CHAIRMAN’S VIEW
I had hoped to be writing about our crews’ successes in the Veterans Fours and Fours Heads but sadly the weather gods have frowned on us again, resulting in a double cancellation. It is a reminder of the changeable nature of the Tideway and that we should all treat it with the utmost respect. Recent groundings of some coxless boats has shown how hazardous rowing can be, particularly at night. No crews are permitted to go afloat in darkness or when the tide is low without an accompanying launch. No one should be steering without having passed the steers’ accreditation test. It is compulsory to sign out and in so all can be accounted for and non-squad boats should be booked on FitClub to avoid clashes.
On Thursday, 2nd November, Donald Macdonald treated members and guests to a fascinating talk on the famous 1987 Boat Race, a tale of mutiny, courage and those weather gods again. Donald has presented to rowing clubs and companies and pointed out that the story has timeless and universal relevance to life in general, not just sport. Overcoming adversity, people management, resilience and triumph against the odds are some of the lessons. It was interesting to hear some of the corporate responses and questions to Donald from previous talks such as ‘Why didn’t you just throw in the towel?’ Not something in the LRC lexicon!
A good turnout.
If anyone is interested in asking Donald to present to their company for a fee donated to charity please get in touch with me chairman@londonrc.org.uk and I will be pleased to put you in touch with him.
Good luck to the party heading to India later this month to celebrate the centenary of the twinning of LRC with Calcutta Rowing Club.
Bill Baker
Chairman, London Rowing Club
CAPTAIN’S REPORT
The River Gods have not looked kindly on rowing in the past month. I had hoped to give glowing reports of LRC’s performances at the Upper Thames Autumn Head, the Veteran Fours Head and Fours head but sadly all were cancelled due to river conditions.
The Fours’ Heads weekend is normally a very social and busy weekend for the Club, but thanks to the events team and Harry Smallman, all was not lost. On bonfire night, LRC hosted our first fireworks display for members, guests and neighbours. It was a sparkling success and we have already had calls for it to become an annual event - thank you to everyone for coming.
Our safety advisor, Rui Xu, has been making waves on the other side of the pond. First, with a very successful campaign at Canadian trials where he was selected for the men’s double and then representing Canada at the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile. Rui’s races were terrific and exciting to watch. He was on the wrong side of a photo finish so missed out on the A final by 0.06 of a second but went on to win the B final. We are immensely proud of Rui and his achievements!
Praying for good weather, we hope the Remenham Challenge will go ahead on 9th December. We are set to host the prize-giving and will have the bar open, a DJ and, hopefully, lots of great results to celebrate.
This month we will be welcoming some former HSBC Rowing Club members to the Club - they are joining us after the sale of their club house and we are very happy to welcome them to LRC.
At the end of November, I will be representing LRC along with 22 other members at the 2nd Friendship Regatta in Kolkata, India. The regatta is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the formal relationship between LRC and Calcutta Rowing Club and they have invited us not only to race their members but also clubs from Australia and New Zealand. CRC provides free youth rowing to children, and we will have the opportunity to coach their junior rowers. There will be full report on our return.
With the weather thwarting lots of outings and races, I ask all active members to look over the Water Safety Plan which can be found on our website. It is easy to slip into bad habits and forget our protocol but this has been devised especially to keep our members safe. Club boats should be booked out, private boats should not be borrowed without permission and everyone boating must log their outing as required by the PLA. If you have any questions about why we have certain boating and safety rules, Rui Xu will be happy to answer questions. If in doubt, prioritise safety.
Bang the Drum!
Elizabeth Cottrell
Captain, London Rowing Club
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
11 November: Kingston Small Boats Head
11 November: Henley Sculls
11/12 November: GB Senior and U23 Trials
15 November: Club Supper (all invited)
18 November: Teddington Head
19 November: Classics at the Club
26 November: Wallingford 4's and 8's Head
9 December: BR Indoor Championships
9 December: Remenham Challenge
14 December: Club Christmas Supper
20 January: Quintin Head
3 February: Hampton Head
4 February: English Indoor Rowing Championships
10 February: GB Senior and U23 trials
11 February: Bedford Eights' and Fours' Head
17 February: Henley Fours' Head
17 February: Molesey Head Races
See more detail for these events, visit our Calendar of Events…
IRREGULARS REPORTS
The Irregulars got five quads out two Sundays ago, which is tops in recent post Covid times. Really heartening and everybody had a good outing in difficult steering conditions – the tide change taking a long time to make up its mind with the strong flows coming down.
Talking about steering, we are blessed with quite a good number of certified steers in our group – thanks must go out to them. A lot of our members attended the extremely comprehensive safety briefing at the Club the previous Sunday and those that couldn’t attend will be invited to another one, to be organised shortly. All bowsteers are being reminded of the safety rules and the parameters of their particular steering levels.
