CHAIRMAN’S VIEW

At the AGM on Wednesday 2nd September a new committee was elected in line with the structure agreed at the EGM in August. The new committee will start work immediately to move the club forward. I am grateful to all of those who have stepped up to take on leadership roles and others who have volunteered to serve on the subcommittees. There is plenty to do and any additional support will be welcome. Please contact any of the club officers if you feel able to contribute time and effort. At the AGM we were also able to thank those officers and longstanding committee members who stepped down. It is remarkable and humbling to hear of the many years of service that individuals have given to this club.

The return to rowing in eights from 29th August has been a welcome boost and it has been pleasing to see LRC crews returning to the water ahead of the start of the season. We must, however, continue to follow all relevant guidelines and protocols for rowing in the COVID environment. Please take time to read the instructions posted in the clubhouse and on the website. Included in this is the clear advice not to visit the club if you are displaying any of the symptoms of COVID-19 including a raised temperature. Our continued vigilance both at the club and elsewhere is important. The issues associated with one positive test in a crew or squad are significant and we all need to avoid this if at all possible.

All members should, by now, also be aware that river below Hammersmith Bridge has been closed. This is a considerable inconvenience to members or LRC and other Putney clubs. As a club we will continue to lobby to reopen the river. We must, however, all abide by the rules and not pass under the bridge. Equally, please make yourself aware of the rules for heading downstream before being tempted to head through Putney Bridge.

Finally, members will be aware that the COVID restrictions have had a significant impact on our revenue from the events space. It is, however, open and available to host smaller events within government guidelines. If there is a possibility that you, your family or business may be able to use the spaces for a function, please contact Shane Dorsett.

Simon Harris
Chairman, London Rowing Club

CAPTAIN’S REPORT

The welcome easing of British Rowing’s Covid restrictions has breathed a healthy dose of life back into the club with activities reminiscent of a time when the only Corona we considered were the ones served by Tommy and enjoyed on the balcony.

Unfortunately, just as we were beginning to be released from many months of pent up rowing angst, the news of Hammersmith bridge closure sent the hares running and dreams of head races, sessions up to UL and battle paddles past the bandstand were all but dashed. As I am sure you can all imagine, we are exploring every avenue to remedy the situation, however in the interim I cannot express strongly enough that there are no circumstances where any vessels are permitted through the bridge.

Understandably attentions have turned to the downriver however if you are contemplating any outings downstream of Putney Pier please ensure you are clear on all the rules and requirements.

A final point on safety: given the increased activity at we need to redouble our efforts on COVID protocols. Over the past 2 weeks we have two very close calls but happily the correct protocols were followed and onward transmission was avoided. I appeal to you all to protect your fellow members and remain vigilant and continue to follow all of the hygiene protocols.

Despite these challenging headwinds the tenacity and commitment from the membership has for the most part facilitated a strong and safe return to on the water action across all the length and breadth of the club. Anecdotally- one of the most joyful things I have experienced at the club over the past months was seeing the proliferation the father/daughter/ son combinations heading out. The ear to ear smiles on the faces of Dugald and Jasmine Moore spring immediately to mind- it is truly fantastic to see both enjoying the rowing together.

Senior Squad: At the pointy end the squad had gotten off to a flying start. Following an uncharacteristically active pre-season, Saturday the 5th was the season kick off for the senior squad. From every perspective the positives of the weekend were palpable- with over 50 athletes taking to the water over the weekend and the skill levels on display looking very promising for the upcoming season. Personally I was over the moon that of this group we had 16 women in boats over the weekend- this bodes extremely well for my well documented priority of ensuring women’s rowing grows and thrives at LRC!

Early signs are that Stu Heap and the team he is building around him have already made great strides in pulling together a squad packed full of promise and very capable of delivering on the club’s highest ambition of victories at Women’s Henley and Henley Royal.

As the squad settle into a rhythm of training as a club we need to be conscious of this new schedule and ask that we all adapt to cope with the increased usage of the club facilities. We are looking at technology solutions within FitClub to accommodate block bookings but in the meantime please be aware that the relevant sections of the gym will be blocked off for squad use at the following times:

• Mon 17h30- 20h30: Ergs

• Tues 17h30- 20h30: Weight Cages

• Wed 17h30- 20h30: Ergs

• Thurs 17h30- 20h30: Weight Cages

Similarly with the increased use of the fleet I would like to remind the membership of the club policy crews are responsible for covering the cost any damages incurred on the water, up to the insurance excess amount of £250. Historically some leeway has been given here but with the required belt tightening as a result of COVID it is import that we protect our fleet and keep it in good repair.

