dulbc news december2011
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Newsletter from the Dublin University Ladies Boat ClubTRANSCRIPT
DULBC News, Volume 2 Issue 2, December 2011
1 DULBC News 2011 ©
Happy Christmas from DULBC!
Welcome to this festive edition of the DULBC News. We hope it finds you enjoying
the Christmas period wherever you may be in the world. Inside you will find race
reports from the first events of the 2011/12 season, pictures and reports from our
more social occasions so far this year, a brief history of our most Internationally
competitive Alumnae and more. We hope you enjoy reading the newsletter and will
perhaps visit our blog (dulbc.blogspot.com) occasionally in the New Year to keep up
to date with our progress throughout the season, and we strongly encourage you to
stay in touch and send us any of your own news to [email protected].
Term has finished, the boats have
been taken off the water for the last
time in 2011 and we are all
appreciating some well earned time
with our families away from the term
time rowing schedule. For those
traveling home for the festive season
we wish you a safe journey and for
our Alumni who are returning to
Ireland and Dublin from far and wide -
welcome home! We seem to have
made a reasonably successful start
to the 2011/12 season and
congratulations to all of the members
of DULBC who have started on
winning form, be it medals at the
Indoor Rowing Champs or pennants
at Neptune Head all victories are
promising signs of things to come.
Congratulations also to our eager
new crop of Novices who seem to be
fitting in to rowing life very well! Enjoy
the holidays and don’t forget to do a
bit of training, after all - ”every day
you don’t train over Christmas is just
free speed for the other guy [or girl!]”
See you in 2012 for training camps in
Blessington and Banyoles!
Nollaig Shona duit and a Happy New Year
from all of DULBC!
DULBC members after Christmas Commons 2011.
2 DULBC News 2011 ©
Success in the Sculling Ladder
Neptune Head Five Pennants for DULBC Following from earlier successes
in the Dublin Sculling Ladder,
Saturday 5th November saw
some great performances in the
first of the national Heads of the
River race series. Neptune Head
is the first opportunity of the year
for clubs to compete in all boat
classes along the 3,500m course
on Blessington Lake. The event
runs as two time trial races
allowing athletes to compete in
two boat classes in the same
event and DULBC took full
advantage of this entering eights,
fours, quads and a single scull-
an unusually broad entry again
reflecting the increasing depth of
skill in the club.
Single sculler Sinead Dolan, a
Senior 8+ and a Novice 8+ took
to the water in the first Head and
were rewarded with winning
pennants for each event. The
Senior 8+, missing cox Naomi
O'Sullivan due to illness, were
extremely grateful for the help of
an up and coming young cox
from Portora Royal School
without whom the boat would not
have been able to race, thanks
Chloe!
The second Head provided the
first racing opportunity for a num-
ber of as yet untested small boat
crews: a novice 4x+, novice 4+,
senior 4x- and senior 4+. Again
the senior 4+ relied on the very
kind help of guest cox Rory
Keogh (Commercial RC) to get
them down the course. Two more
pennants were added to the
day's total from the Novice 4+
and Senior 4+.
A number of small illness and
injury worries, to be expected at
this time of year, meant a
somewhat depleted squad was
competing in Blessington yet a
haul of 5 pennant including the
fastest women's boat of the day
certainly made a good start to the
season.
On Saturday, 15th October, the
River Liffey at Islandbridge
played host to the annual Dublin
Sculling Ladder. This year
DULBC were able to enter a
record number of seven scullers
in this time-trial race for bragging
rights as fastest on the river. This
unprecedented entry shows the
increasing level of experience
within the club, both from
experienced juniors coming to
study in Trinity, and an increasing
interest in small boats from within
the club's existing ranks. On
sheer number of entries alone
DULBC were already the
most successful women on the
river before the race had even
started, but the victory was
cemented when the times were
announced and we had Sinead
Dolan's joint first place to
celebrate as well. This is only the
second time DULBC has claimed
the top spot in the Dublin Sculling
Ladder, and the last time was
1986! With recent recruits from
Commercial RC, Ruth Morris and
Claire Cooney, coming in fourth
and fifth respectively and DULBC
senior Sinead Roger in sixth, it
looks like DULBC will be a force
to be reckoned with in sculling as
well as sweep boats this year.
