Saturday morning saw the worst conditions some had ever encountered, and our seven crews battled through the wind and rain to get through the time trials, hoping for better weather in the afternoon which they were granted.

The first medal went to the Women’s Intermediate Pair of Emily Howard and Sally Hickey, who won a silver medal in a close final where they beat off rivals Reading by less than four seconds. The Women’s Championship Pair of Izzy Vyvyan and Harriet Broad came 5th overall in a very tough event which featured London 2012 Olympians. George Patrick came 4th in the B final of the Men’s Lightweight Single and the novices put in a strong row to come 3rd in the C final of the Men’s Beginner Coxed Fours.

The last races of the day were the men’s VIIIs, and NUBC had entered our 1st and 2nd boats. Cruising through the semi-finals, the 2nd VIII were challenged by a tough Oxford Brookes crew, to whom we came in silver medal position.

The 1st VIII were eager to repeat their gold medal wins for a third year running, and sprinting out of the starting blocks they absorbed all other competition and had an absolute stormer to finish in 1st place for the third year in a row, the silver medal going to Oxford Brookes who were five seconds behind.

Sunday was a big day for our lightweights, as the first ever NUBC Lightweight Men’s VIII were entered, never before have we seen so many hungry boys in one boat. Cruising through the semi-finals, they fought a difficult battle to win a bronze medal in a tightly contested final, as is the tradition with lightweights.

The rest of the senior men had a plentiful day, as gold medals were won by the Men’s Intermediate Double of Nick Bartlett and Liam Rose, with special congratulations to Nick, who has just returned from a year and a half on the bench, after a mountain biking accident left him with a catastrophically broken arm.

The Men’s Championship Coxless Four of Tom Ford, Tim Clarke, George Rossiter and Jasper Holst, fresh from their win in the Champ VIIIs the day before picked up another gold. The Men’s Intermediate Coxed Four won a silver medal, the Championship Coxed Four won a bronze medal, and the 2nd Men’s Championship Coxless Four came 5th in the B Final. The biggest race of the day was the women’s 1st VIII, who had recently come in fifth place at the Women’s Head of The River Race, however their preparation had been hampered by illness and injury. They cruised through the semi-final in first place, however in the final they came up against the Oxbridge Boat Race crews. With only 3 seconds separating the three crews, Oxford took gold with Cambridge in silver place and NUBC achieving a bronze medal.

Monday was the last day of racing and the weather was finally on our side, the sun was shining and the wind had died down. The Women’s Championship Coxed Four of Nicole Lamb, Gemma Hall, Danielle Hardy and Harriet Broad with cox Lexy Dobson rowed a stunning race to win gold by a country mile.

Half an hour later, the Men’s Intermediate Quad of Nick Bartlett, Liam Rose, Will Sadler and Andrew Ronaldson took inspiration from this, winning gold easily, and the Men’s Champ Pair of Tom Ford and Tim Clarke put in a cracking effort, but were unfortunately beaten by Durham by less than two seconds.

The Intermediate Pair won a bronze medal, coming in second position but being controversially swapped into third due to a steering fault. The Women’s Intermediate Double picked up a bronze medal, putting in a superb effort with 750m to go, where they were lying in 5th place. The Women’s Championship Coxless Four and the Lightweight Double won their B Finals, the former having a tough day as their original line-up was compromised after an injury sustained in racing the day before.

Thank you to Sally Hickey and the boat club for submitting this news.

Photograph shows the men's 1st and 2nd VIIIs with their medals and head coach Angelo Savarino.