CHAIRMAN’S VIEW

What a difference a month makes! With the lockdown restrictions easing we were able to return to the water. Despite not yet being permitted to use the showers or the clubhouse it appears that members are making the most of the opportunity to go rowing. TopRow has also emerged promptly from the lockdown, teaching a new group about the joys of feeling the boat move beneath them.

I passed by the Club on the evenings of Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th. I was delighted to see some familiar faces, listen to the banter and feel the excitement as various crews returned from their outings. As well as members rowing for the first time in a few months, Tommy appeared on the balcony for a brief break from his work to prepare the clubhouse to open up. We will be ready to take the next step as restrictions are lifted so that we can enjoy our sport and each other’s company as the evenings get longer and warmer.

For a number of years we have all benefited from the generosity and support of our sponsors, Sutton Winson and Hackett. Further details are provided below and I would like to record my thanks to both companies.

I look forward to seeing those members who are able to join our forthcoming general meeting next Wednesday, 14th April, to present the club accounts to the membership. The meeting will be held on Zoom.

Simon Harris
Chairman, London Rowing Club

LRC SPONSORSHIP BY SUTTON WINSON AND HACKETT

I am delighted to report that Sutton Winson, the Club’s insurance broker, has recently committed sponsorship of £10,000 which is to be directed to the development of the Ashton Room (formerly the Club Room) which is to be so named in recognition of the significant bequest from Dennis Ashton’s estate. We have enjoyed significant financial support from Sutton Winson over the years, including the purchase of an Empacher 8+ and two Empacher 4-‘s.

Sutton Winson was founded by the late Alan Sutton, who rowed in the Club’s top crews in the 1960s. Since then it has developed into one of the country’s best-regarded independent insurance brokers. It has specialities in both commercial and personal insurance and insures some well-known names, including Henley Royal Regatta.

Please do get in touch with Sutton Winson if you are looking at insurance for your business, property or vehicle. It may help you or your business and, ultimately, it may also help LRC. In the first instance, please contact Chris Baumann and mention the LRC connection. His phone numbers are 020 8891 8551 and 07921 042326 and his email address is chris.Baumann@swib.co.uk.

Separately, we are at the early stages of discussions with Hackett on a new relationship. Hackett has continued to be very supportive of the Club. Despite a very challenging pandemic and little normal sponsor activity, I am pleased to report that Hackett has honoured its sponsorship in full, something for which I and all our members, I have no doubt, are most grateful.

As we consider sponsorship, we will be opening up discussions with a handful of other organisations. Sponsorship has developed considerably in the last several years, with both increased professionalization of decision-making and greater sophistication through, in particular, the role of social media. These promise to be exciting discussions as LRC has much to offer in a modern sponsor relationship.

Colin Christie
LRC, Main Committee member and Strategy Sub-Committee representative.

HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE UPDATE

Uber boats, otherwise known as Thames Clippers have been awarded the ferry contract. “It is proposed that the boats will take passengers between piers located near to Queen Caroline Street in Hammersmith and the Hammersmith Bridge approach in Barnes. There will be a full programme of engagement with the local community and other river users ahead of any planning application being submitted.” This should keep the ferry traffic above the present guard boat and ensure we can retain continued use of our already restricted water.

It is possible that river traffic under the bridge may be permitted before re-opening to pedestrians and cyclists, at which point we will have to co-exist with the ferry, but many of their skippers and crew have sat in a single in wash amongst larger vessels; no doubt their experiences will be of benefit while working on the same water as the wider rowing community

Various members of the club have been involved in our campaign for action to progress works and reopen the bridge to navigation. The boat races at Ely provided a good catalyst for various demonstrations of frustration on and off the river. Mark Lucani and Jess Eddie were both interviewed by national press on the subject of the bridge and it was also usefully highlighted during the BBC coverage of the races. The club will continue to look at any avenue to get the message to decision makers that the situation is intolerable and if permitted to continue in the longer term will have a very serious impact on the use of the championship course as a successful centre for leisure and competition.

Alongside that the club objected to the proposed ferry terminal at Harrods Wharf, this will hopefully now have been surpassed by the announcement above, but we will follow developments. Many thanks to John Hobson for his very professional guidance on this item.

The Bridge Task Force had its last meeting on the 25th of March and the minutes noted “The group noted that the inspection of the bridge’s western pedestals had now been completed by LBHF’s engineering consultants Mott MacDonald. We look forward to receiving Motts’ report on this work.” This follows some works on those pedestals, while remote, it might just provide a window to reopen to river traffic.

