Support Through Sport UK and Adaptive Rowing
The Charity Support Through Sport UK recently published an article on Adaptive Rowing at Guildford.
Thank you to Danny and Robert for your contribution.
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The Charity Support Through Sport UK recently published an article on Adaptive Rowing at Guildford.
Thank you to Danny and Robert for your contribution.
Save
Save
Invictus Games
Martin Tye and Steve Allman from the GRC Adaptive squad took part in the Invictus Games for disabled ex-servicemen held in Canada in September. Martin set a World record in the Heavyweight Powerlifting with a lift of 188 kgs to win Gold. He also won Gold in the 1 minute rowing and Silver over 4 minutes, followed by Silver in the Wheelchair Rugby, Bronze in the Wheelchair Basketball and bronze in the Shot Put. His family were there to watch this outstanding performance.
Steve Allman also won a Gold medal in the Mixed 4 x 50 metre freestyle relay.
Rowing
At Wallingford Long Distance Sculls, the women’s squad had Aimee Marshall and Helen Gray being the third fastest women’s double, by only 0.2 sec over the 5km course. Aimee also won fastest women’s Masters A single in 21mins 15secs with Annika Gleichmann coming in at 20mins 37secs but racing in a different category.
Scott Warden came in 12/29 in the men’s singles in a time of 17mins 49 secs.
With the new Personal Ranking Index becoming more common across all races for this season, it will take us a little while to become familiar with how events split the competition in their events. Win/results reporting may therefore be a little unfamiliar for a while yet.
Bedford Autumn Head saw another healthy GRC entry with some good results for club crews. The novice women’s sweep crew finally got a chance to race after some difficulty getting entries over the summer. Hopefully they can build on their experience over the coming season. The women’s masters racing squad coxed quad of Aimee Marshall, Eleanor Mead, Claudine Chiplin, Rachel Townsend and coxed by Becky Tsao were joint winners in the coxed quads in a time of 8mins 30secs. The other combinations from the masters racing squad and the novice quad (last year’s beginners) also raced with the masters racing squad crews coming in third and fifth with only 18 seconds separating the three different crew combinations.
Chris Boys and David Jillings won the adaptive supported doubles by a comfortable 6 second margin, with Hilary Birkinshaw and Rob Hall also taking to the water, but coming 6/6 in the open event.
The Women’s Mas A/B/C single sculls was well-populated with GRC rowers, and although Jackie Johnson won in time terms on the water, she lost out in the handicap by 4 secs despite being only a couple of months from Mas C herself. Sue Loughlin also raced well in the Mas D/E/F singles, completing her first race in a single. The Masters E/F coxed four came in fourth in a very strong field, in a good time of 8 mins 3 secs.
Chris Boys Wins the Frank Toner Cup at Bedford
The Frank Toner Cup – sponsored by Frank Toner would you believe from Bedford to encourage inter club competition in Adaptive Rowing. Chris has won the trophy on both the occasions there has been competition. Not only has Chris won the trophy twice but on this occasion he sculled twice the distance and a passer by had to tell him to stop as he should have finished 1000 metres earlier!
Also at Bedford Chris won the supported double with Dave Jillings. This is a new adaptive event created by the GRC Adaptive team assisted by the GRC newly created handicap system that allows all age groups and genders to compete together and successfully resulting in some closely fought racing across the squad
In the Pairs’ Head, raced over the Boat race course in London, the Mas H double of Robert Hall and Jeff Watling won their event finishing 372nd overall. Chris Boys and Dave Jillings raced in the Supported 2x event and finished 2nd out of 3, 451st overall. We are fairly certain this is the first ever recorded win by a Guildford crew in this event.
At Upper Thames Small Boats Head Robert Hall and Jeff Watling won Mas G/H 2x, rowing as Southsea.
Adult Beginners course
We accepted 24 onto the course starting last month and have 18 now regularly attending. We accepted what we thought were nearly equal numbers of men and women, although this has now changed to be around 6 men and 12 women after initial drop-outs and gender guesses based on people’s names proved to be incorrect!
Junior Beginners course
We accepted 28 onto the course which started in September. We still have 27 and they have now joined last year’s beginner squad to form a 12/13 squad of 40. We have been fortunate in recruiting several parents as coaches and helpers and the older juniors have played a significant part in bringing the new juniors into the squad.
