CHAIRMAN’S VIEW

As we approach the start of the new season on 10th September, it is exciting to see who joins as new members and we look forward to welcoming them on board.

Personally, I very much enjoyed Fight Night last month and it was good to get back in a sweep boat after months of sculling. Four eights and two quads boated and raced from Harrods to the flagpole, rate capped at 24, although we all know what happens to controlled rate in the heat of competition. What was particularly nice was the drinks afterwards with different rowing groups mingling, something to be encouraged in the spirit of one club for all. And we gave the new beer taps and pipes in the bar a thorough work out.

I hope members and guests will come to the classic car event on 18 September. It is surprising and interesting what people have tucked away in lock ups and always good to chat to fellow enthusiasts. Let’s hope for good weather.

Bill Baker
Chairman, London Rowing Club

CAPTAIN’S REPORT

One might be forgiven for thinking that the London Rowing Club membership have had an uncompetitive August, with Peterborough Regatta and all nearby racing finished but they would be wrong.

On Thursday nights, Vice-Captain, Jenny Arthur, and her band of helpers staged summer ‘Fight Nights’ - a chance for any and all members to sign up to battle paddle in a mixed crew between Harrods Wall and the LRC flagpole. The first Fight Night saw 43 members battle it out across 3 eights, 2 fours and 2 quads - an occasion so unmissable that our neighbours, Crabtree, joined in the hussle and were quick to rehydrate in the Long Room after the rowing was over. A fantastic series of evenings which saw members across all the rowing groups: Irregulars, Young Irregulars, Masters, Millennials and Squad, rowing together and socialising after. They were great events for meeting existing members, welcoming new members to the Club and enjoying the balcony on balmy summer evenings.

August has also seen a flock of scullers preparing themselves for Scullers Head (which is to be held on 17th September). Impromptu gatherings of scullers, encouraged by Nathan O’Reilly, have met at weekends to take advantage of the weather and the reduction of coaching launches to enjoy the river and get in a good block of training. Many of our scullers will be taking part in the first Doug Melvin Challenge on the 3rd September. The challenge is being held in the honour of our former president who was a talented sculler and will be an annual event for LRC members. One sculler who cannot be in attendance on the inaugural challenge is Gregor Maxwell who will be at the British Rowing Beach Sprint trials in Exmouth - we wish him well.

I look forward to welcoming the start of the season and reporting on all our sculling endeavours next month.

Bang the drum,

Elizabeth Cottrell
Captain, London Rowing Club

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

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

THE DOUG MELVIN CHALLENGE

Saturday 3rd September saw the first running of the Doug Melvin Challenge for LRC scullers, an event we hope will become an annual fixture in the Club’s calendar.

The thinking behind it was to find a way of commemorating Doug’s importance in the history of the Club and his achievements as a sculler and as a coach of scullers. The course for the race was five kilometres on the ebb tide from the Bandstand to the Club flagpole, a favourite training piece of Doug. We had 17 entries, most of whom are entering the Scullers Head in two weeks’ time. The weather was kinder than some of the launch drivers from neighbouring clubs. This made for challenging conditions at times, something that Doug would doubtless have relished. Rui Xu recorded the fastest time and Elinor George was the fastest woman sculler. And happily Simon Melvin was on hand to present them with their prizes.

*Rui Xu, Elinor George and Simon Melvin.*

*Rui Xu receiving his medal from Simon Melvin.*

*Elinor George receiving her medal from Simon Melvin.*

To put the Challenge on and enable the scullers to race involved help from a lot of Club members, Ben Helm having to clear a safety plan with the PLA, Stu Heap timing and many others out in safety launches. This was much appreciated by the competitors. Next year we hope that more scullers will sign up as we would like this to be an event in the Club’s year when all parts of the Club take to the water together.

Richard Metcalf

COMPANY OF WATERMEN AND LIGHTERMEN

Further to our article in last month’s TLR about the election of our member, Sir David Wootton, as Master of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen, here is a photo kindly provided by the Company, with Sir David fully robed front and centre.

On the right is one of this year’s Junior Wardens, Sean Collins, who has been a member of LRC since 1984 and won the Doggett’s Coat and Badge Wager in 1990.

NEW MEMBERS

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

Frances Baker
Christopher Blenkharn
Maxwell Bradbury
Anne Cann
Edwin Chan
Dan Hurley
Edoardo Marshall
Alice Mount
Zachariah Oglesby
Luka Prnjak
James Sandston
Graham Sisson

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

CLASSICS AT THE CLUB

Sunday 18 September 2022
12:00 pm onwards

Members and their guests are invited to a show of classic cars and motorcycles at the Club. Come down and mingle, kick the tyres, have a drink at the bar and chat to fellow enthusiasts.

If you have a classic or interesting car or motorcycle, please bring it down. The tide will be low so no danger of your pride and joy being washed away.

If you don’t have a vehicle come along anyway!

Bill Baker
Chairman, London Rowing Club

LRC ACROSS THE POND

Hello from Oyster Bay! By taking advantage of my ‘work from anywhere’ role at a technology company, I spend half of the year rowing in the United States at Sagamore Rowing Association. Located in Oyster Bay in Long Island, New York, the area is famous for countless miles of beaches, breath-taking nature, and notable moments in American history and culture. The name of the rowing club itself is derived from Sagamore Hill, the former summer residence of Theodore Roosevelt. The twenty sixth president of the United States was an avid rower himself, rowing in Oyster Bay throughout his life and every summer during his presidency! I love basking in the natural beauty and history of this small coastal enclave of Long Island. I had the luck of spotting dolphins in the bay in August, offering plenty of motivation to return for training in hopes of seeing them again.

