Last week Star sent the biggest squad of rowers to nationals for a number of years. However sadly it was not a very successful regatta for Star, with the exception of our RPC reps - Linda Mathews and Joe Trappit who won the prem 8 and U21 Quad respectively, and Michelle Campbell who made the final of the club single, in a large and competitive field.

Despite the performance on the water, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and, although no records were set on the water, one or two rowers managed to set a blistering pace on the Rowbox!

Congratulations to Linda and Joe.

Star competed in some pretty challenging conditions in the first of the 2k regattas this season - The Queen's Cup, at Korokoro.

Most established crews performed well as usual, although some failed to make the start, but this regatta was also the first chance for a lot of the club's new rowers to race. There were some impressive races in the novice category - the women's quad being a good.example.

On-shore entertainment in the form of street theatre was provided by Johnny Johnson and Alan Greer.

A depleted Star squad competed at the Goodwill regatta last weekend. With Wellington College away on training camp and the masters taking a break, the club only took part in women's events.

It was the first regatta for some of the novices, and more than one crew decided that they would go in the water rather than on it. Other than those misshaps, the club did well in the races that we were in.

Star and Wellington R.C. shared a trailer, the odd boat and even the odd rower to attend the masters rowing champs at Lake Karapiro last weekend.

The weather was a bit shocking, and as there has been a lot of rain, there was mud galore. The place is still a bit of a building site as well, due to the lake hosting the world champs next year.

Some races were very competitive – especially in the C/D grades, while other races only had a few entries. Star was even in one row-over in the B mixed quad, but the crew made an honest effort of it.

We made finals in pretty much all events we raced in, although we had to scratch a few due to clashes with other races.

The first medal of the weekend came from the men’s A quad, made up of Rob Adin, Ben Dunsheath, Nathan Wallace and substitute Chris Jones of Wellington R.C.

It all went right for Pete Tong, helping out the Wellington R.C. men’s D 8 to take gold.

Lis and Peer Neilsen had a memorable win in the mixed double.

Melissa Bray, Caroline Bedford, Tom Kerr and Paul Ward got bronze in the mixed B four.

The weather cleared a bit for Sunday, and although we threw away a sure gold in the men’s A double, due to confusion over daylight savings ending, the medal count continued.

Cox Catherine Galuszka had to go without a cox box for the mixed B eight, containing Melissa Bray, Di Tuiomanufili, Nathan Wallace, Terry McCarthy (of W.R.C),Tom Kerr, Paul Ward, Caroline Bedford and Lis Neilsen. The big boat was just edged out by a North Shore/West End composite to take bronze.

As mentioned earlier, the mixed B quad of Melissa Bray, Rob Adin, Nathan Wallace and Di Tuiomanufili had a row-over, which was a real shame as the boat ran beautifully.

The last race of the weekend was a chance for the crew of the mens A four to redeem themselves, after throwing some races earlier on in the day, due to some confusion over times. The crew of Rob Adin, Paul Ward, Nick Cozens and Ben Dunsheath muscled their way down the course for a convincing win.

Aside from the on-water activities, it was a good weekend. Logistically things went smooth, thanks to good collaboration with the Wellington R.C. masters squad.

Next year the champs will most likely be down south, and we hope to send a squad to that as well.

A last minute venue change saw the Norton Cup regatta move to the Manawatu river this year. It was wet and muddy, both in and out of the river. The course was also reduced to about 1km.

Once again Star dominated the female events. After two regattas, the Wellington Girls College Senior squad look to be the fastest squad in the Wellington region in a number of boats. Other Star women's crews are also shaping up to be competitive on the local circuit. Whilst featuring in fewer events, the Col boys won most of the events in their age grade

Results available on Rowit

The next regatta on the club calendar is the NZ masters champs on the 26th/27th September. The squad has grown 50 percent over last year. They are looking for medals in multiple boats.

The NZ Rowing squad has just finished competition in the World Championships in Poznan, Poland.  The championships featured two former Star rowers, Louise Trappitt and Peter Taylor – Louise in the women’s quad and Peter in the men’s lightweight double.  Both crews did extremely well in the two world cup regattas they’ve competed in, medalling in both.  The double had a magnificent race winning the Gold and finishing the season unbeaten. Unfortunately the stiffer competition at the world champs meant that the quad did not make the A final but the performance of this young crew shows promise for coming seasons.

The end of winter "10x10" challenge, which consists of a 10 kilometre erg followed by a 10 kilometre run was held today in ideal conditions - i.e. the water was too rough to row on!

The women started the erg section off 5 minutes before the men, and the men only just caught up as that section ended. This was always a runners' event however and, despite some good erg scores being clocked, the fast runners ended up dominating the race.

P. Ward from the Star masters squad won the event overall, and J. Paton of the Wellington Girls College squad won the women's division.

Top 3 Men

Name	Club	Time (h:min:sec)
P. Ward	Star B.C.	1:19:30
B. Dunsheath	Star B.C.	1:21:18
O. O'Brien	Porirua R.C.	1:24:59

Top 3 Women

Name	Club	Time (h:min:sec)
J. Paton	Star B.C.	1:35:01
O. Khytko	Star B.C.	1:40:25
J. Lampard	Star B.C.	1:43:36