Results:
1st Sinead Dolan
4th Ruth Morris
5th Claire Cooney
6th Sinead Roger
8th Rebecca Dowling
12th Keira Buttanshaw
14th Hazel O’Neill
16th Gill Crowe
DULBC News 2011 © 3
National Indoor Rowing Championships Bringing home the medals! The Rowing Ireland National
Indoor Championships were held
in the Trinity College Sports
Centre on Sunday the 13th
November. Competitors from
around the country descended on
the sports hall to test themselves
to the limits on the rowing
machine. A number of categories
were available to provide every
competitor with a suitable level of
competition, with the majority of
races over 2km and a number of
fixed-time races for those in lower
school years. The hall buzzed
with excitement and nervous
anticipation throughout the day
and loud cheers and shouts of
encouragement were heard
during every race. Each of the 25
rowing machines, or Ergs as they
are ’affectionately’ know to
rowers, used for racing were
linked up to a big screen allowing
the crowd to see who was in the
lead at all times.
For most rowers, a 2km Erg test
is never eagerly anticipated,
especially early in the year,
however DULBC stepped up
(wo)manfully and put some good
numbers on the scoreboard
including a number of personal
bests. For all members of the club
who raced, these scores are a
line in the sand and provide a
position from which to improve
over the course of the year.
The club was able to enter
athletes in a variety of different
categories and came away with
an impressive tally of 7 gold, 8
silver and 6 bronze medals. All in
all another good day's work for
DULBC.
Congratulations to all who took
part including our medallists:
Open Silver Susannah Cass
U23 Open Silver Claire Cooney
Bronze Alice Norwood
U23 Lightweight Gold Ruth Morris
Silver Sinead Dolan
Bronze Hazel O’Neill
30-39 Lightweight Silver Carina Girvan
Open 4x Relay Gold DULBC/UCD
Freshers 4x Relay
Gold DULBC
Silver DULBC
Bronze DULBC
4 DULBC News 2011 ©
The Boat Ball 2011 Old Hollywood Glamour at The Gresham On the 17th November DULBC and DUBC got
together for a night of Hollywood glamour at the
Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street. Beautiful ball
gowns, tuxedos and top hats were all out in force at
the second annual Boat Ball. Following from the
success of last year’s event at Clontarf Castle, the
2011 Ball was even bigger and better in no small
way thanks to the fantastic live music provided by
Trinity Jazz Soc. Guests were
greeted with a sophisticated reception in the
elegant surroundings of the Gresham Hotel before
sitting down to enjoy a sumptuous three course
meal. The band created a fantastic atmosphere
playing jazz classics to accompany the meal
before raising the tempo and the volume after
dinner to get the dance
floor swinging. All who
attended agreed it
was a magical night
and we look forward
to even bigger and
better things at the
Boat Ball 2012
and we hope you
will join us there!
DULBC News 2011 © 5
Hall of Fame DULBC International
Sports Scholarship Awards 2011/12
At a ceremony in the Pavilion Bar
on Wednesday 30th November
Sarah Dolan and Susannah Cass
were among 22 athletes to be
awarded Trinity Sports Scholar-
ships for this academic year.
Sarah is a final year Engineering
student and Susannah is in the
second year of a PhD in Botany
and both competed for Trinity and
Ireland last year. Susannah raced
in DULBC’s Senior University
Championship winning 4+ and
the Senior 4+ and Senior 8+ at
the Home International regatta,
whilst Sarah, a member of the
Rowing Ireland High Performance
squad, competed at World Cup
and World Championship
regattas coming 13th in the
Lightweight Women's 1x at the
senior World Championships in
Bled, Slovenia. The Provost,
Patrick Predergast, made a
speech recognising the pivotal
importance of sport and other
such extra curricular activities to
a full University education before
handing the recipients the
first instalment of their
Scholarship funding. Scholars
will also benefit from
workshops, physiological perfor-
mance testing and mentoring
through the course of the year.
Sarah Dolan, The Provost and Susan-
nah Cass at the Sports Scholarships
ceremony in the Pavilion Bar.
