CHAIRMAN’S VIEW
I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Doug Melvin, our former Club President and a stalwart of LRC as a sculler, oarsmen, coach and father to John and Simon who all represented the Club with distinction over many years. Our thoughts and best wishes are with Betty, John, Simon, Janet and all of the Melvin family.
Doug Melvin, taken at the Wingfield Sculls race in 2010. (Photo: Tim Koch, HTBS.)
Those of you who have been able to visit the Club will have seen the increase in activity on the water and felt the positive spirit across the Club. We will continue to build on this as our attention turns to summer racing. In parallel, the clubhouse is being transformed with decorating works underway in the main entrance and Fairbairn Room. We are also progressing the development of the Ashton Room and completing remedial work to the showers and installing ventilation in the men’s changing rooms. Please bear with us during the upheaval and play your part in ensuring that the facilities are kept clean and in good condition in the future.
It is with some relief that we can see the events business steadily reopening and our revenue stream returning. Thanks to the generous support of members we have almost achieved our target of £120,000 to cover the loss of business during the latter part of 2020 and the first half of 2021. This has underwritten the activities of the past few months to great effect. At the Annual General Meeting on 15th July we will provide details of future plans for investment in the fleet and a much needed upgrade to the Resis accommodation. I shall write to members ahead of the meeting with further information to inform the discussion at the meeting.
Finally, as we steadily emerge from the Coronavirus pandemic, we will look to open the bar regularly for members and I look forward to seeing as many as possible at the clubhouse. Details will be provided through the Weekly Brief. Meanwhile, please continue to follow all relevant COVID protocols; the virus has not gone away.
Simon Harris
Chairman, London Rowing Club
NEW TO LRC: MEMBERS WELCOME PACK
Over the last year a few of the members of the Membership Sub-Committee have been working on a welcome booklet containing useful information for new members joining London Rowing Club. This is being sent out to new members by the Membership Secretary, Jessica Salter, when they sign up, but we thought it would make sense to share it with everyone at LRC regardless of how long you have been at the Club so that everyone can have a read.
Ever wondered who the rooms are named after?
Ever wondered why London Rowing Club was founded in the first place?
Ever been unable to locate the bar?
Well look no further! It’s all in the welcome booklet!
You can access the 2021 Welcome booklet via the link in your member’s London Roar email.
We plan on updating the booklet every season so if you can think of anything we might have missed please feel free to email me at bethan.corlett@btinternet.com
Bethan Corlett
Member of the LRC Membership Sub-Committee
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
29 May: Twickenham Regatta
29-30 May: National Schools Regatta (Dorney)
5-6 June: Metropolitan Regatta (Dorney)
12 June: Barnes and Mortlake Regatta
12 June: British Rowing Masters Championships
19 June: Marlow Regatta (Dorney)
25 June: Doggett’s Coat and Badge
26 June: Richmond Regatta
02-04 July: Henley Women’s Regatta
09-10 July: Henley Masters Regatta
10-11 July: Kingston Regatta
15 July: LRC Annual General Meeting
17-18 July: Molesey Regatta
25 July: Barnes and Mortlake Regatta
31 July: Henley Town and Veterans Regatta
07 August: Maidenhead Regatta
11-15 August: Henley Royal Regatta
All these dates are provisional and subject to postponement or cancellation, depending on Covid 19 regulations and/or whether Hammersmith Bridge remains closed.
See more detail for these events, visit our Calendar of Events…
IRREGULARS’ REPORT
It is really great to be back on the water again and there has been a good take up with an average of around 3 or 4 quads and a double or two being put out every Sunday. The Wednesday morning attendees have teamed up with Alan Foster and his group and also have a healthy attendance. When the tide allows we take a sortie down to Wandsworth Bridge, which gives more interest - oh for Hammersmith Bridge to open up! - we don't, of course, realise how very lucky we are to have had the upstream stretch until we don't. Let's hope it gets sorted soon.
Rowing apart, there is a lot going on in the clubhouse with decorations to the staircase and Fairbairn Room taking place amongst other projects. Help has been given from all areas of the club - the President himself, past committee members, the Irregulars, Young Irregulars and the Squad have all contributed and I have managed to boss them around - there is a great feeling of optimism and togetherness in the Club and this is symptomatic of that renewed and fresh club spirit.
Looking ahead, we are planning a dinner in June and hope that many members who maybe are not still rowing will attend. Additionally, there has been a good take-up of interest in the Traversée de Paris taking place in September. Obviously, we shall have to hope it happens but at the moment we have ten or so members who have shown interest. For those that missed them, there were details of the event in the last Weekly Brief and an article in the February edition of TLR.
Eddie Markes
ROWING REPORTS
We are looking for an LRC member who is willing and able to write a report each month for The London Roar covering the Squad's activities and providing an overview of all the Club's rowing. The pieces will be about 300 words, ideally with some photographs to go with it.
We receive reports about the Irregulars, the Millennials, the Young Irregulars and the Masters but we need to provide a report every month about the Squad and the overall rowing situation.
The likelihood is that the person best suited to write these pieces will be a member of the Squad or at least someone who visits the Club or rows at LRC a minimum of once a week so that they are fully up to speed with what the Squad is doing and with all the other rowing going on.
If you are interested in taking this on, please will you email me at miles.preston@londonrc.org.uk
Miles Preston
Editor, The London Roar
ROWING WITH DAVID KING: Part 1
Liz King asked me write a few notes of David’s early rowing years for Hugh Dulley who was preparing an obituary for LRC and an eulogy for David’s funeral. This simple task evolved into this narrative which I would like to dedicate to David with whom I did most of my rowing and who remained a very good friend for over 65 years. It also recognises the incredible contribution that David made to LRC over very many years. Vale David.
