Durham University Boat Club

The club

The club is based at the Robert Gillespie Boat House on the River Wear, part of Durham University's sports facilities at Maiden Castle. It also operates out of Tyne United Rowing Club on the south bank of the River Tyne, where it has a boat shed. Wade Hall-Craggs is current head coach. Cameron Kennedy stepped down as Women's Coach after the 2015 European Universities Rowing Championship.

The team's colour is Palatinate - a shade of purple associated with Durham University, who's sports teams are known as the Palatinates. The colour is said to be derived from that worn by the Prince Bishop of Durham's armies, although Whiting recounts in his centenary history of the University that it was based on a coat worn by Bishop Van Mildert, founder of the University.

19th century

Rowing in Durham was "practically contemporaneous with the founding of the University", with University boat crews competing in the Durham Regatta since its foundation in 1834. When the Grand Challenge Cup (for coxed Fours) was introduced in 1854 it was won seven times by University College before 1862, often competing against teams from Hatfield Hall. However, the founding of Durham Amateur Rowing Club and increased entries from further afield brought an end to University College's dominance.

Durham University Boat Club (DUBC) was formally founded in 1877 "to produce representative student crews and to act as the controlling body for the various clubs that were already active" (University College Boat Club (1834) and the Hatfield College Boat Club (1846) both predate the formation of DUBC).

DUBC won the Grand Challenge Cup for the first time in 1881 and the Tyne Regatta's Grand Challenge Cup in 1888. From 1887–1893, the University held a Regatta separately from the Durham Regatta, which it declined to enter. In 1884, Durham won the Wirral Grand Challenge Cook at Chester Regatta and in 1895 and 1898 returned to success at the Durham Regatta, again winning the Grand Challenge Cup.

1900 to 1963

In 1904 an annual inter-Varsity race for Fours against Edinburgh University was instituted; by 1924 this had been competed for 14 times, despite the intervention of the First World War. Annual "Torpids" races were also held home and away against Edinburgh in December, and a race against Leeds University is recorded in 1924. Rowing spread to the Newcastle division of the University with the foundation of the Armstrong College Boat Club in 1911 under the umbrella of DUBC.

1924 saw the creation of the Armstrong College Women's Boat Club in Newcastle, followed in Durham in 1926 by the formation of a boat club by the Durham Women Students Association. The first race between the two was held in 1930. In 1938 the Durham Colleges Women's Boat Club was established, and raced against teams from York and Newcastle.

There are a number of programmes and photographs from the annual Durham – Edinburgh race catalogued in the Durham University archive, showing it continued to be held in June until at least 1949.

DUBC competed in the Head of the River Race for the first time in 1949, finishing 41st in a time of 20 minutes 57 seconds with a crew drawn from the Durham Colleges and King's College in Newcastle.

1952 saw Simon Hobbs from King's College in Newcastle selected as spare man for the British Olympic team.

1963 to 1999

1963 saw King's College in Newcastle separate from Durham to become Newcastle University. Earlier that year, 5 rowers from Newcastle (3 from King's College Boat Club and 2 from the Medics) were part of the crew of the VIII that won the Ortner Trophy for top University at the Head of the River Race for the first time, coming 17th overall. This was the last Durham crew to feature Rowers from Newcastle.

In 1964, Eric Halladay came to Durham as a lecturer in history and senior tutor of Grey College. He coached the Boat Club for over 30 years, winning the Ortner Shield 18 times in 1966–76 and 1978–84. He was appointed a Steward at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1993, having won the Visitor's Challenge Cup four times with DUBC (see Henley Successes below), and was instrumental in setting up the Northumbrian Water University Boat Race (now the Boat Race of the North) in 1997, acting as one of the race officials for the inaugural race. After his death in 1997, DUBC launched a memorial trust fund with the aim of appointing a professional coach.

In November 1973, DUBC organised the first Northern Universities' Regatta, with sponsorship from Harp Lager. This ran annually until 1997. Also in 1973, DUBC bought the first Boat ever built with carbon-fibre ribs at a cost of £1,100. The Eight, "Prince Bishop" was 17 m (56 ft) in length and weighed 20 kg (45 lbs) less than any other Eight in Britain.

In 1978, Durham secured their first win at the Henley Royal Regatta, the first club from the northeast to win there for over a century.

In 1989 the DUBC Fresher's Squad was established. Alumni of this programme include Olympic bronze medallist Steve Rowbotham and European silver medalist Emily Taylor.

1992 saw the first DUBC/DUWBC alumni selected as Olympic rowers since Newcastle's independence: Wade Hall-Craggs (men's single sculls, 14th), Roger Brown (men's quad sculls, 13th), Kim Thomas (women's coxless four, 8th) and Philippa Cross (women's eight, 7th).

21st century

In 2000, Wade Hall-Craggs was appointed head coach. For a while he was the only professional coach in the northeast, but by the 2004 Boat Race against Newcastle both teams had professional coaches, with Peter Lee having joined Durham as coach of the Senior men's and women's teams.

In 2001, Durham University Women's Boat Club merged with Durham University Boat Club (previously exclusively male), with the combined club continuing as DUBC.

In 2007 the University awarded a grant of £127,000 to the newly refounded Tyne United Rowing Club to develop its facilities for use by DUBC and Durham College Rowing. These opened in 2009 on the south side of the Tyne, and include on-site cooking facilities, 18 Ergos and a rowing tank. The University has sole use of two boat sheds at Tyne United: one for DUBC and one for Durham College Rowing.

In 2008 Steve Rowbotham, who had come through the Freshers Program, won Bronze at the Beijing Olympics.

In 2008-9 an exhibition on "175 Years of Durham University Rowing" was held at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley on Thames, highlighting "the inspiring story behind one of the most successful university boat clubs in Britain".

