CHAIRMAN’S VIEW

Henley Royal Regatta was different this year but provided a very welcome feel that some form of normality is returning after the upheaval caused by the pandemic. All LRC crews performed with great credit and some considerable skill and character. This included the first LRC women’s eight to race at HRR; a notable milestone for the Club. It was also pleasing to see LRC colours prominent in the Stewards enclosure and helping to run the Regatta. The results and speed achieved show notable progress and give us a very solid base from which to develop over the coming season. The performances and progress are testament to the hard work and leadership of Mark Lucani, our outgoing captain, Stu Heap and all of our volunteer coaches.

So, after a short break we return to training on the Tideway as autumn sets in. We will look to build on the good work undertaken during the past 12 months and it is encouraging to see the depth and quality of the squads at the Club. As we return to rowing and training, we should remind ourselves that the Coronavirus has not gone away. We need to continue to consider the safety and health of those around us. Whilst the Government has eased restrictions and many of us are fully vaccinated, the case numbers are high. Please continue to take reasonable precautions when training and around the clubhouse and follow any guidelines published by the Club.

After a short break your Committee will resume work this month. Following the progress made over the past year, we have further plans for the club. If you feel able to assist in any way please contact any of the committee members – there is plenty to do!

Simon Harris
Chairman, London Rowing Club

ROWING REPORT

We have all, I am sure, enjoyed a good home renovation show on TV like Grand Designs. These shows regularly start with an energetic couple, flush with cash looking to build their dream home in an unreasonable timeframe. The whole operation is highly leveraged and starts in early 2007… and we all now know the financial disaster that is to follow. At the end, a dejected couple are living in a caravan with an unfinished shell.

Well – my first season at London commenced on the 9th September 2019. Kevin McCloud would have wanted to be onsite when on the 24th March 2020 an email was circulated to the squad confirming our fears. The 2020 Regatta was cancelled. A whole year later it seemed unlikely 2021 would host a regatta. On the 31st March 2021 we were allowed six ergs on the balcony of the Club for 2k tests. Social distancing was paramount and squad members had to follow strict circulation and mask wearing protocols. Going out in a crew boat was out of the question. By this stage it had been confirmed that the 2021 edition was to be delayed…

The fact that Henley happened at all seems like a miracle. However, there is something more incredible. If the squad was a grand design build, the playbook says we would have been divorced, homeless and regretting every moment. Yet despite having a Henley campaign that started 24 months before the regatta as opposed to the traditional 10, and despite changes in coaches, and despite the horrors of COVID we somehow managed to come closer together, grow in numbers, deliver our best performance in a decade and return the Club to the forefront of club rowing.

Henley 2021 was always going to be different. However, one of the differences of this year’s edition had nothing to do with COVID – and that was the noticeable growth of London.

In the first running of a women’s event for club 8+s we pre-qualified following the successes of Henley Women’s Regatta. Considering that at the end of 2019 the women’s squad was not big enough to make an 8+ a great deal of credit has to go towards chief coach Stu Heap and volunteer women’s coaches German Pradera and Luca Nicolaou. Credit must also go to the whole women’s squad for their continued dedication through a challenging season that led to the creation of the 8+. The only other clubs to make the start line in this event were clubs that have long established women’s squads which have been at the top for years. No club has made the leap in size and standard that London has done to make this elite group, and momentum is clearly in our favour.

In 2019, four London athletes made Thursday. In 2021 twenty-six London athletes made Thursday, twenty-one made Friday and five made Saturday. We sadly did not come away with a win, but the fact that we are sad about this further goes to show the incredible leap forward in standard. What is also exciting is that our best performing crew contained Louron Pratt who was also in the top performing crew in 2019. While other clubs deliver success via recruitment, this shows how London has made our current field of athletes better. It is testament to chief coach Stu Heap as well as his army of volunteer coaches that rowers have made this progression during a time when going rowing was literally illegal at some points.

As the great London oarsman, Nathan O’Riley would say, “we are in a really good place”. It is down to the hard work of all rowers over the past 24 months that the Club is back in the forefront of club rowing. But it is also thanks to the incredible efforts of Stu Heap, German Pradera, Richard Phillips, Mark Ruscoe, James Sexton-Barrow, Luca Nicolaou, Andrew Douglas, Mark Lucani and Beci Heap. On behalf of the whole squad, we thank this incredible band of volunteers for their support. It is because of these people the squad is where it is today and we are incredibly grateful.

