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February weather is a big Head-ache for Peterborough City Rowing Club
The Head of the Nene race was cancelled on Saturday for the second year running. Photo supplied
Peterborough City Rowing Club could break with almost 50 years of tradition after being forced to cancel their Head of the Nene race for the second year running.
The event attracts top crews from across the country and was due to be held last Saturday. But the sudden cold snap meant the event had to be called off, costing the club around £5,000 in lost revenue.
And after high winds caused an abandonment in 2011, the increasing occurence of extreme weather means organisers could consider moving the Head of the Nene from its traditional February date.
Club chairman John Canton said: “What makes this year’s cancellation so frustrating is that we had to call it off last year too when it was high winds that caused the problems.
“We have run this event on the same date for about 50 years and up until about 10 years ago we never really had a problem. But in the last decade we have had to cancel it a few times and generally struggled with the weather.
“It seems the climate has changed and we are struggling with that. As yet no decision has taken place to move the event from early February but if this is a trend then we may have to consider it.
“Staging the Head of the Nene is important for the club as it brings in about £5,000 which is vital revenue for us.”
Peterborough City still hope to re-schedule this year’s race for sometime in March but with such a busy racing schedule that may not be easy.
Discussions with the sport’s governing body, British Rowing, are currently underway but it’s not yet clear if a space can be found.
“We are talking to British Rowing about moving the race but every weekend there are races going on up and down the country,” added Canton.
“So it is about trying to find an available date in the calendar. We had a traditional spot and now we have missed that but hopefully we can work something out.
“Thankfully we do not have these sort of problems with our summer regattas at Thorpe Meadows which form a big part of our programme and bring rowers to the city from across the country.”
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
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