News & Events
Captain's Log: August
2nd August 2023
Hello Cygnets
This is your Captain speaking with a round up on this week’s racing action and some key dates ahead for your diaries over the summer.
1. Regatta Report: Henley Town and Visitors - Sat 29 July
The squad wrapped up its summer racing campaign with an exciting day out in Henley for the Town & Visitors Regatta for our coxed four, quad and eight, who were all in action. Special thanks to our trailering team of Jo Broadhurst & Henrik Jonstromer for towing our boats safely out and back.
Against our old friends of the RAF (who pressed on for a convincing victory) and Poole Amateur RC Cygnet was in a real tussle right up to the line for second place, coming up short by just a canvas.
Meanwhile the quad came second of three (easily) against Curlew and Falcon rowing clubs in an all avian final, another strong showing by the Cygnet crew against a much stronger Curlew.
Highlight of the day goes to the racing eight with a real tussle down the course up against Linacre College Boat Club who got off to a strong start but the resurgent Cygnet viii just ran out of river in the final battle to the line of which topped off some exciting side by side action. The verdict on the line was 1 length - all agreed “it was much closer than that”.
Special mention and congratulations to Chris Jageurs racing in Vesta colours for a triumphant race in the Open Doubles to beat Oxford Academicals and Falcon RC.
8+ Noel Davison
Cox Clara Fennessy, 8 Henrik Jonstromer, 7 Dom Marshall, 6 Matthew Gutteridge, 5 Tom Clarke, 4 Rupert Bailey, 3 Octavian Puzderca, 2 Tom Broadhurst, 1 Mustafa Özyurt4x Quad: Big Malc / Collier
4 Henrik Jonstromer, 3 Octavian Puzderca, 2 Tom Broadhurst, 1 Mustafa Özyurt4+ Neil Pickford
Cox Clara Fennessy, 4 Matthew Gutteridge, 3 Dom Marshall, 2 Rupert Bailey, 1 Tom Clarke2. A Special thanks and farewell: Coach Beth
With the end of our summer racing, so our formal training comes to an end and with it our time with Coach Beth Davidson who has now been with Cygnet for four seasons, having seen us through the highs and lows on the water and off, guiding us through two seasons disrupted by Covid but in the time we’ve spent on the water brought a huge amount of development to the squad and the club. I’d like to pay enormous thanks for all that Beth has done for us, for all the efforts on and off the water and the real progress that we have made under Beth’s stewardship. Beth is not going too far up stream and will be coaching Putney Town Masters Women’s Squad for next season, where we wish Beth every success, and look forward to opportunity to celebrate at our end of Season Dinner in September.
We continue to search for our next Cygnet coach.
3. Summer Training & Outings
With the arrival of August we enter now our traditional ‘off-season’ as we take a bit of down time and the incoming captaincy team has the opportunity to prepare for the season ahead, outings will now be much more informal and organised around those who are around and available, mostly on a show and row basis.
For signed-off steers there is the opportunity for more independent outings, please take a moment to refresh your knowledge of the navigation and safety requirements of the river and ensure boats remain well looked after. Fleet.
Please continue to log boats in an out (whiteboard & Boat Log Book) and report any incidents or damage as necessary. It’s of course best practice to go afloat with others and to stay within you experience level / comfort zone. More info on navigation and our steers policy is available here.
Please get in touch if you’d like to find out more about steering boats and getting signed off.
4. Ordinary General Meeting
A reminder that this year’s OGM and Captaincy elections will be taking place on Monday 7th August at 19.00 – Club Secretary will be circulating details of the online option for joining but the nominations sheet is up in the Cygnet Changing Rooms with a number of positions on the captaincy and committee being available.
5. CSSC Matters
We recently attended a series of Civil Service Departmental sports days at the Kings House Sports Ground and in Teddington as we look to build our links with the CSSSC and the wider civil service. These were very successful in attracting Whitehall talent to complete our 250m erg challenge and to drum up recruitment to return to row and learn to row from the autumn. A huge thanks to my fellow volunteers who lent a hand with these days to raise our profile and help build the civil service pipeline of rowers.
6. Upcoming events – We have a host of events to look forward to before Heads Seasons gets fully under way, please note for your diary, with more info to follow from the new captaincy team when in post.