At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, DUBC alumna Sophie Hosking won a Gold medal, followed by another Gold for current student Lily van den Broeck in the 2012 Paralympics.

In 2012 a powered indoor rowing tank was opened at the University's Maiden Castle sports facility, one of only three on the country. The facility also included a new boathouse (the Robert Gillespie Boathouse) for DUBC and a 28 station Ergo gallery. In November 2012 the rowing tank was named the Sophie Hosking Rowing Tank in honour of Olympic gold medallist and DUBC Alumna Sophie Hosking.

Head of the River Race

In 2005, DUBC won the Ortner Shield at the men's Head of the River Race for the first time in two decades, coming 10th overall. The return to form continued with the club winning both the Bernard Churcher Trophy (for the top university from anywhere in the world) and the Senior II pennant in 2008, coming 6th overall – Durham's best ever position. They retained the Senior II pennant in 2009 (10th overall). In 2012 the 1st VIII won the Bernard Churcher Trophy again (18th overall) and in 2015 (after the race was not run in 2013 and was abandoned in 2014), DUBC won the Halladay Trophy (for British universities with crews at Intermediate 1 status or below and no crews entered with Elite or Senior status), coming 32nd overall. DUBC won the Halladay Trophy again in 2016, coming 23rd overall.

At the Women's Eights Head of the River Race, Durham won the Senior II pennant in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and again in 2008, coming third overall. They won the University pennant in 2010, again coming third overall. In 2012 they won the Intermediate I pennant. They have finished in the top three universities a number of times in recent years, following victory in 2010 with third place in 2011, 2012 and 2015 and second in 2013 and 2014.

BUCS Regatta

The club won the Victor Ludorum at the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Championships every year from 2004 to 2013. 2014 broke the 10 year hold on the top position, with Durham coming second to ULBC. That year also saw the addition of separate Women's and Men's trophies, with Durham taking the Women's VL and coming 5th in the Men's. 2015 saw DUBC regain top spot, taking both the overall and Women's Victor Ludorum and ranking 5th in the Men's.

European Universities Rowing Championships

The European Universities Rowing Championships is organised by EUSA, with boats qualifying to be part of their national team by performances in national university competitions (i.e. BUCS for British universities). Durham's first recorded success (only winners names are available for the 2005 and 2006 championships) came in the third championship in 2007, with gold in the women's pair, the lightweight women's quad scull, and the lightweight men's coxless four, and bronze in the lightweight men's double scull and the lightweight men's quad scull. Durham won gold again in the women's cockles four at the 8th games in 2013, as part of a UK team that came second in the medal take and third in the points table. In the 9th regatta in 2015, DUBC won gold in the lightweight women's scull, silver in the lightweight women's coxed four, bronze in the lightweight men's coxless four.

Boat Race of the North

The Boat Race of the North is an annual challenge race between the Universities of Durham and Newcastle, in a similar vein to the Oxbridge Boat Race. It was held 1997-2010 under the name of the Northumbrian Water Boat Race (sponsored by Northumbrian Water) and was revived in 2015. The event is held annually on the River Tyne over an approximately 1500m course between Redheugh Bridge and Millennium Bridge in central Newcastle-upon-Tyne in May.

Races are held in four categories: Novice Women (Taylor Trophy); Novice Men (Renforth Trophy); Senior Women (Chambers Trophy); Senior Men (Clasper Trophy). The university that wins the most races takes the overall prize, with it being retained by the current holder in the case of a draw. Durham held the overall trophy until 2009, since when it has been held by Newcastle. The 2015 race ended with two wins each, Durham winning the men's and women's novice races and Newcastle winning both senior races, meaning Newcastle retained the title.

International achievements

Current and former athletes from the club have competed at the U23 World Rowing Championships, Senior World Rowing Championships and other International Competitions. Athletes from the club have achieved medals at both Senior and U23 World Championships and the Youth Olympics.

Olympic representation

The first Durham rower to make the GB Olympic squad was Simon Hobbs (King's College, now Newcastle University) who was spare man in 1952. In recent years, Durham representation had included Wade Hall-Craggs, Roger Brown, Kim Thomas and Philippa Cross (1992); Roger Brown (M8+), Philippa Cross (W2-) and Suzie Ellis (W8+) (1996); Ian Lawson(M1x) and Tracy Langlands (LW2x) (2004); Steve Rowbotham (bronze; M2x), James Clarke (LM4- ) Alice Freeman (W8+) and Louisa Reeve (W8+ and W2-) (2008); and Sophie Hosking (gold; LW2x) and Louisa Reeve (W8+) (2012). Lily van den Broecke coxed the mixed 4+ to gold in the 2012 Paralympics.

Henley successes

The Club has had a number of notable Henley successes, with their first win coming in the Visitors Challenge Cup (M4-) in the Henley Royal Regatta (HRR) in 1978, which Durham won again in 1982, 1988, and 1992. This was followed up with successive wins at Henley Women's Regatta (HWR) in 1990 (Senior II 4+) and 1991 (Club VIIIs) and a further win in LW2 in 2001. In 2002 the men won the College VIIIs at HRR and in 2004 the women won the senior quads at HWR. In 2005 Durham won The Prince Albert Challenge Cup (formerly Men's Student Coxed Fours) at HRR and both the Remenham Challenge Cup (Women's Senior Coxless Fours), in a composite with Nottingham University BC, and the Senior Single Scull at HWR. Since then wins at HRR have come through composites with Oxford Brookes in 2009 in the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, and with the Leander Club in 2010 in the Visitors' Challenge Cup. Durham's success has continued at the HWR, with 10 wins (including 2 in composites) over 2006 - 2015.