Having received the honour of being elected to serve you all as Captain for the upcoming season, I am truly excited for what the upcoming year has in store for the club and am honoured to be able to help pen an already colourful chapter in the club’s illustrious history.

Bang the Drum!

Mark Lucani
Captain, London Rowing Club

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

See more detail for these events, visit our Calendar of Events…

DAVID AINSLIE

1947-2020

We regret to report the death of David Ainslie on 29 August. He had been ill in hospital for some months.

David joined LRC in 1970 and rowed competitively in the early 1970s. He served as Hon. House Steward (then an office held by a single member) in 1978 and 1979. Thereafter he retired from active rowing, but continued to support LRC through the Sixes & Sevens Club, founded by David, Giles Chichester and the late Simon Rippon in 1980.

Given Covid restrictions the funeral will be entirely private.

IRREGULARS’ REPORT

Numbers are returning with the ability to go out in quads and fours as from the 15th August. But not back to full strength yet as members take holidays when they can. We had ten on the water last Sunday and the same again last Wednesday.

The Wednesday morning lot has seen a steady increase over the last year or so – the river is quiet and a pleasant morning is spent by all. These outings are pre-arranged by Tom Blackett or John Auber which is, of course, different from the ‘turn up and get an outing’ principle of the Sunday outings. I attach a photo of some regular Irregulars for the 10.30 Wednesday outing. No names of course but you can tell some of them haven’t been exerting themselves too much over lockdown! We’ll have to get you into shape guys!

Left to right: Lee Reilly, Sharon Rowntree, Hugh Samuel, Philip Carré, Tricia Carré, Tony Lynn, Tom Blackett, John Auber and John Gaisford (Martin Quinn missing).

I, personally, have been enjoying myself over the last year or so (yes AF – it has taken a long time) by repairing a wooden double and replacing some sections of ribs where the footplate adjustment plate has necessitated this repair. I hope it works!

This gives me the opportunity to tell you about this charming double called ‘JO’. It belonged to our President, Mike Baldwin, who bought it from Maurice and Pauline Rayner in the mid-nineties when his daughter Jo was a teenager. Mike can’t tell me precisely when but he donated it to the Club but it was about 10-15 years ago. Since then it has been a regular and very popular double for the more senior members of the Club. It will soon be back in service, I hope! Thank you Mike!

At last, we have a dinner coming up on the 16th September. I hope the opportunity will be taken up to reconnect with many of our members and friends.

Eddie Markes

DIVERSITY AT LRC

Our awareness of the importance of diversity has grown significantly in 2020 and it is time that LRC took a closer look at who we are and what we can do to progress diversity at our Club. To this end, we would like to start by baselining ourselves to understand our current position, then establish what it would take for LRC to ‘be diverse’.

We have prepared a questionnaire which you can find at https://forms.gle/AEnsXviZLVZtMveR6. Please consider completing this survey to help the Club understand who our members are and how we perceive our attitudes towards diversity.

We hope the survey will become a regular review of the membership so that we see how ‘who we are’ develops over time.

If anyone would be interested in helping to run this initiative, please email Abigail Leek (abigail.victoria.leek@gmail.com) or Bill Baker (bill@porticusinsurance.com) to mark your interest.

Chris Goodfellow

ROWING THE WORLD

I thought our members might like to hear about Rowing the World. This is an organisation run by a Canadian lady called Ruth Marr. She organises rowing tours in many countries including the USA, South Africa, New Zealand, France Ireland and the UK.

I got to know Ruth through John Turnbull of Weyfarers which is an offshoot of Weybridge Rowing Club dedicated to touring. We once put a four on a tour he organised for British Rowing on the River Ouse in East Anglia. The crew was Iain Laurenson, Eve Hicks, Tony Lynn, one of our learn to rowers, whose name now leaves me, and myself. Although the company was good, it was a frustrating tour because all you saw from water level was tall reeds and the locks were small and took a long time to operate. At four boats per lock and fourteen boats on the tour it took about three hours to get the whole lot through each lock! British Rowing Tours are organised in most years and have been on the Tyne, Severn, Trent, and the Thames.

Weyfarers also provided boats to Rowing the World for an annual Thames tour. This was for five days on the upper Thames and we provided boats for a trip downstream to Tower Bridge. These trips would be on a Saturday morning when the tide was low at about 09:00 am, so that we were both ways with the tide and got away from the Pool of London before all the pleasure cruisers got going. It gets impossibly rough down there at high tide with constant to-ing and fro-ing of pleasure craft and river cruisers. On one occasion Mike Baldwin kindly provided Casamajor as a safety boat. Sadly, Health and Safety have put paid to that with requirements for larger safety boats, radios and permits etc… I did once take a crew of Swiss oarsmen upstream to Kew.