The bridge continues to be a political football, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham are responsible for the maintenance and repairs to the bridge, they continue to remonstrate that the costs are beyond them and that central government should fund it. Alongside this Transport for London are also a stakeholder along with the Department of Transport involvement. Central government are clearly pointing the finger at LBHF, hence nobody is stepping forward with a clear funding solution. To the bystander, on whichever bank, or in whichever hull on the river there is a little too much procrastination and a sense that things could progress at a better pace, that urgency to finding a solution to access is lacking. In a recent letter to Baroness Vere, Chair of the Task Force I put it like this: “The perception from the outside is of a disjointed argumentative blame game, it looks more like a parish council argument on where to locate the next park bench than planning for a crucial river crossing in the capital city and reflects badly on all parties, political and otherwise.”

Further information can be found as follows:

TfL announcement: TfL appoints operator to run temporary Hammersmith ferry service - Transport for London

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2021/march/-tfl-appoints-operator-to-run-temporary-hammersmith-ferry-service

LBHF on the bridge: Hammersmith Bridge – all you need to know and latest updates | LBHF

https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/transport-and-roads/hammersmith-bridge-all-you-need-know-and-latest-update

Central Government on the Bridge: Hammersmith Bridge updates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hammersmith-bridge-taskforce

Ben Helm
Vice-President, London Rowing Club

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

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

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING…. A BIT

When I became editor of The London Roar in August 2017, I was keen to produce the Club's newsletter at the same date and time each month to create a pattern for our members.

At the time, TLR was the only regular communication the Club had with its members.

In May 2019, it was decided that we should communicate with our members more frequently and that a publication should go out to everyone once a week. The Weekly Brief was introduced under the editorship of JP van Tiel.

The London Roar and the Weekly Brief have different raisons d’être. TLR reports on Club related events that have taken place over the preceding month, informs members about things which will be happening over the coming weeks, provides articles about the Club’s rowing and other exploits in the past and tells members about how the Club is managed. The Weekly Brief provides information about events coming up in the next few days, be they on or off the river. These can range from training sessions on or off the water to imminent regattas and events such as dinners and other social gatherings.

The plan agreed in 2019 was that TLR would continue to come out on the 12th of the month and the Weekly Brief would come out on each Thursday other than the Thursday nearest to the date of TLR's publication.

When TLR first start coming out on the 12th of the month, it went out at 9.00am. This was subsequently changed so that both it and the Weekly Brief came out at 11.00am.

This formula has worked well but we have now decided that it will simplify matters if TLR comes out on the second Thursday of every month and the Weekly Brief on all other Thursdays. That is why this edition has come out today (8th April) instead of the 12th.

Future editions will come out in accordance with this new formula until further notice. This means that TLR will come out between the 8th and the 15th of the month - but it will always be the second Thursday of the month.

Miles Preston
Editor, The London Roar

LRC MIDDLE AGED MIDDLEWEIGHTS DEFEAT GB

At the end of March nine members of the LRC Lockdown Erg Group joined forces to compete in the LYR Row the Thames challenge, attempting to complete 72Km as a team as fast as possible.

Having all followed Chris Leonard's taxing 6 ergs a week training programme for the last few months, the team came into this feeling confident and in good shape.

Unfortunately, due to an administrative error we had been entered in the Senior category rather than our intended Masters category. Undeterred, we set out with the aim of putting a strong score on that board and seeing if we could hold our own against the field.

Day one found us in first place overall with an average pace of 1:28/500m over the first 10km. It was at that point the students woke up!

Once they had finally awoken from their daytime slumber at 6pm and emerged to make Tik-tok videos, IC came roaring out of the blocks to put a frankly disgusting score of 1:20/500m on the board, removing us from the top spot!

*End of day 1 standings. Incredible what a full time uni student can achieve in between TOWIE re-runs.*

From that point on it was just a matter of chasing down the IC lead and putting strong scores on the board. Knowing we couldn't overpower the youngsters we decided instead to over rate them!

So it had been a two horse race up until Saturday, at which point the nursing homes allowed visitors and someone snuck an erg over to the Molesey Leg-Ends.

Luckily the earlier error over our entry came back to save us. As we were ‘Senior’, we were in a different category from IC and the Leg-Ends. However, that still left the mighty GB men in our group. Could we hold them off to the finish line?!?

LRC Old Lags completing the last 8k together.

Rest assured dear readers, we did hold them off to claim a victory in the Senior category and 3rd place overall, leaving Caversham having to ask some tough questions about who should be sent to Tokyo!

