News & Events
Invitation for research participants
15th October 2023
Hi ,
I am writing to you as I am conducting some post graduate level research as part of a psychology course at the University of Wolverhampton. It's a study entitled, 'Race against time: Understanding the relationship between adult rowers’ basic psychological needs and their age.' I am inviting any adult members of Cygnet Rowing Club to take part. I would be very grateful if you would use whichever social media group you prefer to circulate details to your members.
As we get older, we experience many changes. The relationship between our basic psychological needs and adult athletes’ age is not well understood. This study aims to fill that gap. By taking part, you will help us to gain a better understanding of how adult rowers’ need for autonomy is currently being met and whether this changes due to age and other factors. It has the potential to inform coaches and clubs and provide them with information to develop better products for adult rowers.
If you are willing to support the research, your members will be asked to complete a short questionnaire. The survey concludes with some basic demographic details. It should take no more than about ten minutes to complete.
I am keen to include as wide a range of active rowers, from all areas, ages, experience and backgrounds as I can. It would be great if Cygnet Rowing Club would be part of that.
To be eligible, participants must be 18 or over and fluent in English. They should also be active rowers or scullers (on the water on average twice or more every 28 days).
Please follow the link here or use the attached QR code to become involved.
I got your details from the British Rowing website. If you are not the right person to receive this email, please accept my apologies. It would be useful if you are able to forward it onto someone more appropriate.
Please feel free to contact me by replying to this email or at D.A.Houchin@wlv.ac.uk if you have any questions, otherwise, thank you for your time and consideration.
Best regards
Dave Houchin MSc, FHEA, CPBP, CMgr FCMI
The new Captain's log - September 2023
20th September 2023
Dear all
Welcome back from a rather disappointing summer to an even damper Autumn. Firstly, it is a huge honour to be asked to be asked to be your captain for the next year. I am sure you will all join me in resoundingly thanking Rupert for being a great captain over the last two years.
Secondly, some business. As you know it is our End of Season Dinner this Friday, can I encourage as many people as possible to wear club colours please. For those of you joining the Waddle we are starting at the club at 5.30pm. For those of you that don't know what a waddle is, come and find out! It promises to be a great evening- with some (very short) speeches!
For those of you that have had sight of the sign-up sheet for the Learn-to-row, can I encourage as many people to sign-up to help as possible. A huge thank you to Mustafa, Laurant and Charlotte for organising. Last night there were 6 guys in the tank at Barn Elms and all looked promising. If you are free this Saturday at 1.30pm, please sign up or contact Mustafa. We would ideally like to get an VIII out but need some boat sitters.
This Sunday is our first head race of the season. Again, please sign up on the volunteer sheets sent around. Scullers head is however, not too onerous, and tends to police itself so if you want a gentle introduction to volunteering for a head race this is it.
Now onto training. The training starts next week after the EOS Dinner. Our new weights sessions will be on Monday nights. We will be initially following last years schedule, until we find a new S&C coach. Ergs will be on Thursdays. We have full use of the shed on these nights. Sharon (BBL Captain) will review these arrangements at Christmas. At weekends, the shed is open access to both clubs but if we get a run of red flags, then one day will be priority Cygnet and vice versa (captains to decide).
Our first squad meeting will be on Thursday 28th Sept at 8.00pm, after our erg. Please come along with an idea of races you want to enter.
Finally, some social news. Our first joint social with BBL will be on Thursday 5th October so please put in diaries and make sure we have a good attendance.
See you all this Friday
MartinPhil Brown
10th September 2023
Philip Brown, 1946 – 2023
Not everybody who rows at Cygnet seeks copious silverware at high profile regattas; some are quite happy to beaver away quietly in the background, contributing to the greater good. One such member was Philip (‘Phil’) Brown, a club vice president, who passed away quite unexpectedly in his sleep on Monday, 30th August. He was 77.
Phil joined Cygnet in the mid-1970s. He had rowed at his Cambridge college and was keen to continue wielding a blade on a recreational basis. Cygnet amply fulfilled this aspiration. The club boasted a large pool of casual oarsmen in the 1970s and 80s, ably organised by Chris Gates who welcomed Phil as a co-convenor of this sometimes disparate squad. From there, it was but a short step to assisting (and ultimately organising) the London Business Houses Head, a head race for up to thirty likeminded business houses rowing clubs.
Phil was one of life’s boffins. Fresh out of university, he quickly found his niche in the Ministry of Defence. Richard Kemball-Cook, a contemporary rower and MoD employee recalls: “he (Phil) was more front line than me: in the late 1970s I remember him going on about these little toy planes that were to be the future of warfare. How right he was!”
Shaping the future of warfare may have been his day job, but attending to the minutiae of club business consumed much of his leisure hours. He rowed in various gentlemen’s Vllls (see below at bow in a Business Houses Head race), sat on various committees, served as club secretary and bungalow secretary, often appeared at regattas as a supporter (with his faithful caravan in tow) and cajoled family members into producing endless felt pennants for Tideway events. Chris Gates had trained Phil well and they would both become staunch supporters of St Neots regatta, always a firm Cygnet favourite.
A great believer in the ethos of civil service rowing, Phil and his long-term companion Rubina Curtis, president of BBLRC, regularly attended annual conferences of the Civil Service Sports Council. Many a time, unsuspecting CSSC officials were caught off guard by searching questions from the floor as Phil and Rubina grilled them on policy towards rowing, rarely missing an opportunity to remind them of the proud history of the Civil Service Rowing Association.
Earlier this year, he accepted an invitation to attend a regional AGM of the CSSC. As he reported back, it was clearly a disappointing experience: “Most of the attendees could be described as ‘mature’ and few looked ‘athletic’. It was a meeting of friends who made no attempt to welcome me, or even talk to me”. Never one to mince his words, he concluded “if this is typical of CSSC operations around the country, the interest in team sports is minimal”.
Still, lest anybody thought Phil was a blinkered bureaucrat, he was a great steam train enthusiast, regularly volunteering with one of the local heritage lines. Gadgets fascinated Phil and he often arrived at regattas with the latest cameras, not to mention smart cars. An IT whizz, Phil kept everything on his computer and had built up a large digital library of civil service crews, a valuable supplement to both club’s archives.
For many of us, our last encounter with Phil will have been at Old Blades on the Friday of Henley Royal Regatta, when he and Rubina could be seen ‘working the room (or perhaps the garden on this occasion)’. A steadfast companion of Rubina’s, he never failed to enquire about members’ health and wellbeing and always had the club’s best interests at heart.
Phil’s funeral will be held on19th October at 12.30pm at St Peter's Church, Church Lane, Wrestlingworth, Sandy SG19 2EU, a few miles east of his beloved Biggleswade on the B1042.
Paul Rawkins, September 2023
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