GRC Blog

Abingdon Head was hot on Sunday. The weather was more like summer than spring, with endless sunshine, a light stream and a tail wind which brought out the best for Guildford with five wins from six entries.

The event lacks some of the usual Junior numbers due to Easter Holidays but there was a good turn out of club crews from across the country. With up to 90 crews in each of four divisions racing over 2000 metres, a good warm up for the Regatta season ahead.

There were particularly good results for the women: the Senior Quad of Annika, Jackie, Jaime and Lenka set off at a brisk 33 to win their category in a time 17 seconds faster than the next women’s quad and placed them 24th overall, close to the fastest women’s crew of the day, an 8+ from Worcester.

Jackie and Lenka had planned to double up as a Masters B 2x but Lenka pulled a muscle in the closing stretch of the Quad race. When Jackie went to race control to scratch, she found Helen “in office” helping out her old club with the organisation; a quick substitution, some borrowed kit and the “scratch” pairing won with a comfortable margin of 28 seconds in the fastest Senior women’s 2x time of the day. Further testimony to the benefits of rowing as a squad and good reward for perseverance with common technique on the water and training in the gym.

The Men’s squad were not to be outdone. Rob Hall partnered with Jeff Watling of Southsea to record another Masters G/H 2x win, this time by just 1 second over their Southampton rivals BTC; while Mark and Richard made it another win for ‘Roger’ in Masters D 2x. The Quad of Dominic, Jake, Chris and Colin have only been on the water once together but they rowed together well and took ‘Helene’ to a win in their Men’s 4x category.

Well done all, next event for the Seniors: Marlow Spring on May 1st when we look forward to a good all-club day.
Peter Scott

November 2016

I hope you’re all enjoying the start of autumn. It’s a season of change both on and off the water, with lots of new club members across the squads and a chance to make new plans for the coming season.

Racing

In case you missed it, we have a fantastic regatta win to report, with Rachel Morris winning Paralympic Gold in the Arms & Shoulders Women’s Single Scull with a fantastic and breath-taking surge for the line at the Lagoa de Freitas in Rio be Janeiro. Those of us watching at the club went through the full spectrum of emotions as Rachel moved from 4^th position at the half-way mark to storm through to 2^nd with 250m, to then go on to win in a new Paralympic Best time.

As captain, I couldn’t be prouder of Rachel and her incredible performance and we’re having a celebration at the club on Sunday (6^th November) now that the whirlwind of returning home has settled down a little. Please do let Paul (Chairman) know if you would like to join us ([email protected])

Our full list of race results across the club continues to be updated on the Club website – we had some great results across the squads at Weybridge Silver Sculls the weekend before last, so do make time to have a look: https://guildfordrowingclub.org.uk/events/guildford-rowing-club-event-results/

Phil the Bag & Fundraising

Thanks to Carolyn Turner and Catherine Houston for their support in organising this fundraising initiative and to everyone who donated bags of clothes. Every little helps now that we have been granted planning permission for the redevelopment.

Safety thoughts

As the nights draw in and the weather starts to throw more at us, we all need to take extra care both on and off the water. With rain comes red boards and it is important that all coaches, captains, coxes and steerers familiarise themselves with the red board procedure and safety rules as we all get out of practice over a benign summer.

We’ll also be organising a programme of safety events for coaches and rowers alike, including capsize drills, first aid courses and red-board refreshers. Please keep an eye out for information on these.

Club improvements & maintenance

You may have noticed the new edging to the landing stage, which was sorely needed after a few decades of wear and tear. While we are obviously hoping to rebuild in the near future, there are some maintenance issues that just can’t wait for safety reasons or to reduce other costs, such as boat damage; the landing stage was one of these. Thanks to our Chairman, Paul Woowat for arranging this.

Your Committee

We realise that sometimes the committee can seem a bit of a faceless entity, especially when we’re all so busy with our different squads and sessions. So, we are putting together committee profiles for the noticeboard and I’ll try to include one each month in the Newsletter. To kick everything off, here’s a bit about me:

I joined GRC in 2007 when I started studying at what was then the College of Law. I learned to row as a student and continued after graduating with a local town club. While at GRC, I’ve been Social Secretary and Women’s Captain, a rower, sculler, coach and occasional cox. Off the water, I work as a solicitor, am married to Ian (occasional Men’s squadder) and have a nearly two-year old daughter, Leonie. When not rowing (there is such a thing!) I enjoy baking, gardening and watching terrible tv.

There’ll be a new committee member profiled next month, or maybe two to catch us up a bit before the year is out.

I look forward to seeing lots of you on the river.

Hello all

I hope you’ve all had a lovely summer – there’s been a lot going on at the club over the last two months and now we’re back with the new season.

Racing

Our full list of race results continues to be updated on the Club website – do have a look as we have quite an impressive list of wins from the summer regattas: https://guildfordrowingclub.org.uk/events/guildford-rowing-club-event-results/

Special congratulations to the Junior Squad who have won no less than three Victor Ludorum trophies again this regatta season, at the Ball Cup (South), Kingston and Staines.  Well done and many thanks to all involved.

And a special message of congratulations also to Justin Wells and Colin MacCombe from the Senior Men’s Squad who won at Maidenhead Regatta to lose their novice status.

Road to Rio

Coming up this week we have our very own Rachel Morris, Club Water Safety Officer, racing in the Paralympic Regatta in Rio de Janeiro.  We will be watching the Finals on Sunday 11^th September at the club from 12.30pm, so please do come and join us – the bar will be open.

Summer Party

Thanks to all those involved who help us have a great day down the river, with even the weather cooperating.  Look out for our upcoming events, dates and details to follow over the coming weeks.

New Club Members

As is traditional at this time of year we are running beginners’ courses for both adults and juniors and we have also had an influx of new members over the summer, especially following the success of Team GB at the Olympic Regatta in August.  So, welcome to all our new members and please be patient with us while we try to remember all your names!

Fundraising

We are continuing our fundraising initiatives and have raised £1,000 over the summer thanks to Fiona Land (Flo) and Peter Scott running sculling courses and coming up this month we have “Phil the Bag” taking place again on the weekend of the 24^th/25^th September.  Please do support these initiatives and if you have any ideas for further fundraising please do contact Carolyn Turner ([email protected]).

I look forward to seeing lots of you back around the river after the summer break.