In the last edition of the DULBC
News, October 2011, we were
delighted to celebrate the
success of Sarah Dolan who over
the summer became the first
DULBC athlete to compete at the
World Rowing Championships
whilst still a registered and active
member of our club. Sarah raced
in the lightweight single scull at
the Championships in Bled and
came 13th, a fantastic
performance at senior level for
the 21 year old athlete who is
currently completing the final year
of her Engineering degree.
However, we were also delighted
with the interest and feedback
received in response to the
article, much of which mentioned
previous Irish representation at
international level by DULBC
alumnae. While we maintain, and
we hope we are correct in doing
so, that Sarah remains the first
‘current’ member of DULBC to
race at the Worlds, we would like
to take this opportunity to
introduce you to a few more of
our Alumnae with distinguished
International pedigree.
Nicole Ryan raced in the W2– at
the 1983 World Championships in
Duisburg where she came 9th;
and in the WL4– at Nottingham
1986 and Copenhagen ‘87 where
they came 7th. During these
years Nicole was competing for
Commercial and Anna Liffey - an
important ‘sub-plot’ of DULBC
and something that we might
hope to reintroduce in the future.
Nora Gallagher, at the time
rowing for Commercial, competed
in the WL4– in Hazelwinklel in
1985 coming 8th, and with Nicole
in the 1986 WL4– crew in
Nottingham which was
unfortunately disqualified.
Almost completing the crew of
that 1986 boat was Christine
Caffrey, also rowing with
Commercial at the time. Christine
also joined Nicole in the WL4–
that finished 7th the following
year in Copenhagen.
Finally for this particular ‘Hall of
Fame’, Ruth Doyle, rowing in
London for Thames at the time,
competed in Cologne in 1998
coming 12th in the WL1x: the
same event that Sarah raced in
this summer. Ruth then went one
better finishing 11th in the WL4x
in Zagreb in 2000.
These are only some of the
DULBC athletes who have
donned an emerald green one-
piece over the years and we hope
they inspire many more to follow
in their wake in the future. We
must thank Michael Johnston for
providing the information and
inspiration for this article and
please send us your own stories
for future editions!
Ruth Doyle in 2 in the WL4x at the 2000 Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.
6 DULBC News 2011 ©
Intermediates a Storming Success at Muckross Head
DULBC’s annual dinner and night
of mayhem was a great success
on the last Monday night of term .
Christmas dinner in Trinity
provides an opportunity for the
club to sit down together for the
first time in each academic year
and cement the new friendships
which have formed over the
preceding term; and enjoy the
first of many helpings of turkey
and sprouts! Following dinner
and civilised club photo (front
cover) we retreated to the
seclusion of the GMB and the
elegantly named ‘Conversation
Room’ for some more
raucous fun to welcome
our new recruits. After some
general banter and a succession
of games the initiations began.
This year we were welcoming
new members at all levels of the
club: novices entirely new to
Trinity and the sport of rowing,
some experienced rowers none
the less new to Trinity and our
coach Phil - new to DULBC in
2011. Each initiate was in turn
introduced to the club and given
their initiation challenge, all of
which were later carried out with
great aplomb in the Pavilion Bar.
Our new members proved to be
more than up for the challenge
and DULBC are delighted to
welcome them into our ranks as
fully initiated members of the
club. For those who were unable
to attend this year there’s no
escape and next Commons will
come round very quickly … but
we can’t tell you what exactly the
initiations entail, because if we
did we would have to kill you!
Christmas Commons
The last race of term, on the 10th
December, saw DULBC head
down to the National Rowing
Centre at Farran Wood near Cork
for the Muckross Head of the
River. With end of term exams
somewhat depleting numbers it
was still great experience for the
crews able to make it. Run as a
rolling head, Muckross is a
chance to race more than once in
different crew combinations. First
a Senior 8+, Novice 4+ and
Novice 1x set out to complete the
3.8km (measured at 3km
however!) distance, and later an
Intermediate 8+ and Senior 4+
took to the water. The Intermedi-
ate 8+ performed extremely well
in the better conditions earlier on
(well… the Editor was in the
Senior 8+!) and were the fastest
women’s crew of the day. Once
again, due to illness and other
commitments, we were short of
our own coxes but were hugely
grateful for the help of former
DULBC Novice turned DUBC cox
Sarah-Jane and former DULBC
Captain Rachel Nazarin who was
persuaded to take a daytrip to the
NRC whilst on a brief visit to
Dublin for her graduation, thanks!