All of this was done to raise money for London Youth Rowing to enable it to keep doing its amazing work. If you can donate, it would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the link https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-portal/fundraiserPage?pageId=1267887

Basil Amin

HAMMERSMITH PROTEST EVENT

A number of LRC rowers participated in Easter Sunday's Hammersmith Bridge row past/mill around protest event. Included in the protest group were 2 Irregulars quads comprised of Jonny Akehurst, Kathleen Curran, Fiona Young and Eddie Markes - Peter Roberts, Martin Quinn, Ronnie Maddox and Jason Danciger. Joe Boultbee was our event photographer. It was great fun!!

The protest was also noted in the national press along with reports on the annual Boat Race which was held in Ely this year. Mark Lucani, LRC Captain, added weight to the issue, saying “The bridge has been shut for a year and no work has begun yet. Every user of the river has felt the negative impact”.

Eddie Markes

IRREGULARS’ REPORT

It is obviously with great joy that we have welcomed a return to rowing.

First up (apart from some of us rowing during the previous week) a number of us participated in the Hammersmith Bridge protest event mentioned above. This was followed by a 10.00am outing on Easter Monday. We will be returning to normal times henceforth.

I thought I would continue the mini-series on explore rowing touring trips and one that I personally took part in - I look back on it with great fondness and many good memories. I was injured at the time but was taking part as rather an overweight cox - I felt sorry for my crew of two!

This trip took place in the Netherlands in April 2017 over four days and was expertly organised by Frank ter Voorde who is now based in Zurich and organises many trips of this nature. Frank used to live in London and was a very regular Irregular in his time and still keeps closely in touch.

Andrew Lawrence and Julie, Eve Hicks, and Nini and I arrived in Leiden (a well know University City) on the Thursday afternoon to board the Avontuur (our mother ship) and get to know our new home for the next four nights. Dinner was served on board that evening and we got to know our new friends with whom we were going to spend the forthcoming days. The group numbered approximately twenty and were garnered from a variety of clubs around Europe.

Friday - we rowed in beautifully maintained double wherries (this was the stock boat throughout our trip) with the cox seat having room for both cox and passenger. Club Rijnland was our host and we had a great row around the outskirts of Leiden, stopping off for lunch and to meet our wives who had taken to bicycles! That evening we left the mooring and took to the canals to arrive and berth in Haarlem late in the evening, having had a very good dinner on board with all our new friends.

Saturday - Moored in the centre of Haarlem and at 8.30 am off we all went to the Royal Rowing Club het Sparne to embark in our wherries for a fantastic and quite long rowing day to see the Tulip Fields. For about 2 hours we were surrounded by "in bloom tulips" as we negotiated our way around - it was a surreal and unique experience being at the same level as the flowers and a very special memory. A very good lunch was had and some regretted having too much as the afternoon row back was long and against the wind. By the end of the day we had covered 30km. That evening we set off for Amsterdam in a slight hurry - we had to get through a lock at a certain time (involving a whole motorway shutting down for about 10 minutes). The highlight of the evening was setting sail in the Noordzee Canal on our way into Amsterdam. Well done to the Captain and crew of the Avontuur!

LR_Apr21(MC)_Irregs(3).jpg — *The Avontuur in Haarlem.*

Sunday - A non-strenuous but, at times, "quite interesting" rowing day around and through the main canals of Amsterdam - parallels to rowing in Venice as we vied with tourist boats for manoeuvring space interspersed with the odd shouting match. We and our wherries all survived without a scratch. Royal Rowing Club de Hoop gave us a fantastic lunch and we virtually had the place to ourselves. From the balcony, I noticed a sculler boating in the R van Mesdag (Robbie was a member here). Dinner that evening was had at a traditional Indonesian rijsttafel restaurant.

*Frank ter Voorde, Eddie Markes and Andrew Lawrence outside the Royal Rowing Club de Hoop in Amsterdam.*

*The third member Eve Hicks in her quarters!*

Monday - our last day. No slacking at all as we would again cover 30km. We embarked in our wherries to spend a day rowing around the beautiful surrounding countryside - lunch in a farmhouse and a quick return to Avontuur to pack up in time to catch evening flights.

This was a memorable four days and a wonderful way to explore the Netherlands. Many thanks are due to Frank who no doubt is currently planning more interesting sorties.

Although it is obviously quiet at the moment, we are eagerly awaiting news of more available trips - likely given the diversity of our membership and the adventurous spirit of the group.

If anyone is interested in learning about any forthcoming trips please do get in touch.

Eddie Markes

LRC COMMERCIAL/EVENTS SUB-COMMITTEE

This month, I have been speaking to the Hon. House Steward (the main Committee’s representative on the Commercial/Events Sub-Committee), Chris Goodfellow, about his work at the Club and the role of the Sub-Committee, which comprises Chris, Shane Dorset, Meghann Jackson, Philip Carré and Stuart Heap.