River use – Bye Laws
Please remember to use the full stretch of river unless it has been agreed otherwise by all users – coaches and rowers. Early turning can lead to confusion and lack of awareness of boat positions and actions.
Boat & Equipment use
We have had a lot of boat handling damage which could have been avoided. Request help with handling boats – especially at busy times; two people carrying a single is likely to avoid a lot of the damage that occurs to those boats. It’s not a case of someone being judged as not capable of boat handling on their own, but of preserving the boats as best we can.
Social
Committee Notes
Next meeting Wed 8th Nov. Send your questions and views to the Secretary or through your squad Captain.
Safety
Winter is here – wear high visibility tops and warm layers underneath for training.
Be aware of safety requirements and briefings at events on the Thames and open water – the conditions will be very different to our sheltered and benign River Wey.
Bosun
Report damage or carry out self-help repair and inform the Bosun – John Redmond – so replacement parts can be ordered.
The boat fleet is complete and fit for use along with blade sets and ancillary equipment.
Thank you to Victoria Starr for checking and maintaining the ergo fleet – some spares are awaited. Please clean after use and fix loose items before they break.
Club Development
The major build project has planning permission thanks to the efforts of many club members. Guildford Borough Council is prepared to sell the club the extra land required for the project.
However, Sport England funding opportunities have been significantly reduced after being assessed as having had minimal impact on numbers participating in sport since 2012. The development sub-committee are re-examining options for the next steps in realising the aspirations of the club for the long-term. But some difficult decisions will have to be made if we are to make the best of what we have, what we need and what we can afford.
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First Win for our Ladies at Maidenhead
See the results page for details. To summarise, 12 wins across all squads. Despite thunderstorms at Staines cancelling some events we recorded 4 junior wins. The masters double of Rob & Jeff achieve back to back wins at Henley Town & Visitors and Maidenhead. 7 wins at Maidenhead from Adaptive and Senior. Aimee wins her first 1x and the Mas F4- get two for the price of one, having to re-row after Walbrook collided with a paddling crew straying on to the course.
Molesey winning J12 crew
Cameron Cashen George Guest Henry Chadwick (cox) Charlie Hall Lucas Hanin
It is suddenly the end of the summer term and our junior beginner squad have completed their last regatta. The Club thank the coaches and helpers who work to make it all happen. Many have already gone on holiday and the rest will follow soon. Sadly this means it is the end of the official rowing season for the beginner squad and the new season kicks off in September as follows:
The current J13s and WJ13s move up an age group and will join the main Junior squad. There is a meeting for juniors and your parents at the club at 10.00 on Sunday 3rd September.
The current J12s and WJ12s become J13s and WJ13s on 1 September. The first training session will be at 9.00 on Sunday 3rd September.
The new beginner course starts on Saturday 9th September at 14.00 and will run for 6 Saturday afternoons. It would be appreciated if the current J12s and WJ12s would help with the course whenever they are able to do so.
Between now and September most of the coaches will be on holiday but we can offer the following holiday sessions:
Wed 2 Aug 16.00 – 18.00
Sun 6 Aug 9.00 – 10.30
Sun 13 Aug 9.00 – 10.30
Wed 16 Aug 16.00 – 18.00
Sun 20 Aug 9.00 – 10.30
Wed 23 Aug 16.00 – 18.00
Wed 30 Aug 16.00 – 18.00
Please email or text Danny to let him know if you wish to attend any of these sessions. Some parental help would be welcome.
It has been a fantastic year and on behalf of all the coaches and helpers we would like to thank you and congratulate you on achieving so much and with such great enthusiasm, humour and commitment. We hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have and we look forward to seeing you progress in your rowing careers wherever you may pursue them.
With very best wishes for a great Summer,
The Junior Coaches
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Guildford Juniors win 5 at Kingston:
Saturday
Win: J16 4x- of Henry, William, James and Nathan
Win: J16 1x of Lucy Stevenson rowing up a year as WJ16
Sunday
Win: J14 4x+ of Zac, Richard, Joe, Josh and Reece (cox)
Win: J14 2x of Joe and Josh
Win: WJ12 4x+ of Darcie, Ella, Imogen, Ellie and Silvia (cox)
Final: J14 2x of Ben and Zac
Final: J12 4x+ of Ben, Benjy, Charlie, Lucas and Adelaide (cox)
Four of our youngsters featured on Eagle Radio as ‘team of the week’ here is the recording that was aired: We also feature in he latest edition of Rowing & Regatta magazine.
