ROWING: Big wins for Bann

At the Carlow Regatta, Bann's J15 devolpment squad showed great racing competitiveness when their coxed quadruple scull boat successfully beat twelve other crews to win the Regatta and obtain maximum points in the 'Row for it' league. This young Bann crew will not encounter many tougher battles than their quarter final clash with an excellent Carlow quad, who kept alongside the Bann men a mere six feet behind, for the full 1,500m distance.

Despite all the hometown Carlow support, the Bann crew never surrendered their lead, and proceeded to convincingly defeat St Michael's and Fermoy, win the 'Pot' and remain unbeaten for this season.

Bann's men J18 crew yet again exceeded all expectations at the Metro Regatta down in Blessington. Splitting the MJ18 eight in half, into a stern four and a bow four gave Bann coach Seamus Reynolds the chance to see how they would compare against no less than ten other of the best J18, Intermediate and Senior fours crews in Ireland.

The Bann fours results were excellent, with the stern four recording the second fastest time of the day in qualifying for the "A" final and winning The Commercial Rowing Club Challenge Cup for the first time.

The Bann Bow four won the "B" final, twice defeating all other J18 crews from Methody and Neptune, and also accounted for three other good Intermediate class boats. Their two race times showed a massive 12 second improvement.

In the "A" class final the Bann Stern four found themselves qualified as the only J18 boat against all Senior and the very best of the Intermediate crews. The young Bann men flew down the course, and were only pipped for second place by 0.8 of a second by Trinity Intermediates, to complete a fabulous series of fours races.

Now for the big racing eights and again the Bann J18 eight found themselves rowing out of category against four Senior"and four intermediate crews. #

Nevertheless, Bann unveiled their secret weapon, their fabulous new boat 'The Sizzler' for its racing debut. The boat proved itself to be an absolute speed machine, and the Bann J18 crew, defeated both Trinity and UCD Intermediate eights and just lost by a bowball to Neptune's Intermediate crew.

This sets the Bann Rowing Club up nicely for the defence of The Craig Cup, which is the Northern Ireland J16 Eights Championship. Bann won this Championship in 2009, for the first time in fifty years, and are well placed to successfully defend it from 1.30pm this Saturday.

The race has kindly been sponsored by Cookstown Meats, official supporters of Bann Rowing Club.