Nollaig Shona duit and a Happy New Year from all of DULBC!

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1 DULBC News, Volume 2 Issue 2, December 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 dulbcnews@gmail.com. Nollaig Shona duit and a Happy New Year from all of DULBC! DULBC members after Christmas Commons 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 1 DULBC News 2011 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!

2 Success in the Sculling Ladder 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 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 scullan 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 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 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 number 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 looks like DULBC will be a force to be reckoned with in sculling as well as sweep boats this year. Results: 1st 4th 5th 6th 8th Sinead Dolan Ruth Morris Claire Cooney Sinead Roger Rebecca Dowling 12th Keira Buttanshaw 14th Hazel O Neill 16th Gill Crowe 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. 2 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. 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 For most rowers, a 2km Erg test part including our medallists: is never eagerly anticipated, Open Silver Susannah Cass especially early in the year, however DULBC stepped up U23 Open Silver Claire Cooney (wo)manfully and put some good Bronze Alice Norwood numbers on the scoreboard U23 Lightweight Gold Ruth Morris including a number of personal Silver Sinead Dolan bests. For all members of the club Bronze Hazel O Neill who raced, these scores are a line in the sand and provide a Lightweight Silver Carina Girvan position from which to improve Open 4x Relay Gold DULBC/UCD over the course of the year. Freshers 4x Relay The club was able to enter athletes in a variety of different categories and came away with DULBC News 2011 Gold DULBC Silver DULBC Bronze DULBC 3

4 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! 4 DULBC News 2011

5 Hall of Fame DULBC International 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 Ruth Doyle in 2 in the WL4x at the 2000 Championships in Zagreb, Croatia. 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 These are only some of the DULBC athletes who have donned an emerald green onepiece 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! 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 Scholarships 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 performance testing and mentoring through the course of the year. Sarah Dolan, The Provost and Susannah Cass at the Sports Scholarships ceremony in the Pavilion Bar. DULBC News

6 Intermediates a Storming Success at Muckross Head 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 Intermediate 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! Christmas Commons 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 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! 6 DULBC News 2011

7 DULBC 100 Club Congratulations to our first Winners! 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 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 dulbc1976@gmail.com 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 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 (rdowlin@tcd.ie) or dulbc1976@gmail.com. Stay up to date with DULBC Online Facebook DULBC COLOURS RACES 19th March 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! 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 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: Facebook: Ducac Twitter: DUCAC (@tcd_ducac) DULBC News

8 Dates for your diary 2012 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: 3rd - 5th January th - 15th January th January th February th February rd March th March th March th April th April th April st April th April th May th June rd June th July 2012 Novice & Sculling Training Camps, Blessington Senior Training Camp, Banyoles, Spain St Michael s Head, O Brien s Bridge Head of the Shannon, Carrickon-Shannon Lagan Head, Belfast Erne Head, Enniskillen Colours Races, Dublin Dublin Head, Dublin Trinity Regatta, Islandbridge University Championships, National Rowing Centre Skibbereen Regatta, NRC Neptune Regatta, Islandbridge Queens Regatta, Castlewellan Lake Dublin Metropolitan Regatta, Blessington Lake Athlone Regatta, Coosan Point Cork Regatta, NRC National Championships, NRC 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 rdowlin@tcd.ie Head Coach Andrew Coleman ampcoleman@gmail.com Alumni Officer Caitlin Condon condoncc@tcd.ie Newsletter Blazers Website Twitter Blog dulbcnews@gmail.com dulbcblazers@gmail.com TrinityLadiesRowing (@DULBC1976) 8 DULBC News 2011