News & Events
Captain's update, 13th July
15th July 2025
Mea culpa, I haven't done a squad update in a while but as the below shows, it has been a busy summer! 3 months of intensive regatta racing, brilliant training, and the odd social beer(s) means that time has flown.
Regatta summary
I won't go through every regatta in detail, but a big shout-out to everyone who has committed to the squad during the summer season. We have progressed leaps and bounds, building on the engines we built during the winter in the gym to excellent improvement on the water in the summer.
The regatta season started with Hammersmith in late April, where we had a 4+ and a 4x- race very competitively, but ultimately both lost to the eventual winners. It was the first regatta for many, and good dusting off the cobwebs for everyone else. We then had a few race at Chiswick in early May, before a great day's racing at Peterborough later in the month - with the Tom/Dom pair reaching the final in a competitive pairs field, ultimately just being outdone at the last hurdle.June saw us compete at Walton & Weybridge in a 4x-, before a bumper entry at Barnes and Mortlake where again we were within just feet of winning both the 4+ and the 4x-. Annoying but it showed the progress we had made over the summer. A quick lessons-learnt and on we marched to Kingston....
And Kingston saw us get our first win of the season, in a high-calibre coxless four category - with wins against Maidenhead and UCL/Bentham in the final. A particular well done to Benjy, Jordan and Tom for their first win in Cygent lycra!We have one regatta left, Henley Town and Visitors on 2 August. We have a bumper entry across pairs, fours and an eight, and so it represents a great chance to go out with a bang!
S'camp
A key part of the squad's improvement has been a very successful "S'camp" weekend at the bungalow. Particular thanks to Tom and others who led on organising it - a massive success. I love the bungalow - a great chance to just row (oh, and drink the odd beer...) - but particularly this year where it was a lot of people's first time visiting. We are planning our next trip for early September so please do sign up on Fitclub so we can start organising accordingly!
Social
It has also been a great period for squad socials - none better than our weekend celebrating 60 years of the relationship with our German partner club, Benrath. The highlight was the Friday at Henley Royal Regatta - our annual social on steroids! Particular thanks to Neil and all others who organised the event - I think it is fair to say everyone enjoyed it!
OGM
Finally, there is the club OGM on Wednesday 23 July at 8pm after the squad training session. Please do come if you can - we will be taking a vote on buying a new boat (a coxed four) and also be voting in a new captaincy. It has been a pleasure being the Captain of Cygnet for the past 12 months - do let me know if you are interested and want to discuss it in more detail.
Onwards!
Regatta Crews
Hammersmith Regatta
4+ Clara, Jim A, Tom C, Dom M, Jordan H
4x- Benjy H, Theo T, Ollie R, Mustafa OChiswick
2x-: Ollie R, Mustafa OPeterborough
2- Dom M, Tom CWalton and Weybridge
4x- Charles J, Peter R, Jordan H, Benjy HBarnes and Mortlake
4+ Clara, Dom M, Tom C, Mickey W, Jordan H
4x- Charles J, Ollie R, Peter R, Will P
4x- Mustafa O, Octavian P, Alex H, Martin DKingston
4x- Charles J, Ollie R, Peter R, Will P
4- Dom M, Tom C, Benjy H, Jordan H (Win)Captain's update, 28th April
28th April 2025
Morning team!
And the summer racing season begins!
It’s been a very good month for us, building on the back of HORR. We’ve followed it up with some very strong 2k tests with PBs for the vast majority of the squad. We’ve established strong racing crews and done our first regatta.
We had two entries into Hammersmith this Saturday. The 4+ of Clara, Jim, Jordan, Dom and Tom C lost to the eventual winners of the event (UCL), and the 4x- of Benjy, Ollie, Theo and Mustafa gave a very respectable performance in the final, losing narrowly to London RC . We will build on this and be back stronger!
Thanks also to everyone who helped at the club day on Saturday. The boathouse and surrounding area are looking much better!
Looking ahead, we have a couple of crews entered into Chiswick regatta this Saturday- good luck! There is then a bit of a gap because a couple of events were cancelled. Please could you all detail your availability on the squad WhatsApp group poll with the regattas you can do so that I can plan crews again in advance.
I’m also really looking forward to s’camp in a few weeks time at the start of June. This is a great weekend and more detail is on Tom’s email or on the website here. The downside is organisation is required so please do help us by signing up asap, and do just ask if you have any questions!
Onwards,
DomCaptain's Update, 31st March
31st March 2025
Morning team
What a month! Apologies firstly - I hadn’t realised it had been so long since I last sent an update but it’s been a very busy March!
Head of the River – well done to the racing crew. There was great commitment from the whole crew which saw us overtake several crews and come 4/10 in our category. I’m pretty confident in saying this is the best Cygnet result for over ten years. I told you all that pesky work in the shed would pay off!
I’d also like to say thank you to all who volunteered over the weekend. These things don’t just happen, from launch drivers to directing 60+crews – it was a phenomenal effort. Particular thanks to those who were on hand to help during the awful events on the Sunday where one racer unfortunately passed away.
Racing season
We now get to the ‘proper’ racing- side by side regattas. We are very lucky to have several right on our doorstep, starting in late April. The provisional list that I want to send crews to is below - please sign up where you can before, ideally by cop Monday. I want to plan ahead with the captaincy and coaching team this week.In terms of crews, we are aiming for an intermediate 4, a development 4 and then a masters crew. I can only go so far in organising these - so I ask that once we set provisional crews, that you work together on organising outings etc. I don’t want to repeat the precedent from previous years of scratch crews at regattas!
Finally, please note scamp 6–8 June. We will be in touch with more details – although there is quite a bit of background on the website. Needless to say it’s a great opportunity for all to get some great water time, particularly in small boats for our newer members (the Thames is a nice swimming pool up there…)
Cheers,
Dom- 26 April, Hammersmith
- 3 May, Chiswick Amateur
- 10 May, Borne at Chiswick
- 31 May, Peterborough
- 7 June, Walton and Weybridge (as part of scamp)
- 14 June, Barnes and Mortlake
- 28 June, Richmond Regatta
- 12/13 July, Kingston Amateur
- 2 August,Henley Town & Visitors
