Forthcoming Events

Christmas Dinner and Party - Saturday 12 December - New Date

Pie and Punch - Sunday 20 December

Thames Valley (Dorney Lake) Time Trial - Sunday 31 January

Swim test and annual gala - February (date to be decided)

Recent Events
As ever other reports and photos can be found here, here and here

South Coast Championships report
It is a week since the South Coast Championships and enough time has now passed for your correspondent to calm down enough to post an objective and considered report of the SCC.

After a windy few weeks the wind dropped and swung around just enough for the regatta to be held at a rough but rowable Folkestone. We had 26 competitors attending but as you are only allowed to row in one race the crews competing weren't all the combinations that had raced during the year. The Junior Men and Junior/Sen Men all appeared to have good races (it was difficult to see as the course was so far offshore) but finished out of the places. The Junior Ladies crew made it to the final but were unable to make it to the start line (if they could have found a straight one) in time. The Novice ladies also had a good race finishing 5th in the final rowing past Shoreham in the last 50 metres. In the Junior races the J14 Womens quad 4 finished 2nd just behind Herne Bay and the J18 Womens crew did remakably well finishing 5th bearing in mind that our crew had an average age of 15.

The main results were expected from the Ladies Junior 4 who were Coast ARA champions as well as being unbeaten on the Hants & Dorset ARA and West of England ARA plus the Veteran 4 who had missed out on selection for the Championship race but were in the running for the Open.

First up were the Vet 4. Had we only known it, the race set the scene for the day. The starter ran through the instructions for the start (which were "set row") and then immediately without a pause repeated the instruction. From your correspondents view (and that of and many other rowers and clubs throughout the day) the phrase "set row" was uttered without seeming concern for the actual position of the boats. To fair to them though, maybe they had just moored the boat in the wrong place. A while after the word "row", the starters gun was heard, surely a recall gun? No, don't be ridiculous, Dover were away but admitting later that they were fully expecting a recall.

Slowly, the Worthing Crew drew level and then ahead of Coalporters and Dover and eased a further length ahead of Christchurch. Despite a rough side on sea the crew were able to maintain that position in front of a noisy Dover crew who kept pushing on throughout the race and Christchurch who were refusing to fade.

Next up, well actually last up of the adults races and timetabled for 4pm was the Ladies Junior 4, the highlight (for Worthing) of the day. This is the Championship race, don't forget, and you expect the starters to take their time to make sure everything is correct. So when it started 5 minutes early you could only assume everything was OK.

On the start line the position of Worthing, backing down as instructed and a mere 3 lengths behind the leaders appeared acceptable (thats irony by the way) to the starters and so those words "set row" were announced. The crews were off, obviously there had been no need to use the extra 5 minutes to get a fair start and as the Veterans knew the recall gun couldn't have existed. From an impossible position the Junior Ladies 4 rowed the ultimately unsucceful race of their lives.

Out of the stream and in the surf on the inside they were up against it. Your correspondent admits to having lost hope forgetting that Emma, Esther, Ellie and Gemma urged on by Sue, never give up. With 500m to go they were still 2 1/5 lengths behind before suddenly the commentator announced that the gap had stretched to 3 1/2 lengths as the crew fell over a wave. But Worthing pushed and pushed and slowly but surely the distance between the crews came down. Then with a 100 metres to go the gap suddenly shrunk and momentarily your doubting correpsondent thought they were going to do it. With a couple of strokes to go the crews were overlapping with Herne Bay just half a length ahead but it had all come too late and the 1,850m finishing line (well 1,850m's for some crews) had arrived too early.

Itchen Imperial (Southampton) Regatta
Quite a pleasant regatta in the end, (with two wins) even if it is just under the Itchen Bridge and only about 3 minutes long. The Junior Ladies A and B 4+ crews had to race off against each other in the heat with the A crew as expected progressing to the final. There they met Coalies and Poole finishing in first place by about three lengths after a close race to the turns.

Steph and Caitlyn continued improving with a win over the Worthing B crew and Poole in the heat before meeting Southampton who had finished ahead of the Worthing A crew in their heat. Another close race to the turn where Worthing drew level before taking up the rating on the return leg to win by a couple of lengths.

The J16 4+ of Steph, Caitlyn, Lily and Ellie finished 3rd in their final one length behind two very good looking Lymington and Pool crews.

CARA Womens and J16 Regatta (Dover)
There were lots of races, in fact too many for me to recall who raced in what. Unfortunately there were no wins in the rowing but we did achieve lots of 3rds and 2nds including one 3rd where all three top crews were within one canvass of each other. I was on the finish line and I still think we were second!