If anyone is interested in doing a tour with Rowing the World you can contact them on ruth@rowingtheworld.com. The website is http://rowingtheworld.com

Hugh Samuel

ROWING ON THE THAMES IN THE 50s & 60s

PART 5 – REGATTAS AND HENLEY

A feature of regattas in the 1950s and 60s was large areas of canvas for the boats, officials, changing and the beer tent. To understand the changing tent, it is necessary to know that Regatta Dress for crews was navy blue blazer, grey flannel trousers and a club tie, so crews needed somewhere to change and hang up their regalia. A shower consisting of a bowl of cold water could be had afterwards.

*The News of the World Regatta, held on the Serpentine.*

The Metropolitan Regatta, as it was called then, was held on weekday evenings, usually starting at the Mile Post and finishing at the Clubhouse. They or another regatta used stake boats, the trick to get a fast start was to square the blades when the umpire said “are you ready”, although it cannot have been very good news for the stake boatman.

The crews at Henley were very different from today, for instance Oxford and Cambridge college crews entered the Ladies and Visitors and American university crews the Thames Cup and Wyfolds. The Boat Tents at Henley were all marquees, which had the disadvantage that when it rained heavily water poured down the sides and flooded the surrounding area. It was so bad one year that we took the boat to the water in bare feet, washed our feet in the river and then put our socks on.

Needless to say the enclosure was also muddy and there was a tractor to pull cars out of the mud in the Regatta car parks.

*Henley with the Fairground in the background with the Open Stand in front.*

In those days Henley crews spent two weeks at Henley training followed by the Regatta. This was partly tradition and because the M4 was not built until the 1960s, so the route was the A4 via Heathrow and Slough. As a result the Club stayed for a number years at the fine old Medmenham Vicarage. The Club Steward and his wife provided the catering for all the crews and there was a barrel of beer in the pantry. Tom Phelps was also there: he had a large locked black wooden box with tools and wood for any repairs. The boatmen’s favourite pub was on the site of what is now the HRR Headquarters and was, therefore, conveniently close to the boat tents.

The Regatta was rowed over four days, which meant two races on Saturday in popular events such as the Thames Cup and Wyfolds. The upside was that Sunday was a very relaxed day and an old Club member provided a fine buffet lunch at his home by the river.

Hugh Dulley

Part 6: ‘The LRC Grand crews’ will be published in the October edition of The London Roar.

CLUB SPIRIT

Those of you who attended last week's AGM may not be completely clear why proceedings were suspended for a few minutes about three quarters of the way through the meeting, shortly after our new Hon. Treasurer, Philip Carré, had started giving his very clear and comprehensive resume of the Club's finances.

As you may have gathered, there were thirty committee members and other members in the Long Room at the time (all socially distanced, of course). Simon Harris had been chairing the meeting in the absence of Mike Baldwin who would normally have been in the chair (but who was self-isolating at home). He had just handed over his place in front of the computer to Philip to give his presentation. He had walked to the riverside side of the Long Room and, by chance, looked out of one of the windows and spotted someone on a scooter who had stopped beside a car - mine as it turned out to be - shining a torch into the car (looking to see whether it was worth smashing a window to steal something).

Simon shouted at the person concerned. At this point, Tim Grant, Mark Lucani and about five other rowing stalwarts piled out of the clubhouse and were seen running down the road in pursuit of the would be robber. Fortunately for the chap concerned they didn't catch him!

My reason for writing this is partly to explain why the meeting came somewhat unceremoniously to a standstill for a few minutes but, more importantly, to thank Simon, Tim, Mark and everyone else who helped to ensure that I didn't end up having to take my car to the garage for a window replacement the following day for their fine example of why we should all appreciate being members of LRC. It is called Club Spirit - and long may it flourish!

Miles Preston
Editor, The London Roar

REPORTING SAFETY INCIDENTS

All members are reminded that if you are involved in or witness a water safety incident, you are required to report it on safety@londonrc.org.uk

The Club will file any necessary reports on your behalf with British Rowing and the PLA. Members should not submit reports directly to either body.

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

My thanks to everyone who has contributed to this edition of the London Roar. If you have an idea for an article or would be interested in submitting a piece for inclusion in a future edition, please email me on miles.preston@londonrc.org.uk

Please do not submit an article without first liaising with me.

Miles Preston
Editor of The London Roar