- Autumn Sculling Camp 1st September – 3rd September,
- Club day 9th September
- Autumn Learn to Row 10th September – 15th October
- End of Season Dinner Friday 22nd September, 19:00 (to be preceded by a short waddle)
Kit Window
3rd May 2023
Delighted to inform you that by popular demand we have set up a new kit window with Crewroom for the next week, closing on Monday the 8th. The login password has been circulated by email
A great opportunity to top up your kit drawer or invest in some fresh racing kit. A reminder that our primary racing strip is the all blue all in one. As usual, a minimum order applies. Any questions or problems, please contact the captain
Tim Senior
27th February 2023
Timothy James Senior
1971 – 2023
It is with great sadness that we record the untimely death of Tim Senior at the age of 51. Tim collapsed and died while competing in the Henley Fours and Eights Head on 11 February 2023. A highly accomplished individual both on and off the water, for many of us our most recent memory of Tim will have been at the University Boat Race in 2022, when he was much in evidence as the new Chairman of the Boat Race Company.
Tim enjoyed an illustrious career as an oarsman on the Cam, the Isis and the Tideway and was rarely far from a boat throughout his lifetime. Here at Cygnet, we like to think we played a small but decisive part in his rowing achievements. Tim rowed in some of the most successful crews at Cygnet during the 1990s, not least an entry for the Henley Wyfold lVs in 1996 which won several heats, greatly raising the club’s profile at that time. For me, there was the added satisfaction of watching the crew power its way down the Henley course in a boat bearing my name.
Memories of that era are best told by some of the crew mates he rowed with at that time, notably Mark Davies, who was club captain, and Guy du Parc Braham. Guy was the first to break the news, which reached us on the eve of the club’s 133rd birthday, thus enabling us to take a moment to remember Tim.
Guy wrote: “I have just heard that Tim Senior, Chairman of the Boat Race Company and ex-Cygnet member, died tragically today while racing at Henley 4s and 8s. Some of you will remember Tim rowed with us in the mid-90s. I was in crews with him that raced at HRR as well as in various Heads. I think Paul (Club Historian) has previously described this period as our most successful for the club. My strongest memory of rowing with Tim was not Henley Royal but the best Cygnet race I ever had, which was the Business Houses Head of 1996. It was a perfect piece of rowing from start to finish. We won the whole event by more than 40 seconds”.
Mark Davies has since penned a more fulsome account of his memories of Tim which is reproduced in full here:
“My memories of Tim are of a highly confident and motivated individual who joined Cygnet in the mid-1990s as a civil servant fresh from Uni and with no rowing points but with plenty of ambition and rowing experience gained at Cambridge University.
His rowing status meant he was eligible to row any level including Novice and Senior 3 crews which my predecessor as Captain, Chris Shea, selected him in (as would any canny captain juggling points to construct competitive crews) but then left it to others, like me, to break the news to him knowing that the reaction would be less than ecstatic. The best way to avoid selection in those crews was to win many races, which Tim subsequently did at such Cygnet regatta favourites as St Neots.
He was always destined for better things and a few years later in 1996 with the maximum twelve rowing points accumulated Tim was in the VIII that won the Business Houses Head Race by nearly a minute, one of the finest VIIIs rows I’ve had.
He was also in the Elite 4– crew that had many successes that year and beat two crews at Henley Royal Regatta to reach the Friday, traditionally club day for Cygnet.
Shortly after that Tim moved on to London RC and latterly UTRC.
In the Cygnet elite 4- crew he was easily the most dedicated to training, achieving phenomenal ergo scores. In the run up to Henley following a relatively disappointing Metropolitan Regatta, Tim proposed an ‘alcohol ban’ as part of a ramping up of our efforts; this was initially met with incomprehension and the proposal was negotiated down to (I believe) something close to one alcohol unit/day. However, he was less than pleased when at a subsequent training outing one of the crew announced he’d already had his monthly quota the night before.
Another thing that was anathema to Tim was quiet reflection: after warming up for the HRR qualifiers we had an hour or so before going afloat so the crew decision was to leave the busy boating area, sit quietly in the car and focus, gathering thoughts conserving energy etc. Not Tim: after less than a couple of minutes he exploded with nervous energy, burst out of the car and had to pace up and down for the remaining time.
I like to think that differences of approach within a crew are part of what makes a successful crew - a bit of antagonism but pulling together when it counts. Tim helped to provide that focus for us.”
Tim’s father, Eddie, recalls with great pride “the privilege of following the Umpire’s launch several times at Henley”. The Senior family would be very pleased to hear from anybody at Cygnet who rowed with Tim. Please share your thoughts and memories in he comments below. If you would like to email Tim's father, Edward, please contact the webmaster who will forward on details
Tim is survived by his wife, Sarah, a daughter and two sons, both of whom have turned into very able oarsmen (courtesy of Radley College), as has a niece, Alice, who has taken to coxing like a duck to water. – the legacy lives on! Tim's family have also donated a trophy to Cygnet to be presented to the most promising novice.
A private funeral for close family will be held in Kent; a service and celebration of Tim’s life will be held in Henley at a later date (to be advised by the family).
Paul Rawkins, February 2023