Gregor Maxwell
LRC Squad member

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

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

IRREGULARS’ REPORT

Some of us enjoyed our annual trip to HORR on the Friday and saw more LRC crews competing than in many previous years.

We send all members of the squad many congratulations on a wonderful showing - onwards and upwards!

The photos below show two separate sorties in our wooden skiff Tubby Bryant from our base, about to row the short distance to the course. Tethering ourselves to the boom on the course is the best way to see the racing and we managed an outing for each of the three sessions of racing.

Not only on the Friday but Tubby was out every day of the racing supporting LRC crews from the boom with various club personnel, family and friends. This is wonderful - next year I must remember the flags!!

*The Hon. Treasurer in the stroke seat.*

*John Auber in the stroke seat - 5 aboard!! All comfortably seated.*

Irregular outings continue and the bar opening on most Sundays is proving an attraction. Some of us are looking forward to taking part in La TraverSeine in a couple of weeks and are hoping to hitch up with Luis Orozco who will pull us along!

Till next time - a new rowing year approaches - hopefully different from the last one!

Eddie Markes

CLASSICS AT THE CLUB

All members and their guests are invited to a show of classic cars at the Club on Saturday, 25th September from 12.00pm onwards.

Come down and mingle, kick the tyres, have a drink at the bar and chat to fellow enthusiasts.

That said, don’t worry if you don’t own a classic car or are not even a car enthusiast, you, your family and friends will be most welcome.

If you do own a classic or otherwise interesting vehicle, be it a car, a motor bike or even a bike, please bring it down. Please contact Bill Baker at bill@porticusinsurance.com or on 07710 573482 so we have an idea of numbers. The tide will be low so no danger of your pride and joy being washed away.

Bill Baker
LRC, Membership Sub-Committee Chairman

GREAT LONDON ROW 2021

SATURDAY 2ND AND SUNDAY 3RD OCTOBER

Please join in this Club wide event!

A great chance to row on stretches of water that you normally don’t, have fun and meet other members.

Choose From Three Courses:

Windsor to Hampton Court on Saturday
Hampton Court to LRC on Sunday
Boat Race Course on Sunday

Organise a boat of your rowing friends, or ask the organisers to place you in a crew.

Squad and notable LRC members will make themselves available for you to “Rent a Ringer” to row with you or cox your crew.

There will be a barbecue at LRC on Sunday in the early afternoon where your friends and family can cheer the flotilla of boats arriving back to the Club.

We will ask a seat fee of £25 each.
Rent a Ringer on Saturday for £75.

Funds generated will be directed to LRC equipment needs.

Those who wish to support and take part - but not by rowing - are able to enjoy in other ways… Sponsor our President who will row the Hampton Court to LRC course, join support crew, cheer along the course, join at the barbecue which will be a free lunch from Sponsoring our President.

Please complete this form (each crew member) and return to the email address provided.

Don’t hesitate to direct any questions to Kathleen Curran

Kathleen Curran

DAVID KING’S MEMORIAL SERVICE

There will be a service to celebrate the life of David King at 2.00pm on Monday 18th October at St Michael and All Angels Church, 39 Elm Bank Gardens, Barnes, SW13 ONX. There will be refreshments after. Dress, where appropriate, blazer and Club tie. All are welcome.

The Church is close to Barnes Bridge Station and street parking should be available around the Church. In order to help with catering please could you email lizdavidking@yahoo.com if you are able to come.

NEW MEMBERS

We would like to welcome the following new members to the Club:

Shamas Aziz
Noah Baca
Edward Davis
Charles Dedman
Andrea Dimitrova
Kaila Engelsman
Christopher Hall
James Harrison
Aleksandr Harte Sakharov
Philip Jaques
Calum Jenkins
Amy Johnson
Elizabeth Love
Timothy Mann
Michael Parkins
Anna Proctor
Mark Telfer
Elaine Traykov
Isabel Zakers

We hope you will enjoy being part of the London Rowing Club community and will help us build an ever happier and more successful club.

We are always pleased to have more members so, if you know of anyone who think might like to join the Club, please either let us know or encourage them to get in touch with us themselves.

There is information on becoming a member on our website: https://www.londonrc.org.uk/membership-enquiries or you can contact the Club’s Membership Secretary, Jessica Salter, whose email address is membership@londonrc.org.uk

Andrew Boyle
Honorary Secretary, London Rowing Club

INTRODUCING MYCLUBHOUSE

Recently the Club briefly broke a landmark barrier of achieving 800 members on the records in July, prior to the usual end of season resignations. As we enter the new membership year, the Club remains close to 5% greater in membership numbers year over year. I hope you agree that this is a remarkable accomplishment and join me in wondering how the covid adjusted growth rate would appear. Let’s revisit the numbers in 12 months!

