AROUND their Hawke's Bay Rowing Club clubmates the senior men's eight are known as the "Jock and Doc crew."
That's because the crew of former New Zealand junior rep Ed Laver, Jack Stone, Joel Engelke, Michael Harrison, Fergus Ritchie, Pat Nichol, Morgan Davies, James Brott and cox Connor Molloy and Toby Aspden are coached by former New Zealand rep Jock Mackintosh and Doc McDonald who was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to rowing last weekend.
Should the crew continue to perform like it did at the club's annual two-day New Year's Regatta which ended at Clive yesterday, expect regatta commentators around the country to have a field day with the "Jock and Doc crew" label. Laver and co scored comfortable wins in their heat and final.
"There were only three crews counting us. The North Island championships at Lake Karapiro later this month will give us a better gauge as to where we are at in the countdown to next month's nationals in Twizel but I'm happy with where we are at ... Doc looked happy too," Laver said.
"We had different conditions to deal with each day at this regatta. Yesterday we had a headwind and today a tailwind," he continued.