News from the long haired one...

Hi all,

Hope the club is well, its been a long time since I last wrote but I suppose it’s a given fact that the summer just didn’t work like I expected it to. I could make any number of excuses but I don’t think any of them are good enough!

I've spotted that you are selling the double, saw that on the rand racing site! Me and a
friend Chris were going to enter Huntingdon and a few other races in a double scull but then our boathouse got broken into and our seats stolen!!! The replacement of the double seats is taking a bit of time. There is a stock of them but it is a Burgashell and as they are in liquidation it’s been a bit tricky! Ah well, make do with our singles
(also Burgashell and for some bizarre reason with different sized seats, but only by about 4mm!!!).

We are doing Uni fours at the moment; I am in our second four. Finding this year interesting, for a start I have been swapped from Bowside to Stroke side but with a bow-rigged four have still ended up in bow. My worst habit is looking around if I hear another boat, but seeing as I have been on the receiving end of some interesting crashes this year, including a sprained wrist, being winded by a tree branch and catapulted onto the canvas when by blade hit the bank in a full training piece, I might be forgiven?!!!

At the moment I am trying to teach novices, which is fun, but due to a lack of novice
coxes, I am also coxing a novice boat. I have a t-shirt and everything that says "lower boats captain". Thankfully I am only teaching the men’s and coaching a women’s boat if they run short on coaches.

So far we have been to Huntingdon regatta, as two fours, the men’s 1st and 2nd. The firsts won their class outright and we in the seconds were beaten by 20s. There was a greater headwind for our race but the fact still remains that two hours later despite winning our division, we lost our class overall to a bunch of schoolboys!!!! (something about me adding air resistance...)

Today I watched our first four completely take LMBC 2nd apart in the first races of uni fours, it’s our turn tomorrow to see what we can do. I'll let you know results. It really does look more and more likely that I will turn to sculling and not row for Tit Hall soon.

We only have enough seniors for one 8 and a bit. We have a few injured and I’m only in the fours and possibly the 8 for Fairbairn’s race at the end of term because of a good stroke, I’m experienced at bow for races and the balance I have from a scull. Problem is I’m just too light, at around 67kg! So it looks like for Lents I would have to row with a lot of novices, and the problem is that if I did that I would displace a few other novices as they all move down a place for me and a few others, which I don't really want to do.

So it looks like me and Chris will be sculling, possibly in the double, and entering as many races as we can together. The plan for the 8 is to try to get to Henley this year, so I really would be too light!
We have a good captain though. Last may we had a lot of people come back to the club after not bothering to row Lents (because of cold mornings) and they completely lost, as they didn’t get on as a crew. This year he has banned including people who are just "fair weather" rowers unless they prove themselves in a crew outing.

Anyway, looks like I will probably be sculling in races here on the cam soon and a few others and will hopefully be back at Derwent this Christmas (I might even have bought my own second hand blades...the ones here are worn out and we cannot afford any new kit before our ergs are fixed! we also desperately need a new boathouse roof!!!) I still have an ambition to race with Derwent colours!

Best of luck with training and races and hello to people round the club, thanks, and sorry again for such a messed up summer.

Rob