The funny thing about Chris’s position is that it doesn’t seem very honorary. He works closely with Shane Dorsett, LRC’s General Manager, to manage what is a professional events business with revenues of several hundred thousand pounds a year. The objective is to generate funds for investment in the Club’s rowing activities and strategic projects. Clearly, COVID regulations have made the last twelve months very difficult but Chris is looking forward to the resumption of activity. In the expectation that weddings and other large weekend events will be permitted only in stages, Chris wishes to attract a wider range of bookings. A brochure is being prepared for corporate guests to attract weekday meetings, off-sites and client functions. Chris would be very pleased to hear from any members who might be interested in making reservations or who would be willing to make introductions (chris.goodfellow@londonrc.org.uk).

The events team is also very keen to organise events for members. The online quiz night before Christmas was a good example in difficult circumstances. However, Chris is very aware that member events have to be carefully planned so that they are adequately attended and cover their costs. One way to achieve this is to identify champions of events among members, who can build awareness and help to coordinate on the day. This reduces reliance on paid staff. The Irregulars Dinners have organised successfully on this basis for many years. Chris is in the process of training volunteer bar stewards to enable the bar to be open to members regularly. Although he anticipates that little training will be required in slinging pints, they will need to learn how to open and close the bar and to manage stock.

As lockdown eases, the Sub-Committee will meet more regularly. Chris sees its role as being a sounding board for the overall events strategy. It will review the financial performance, bookings and attendance data to consider which events are working well and which require improvement. The Sub-Committee will also consider feedback from members and corporate customers. In this regard, it will co-ordinate closely with the Membership Sub-Committee and with the Strategy Sub-Committee, the latter of which is responsible for relationships with corporate sponsors of the Club.

While the role is challenging, Chris believes that it is providing valuable experience for his professional and personal development. He values the mix of ages of the members of the Club’s General Committee and the way in which everyone’s contribution is welcomed. He would encourage other younger members to express an interest in the management of the Club.

Andrew Boyle
Honorary Secretary, London Rowing Club

ROWING FOR LRC FROM 1962-67

PART 6: EPILOGUE

I hope the reminiscences of my two years with LMBC and five years at LRC, plus honorary membership of Barclays Bank Rowing Club, were of interest to both contemporaries and later members. It certainly was a pleasure remembering those wonderful years and doing some research to bolster fading memory. If you see an error please let me know. I subsequently retired to Reading and joined Reading RC where I enjoyed outings with Tom Kirby in a coxless pair.

I am out in a coxless pair with my friend Tom Kirby (a dentist) at Reading.

Subsequently, from 1968 the club improved its Henley successes. In 1968, Andy Weyeneth entered the Diamonds. In 1969 Dan and his LRC crew won the Wyfolds. In 1970 LRC won the Britannia Challenge Cup and lost in the Final of the Thames Cup and Sean Drea entered the Diamonds, losing to the eventual winner Meissner in the third round. In 1971, London won the Prince Philip Cup with University of London, the first such combined club win. In 1977, LRC rowed over in the Stewards. In 1978 LRC won the Thames Cup and were runners up in the Stewards and Wyfolds. In 1979 LRC won the Grand with Thames Tradesman RC, the Stewards, and lost in the final of the Thames Cup. In 1980 LRC again lost in the final of the Thames Cup.

Let us not forget our crew people. Dan Topolski and Chris Drury (as a rower), embraced and started lightweight rowing, with coach Ron Needs, and went on to win many International Lightweight Gold and Silver medals. Giles Chichester became an MEP and most became successful in their careers, especially Peter Coni (sadly missed) who became a QC and then subsequently Chairman of Henley Royal Regatta. Of our team Simon Rippon was a Nuclear Journalist and Author, one of the first to visit Chernobyl; Desmond married Kittie Cadbury and ended as a Partner in his career with Cluttons, after surviving his round the world single handed trip across the Pacific when he bumped into Australia and wrecked Gypsy Moth V; Steve after renewing pipelines with a concrete spraying robot, came to be appointed the first Director of Training for Oxford University after Dan had produced so many Oxford wins in a row. I was a Computer Consultant working from 1962 to invent Systems Analysis, Batch Processing and set Programming Standards while working on the very first of the NCR 315, IBM 360, ICL 4/50, and AS/400 main frame computers used in the UK for new commercial systems.

