CHAIRMAN’S VIEW

As I write The Wingfield Sculls has just happened and congratulations go to Matt Curtis on competing for LRC. Commiserations to Rui Xu who had to withdraw through injury and we wish him a swift recovery. Anyone who has raced the Championship Course in a single will know how tough it is and to race side by side with the well-known challenges of conditions and steering commands the utmost respect. The race is the British Amateur Sculling Championship and Championship of the Thames and has the curious distinction of being one of the few (or only?) races where competitors can be ‘steered’ by guidance from following launches. Up to about 1930 it was the bizarre practice for eights to follow with the bowman not rowing but facing forward and signalling to the supported sculler. Pictures below of then and now. (The cox, resplendent in Doggett’s coat and badge, didn’t stand up for the race!)

A couple of housekeeping points: as utility costs rise and the weather turns, please can everyone be mindful and switch off lights and close doors and windows where appropriate.

Secondly, we are keen to expand our weekday corporate bookings of the clubhouse for ‘away day’ type meetings and Christmas parties so please keep this in mind and put LRC forward as a venue if you have the opportunity.

Bill Baker
Chairman, London Rowing Club

CAPTAIN’S REPORT

In the rowing world we don’t abide by conventional seasonal indicators. For our American cousins, the Head of the Charles signals ‘Fall’ and for us Britons, the Wingfield Sculls is confirmation that Autumn is well and truly here.

This year we had two entries for the prestigious Wingfield Sculls. The dynamic duo who conquered pairs head both were set to race but with Rui Xu withdrawing due to injury, it was left to Matt Curtis to bang the London drum solo. With great conditions Matt took on the other competitors and sat in 3rd place through the first half of the race, steered by Chief Coach Stu Heap. From Hammersmith to Chiswick Pier, Jamie Gare (Bath University Boat Club), put in a push to move past Matt and sit in 2nd reshuffling the pack. Evidently not familiar with the championship course, Jamie paid for his midrace move as Luke Reiser (Twickenham Rowing Club) and Matt moved back. With an impressive final sprint, Matt Curtis aka ‘The Debt Collector’ used his wisely conserved energy and personal grit coming through to finish in 3rd place. It may have been a gruelling effort for Matt but it was an exciting and impressive race for the spectators following online - very well raced.

The weekend before LRC was represented at Head of the Charles. Being unable to race for several covid years, Boston put on a beautiful display for the London crews as they enjoyed the respite from the Tideway and headed down the River Charles. Rui Xu in M1x, Devin Ward in Lwt W1x, Nicole Serendenko in W2x composite crew with Walbrook, Richard Metcalf in mixed group 2x event and The “Red October” Millennials in Masters M4+ all put in solid performances and highly recommended the weekend’s racing. Interestingly, HOCR does not allow composite named crews to race, you can only represent one club. It would be remiss of me not to mention some of our members who (forced under duress, I am sure) raced with other clubs securing wins: David Gillard racing in a double for Crabtree and the Wimbleball coxed four took home wins in masters events.

The next races we look forward to are the Fours and Vet’s Fours Head of the River on 19th and 20th November respectively. This is not only a great weekend of racing but an opportunity to come down to the club and enjoy it at its finest - the bar will be open and hot drinks are on offer. Seizing the captive audience, I have the great honour in naming three boats on 19th November after racing, recognising three tremendous London rowers: ‘Christopher’, ‘Imogen Walsh’ and ‘Stephanie Cullen’. Not one to miss an opportunity after the 6s and 7s luncheon on 10th November at 1pm we also have the great honour in naming the ‘Mike Williams’. I hope to see as many members as possible in attendance.

Moving into the colder climes, it is clear that rowing members across all the groups are working hard to secure pennants wins and enjoy their rowing. I politely ask all members to take good care of their personal health and ensure that if they are poorly that they stay away from the club. I also ask everyone to do their best to look after the health of the club: turning off lights, locking up bays and ensuring doors are closed behind them - staying well together.

Bang the drum,

Elizabeth Cottrell
Captain, London Rowing Club

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

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

LONDON MEETS BOSTON

With everyone getting into the winter training, 4 of our Millennials Squad decided a trip to the States was in order to compete in The Head of The Charles Regatta in the master’s coxed 4 (Avg. 40+).

*Stroke - Jason Bowyer 3 - Evan Grace 2 - Richard Benton Bow - Andrew Douglas COX: Cait Bannister.*

The crew, from the mainstream club, hopefully setting a precedent for greater LRC representation in future years, consisted of the following LRC members and a guest-star cox originally from Boston, currently living in San Diego: Stroke - Jason Bowyer 3 - Evan Grace 2 - Richard Benton Bow - Andrew Douglas COX: Cait Bannister.

Having secured a scarlet red Resolute 4+ from MIT for the duration of our stay, we made our way down to the MIT boathouse on the Thursday morning at 06:00 (feeling the lag...) to begin re-rigging the shell, ready for practice. After a considerable degree of faffing (unheard of, right?), and meeting one or two "interesting" local characters, we took to the water in order to get a feel for the course and what we were up against, and to get our bearings over the coming days before race day.

Because we were coxed by a native, we had to adjust to the strange terminology used by the Americans to identify sides of the boat - something about "port" (stroke) and "starboard" (bow). Other honourable mentions include "weigh enough" (easy there) and "check it down" (hold it up).

I'm not sure either…

At last, race day was upon us.