1956 to 1958
David and I started rowing around the early part of 1956 at King’s School, Canterbury. Initially in House rowing with our respective Houses but within the School ‘squad’ from 1957.
Training for school VIIIs started in January and involved longish bus rides three to five days a week to Plucks Gutter on the river Stour (in winter one of the bleakest places in the south east of Kent, on the Isle of Thanet). In 1958 we were both in the school second VIII along with Anthony (Ant) Elworthy. The few highlights of the outings would be when our coach, Neil Scott lost control of his bike. There was no towpath, simply open and often rutted fields. This was long before the advent of small catamarans.
Our first foray from Plucks Gutter was for the Schools Head of the River race, in March then run over about half the Boat Race course. Our crew started 21, and probably finished around the same. I have a picture from Hammersmith Bridge (where else?) of a somewhat ragged looking crew, with Dave at 6 (naturally!) looking the tidiest of the crew. We boated from LRC.
In the summer we raced at Twickenham and Marlow Regattas in schools or junior events. Following the end of the Summer term we went as Canterbury Pilgrims to race at the Serpentine Regatta, which was sponsored by the News of the World.
The Canterbury Pilgrims at the Serpentine Regatta 1958; Dave and Mike centre and centre left.
David above in a group of five of us, all looking very smart in jackets and blazers and ties and enjoying a beer; (early freedom?) and what a difference half a century does for dress codes!
1959
Dave and I joined LRC at about the same time in the spring of 1959, I think probably encouraged by Ant Elworthy who had started rowing there in late 1958 and was a Club resident at the time. The Club struggled to get more than two VIIIs on the water then.
It also should be noted that LRC policy then was to always enter the Grand at Henley no matter what, on the basis that it was one of the premises upon which the club was founded in 1856.
Fortunately the Grand VIII was already pretty well settled so David, Ant and me as well as David Southgate, another ex-Kings’ boy a few years older, with Chris Harris, Nic Waters (who joined us in late May after Putney Regatta when Rico returned to Switzerland), David Bowman, Anthony Dorman and initially Keith Hicks as cox, made up what was to be the Thames Cup VIII.
To everyone’s amazement we won junior eights in our first races at Putney Regatta in late May.
Putney Regatta 1959, our first pot! Left to right: Harris, Bowman, Dave K, Elworthy, Hicks, MB, Southgate, Dorman, and Rico x?
Following that right through to Henley we were coached mainly by “Hobby” Hobbs. Hobby also put the four ex-Kings boys into a four which went quite well, with the only dubious element being me at bow and steers (or veers). One of Hobby’s techniques was what he called 20-20 -20 strokes; slow, medium, flat out, done in a number of series.
The eight and the four then raced at several of the up river pre-Henley regattas with those in the four often racing six or seven times between the VIII and the IV during the day’s racing. But no overall wins. At least we were fit!
And so to Henley, for David and me for the first time. The first memory is of the traditional LRC Henley House arrangements. All well organised in advance, fully catered, dressing for dinner etc, with all crew members taking the full two weeks off as a holiday. There is a picture of the 1959 crews at Henley House in a previous edition. The middle weekend included a memorable afternoon and evening at Jock and Anne Wise’s house, Withymead, on the river at Goring. There was usually a rough version of croquet and a lot of larking around, including in Jock’s skiff there, followed by a massive spread laid on by Anne and Jock including a whole side of smoked salmon caught by Jock in Scotland. All devoured.
Before a race in the Wyfolds in 1959, with Tom Phelps assisting and Hobby looking on.
The Thames cup VIII lost by three lengths on the Wednesday morning. In the evening, the “Kings” Wyfold four won “easily” which was much better than expected. We subsequently won the following two races ending up in the semi-final on Saturday morning against Walton. This race proved my undoing as bow and steers and we hit the booms twice; not a popular chappie! The only consolation was Walton were beaten by Molesey in the final “easily” so it could be said that I got us into the beer tent earlier!
LRC beating RAF Benson in the second round of the Wyfolds in 1959.
To really rub it in I then managed to hit the embankment wall just before the finish at Maidenhead in the junior-senior fours whilst leading in the final. A home movie taken at the time shows three angry faces all mouthing off at me, which was well earned; every word could be made out.... mainly four letters. David was very forgiving about it and never gave me a hard time. I never accepted a steering role again, not that I was overwhelmed with offers.
At the end of the season David and I raced in a composite eight at the Serpentine and won the Thames cup event, which was the cause of much jubilation in the Club, being the first Senior VIIIs win of the year.
About this time I had dinner with David and his parents in Cheam. During the evening his father asked me what I was planning to do for a living. At the time I had discarded the brewing industry and accountancy and I was a bit directionless. His father, as a Surveyor himself, asked if I had thought about surveying. I knew little about the profession. After some discussion he suggested I contact CEM, which I did. I started the Estate Management course that September. So David was instrumental in my becoming a Chartered Surveyor.
Mike Billinghurst
MAY HE REST IN PEACE
I hope you safely received the Memorial Edition of The London Roar which was circulated to all our members on 4th May. If anyone would like a copy of the printed version of the Memorial Edition to keep for posterity then this can be requested by contacting Jessica Salter on membership@londonrc.org.uk.
Many thanks are due to Julian Ebsworth, Anthony Jones, Mike Baldwin and Jessica Salter for producing this special edition.
It is amazing to think that the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was the Club's Patron for sixty-nine years. That is surely a record that will never be broken in our Club's history.
While many of us will have seen the funeral service on television on the 17th April (or a recording of it if you were one of those who paid your respects by going out on the river and holding a minute's silence at The Mile Post at 3pm that day), I thought you might like to see some photographs of the most significant and moving moments.
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
