|
Sunday July 6, 2008 TYNE MENS 'A' CREW WIN WYFOLD CUP AT HENLEY  
Will Fletcher (Bow), James Harris, Stuart McCluskey and
Kieran Emery (Str) celebrate an impressive victory at Henley Royal
Regatta over London RC B Tyne Rowing Club won the Wyfold Challenge Cup, the event for coxless fours, at Henley Royal Regatta. The crew of Stuart McCluskey, Will Fletcher, James Harris and Keiran Emery led throughout their race and beat London Rowing Club in the final race of the prestigious five day event by one length. This is a fantastic achievement for such a young crew – Stuart and Keiran still rowing as juniors and demonstrates the talent emerging from rowing in the North East of England. Individual members of the crew have had considerable success over the past year. Keiran has retained his place in the GB Junior Squad and Stuart will also be joining him in the squad to race at the Junior World Championships later this year. Will narrowly missed out on selection to the GB Under-23 squad by a mere one second on his first attempt and will be aiming for selection again next year. Finally Tyne Rowing Club would like to thank the lads for their hard work in representing Tyne nationally this year and would like to offer our deepest thanks to the coaches John Thicknes, Wade Hall-Craggs and David Robinson and parents and friends of the crew in helping them to their victory this year and we wish them all the best for the future. THE WYFOLD CHALLENGE CUP for coxswainless fours was presented to the Regatta in 1847. At that time it was the custom for the challengers in each event to row trial heats among themselves and for the successful challenger to contest the final heat against the winners of the previous year. As the engravings on the cup record, this prize was awarded to the winning challenger for the Grand Challenge Cup. In 1855 the trophy was made over to a four-oared race. In December 1995 the qualification rules for this event were brought in line with those adopted for the Thames Challenge Cup. Again the intention is to ensure that the "Wyfold" is an event for "genuine" club crews. THE COURSE since the foundation of the Regatta in 1839, four different courses have been used: The Old Course, in use from 1839 to 1885, started on the Berkshire side at the upstream end of Temple Island and extended upstream for about 1 mile and 550 yards to finish near Henley Bridge. The New Course was inaugurated in 1886 and, at the same time, the number of crews in a heat was reduced to two. The New Course started on the Buckinghamshire side near the downstream end of Temple Island and finished at Poplar Point. It was piled and eventually boomed throughout and included two slight angles. The Experimental Course - the first to be in a straight line - was only 1 mile and 440 yards in length and was tried in 1923. The Start was on the Berkshire side of the Island and the Finish a short distance upstream of Poplar Point. The Straight Course, first used in 1924, required the removal of part of Temple Island and of the opposite Berkshire bank. This Course is the same length as the Old and New Courses, is 80 feet wide and runs straight from below the Berkshire side of Temple Island to finish at Poplar Point. It is the Straight Course which is still in use today.
The traditional length of the Course is 1 mile 550 yards (2,112 metres), which was the longest distance of open water that could be obtained in 1839 on the Henley Reach.
| | The Barrier | Fawley | The Finish | | Start | 2089 feet | 3435 feet | 6930 feet | | The Barrier | | 1346 feet | 4841 feet | | Fawley | | | 3495 feet |
The length of the second part of the Course from Fawley to the Winning Post thus remains sixty feet longer than the first part from the Start to Fawley. 
|