Fiona Young and Henry Dunlop following their Sunday outing in Jo.
A charming photograph of two of our members having just returned in “Jo”. This is a double that was originally bought by our President, Mike Baldwin, for his daughter Jo. I’m not entirely sure of the history of the hull at that point but I do know that Mike then gave the hull to the Club. The Irregulars do use her but, shall we say, “not on a regular basis “. Henry and Fiona reminded me after their outing what a good sitter she is and how she seems to glide effortlessly over the water. We must make more use of her. Over the last few years she has received some loving care from members – Johnny Akehurst renewed the leather foot straps which had withered and I carried out some very necessary timber repairs to the footplate bearers. She’s a lovely boat and we should use her more.
We are eagerly awaiting some new boats from HSBC, which will be replacing some of our existing quads. Part of the reason we are so excited (one member in particular) is that two of the heavier hulls will have large adjustable steering shoes. Guess who has size 14 feet? Our Treasurer Philip Carre that’s who.
Anyhow having shared that piece of information and to explain - Philip is one of our principal steers and previously he could only row in one hull, the Rob van Mesdag, a very heavy boat and quite taxing when we didn’t have the necessary weight/muscle to do it justice. So as from now there will be two hulls available to Philip. Result, as they say.
Commiserations go out to two crews from our group that were meant to be racing last Saturday in the Vets Fours Head, which was cancelled due to strong fluvial flows.
That’s all for now – stay safe - especially in these harsh weather conditions.
Eddie Markes
VISIT TO CALCUTTA ROWING CLUB
One year ago, the Hon. Secretary of CRC came to LRC and invited us to visit Kolkata to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the formal affiliation of our two clubs. He has organised an International Friendship Regatta that will feature local and visiting crews. Our Captain has gathered a very formidable party of mostly Squad rowers. Mike Baldwin, Eddie Markes, Philip Carré and I will be there to even things up!
Twenty-three of us embark on 19th November and will be in Kolkata for a week. CRC offers free rowing facilities to local juniors. Before the regatta, Elizabeth and Stuart Heap will organise coaching sessions and opportunities for CRC’s junior members to row with our group.
LRC has had a longstanding relationship with CRC. In 2008, there was a visit to celebrate CRC’s 150th anniversary. Some of you will remember the Curry Cup races and dinners that Iain Laurenson organised for many years. I have found a newspaper article of 1865 that described CRC as flourishing and sporting the colours of LRC. It is interesting to imagine a link at the founding of our two clubs in 1856 and 1858, particularly as the intervening year was very significant in the history of India.
On 28th October, while the Squad was training in Henley, Miles Preston, Philip Carré, Eddie Markes and I participated in a ceremony to “flag-off” our trip to Kolkata. This was held during a Durga Parade on the Thames. The event was organised by Heritage Bengal to celebrate Durga Purja, a religious festival that in Kolkata is similar to Christmas. It started with some impressive drumming as Tower Bridge was opened for us. Unfortunately, an autumn squall brought the drummers and icons inside. We then concentrated on the speeches, lively conversations with members of CRC based in London and the open bar. A comical aspect emerged as the wind did not let up and the full river ensured that the boat tipped from side to side like a cross-channel ferry!
The hospitality being arranged by CRC and the welcome we received at the Durga Parade have already demonstrated the warm and generous nature of our friends in Kolkata. We are looking forward to our trip.
Andrew Boyle
Hon. Secretary, London Rowing Club
IAIN LAURENSON
An obituary for Iain, written by Eddie Markes, has now been placed here on the our website.
Many members, particularly Irregulars and those who, after rowing in the Far East, took part in the annual Curry Cup races at Putney, will have happy memories of a good friend and a truly great organiser.
Iain stroking a quad with John Pearson at 3, Rob van Mesdag at 2 and John Auber at bow. (Photo: Martin Ruscoe)
NEW MEMBERS
We would like to welcome the following new members to the Club:
Thomas Frost
Benjamin Dickens
John MacKinney
Ellie Byrne
Julia James
Frances Sealy
Shauna Cook
Nikita Krivdin
Douglas Denholm
Poppy Hart
Hermoine Brewster
Rose Lewis
Kate Griffiths
James Colley
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 you 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
CLUB SUPPER AND CHRISTMAS PARTY
We have our next Club Supper happening on the 15th November. Tickets to this can be purchased here.
We also have the Christmas Party coming up on the 14th December. You can purchase tickets here.
Purchase tickets now to avoid missing out!! ✨🍾
Heather Scott
Events Management Team, London Rowing Club
CLASSICS AT THE CLUB
Bill Baker
WINTER CORPORATE PACKAGES
We have a revised offering for Winter/Christmas corporate packages at LRC this year! We have a flexible offering for all types of organisations, large, small, local and far. If you know of anyone who this may be interested, please share the below images.
Kiri Madhani
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