Lily and Caitlyn won their year 8 and 10 ergo races respectively with tremendous scores averaging about 1.58s/500m each.

Shoreham Regatta
A pleasant day - and only a few miles down the coast which is always a bonus.

As usual, for some reason Shoreham insisted again on racing J16 juniors round a full 2k course (every other regatta races over 750m's) before immediately sending those who were in Novice ladies straight out again (without a rest) for another 2k. So the crew of Ellie, Sarah, Natalie and Lily were extremely unlucky to miss out on second place in Novice 4's by one position.

Missing Ellie, the junior ladies were a little off the pace finishing in 3rd place but should be back together as a full crew at Itchen regatta this week.

The Senior Pair appear to have peaked at Dover, finishing 5th but did manage second place in Vet 4s along with Dave O and John W. Third place beckoned in Sen 4's when Steve D sat in for Dave, only for the turn and the second half of the race to get in the way!

There were some interesting debuts, John venturing out in Novice Sculls and a B crew in Senior 4's.

The squad of Andrew, James, Alistair, Connor, Dan and Dave then raced in Jun 4's, J/S 4's and Sen 4's grabbing 4th, 5th and 9th respectively.

Dover and Deal Regattas
It is a while since these regattas so my memory is bit hazy. Sufficient to say the Junior women won again although pushed hard by Shoreham and Herne Bay at Dover and Deal regattas respectively.

The win at Deal clinched the CARA championship topping off a year of hard work and determination. Congratulations therefore to Esther, Emma, Ellie and Gemma (and to all those who have confused the crew with their contradictory coaching tips) and also to Sue for her coxing. All five will represent the Club at the South Coast Championships on 5 Sept at Folkestone.

The girls J16 quad managed a well deserved 2nd out of seven crews Dover finishing ahead of an all boys 4 from Eastbourne.

The Senior Pair came in second at Dover (I suspect the clubs best Sen Pair result since about 1979 to be honest). Strangely it seems to be the only race in any event all season of which there is no photographic evidence so maybe I dreamt it.

Coalporters (Southampton)

If Southsea wasn't a long enough day, Coalies, at 13 hours long, definitely was . Our first race wasn't until event 15 and the last was event 70 (yes that's event 70!!).

John and Martin at least had a pleasant scull on the flat conditions but didnt make it out of their heats. The junior men (Alistair, Andrew, James and Mark) were unfortunate to have to compete in race 50 and 51 (yes 50 and 51 !). Having paddled round J/S they put up a good fight to row past BTC over the last 100 yards but were a few seconds off being the fastest losers and didn't progress to the men's junior 4+ final.

The junior ladies 4, hot-foot from Gatwick airport after a weeks holiday and despite only 2 hours sleep (and yes it did show) still managed to progress through a heat, semi, ladies pairs and the final (event 67!) to win Jun Ladies 4s by a few lengths. This week Emma & Esther won the all Worthing Ladies Jun 2- final, reversing the defeat by Ellie and Gemma at Southsea. Steph and Caitlyn were in 3rd place. Senior Ladies 4s (finishing 3rd) with Steph, Caitlyn, Gemma and Esther was clearly a race too far.

Herne Bay, Folkestone and Southsea

As ever a brief report plus photos and more photos for all regattas can be found here, here and here respectively. Enough to say that Herne Bay was lovely flat and sunny while Folkestone was extremely rough and Southsea extremely rough, wet and long. The Junior ladies continued their winning run with Steph sitting in and swapping sides at Folkestone. Southsea was saw another Jun Ladies 4 win plus another in Junior Ladies pairs for Gemma and Ellie.

Eastbourne Regatta was on. The ladies Junior 4 and John W hit form again. The rest of us have some work to do

Here, here and here respectively, are the results, photos and more photos

Worthing Regatta results, photos and more photos can be found

here, here and here respectively

Viking Shield, Herne Bay- Some spectacular results
Click here for the report

Adur Head
Click here for a brief report
and here for some photos of Adur, Medway and Dorney Lake

100,000m (65 miles) Sponsored Row
Click here to see the photos

What's Next - click here for the full events diary until Christmas 2009

Splash Point 5k RESULTS click here

May
Sat 9 May Viking Shield - Herne Bay
Sat 16 May - Training and Fun Regatta followed by Pre-Season Party
(Theme Wigs & Toupees!)
Thur 28 May - BBQ (Last Thursday of every month during the summer)

June
Sat 13 Regatta and Regatta Party
Thur 25 June - BBQ