Thames Valley Park Regatta (TVP)
2 wins at TVP and lots of finals.
Win: J16 4x+ of Henry Miguda, William, James Reckord, Adam and Reece (cox) beat Magdalen College in the first round and then Reading Bluecoat and Whitgift schools in the final.
Win: J142x of Josh Ingham and Joe beat Eton Excelsior and Kingston Grammar School in the first round and then Henley Rowing Club and another Kingston Grammar School crew in the final.
Final: J16 2x of James Reckord and William
Final: J14 2x’s of Emily Wolfendon/Jess and Emily/Ella
Final: J13 4x+ of
Final: J15 2x of James Casemore and Peter Denton
Egham Regatta
At most regattas quads and singles are in the same division so we rarely get the opportunity to compete in singles. We entered only small boats at Egham and the number of race wins we got demonstrated our strength in this area. All the categories were fully subscribed with a possible total of 4 races in each. A number of us also doubled-up which proved to be quite tiring!
Win: After 4 rounds it was an all Guildford final in the J14 2x event with Joe Bryant/Josh Ingham beating Richard Loch/Eddie Vaughan. Richard Loch suffered an injury so it was another win for Joe and Josh. This was a tough event with 16 crews entered.
Final: Emily Wolfendon/Jess Bebbington. Beat Surbiton High School in the first round, Staines in the 2nd round, Langley Academy in the 3rd and narrowly lost to Reading in the final.
A small squad of 7 Guildford rowers competed at National Masters on 10th June at Nottingham. With the conditions worsening as the day progressed, Guildford enjoyed success, winning Gold in WMas A/B 4x. The crew comprised of Annika Gleichmann, Lenka Higley, Emma Pinchbeck and Jackie Johnson. Lenka, in her first competition of this calibre, came 3rd in WMas A 1x. Annika and Jackie faced tough competition in WMas B 2x and fought through to gain Silver. Well done to Helen Gray and Aimee Marshall who competed for the first time at WMas A 2x and gained valuable experience, and to Rob Hall who competed with Jeff Watling in Mas H 2x.
Huge thank you’s to Peter Scott for all his coaching and support, Eton Excelsior for towing to Nottingham, Richard Coldrick, Rob Hall and Paul Woowat for helping with organising and towing.
Jackie Johnson
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GRC sent 8 crews to Maidenhead Junior Regatta on Sunday 14th May. This regatta is specially structured for those new to rowing – ‘A’ events for those in their first 2 years and ‘B’ events for those in the first year. The regatta also operates a repechage system which gives the losers of first rounds a chance to race again in the second round. All the crews made it through the first 2 rounds of racing in the morning and in to the afternoon session. This proved a challenge with just 4 boats and the coxswains didn’t get much of a break. By the end of the day the Guildford crews had competed in 28 races – including 2 re-rows after dead heats, reached 4 finals and emerged the winners of 3 events. This earned us joint first place in the Victor Ludorum competition with Henley Rowing Club.
The winning crews were:
J14 4x+ Guy Tregear, Josh Ingham, Joe Bryant, Zac Harrison cox: Fay Dodd
J12 4x+ Lucas Hanin, Charlie Hall, Ben Isherwood, Benjy Kingerlee cox: Hannah Kingerlee
WJ12 4x+ Darcie Moss-Brown, Ella Curtis, Imogen Wells, Ellie Young cox: Sofia Palau
All of the other crews raced really well and were only narrowly defeated. Many thanks to Richard Mattos for towing both ways, to the coaches and helpers, and to the supporters who easily won the prize for loudest cheering effort. A great day out and lots of happy juniors after their first regatta.
The Junior Coaches
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The vet men traveled to Shrewsbury Regatta again this year. A small contingent again this year but an event the Club has attended continually for the past 17 years.
This year it was medals not pots for straight final winners that masters events tend to become, but victory still sweet.
On the saturday Bill & Paul won their first event in the pair with the four losing to Nottingham.
On sunday Bill Paul Steve & Richard formed a composite eight with Pengwern, taking victory against the Stourport crew we raced last year – losing last time by 2 feet but ahead by half a length this year. – so now one each with a re-match promised for next year. The four raced well against a strong Derby crew that certainly deserved the honours
Paul Woowat