UCD take pride of place in Temple Cup

ROWING HENLEY REGATTA:ON A very good day for the Irish at Henley Royal Regatta, UCD took pride of place by qualifying two crews for the second round of the Temple Cup for student eights. In all, six of the eight Irish crews successfully came through the first day's challenges.

Late last evening UCD’s intermediate eight overcame a slow start to beat Shrewsbury School and set up a meeting with the senior crew from the college today. “They were left off the start,” said coach Conor Walsh, “but they had a very, very solid second half.”

Walsh, who is joint senior coach with Colm Daly, said it was thrilling for many of the old boys of the college to be able to witness this success. “It’s just a pity the two crews meet tomorrow,” he added.

UCD’s senior eight had what head coach John Holland said was an “easy” row against Eton College. They were expecting Eton to be fast off the start, but UCD took charge early and eventually won by two and a quarter lengths.

Princeton are the likely opponents for UCD – A or B – in tomorrow’s quarter-finals. The Americans were outstanding yesterday, equalling the record of one minute 47 seconds to the Barrier, which is 637 metres into the 2012-metre course.

The record to the Barrier had already been equalled – by an Irish crew. Queen’s set a hot pace against Cambridge Lightweights in their race, eventually winning by two-thirds of a length.

Coach Mark Fangen-Hall was in no mood to luxuriate in praise, saying his crew did not row well. “The performance wasn’t up to our usual standard,” he said. He faces a big challenge today in the shape of the powerful crew from Brown University. The Americans set a faster winning time than Queen’s yesterday as they won a furious battle with fellow Americans Worcester Polytechnic by one and a half lengths.

Trinity’s regatta ended after one race. Their Temple eight were soundly beaten by another United States crew, Bates College, who had approximately two stone (12.7 kilograms) of a weight advantage. Coach Mark Pattison spoke of this as a “development” year for his completely new eight. They will likely concentrate on the intermediate grade at the National Championships next week.

In the Britannia for club coxed fours, the crew representing Fermoy Rowing Club had their expected victory over Reading.

Commercial’s senior eight were impressive in beating Abingdon in the Thames Cup, but their young Wyfold four found Sydney Rowing Club’s big, powerful crew far too strong. Galway Rowing Club’s winning margin in Thames – five lengths – was even more emphatic than Commercial’s.

Four more Irish crews are set to go into action today. NUIG and Galway Rowing Club in the Visitors’ and the Old Collegians/London composite in the Prince of Wales for quadruple sculls will confidently expect to be around at the weekend. Single sculler Dave Mannion in the Diamond Sculls faces a big challenge.