With the autumn approaching, many rowers here relish it as the best season for rowing. The fierce humidity of New York summer dies down, offering crisper air and a more pleasant climate for a long UT2 paddle or more intense pieces. With most of the pleasure boats and yachts taken out of mooring, the autumn offers uniquely placid conditions. On a typical autumn morning sculling in Oyster Bay, all I hear are the clicking blades of my single, the occasional school of fish splashing, and perhaps the sound of a few people farming for oysters and clams, particularly at low tide.

And of course, this season brings the ultimate US Rowing event, which I fondly refer to as “the Henley of autumn”: The Head of the Charles in Boston, Massachusetts. This year, I will be competing in a double with a friend from Walbrook Rowing Club, Natasha Gallagher. I hope to make the senior squad of London Rowing Club proud with my representation.

I don my LRC kit with pride as I keep up with senior squad training from Oyster Bay. And while I relish in the peaceful scenes and idyllic conditions, the buzz and excitement of the Putney Embankment rowing scene in London is unique, unlike any rowing scene in the world. I look forward to returning to LRC amidst head season in January. Perhaps one day we’ll arrange a training camp in a placid presidential location in New York…? See you soon!

*Typical morning in Oyster Bay in August - perfect sculling conditions!*

*Returning from a morning paddle, representing LRC in kit choices, of course.*

Nicole Seredenko

YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU WILL MEET

In August, one of our new masters members, Zena Howard entered the Maidenhead Regatta with surprising results. Here’s her report.

I competed in a mixed 2x over a 600m sprint course, against the stream (around 70 strokes), with Paul Mew of Thames Rowing club. Thames entered the crew and mistakenly quoted me as racing for Vesta (instead of London), - hence the picture showing me in Vesta kit!

Despite Paul’s misgivings as soon as the draw came out, saying “Well, we’re toast as we are up against Ardingly - one of the best Masters’ clubs in the country and with a UK national medal winner in their boat”, I always say ’never say never as anything can happen’. Well, we won that heat comfortably. Through to the semi-finals and up against a ‘husband and wife’ double from Kingston. Again, the odds looked a bit unfavourable for us as they clearly had practised together for 'ever and a day' and could discuss tactics continuously as they live in the same house. Paul and I had had two practise sessions together in 3 years - a couple of days before the regatta…. But we won again and by some margin.

This was proving to be rather fun as we were getting several races and feeling quietly confident.

On to the final now - but before that we saw with some trepidation that our opponent would be the winner of a race between a very useful Ardingly double (the woman in that boat is a coach) and a double from Sydney, Australia - who are in the UK visiting…. Umm, alarm bells go off in my head… And I was proven right - the Australians won against Ardingly ‘easily’ and watching them power down the course was rather unnerving.

However, by some miracle, or perhaps brute force and ignorance (although I have to say that Alan Foster who has been kindly coaching me - gave me a sage piece of advice a few days earlier saying that a high rating is no substitute for good technique and ‘long and strong’ is quietly effective - as he had seen this demonstrated on more than one occasion). So this was the route that I decided to go and therefore resisted the urge to set off like a ‘drug-crazed whippet’ and instead concentrated on form and strength. It worked. We were very close all the way down the course and at the end both Paul and I believed that we had ’just pipped them' at the finish. This was hugely exhilarating.

Both crews sat looking up at the finish tent to hear the verdict. Silence ensued.

Then a gentleman ambled over to the bank and declared a ‘dead heat’. I was dumfounded as no evidence of this was offered and my immediate reaction was ‘it can’t be a dead heat’ - there’s no video and no sophisticated equipment to prove it. Were they even looking at the crucial moment? We will never know. The gentleman then went on to say - not, as I had hoped he would, “You can share the trophy or have a trophy each”, but instead said “So I’m afraid that you will both have to row it again." My heart sank. I had given it my all and frankly had no energy left.

We duly raced the final again and the Australian couple beat us.

In the tea tent later, several people came up to me and said that they felt so sorry for us as they thought that we had just pipped it at the finish. When I saw the Australian couple by the bar, I congratulated them again and joked about them actually being very fortunate as I was recovering from hip surgery in December so had had very little time to train. They were, of course, delightful and said that they felt a bit bad as they are the National Champions of Australia in their category (see pictures attached). No wonder they had their kit with them on holiday! They have offered to host me in Sydney, Australia, and to organise rowing at their club - so I just might take them up on it in the future as I have friends who live there too. They also gave me a wonderful gift – a medal from their Drummoyne Rowing Club, Sydney. How delightful is that?

Racing, particularly regattas, in the beautiful countryside in summer is a joy - and you never know who you’ll meet. ….

*Gary and Caroline, the winning pair from Drummoyne Rowing Club, Sydney.*

*Zena, centre, flanked by Caroline and Gary.*

The photo above is of Zena wearing the medal which Caroline and Gary gave her from their club in Sydney. Sadly, Paul is missing from the shot because he had to rush off to rescue his Parson Jack Russell who was awaiting the return of his master.

Zena Howard

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