LORD LAWSONS ROWING SUCCESS AT THE TYNE AND WEAR ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS

 

 

Due to the earlier rowing performances Andy Hall and Robert Cleugh qualified to represent Gateshead schools in the SSP Country Indoor Rowing Final Tyne and Wear, this included all the schools from Sunderland, Newcastle, South Tyneside and North Tyneside. Competing for a place in the North of England Championships. This competition was held at Newcastle University on Febuary 10th 2011.

 

Andys story:

 

At first I didn’t know how I would do in the competition! As Rob and I entered the building all we could see in the waiting room was huge tanks of year 9 kids and seeing people struggling to breathe and throwing up didn’t help my nerves either! The time came for me to jump in my (boat) and strap myself in! I looked to the left... Tank! I looked to the right... Tank! I thought I am in for a hammering but, to my surprise, I was actually in the lead for a full 5 seconds! I was chuffed with that to say the least but my quick start resulted in me not having anything left for the rest of the 3 minutes and 55 seconds and came a disappointing but respectable 5th out of 10!

 

Robs story:

 

As Andy and I entered the building all we could see were huge people which we really did not want to race against but luckily the Newcastle University Body building team were in the same building and we weren’t rowing against them ! It soon became our turn to get into our (boat) I was quite apprehensive about how I would do in the race but I decided to put the negativity in the back of my mind and concentrate solely on my rowing... Then the countdown started... Attention! Ready! Row... Andy took an early lead in the race and I was in second by quite a bit but Andy had put to much into the start and tired out so I took the lead for most of the race until the end when somebody took over me by only 1 metre! I finished in a reasonable second place. The other heat took place with rowers rowing a similar distance to myself within the 4 minutes allocated. I now have to wait to see if I qualify to compete in the North of England rowing Championships.

 

Terminology:

 

Tank = Extremely large, muscular, oversized individual. An over average sized year 9 in this case!

 

We would like to thank Mr Cochrane for giving us the opportunity to row in the selection competition, The SSCO partnership and British rowing association for organising an excellent event and Newcastle University for hosting this event.

 

Andy Hall and Rob Cleugh