Well, what a weekend!
Well done to all the rowers and volunteers who made it such a good few days. Congratulations in particular to the Mas C 4+ of Hilary, Lesley, Zoe and Annabelle who won their category – and this after Annabelle had rowed in the IM1 4- with Jenny, Cara and Clemmy that came 2nd in their category the day before.
Great rows also from the IM2 4+ of Lucy, Nick, Abi and Ellie, the Mas 4x of Bec, Jo, Kate and Sharon and the Mas C 4+ of Sue, Rachel, Maria and Shevaun – particularly impressive given that it was the first time the Mas C 4+ had been out as a crew!
Thinks like this aren’t just about the rowing (though it is very important!) – BBLers also marshalled, helped with the boating, handed out numbers and – most important of all – sold lots of bacon sandwiches. We made nearly £500 of profit on the tea stall- special mention to novices Philippa and Sian who manned the stall for much of the afternoon, smiling all the time. Oh, and we also provided traditional BBL hospitality to visiting crews … I think we have a standing invitation to Northwich RC now!
Training for the rest of the yearI think racing crews will be taking a well earned rest this week. After that we’ll be doing mixed 8s for a couple of weeks – mixing up the intermediate, development and happy monday squads. This will almost certainly be Thursday 12, Saturday 14, and Thurs 19. I’d strongly encourage all intermediates / HMs to make yourself available for those outings – it will be really important for helping us to move on and develop across the squads. I’ll be in touch later in the month with details of how we’ll be selecting 8s head crews – participation in the mixed outings all feeds into this process.
Sculling ‘mince pie’ – 21 December
Just as 8s have their plum pudding, we thought it would be good to give BBL and Cygnet single scullers their own opportunity to race a long way, four abreast through bridges (obviously not this bit, if you are from the PLA and reading this), and have a drink or four afterwards. The plan is to race in singles from the crossing point above Brentford to Barnes Bridge, starting in reverse speed order. If you’re interested let me know, and give me an idea of your speed (eg, who you’re faster /slower than). Racing will probably start about 11am depending on tide times.
For the more traditional, there’s also the Quintin plum pudding race, in which 8s from all the Tideway clubs race from the pink house to Chiswick Bridge. It is a LOT of fun. Insider intelligence suggests it will be 22nd December but we have to wait to be invited, so watch this space.
Weights
I am just confirming with Kevin whether we’ll have weights on 15th. There will be no weights on 8th December.
Subs
Just a reminder that arrangements for subs will be changing in the new year, as per my earlier email. We’ll be emailing out later this month with details of prices and direct debit arrangements.
Novice weekend – 14 / 15 December
Volunteers please to go out with the novices on their training weekend. We were all novices once, and all benefited from others giving their time to help us progress. It would be great if we could have lots of volunteers – please let Clare / Carry know if you can help.
Christmas party
This Saturday! There will be a raffle, so please do donate raffle prizes (there was a box in the changing rooms but I think it has been ‘tidied’ away – perhaps put donations above the cox boxes while we’re trying to find it again). Looking forward to seeing lots of you then.
Have an enjoyable – and restful – week
Katy