DULBC News 2011 © 7
DULBC 100 Club Congratulations to our first Winners!
Stay up to date with DULBC Online
A huge thank you to all who have donated to the DULBC 100 Club which aims to help us fundraise for
much needed equipment including the new Intermediate/Novice racing 8+ which will be arriving in 2012.
We have yet to reach our target of 100 members so please take the opportunity to join up, support the
club and possibly win yourself a cash prize! There are still 7 more prize draws to come in this rowing year
so send your €20 donation now to be in with a chance of winning!
Entry can be made by sending €20 to [email protected] via the PayPal website or by
downloading an entry form from our Blog (details below) and sending it with a cheque to:
DULBC 100 Club, c/o DUCAC, Sports Centre, Trinity College, Dublin 2
The November draw took place at the very successful Boat Ball and we are grateful to Catríona Church, a
new member of the DUCAC office this year, for overseeing the December draw. Congratulations to our
first two winners from these draws:
November: Number 31 Rachel Liu
December: Number 25 Kat Sheane
Facebook DULBC
‘Like’ our page to keep up to date with news, receive event invitations and maybe even
re-connect with some old crewmates.
Twitter TrinityLadiesRowing (@DULBC1976)
Follow our tweets for the latest news and up to the minute results on race day.
Blog http://dulbc.blogspot.com Trinity Ladies Rowing
Follow our blog for more detailed news, race results, Alumni information and the results of the
monthly 100 Club draws.
DUCAC To keep up to date with ALL of Trinity’s Sport keep an eye on news from DUCAC:
Web: www.ducac.tcdlife.ie Facebook: Ducac Twitter: DUCAC (@tcd_DUCAC)
Sponsorship opportunities Would you or your company be interested in sponsoring DULBC or one of the many events we
are involved with? From adverts in this newsletter to corporate branding on boats there are
many ways in which we can work with your business. For more details please contact Captain
Rebecca Dowling ([email protected]) or [email protected].
COLOURS RACES 19th March 2012 - the annual Colours Boat
Races, held in association with the St Patrick’s Festival, are
currently seeking event sponsorship. If you would like to be
involved with this high profile event in the heart of Dublin city
please get in touch!
8 DULBC News 2011 ©
Contact details:
Postal address: DULBC, c/o DUCAC, Sports Centre, Trinity College, Dublin 2
Boathouse: Trinity Boathouse, War Memorial Park, Islandbridge, Dublin 8
Captain Rebecca Dowling [email protected]
Head Coach Andrew Coleman [email protected]
Alumni Officer Caitlin Condon [email protected]
Newsletter [email protected]
Blazers [email protected]
Website www.ladiesboat.tcdlife.ie
Twitter TrinityLadiesRowing (@DULBC1976)
Blog http://dulbc.blogspot.com
DULBC are proudly
sponsored by Ryan’s of
Parkgate Street .
For details on all FXB venues
in the Dublin area, Christmas
menus, special offers and to
book visit:
www.fxbrestaurants.com
.
Dates for your diary 2012
3rd - 5th January 2012 Novice & Sculling Training
Camps, Blessington
9th - 15th January
2012
Senior Training Camp,
Banyoles, Spain
28th January 2012 St Michael’s Head, O’Brien’s
Bridge
18th February 2012 Head of the Shannon, Carrick-
on-Shannon
25th February 2012 Lagan Head, Belfast
3rd March 2012 Erne Head, Enniskillen
19th March 2012 Colours Races, Dublin
24th March 2012 Dublin Head, Dublin
7th April 2012 Trinity Regatta, Islandbridge
14th April 2012 University Championships,
National Rowing Centre
15th April 2012 Skibbereen Regatta, NRC
21st April 2012 Neptune Regatta, Islandbridge
28th April 2012 Queens Regatta, Castlewellan
Lake
26th May 2012 Dublin Metropolitan Regatta,
Blessington Lake
16th June 2012 Athlone Regatta, Coosan Point
23rd June 2012 Cork Regatta, NRC
12th July 2012 National Championships, NRC