CHAIRMAN’S VIEW

It has been a busy few weeks at the Club with the delayed Annual Dinner and a General Meeting being held as the racing season gets underway. The Club was well represented at the Hammersmith Head on Sunday, 27th February and our eights raced against Thames in the annual Boustead and Rayner cups on Sunday 6th March. Later this month our crews will race in the Women’s Head, the Head of the River and the Masters’ Head the following day. It is a busy and exciting time.

Those members who were able to attend the General Meeting on Monday, 28th February either at the clubhouse or online were treated to a clear and detailed explanation of the Club’s accounts to the end of July 2021 and the current financial position. We should all be grateful for the work of Philip Carré, Lynton Richmond and other members of the Finance and Administration Sub-Committee for the time and effort that they put in to manage the Club’s finances. Our position has improved steadily over the past two years at a time when we have undertaken a range of repair and upgrade works to our fine clubhouse and made some investments in the fleet. This would not have been possible without the generosity of the membership and, in particular, the support provided during the COVID pandemic with over £105,000 being donated to cover the shortfall in events’ income. Thank you to everyone who has continued to support our Club and enabled us to continue to maintain the momentum of progress in all areas.

The Annual Dinner was a wonderful evening which showed our Club at its best. The Clubhouse was full to the extent that some of us dined in the Members’ Room and we were all entertained by four excellent and contrasting speeches. Once again, Annabel and her team excelled and we were treated to an excellent meal. I appreciate that tickets sold out quickly so many will have been disappointed not to be there; sadly, numbers have to be limited. The atmosphere was vibrant and uplifting. I have no doubt that the open, friendly and positive spirit shown will enable London Rowing Club to continue to develop at all levels.

Simon Harris
Chairman, London Rowing Club

CAPTAIN’S REPORT

Over the last month ‘big boat season’ has really started to ramp up. Our athletes have been in action at Head races on and off the Tideway, and on the weekends in-between have been battling it out side-by-side in private fixtures with the likes of Cambridge Lightweights and Imperial College. Lessons have been learned and progress made, as we continue our steady march onto the climax of the winter season, with the various Heads of the river, taking place later in March.

The old joke often made by coaches when conditions are bad on the Tideway of “it could be like this at Henley”, was never truer than at Henley 4s & 8s Head in February. The wind of the coming storms made the conditions far more akin to a bad day on the Tideway than the gentle stretch we’re used to in the summer season. It would appear that all that Tideway training paid off though, as our top women’s and men’s crews finished as the 1st and 2nd fastest club crews of the day respectively and our men’s 4th VIII won the Band 2 category.

LRC Men’s 4th VIII, winners of the Band 2 8+ event at Henley 4s & 8s Head 2022: (bow) Hugh Falconer, Jed Williams, Luc Gaitskell, Joe Patten, Howard MacDonald, Myles Dickinson, Josh Giles, (stroke) Gabriel Brown, (cox) Julia Norton.

The full set of results from Henley 4s & 8s Head is as follows:

W1: 4th, Band 1
W2: 11th, Band 1
M1: 5th, Band 1
M2: 8th, Band 1
M3: 11th, Band 1
M4: 1st, Band 2

Away from the formal British Rowing events, our senior squad have been taking part in a series of private fixtures. These represent a fantastic opportunity to test our speed in a high-pressure environment but also prepare for the upcoming Boustead and Rayner Cups against Thames in March.

The first of these fixtures was for our M1 crew, against the Cambridge University Lightweight Blue Boat. The first of the two pieces ran from the university stone in Putney to the island. LRC, on the Middlesex station, got off to a flying start, taking 2/3 of a length before the black buoy. This was held around the Fulham bend before CUL started to slowly take back seats as both crews headed towards Hammersmith Bridge. In true match race fashion, both crews steered a tight line to one another and were warned for their steering several times as blades were overlapping the whole way. At Harrods the inevitable happened, a blade clash between LRC’s 5 man and CUL’s 3 man. Cambridge came off the better and were able to row away. LRC came to a total stop in order to retrieve the oar before paddling over the line to an easily verdict.

