Tees Rowing Club The Slipway North Shore Stockton-on-Tees TS18 2NL

1900s

1901

Tees win The Mayors Plate at Durham

1902

President: George Thompson. Captain:    Hon Sec/Treas: T R G Rowland.

The club wins The Lady Herschell Plate at Durham Regatta and also races in The Corporation Challenge Cup and The Mayors Plate. The club’s entry in The Lady Anne Lambton Plate is disqualified by the regatta committee on the grounds that two of the crew had previously been in the Tees Cup winning crew.  An appeal by the club to The Amateur Rowing Association is successful. The ARA rule that as the Tees and Ironmasters Cups are matches which, as at present rowed, are confined to TABC and MABC and therefore the Durham Regatta Committee decision was wrong.  A club dinner dance is held on Friday December 12th at The Borough Hall, Stockton-on-Tees. Tickets, including supper, are priced at 10/6 (52.5 p) for a double ticket, 7/- (35 p) for gentlemen and 3/6 (17.5 p) for ladies. (A splendid photographic portrait of George Thompson JP and the 1902 Durham Regatta programme are filed in the club archives. Ed.)

1904

Wins are recorded in Junior Sculls and The Oswald Plate at Durham and in The Cutter Race at Sunderland.

1905

We win The Lady Anne Lambton Plate at Durham.

1906

President: F Brown (Mayor of Stockton).

In February a Whist Drive is held at The Masonic Hall attended by 200 “ladies and gentlemen”. The Summer Fours are held in June over a half mile course. Tees beat Middlesbrough for the Tees Cup after “a ding dong race”. Fifty members and friends attend the closing fours which are held at Yarm on September 15th.  Five crews compete. Tea is served afterwards at The Black Bull Hotel followed by a Smoker. A large crowd watch a professional sculling match between J H Walker of Thornaby and Harry Atkinson of Chester-le-Street which is held over a half a mile course at Stockton for £25 a side. Walker wins by one and a half lengths although the betting was 11/10 on Atkinson.

1907

The Oswald Plate is won at Durham and The Cutter Race at Tyne “At Home”. The challenge race with Middlesbrough ABC for the Tees Challenge Cup is raced over the Thornaby High Wood to Railway Bridge Course, a distance of approximately 1.25 miles. MABC win by “4 yards”. We are also beaten by MABC in the Ironmasters Challenge Cup race. The Northern Athlete reports that “afterwards they smilingly departed for their annual fishing excursion to the mouth of the Tees ….where they had a royal time. They indulged in such sports as “cockle spotting” and water polo “in birthday costumes only”. Although the club can’t relieve their Middlesbrough brethren of the Tees and ironmasters Cups they are not downhearted. Life with them has its compensations”. The season’s closing fours are held at Yarm where a capital day’s sport is enjoyed in charming conditions before a fairly large crowd of spectators.

1908

President: Ald. G Thompson. Captain:  T R G Rowland.  Hon Sec:  Hon Treas:  W C Willis

Tees ABC and Middlesbrough ABC hold their Joint “At Home” Regatta on the Tees course on Saturday July 25th. Programmes are priced at 2d (say 1p).  Photos of Tees sculler G Iredale and the Tees Ironmasters winning crew are published in that night’s Sports Gazette. A Supper and Smoker is held at The Royal Hotel, High Street, Stockton promoted jointly with Middlesbrough ABC and also attended by representatives of other sports bodies including Mr. H T James of the Neptune Club, Mr. C McAdams of the Richmond Meet, Mr. C L Townsend, Captain of Norton Cricket Club and Mr. J Nattrass of Stockton Automobile Club. T R G Rowland of Tees ABC in responding to a toast to the club remarked that “the proper way to popularise the sport would be to form a Federation of Northern Amateur Rowing Clubs”.  G Iredale wins the prestigious Black Diamond Challenge Cup at Tyne Regatta.

1909

The opening fours are held on May 8th – a photo of a Tees crew is published on line in the Picture Stockton Archive. An outstanding season – we win The Black Diamond Challenge Cup and Maiden (Novice) Fours at Tyne Regatta, Junior Fours at Tyne “At Home” and The Grand Challenge Cup at Durham. (It will be 75 years before we win it again – Ed).