One last story. Chris French joined us in 1967 and was soon stroke of the Thames Cup Eight. We had in the club bar room a red fruit machine on which Mrs Palmer played for hours. One day I had been on the machine for an hour or so when Chris walks in. “I have sixpence” he said, “would you mind if I put it in the machine”. “OK,” I said, and he pulls the handle. Lo and behold – JACKPOT. Chris picks up the money and without a word leaves the bar! But Mrs Palmer did leave us something really special. After my marriage she wrote this song, to the tune Once in Royal David’s City, about our four and Ruvigny Mansions:

“Once with Rippon, Royle and ‘ampton,
lived a man called Mr. Smith.
He was round and fat and ‘andsom,
and he practiced foul mischief.
Now we wonder where he ‘as gone?
Not with Rippon, Royle and ‘ampton,
He has gone to Reading Town,
With bad Habbitts lays he down.”

My last row was in 2002 with a scratch Lady Margaret crew (photo below) with some ladies and my original coach John Rounce on the right. Rowing was difficult due to my waist extension, but I managed.

My last outing, at LMBC, with a mixed crew including three ladies. My coach from novice was John Rounce on right.

My best memories – being asked to coach CUWBC blue boat in 1961 for one outing, and my friends.

THE END (but members please write about other years)

Colin Smith
LMBC & LRC

IN MEMORIAM

Jeremy W (‘Joe’) Fraser and David H King

The London Roar reported in February on the deaths of ‘Joe’ Fraser on 28th December and David King on 2nd February. Obituaries have now been placed on the Club website (see under ‘News’).

Colin F Porter

The February edition also mentioned that Colin Porter, a leading rowing personality of his day, who died last August, was never a member of London. In fact, it has been pointed out to us that this is not the case and that he rowed in a pair with Mike Beresford (nephew of the famous pre-WWII sculler, Jack Beresford) for the one season 1959.

With the help of Chris Dodd we have been able to track down Mike Beresford who has sent us the following information:

“You are correct, Colin Porter and I did indeed row in a pair for LRC in 1959. It was only for that year and because we had fallen out of favour with TRC, of which I was a Life Member. As I remember it, TRC either did not have a pair or would not agree to us having sole use of it, so we asked LRC if they had a pair we could borrow. They did have a pair but we could only have it for sole use if we agreed to row for LRC.

So we joined LRC and rowed in the pair that year, we did win at the MET and Bedford Regatta, but were beaten by Norton and Scurfield every time we met; we only won when they were not entered. This was disappointing, as we were clearly not the fastest pair.

We had rowed the previous year with Simon Crosse and John Vigurs, who had in a similar fashion fallen out with the LRC management, and a very successful four it was. It had been the intention to keep the four going for the year 1959, but for some reason John Vigurs was not able to commit, so in the end Simon went to Molesey and rowed in their senior four, and Colin and myself decided to have a go in a pair.

We then all surfaced again in the Olympic year of 1960 at Molesey BC and rowed as either Molesey or Barn Cottage. Ultimately we were to be selected as the coxed and coxless fours for the Olympics.”

Chris Dodd’s Club history describes what happened in these years on pages 201 to 203. Beresford does not mention this but he and Porter reached the final of the Silver Goblets during the year they rowed as London.

The LRC Captain in 1959 was the late Dennis Ashton. He left a generous legacy to the Club in his will, and the former Club Room (behind the bar) is going to be renamed after him.

Julian Ebsworth
LRC Librarian & Archivist

ARRIVEDERCI VENEZIA….PER IL MOMENTO

For the second year running we have had to cancel the Club's trip to Venice for the Vogalonga.

We had thirty-one people in this year's group. This would have meant four coxed quads and a coxed four taking part and six spectating. I was very sorry to have to tell everyone that the trip was off. These people will have first refusal for next year's event which, I trust, will be on.

Quite apart from the fact that the organisers of the Vogalonga have not posted anything on the official website since the 23rd March 2020 (the announcement about the cancellation of last year's row), there remains complete uncertainty about international travel and the quarantine arrangements that may be in place on arrival in Italy and/or on returning to the UK.

Let's hope we will be well and truly back on the road by next year. Whit Sunday, which is the traditional day for the Vogalonga to take place, falls on the 5th June next year so, if you are interested in taking part, do put the date in your diary.

Here are some photos from the 2019 Vogalonga which may bring back happy memories to those of you who have been lucky enough to have taken part in this memorable experience in the past.

The afternoon before the row - the boats have been safely delivered to the English Church.

Dinner at the Montin on the Saturday evening.

Shortly before the cannon signalling the start fires.

The row has been completed, the boats are back on the trailer. Time to wind down and enjoy the rest of the day.

Drinks at Ca Malcanton on the Sunday evening.

Miles Preston
Organiser of LRC Vogalonga group

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