With the crews on the same stations, the second piece ran from Chiswick Steps to the University post, traditionally marking the end of the Boat Race course. LRC got off in a similar fashion to how the first piece, but this time gave no rest-bite to CUL, instead continuing to pull away all the way to the finish. The result being a win for LRC by 4 lengths.

It was then our women’s turn to go side-by-side, in a fixture with the 1st VIII from Imperial College. Just one week out from BUCS Head, Imperial were peaking for their first major race of the winter, at which they would go on to win a bronze medal in the Champ 8+ category. By contrast, the LRC women were still nearly a month away from their major race, WeHORR. Given the relative situations of the two crews, the results were extremely encouraging, with LRC finishing each of the three pieces only ½ a length down and putting in one hell of a fight against one of the top university crews in the country. The race experience was invaluable, and some great lessons were learned by the crew, who go into their match race with Thames, for the Rayner Cup on 6th March.

At the time of writing the results from the most recent race, Hammersmith Head, are still provisional. None the less, it was fantastic to see such a broad spread of our members racing. Not to be outdone by the senior squad, we boated two Millennial crews into the MasB/C event and one Irregulars crews into MasF. It was so pleasing to see the Irregulars back out racing and kicking off their Vet’s Head campaign. It should also be noted that the crew contained our President, Mike Baldwin, Hon. Secretary, Andrew Boyle, House Steward, Eddie Markes and Treasurer, Philip Carre. With such a high-powered line up it feels remiss that we didn’t have miniature LRC flags flying from the bows and have the crew accompanied down the course by a cavalcade of security vehicles.

Whilst we still await final results, provisionally they stand like so:

M1: 8th, Open Champ
M2: 14th, Open Champ
M3: 16th, Open Champ
M4: 9th, Open Intermediate
W1: 4th, Women’s Champ
W2: 14th, Women’s Champ
Millennials 1: 3rd, Mas B/C
Millennials 2: 4th Mas B/C
Irregulars 1: 5th Mas F

*LRC MasF.8+ racing Hammersmith Head 2022:*
(bow) Ronnie Maddox, Ben Phillips, Eddie Markes – House Steward, Philip Carré – Treasurer, David Whitten, Andrew Boyle – Hon. Secretary, Brian Starr, (stroke) Mike Baldwin - President, (cox) Juliette Hanford.

Over the next month we have all the drama and excitement that comes with the peak of Head season to look forward to, as well as the Boustead (now in its 75 year) and Rayner Cups on 6th March. I encourage every LRC member to get down to the club and support our athletes, as they take on their biggest race of the season so far:

06 March: Boustead & Rayner Cups (LRC v Thames)
12 March: Women’s Head of the River
26 March: Head of the River
27 March: Veterans Head of The River

Bang the drum,

James Sexton-Barrow
Captain, London Rowing Club

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

12 March: Women’s Eights’ Head
14 March: Schools’ Head
16 March: Irregulars' Dinner
20 March: Oxford and Cambridge Lightweight Eights
26 March: Head of the River
27 March: Vesta Veterans Head
03 April: University Boat Races
23 April: Hammersmith Amateur Regatta
30 April: Chiswick Regatta
01 May: Wallingford Regatta
14 May: Putney Town Regatta
27-29 May: National Schools Regatta
28 May: Twickenham Regatta
04-05 June: Metropolitan Regatta
11 June: Barnes and Mortlake Regatta
11 June: Marlow Town Regatta
11-12 June: British Rowing Masters’ Championships
11-12 June: Reading Amateur Regatta
17-19 June: Henley Women’s Regatta
18 June: Reading Amateur Regatta

All these dates are provisional and subject to postponement or cancellation, depending on Covid 19 regulations.