We arrived at the course around mid-morning to find so many crews already out on the water to cram in the last bit of practice, not to mention the large crowds of spectators and volunteers ready for KO. You really got the sense of how special this race is to both the population of Boston, and to rowers world-wide. The stage was set - all that was missing were the 5 key players. There were 19 entries in our category, with "The Red October" heading off at number 11. Our category featured crews from all over the world, including representation all the way from Australia. We knew this wasn't going to be easy, but with our heads held high, we got to it. After a small practice loop, and some very stern marshalling, we lined up, and began our build for the start.

In 3, in 2, in 1, "London: you are on. Have a great race!" A very good start from the crew, settling into race-rhythm nicely opening a gap on the crew behind us early on. Heading into the "powerhouse straight" we dug in and romped down this part of the course like a chariot on fire, in pursuit of our oppo (Boston Locals) directly in front. Meter-by-meter we closed them down, overtaking as we reached the end of the first half. At this point we knew we were heading for some very sharp cornering to port (stroke side, remember?) where our cox reminded us on starboard (bow side, just in case...) to "give me 120%!!" as we narrowly pass under the bridges 3/4 way through the race - no collisions, thankfully. Still going strong, we made a final push in the last 750m (which felt like 7500m...) and across the line.

Within 5 minutes we got our result: 8/19 for our category. Very happy. Finishing in the top-half of the category had the added bonus of a guaranteed qualification for next year. Job done.

Jason Bowyer

IRREGULARS’ REPORT

*Our Wednesday morning gang: Zena Howard, Alan Foster, Tony Lynn, John Gaisford, Hugh Samuel, John Auber (taking the photo), Diana Bartley, Kate Pearson, Tom Blackett and Sharon Rowntree.*

Not a very good photo of our regular Wednesday morning gang but at least it proves that boats are being taken out in the middle of the day during the week – a lovely autumnal morning – the Irregulars appreciate a bit of nature and watching the leaves change colour!

Some of us are more serious about rowing and competing no less – three crews are entered for the Vets Four Head on the 20th November and reports are mixed about how the boats are going. There are changes of personnel and difficulties with timings of training outings – quite usual but they will get together and compete and we wish them all luck and look forward to the day.

We are also looking forward to the 17th November when our coaches are giving a presentation on technique and steering the right line on the Tideway – this looks like a really good evening and all members are encouraged to attend.

Very best of luck to our three crews – may you do LRC proud!

Eddie Markes

CASAMAJOR CLUB

The latest draws have now taken place and the winners are as follows:

£75

Jonathan Andrew
Ray Cassidy
Christopher Dodd
Alan Foster
Christopher Grainger
Richard Povey
Jack Wilshaw
Anne Littleton
Eddie Markes
David Whitten

£30

Matt Burrow
T G Collins
Richard Philips
Alan Foster
S S Newman
Iain Laurenson
John Pearson
M J Broome

Casamajor Club: For just £5 a month, you could win £75 in our quarterly draws, or even £600 at Christmas! Funds are used to finance the maintenance of club boats. Using this money, new equipment has just been bought for 32 seats! Click the link to sign up, or scan the QR code:

John Auber

STOPPRESS***

CHANGING ROOM LOCKERS

Lockers are now available to be allocated in the Men’s Changing Room. A long wait but worth it.

They look the bizz and even have LRC colours number plates! They come in 2 sizes – “bagdrop” small size at £48.00 p.a. – large size to accommodate hanging space, shelf and hooks at £78.00 p.a..

Please email membership@londonrc.org.uk if you have not already done so.

Thanks to all that have helped with the varnishing – this goes for the Ladies as well – they came off the line a bit earlier but some are still available.

Eddie Markes

NEW MEMBERS

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

Hal Barrow
Maddie Brown
Poppy Cook
James Gare
James Hawkins
M James
Ben Meyer
Tomaso Muzzu
Caroline Newbury
Amelia Perrin
Alicia Sewell
Georgia Morgan Smith
Joseph Rodgers
Benedict Treloar
Salvatore Volpe
Jonathan Willetts

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

MEMORIES LUNCH

A Buffet Lunch was held at the Club on 16th October to remember those who had died during 2020 and 2021. It was attended by nearly sixty friends and relatives, including Babs Kester, Liz and Chris King and their families.

Mike Baldwin gave a speech of welcome, remembering these old friends and their contribution to the Club. The archive photo below, taken at the 1995 Club Dinner shows Simon, Dave and Colin.

*(Left to right)* *Back row Maurice Rayner, Simon Rippon, Lillian Eagle, Dave King; front row, Colin Kester, Fred, Hugh Dulley.*

Mike also announced that Simon Rippon and Colin Kester had left money in their wills, which will enable the purchase of a new eight for the Club. Hugh Dulley and Chris King said a few words about Dave King and officially unveiled the plaque commemorating Dave’s long service as Hon. House Steward.

This was then followed by a buffet lunch in the Long Room. At the end of the meal Jules Ebsworth spoke about Simon Rippon and his friendship and memories. It was rewarding to see so many of those who had rowed at the Club in the 1950’s and 1960’s enabling many old friends to meet again.

Hugh Dulley

DEFIBFEST 2022

It is almost a year since the Spencer Arms’ defibrillator saved my wife Jackie’s life whilst out running on Putney Common one busy Saturday morning. This defibrillator was financed and put in place by a community effort DefibFest initiative set up by Iain Russell, whose father suffered a cardiac arrest and lost his life. It is a reminder about why we need more defibrillators in our public spaces.

DefibFest has now become an annual performance event, with music, readings and even free first aid training from London Ambulance Service. This year it takes place on Saturday 19th November. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite with a 20% discount if bought in advance with discount code DEFIBFEST20.

If you can’t attend but would like to donate to this cause please follow the link to tickets, where there is an option to donate.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/defibfest-22-tickets-413722213277

Bob Silver

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