4’s in action first. The crew of Emily Harvey, Lizzie Foley, Maria West-Burrows, Petra Matthews-Crow coxed by Jo Johnston were drawn in the 2nd semi-final. Rowing in good conditions they found the Itchen Imperial and Shoreham crews too strong on the straight 2km course leaving the Dover Ladies towards the back of the field. Despite their best efforts they were unable to improve on 5th place.
In the Men’s Open Junior race Dover had three Novice DGSB rowers rowing up a division, Cameron Mackintosh, Austin Mills, Tom Stothart, with Junior Chris Hall coxed by Megan Barter. An excellent start was ruined after another crew was called for a false start. The re-start didn’t go Dover’s way leaving them in the back of the field in their semi final. Working hard the young crew kept in touch but were unable to run down the four crews ahead of them who crossed the line in a blanket finish.
With the first two crews failing to reach the finals it fell to the Men’s Novice of Michael Scales, Mills, Stothart, Mackintosh coxed by Hall to put in Dover’s best performance. A tight start saw the novices in the mix for the first 700m when Stothart developed a problem with his footplate. Despite the problem the crew kept fighting to stay with the leaders coming in 4th overall.
In Dover’s last race the Veteran 40+ Open Final saw a late name change bring West-Burrows into the bow position with Paul Scrivener, Nick Bailey, Tony Burrows coxed by Barter. The Dover crew found themselves at the back of the field a situation that wasn’t helped by the safety boat accidentally swamping young Barter. The veteran crew put together a solid performance as they trailed in a little off the pace in 4th.