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

IRREGULARS’ REPORT

Well, it’s eights racing season and at one time we potentially had two crews entered for the VHORR – a men’s eight and a mixed eight! Alas, a few dropping out and lack of a cox proved to be insurmountable hurdles for the mixed eight and they have withdrawn. Hats off to Brendan Armstrong who himself had to pull out but manfully carried on trying to organise it. We have determined to be better prepared next year and get more of our members into sweep boats during the coming summer.

The men’s eight competed in the Hammersmith Head last weekend and acquitted itself satisfactorily albeit being involved in a bit of a fracas just before the finishing line. Andrew Boyle seems to be the common denominator as his quad got shoved to one side with a lot of clashing of blades in the Fours’ Head as well. Under the tutelage of Miles Preston, who accompanies us on all training outings, we are getting quite fit – 3 times a week training! – unheard of normal irregular parlance! VHORR awaits.

*The President and our splendid cox, Juliette Hanford, enjoying the sunshine as they wait (for a long time) to get called to the start.*

Three of our members – Tim Hanford, Phil Hannay and Diana Bartley - volunteered to drive launches for the Hammersmith Head. In the end, only Tim Hanford was used but this was great and thanks go to all of them. It is a much needed task and basically any qualified bow steer can volunteer – it is great fun and adds another dimension to being a member of the Club. Do consider volunteering as we have more races to come!

Lastly, we have a dinner approaching – our first this year – on the 16th March. Already we have some faces coming that we have not seen for months, if not years! It will be a joyous occasion.

It’s almost Spring – the winter seems to have flown past.

Eddie Markes

LIGHTWEIGHT BOAT RACES – SUNDAY 20 MARCH

On Sunday 20th March the Oxford and Cambridge Lightweight Boat Races will be hosted at LRC. The bar will be open and all welcome to come and watch. Lwt women’s race at 13:25 and the lwt men at 14:25. Technology permitting the races will be streamed live to big screens in the bar. Prize giving at 16:30. Also pre-Boat Race fixtures between Oxford and Brookes, and Cambridge women and Nereus.

Paul Crewe

NEW MEMBERS

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

Dara Alizadeh
Sophie Baggs
Neena Dugar
James Halsall
Rizwan Hameed
Annie Stevens
Michael Thompson

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

M. K. MORRIS – LONDON’S 1923 DIAMONDS’ WINNER

Members will be interested to read the article about the Club’s 1923 Diamonds’winner, M K ‘Geoffrey’ Morris (known as “MK” in the Club), which was published a few days ago on the website “Hear The Boat Sing”.

The link to this is: https://heartheboatsing.com/2022/03/03/a-pineapple-cup-temporal-and-spiritual/. This is being circulated to members via London Roar with the kind permission of its author, Tim Koch.

*Geoffrey Morris (aka Morris Keele Morris, 1899-1984) and his “Pineapple Cup”, won in the Diamond Sculls at the 1923 Henley Royal Regatta.*

*The unveiling of the photo of M. K. Morris in the Long Room in 2019.*

THE ANNUAL DINNER RETURNS!

At last we have been able to hold the Annual Dinner again. After two years without being able to hold one, it returned on the 24th February.

Within days of announcing its return, all the tickets had been sold. To try to accommodate as many people as possible, as well as seating a hundred in the Long Room a group of twelve were catered for in the Members’ Room.

And what a happy and congenial event it turned out to be. Excellent food was provided by Annabel and her team and the bar was kept very busy.

The dinner was hosted by our esteemed President, Mike Baldwin. The guest speaker was World Champion lightweight quad sculler, Emily Craig, whose speech was very well received. The Club’s other guests were Andrew Curry, Chris Clements and Milford Killian-Dawson, Club Captains of Thames, Vesta and Imperial College respectively. Our Captain, James Sexton-Barrow, also spoke, as did our previous Captain, Mark Lucani.

What an excellent evening it was. Many thanks go to Heather Scott and Chris Goodfellow for organising everything so well.

Demand for the dinner was so great that, who knows, next year we may need to hold two dinners to accommodate everyone who wants to come!

Miles Preston
Editor of 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 using the following email address – 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