Dhakuria Cup
Calcutta Rowing Club is the oldest rowing club in India. In the year 1869 Calcutta Rowing Club built its first permanent boat house on the bank of Ganges at Strand Road and started rowing in the Ganges. Presumably, since then, Barrackpore Regatta was in force. In this regatta we start rowing from Prinsep Ghat, row along the Ganges up to Barrackpore, and again row back to Prinsep Ghat. One way the stretch from Prinsep Ghat to Barrackpore along the Ganges is about 25 km.
In 1923 the entire boat house of the club was shifted to the present location on the bank of Dhakuria Lake. The members started rowing on the water of Dhakuria Lake. The Dhakuria Cup Marathon Regatta became another annual event of the club. The regatta was of 25 km. The length of Dhakuria Lake from top (east) to end (west) is around 1.5 km. A team had to row eight times from the top to the end and back and finally row back to club from the top. With passage of time and changes in life style, due to some obvious reasons the stretch of Dhakuria Cup was reduced to 7 km.
This year (2024) we could not utilize the entire length of Dhakuria Lake. At present the Dhakuria Lake is a ‘National Lake’ and for its beautification ‘Kolkata Improvement Trust’ has installed fountains at the western end as a result we had to reduce the stretch to 4.5 km.
The team which clocks the lowest time is declared the winner of Dhakuria Cup.
Dhakuria Cup regatta was confined to outdoor rowing only. To bring in variety, this year we added the following two sub-events to the main event of rowing on the water,
a) Relay Running round the lake and
b) Indoor Rowing.
Now it is no more restricted to outdoor rowing only. It became Dhakuria Cup Triathlon. We assigned credit point to all three sub-events. The team which earned maximum credit scores in aggregate was declared the winner of Dhakuria Cup Trophy.
Merchants’ Cup Regatta
Merchants’ Cup Regatta was inaugurated in1926 and till date it is continued every year, barring the period of Covid19 Pandemic. The objective was to promote the Rowing in the corporate houses. Squads from all over the city spare their time to practice for about 2 months and then participate in this corporate sports festival. Every year dozens of participation makes Merchants Cup a very successful event.
This is an invitation regatta. The club invites the corporate houses every year to take part in this regatta. This regatta is very popular among the corporate houses. The regatta is open only to the executives of the participating firms who are in the employment of that firm for a minimum period of last six months and did not participate in last five years in any open category regatta. The regatta was restricted only to ‘on the water Coxed Fours rowing’. It was mandatory that, at least one of the four rowers must be a member of the club. The team can choose any one as their Cox.
The first Merchants’ Cup Regatta was won by George Henderson & Company. Despite being the donors of the Trophy, Gillanders, couldn’t claim it until 1948.
Macneill & Magor Ltd. won the trophy for five years in a row from 1975 to 1979. In 1980 Marble Co won the trophy followed by Gillanders’ in 1981. In 1982, Exide Battery (erstwhile Chloride India Ltd.) won the trophy. In 1983 Tata Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. won the Trophy, whereas in 1984-85 it was M.N.C. who won it. Tata’s won back the trophy in 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1990.
In 2002 Tub Pairs was introduced in Merchants’ Cup Regatta and later on Dinghy and Indoor Rowing were also included.
After imposition of strict SOPs for rowing on the water of Dhakuria Lake, 92nd Merchants’ Cup Regatta in May, 2024 was limited to Indoor Rowing only.
14 corporate houses took part in the tournament. Both men and women rowers took part in Single Scull, Double Scull, Mixed Doubles and Mixed Fours. Travel Ark won the Gillanders Trophy and Ravan Debt Solution Incorporated became the Runners up.
Independence Day Regatta
Independence Day Regatta was inaugurated in 1987 by our past President Dr. A. C. Ganguly. Mr. Tapan Banerjee was the Captain of Boats.
This is the only regatta primarily earmarked for the veteran rowers. The veteran rowers get an opportunity go out together in boats as they used to in their prime time. It helps them to rejuvenate their sweet old memories. May be this regatta was introduced to recognize and appreciate the contribution of the veteran rowers.
Our beloved Kalyan Da (Kalyanmoy Ghosh) has left us for his heavenly abode in May, 2021. He was the first Indian Captain of Boats and past President of our club. He was also President of ‘Rowing Federation of India’. After his demise the Independence Day trophy is dedicated to Kalyan Da for his immense contribution towards rowing and the trophy of Independence Day Regatta was renamed as ‘Kalyanmoy Ghosh Memorial Trophy’.
This year after the traditional veterans rowing on the water we added an event of indoor rowing. It was a relay ergo meter race. Three teams participated in this event. Each team was of 4 rowers of which at least one was a veteran rower.