In the background, throughout the previous season, a small sub-committee has been reviewing the Clubs Information Technology provision, split into two workstreams.

The first is close to conclusion, with the Club’s IT provision migrating from our in-house server to the cloud with securely de-centralised servers accessible only to us, via the internet. Think of this as being analogous to no longer receiving letters through the post and storing them in a drawer, instead, receiving emails that are stored in your inbox and privately accessible via your internet connection.

The second project is to implement a software application that retains membership data, again, in the cloud, and presents it to Jessica in a user-friendly way (subject to acclimatisation!). This system is called MyClubhouse and it is very powerful. The largest benefit, and functionality that we are leading with, will be payment integration. This will assist with the monthly and annual financial reconciliation processes. The Committee agrees that the growth of the membership and evolving legislation on protection of personal information warrants appointing assistance in by means of this software.

In the coming 6 months, we will steadily migrate members to this new system. We are extremely conscious that not all memberships and payment methods are the same, so be assured that considerations will be made in all cases. We will be reaching out to each migration cluster in due course, but in the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to myself or Jessica to chat about it.

Following migration and payment setup, 2022 will bring a whole host of other features that I am very excited about - the Committee will attest to my enthusiasm. That said, let’s walk before we run.

By the time of publication, I will have reached out to migration test subjects. With this small group, we will shake the system and see what breaks. As soon as this is done, we aim to enrol all new squad members from early October.

Chris Goodfellow
LRC, House Steward (Events)

THE MEMORIAL AT THE MILE POST

I am sure that many people pass what is now, effectively, the Mile Post on the Boat Race course, without taking a proper look at it. Originally, there was a metal mile post on the towpath edge, but when this rusted away, no-one thought to replace it, as the Memorial did the job.

The monument was built by the Steve Fairbairn Memorial Trust, which was set up in 1964 to commemorate Steve’s centenary. Steve was, by a long way, the most outstanding coach of his generation, and moved rowing away from the strict orthodox styles that had previously been taught, his creed being that it didn’t much matter what the body was doing, it was what happened at the other end of the oar that mattered. He was the founder of the Head of the River Race, in 1925.

The Trust existed in part to perpetuate his memory (one of the original Trustees had been coached by him), but also from its funds it had raised to provide loans and grants for specific rowing objects to – in Steve’s words – ultimately “help people enjoy their boating”. In periods of high inflation, loans to allow clubs to complete projects before prices went up were very valuable, and London, Thames, Vesta and others regularly benefitted.

In recent years, funds had built up substantially, and in times of lower inflation, loans were of less use, so the decision was taken to disperse the money, and progress towards the winding up of the Trust. This coincided with LRC’s urgent fund-raising efforts to complete the Peter Coni gym project, the type of specific project the Trust was looking for. In two substantial donations, the Trust ended up as the largest single contributor to the gym fund.

However, the Memorial does not maintain itself, and with the Trust contemplating its end game, there would be no-one to look after it. Given the Trust’s enormous generosity, the LRC Committee undertook that the Club would, in future, be responsible for keeping the Memorial in good condition. This meant, as it always does, that it comes down to individuals to do the work, and it has been neglected recently. Ben Helm recently spotted its condition and shamed us by circulating a photo of it. Thus inspired, Ben and I advanced to the Mile with all manner of gardening weapons, and over a couple of hours, managed to beat the undergrowth into submission – the before and after photos are shown below.

Now all we have to do is repaint the railings…

Mike Baldwin
LRC, President

A PROPOS OF NOTHING…

While it has absolutely nothing to do with rowing, with most of our members (I guess) owning cars, many of which are petrol fuelled, I feel I must draw attention to the implications of using the new E10 petrol. It is also relevant to users of outboard motors and mowing machines.

From the 1st September, the standard unleaded petrol contains ten percent ethanol - hence it being called E10.

Previously, it contained five percent. The high octane petrol, which formerly contained no ethanol, will now have five percent ethanol content.

It may be that all those of you who own affected cars and other petrol engines have been following this saga and worked out what fuel to use to minimise damage to your engines.

I am the chairman of a drivers club for classic car enthusiasts. One of my committee members recently wrote a note about E10. I circulated it to our members at the end of August. It occurred to me that LRC members (at least those who own petrol powered cars, motor mowers or outboard motors) might like to see this.

Please click here if you would like to read it.

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