DULBC News December2011

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.


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


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!


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.


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 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!


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

http://www.fxbrestaurants.com/

DULBC News December2011

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