News & Events
Captain's Update, 19th January
1st February 2025
Dear Cygnets,
It’s been a strong start to the year with full sheds, lots of hard work on the water, and no one getting hypothermia! Bit of an all-sorts email so do please read.
First, next Saturday is Quintin head. We are not racing as we wanted to stay in small boats in January, but we do still need club volunteers to help- as previously said, this helps bring in important funds for the club. Plus, there will be bacon sarnies on sale so it’s generally a good thing to do! Please sign up on the link in the WhatsApp group. We will train on the water first so not a big time commitment to stay for an extra hour or two- plus you’ll get to see more on how head races work.
Second, just a reminder to double check the club when leaving. If you are the last one out, check the lights and make sure all doors are locked. There’s been a couple of instances recently!
Third, this year is a special anniversary for the club. It’s the 60th year of our relationship with German club Benrath. There is more detail here. We want to celebrate this at henley this year as well as to send more crews to the annual Rhein marathon in the autumn. Thanks to Neil and co for doing some great organising so far!
Any questions - let me know. I’m away for the next week or so but still contactable on email or WhatsApp.
CheersDomCaptain's update, 5th January 2025
5th January 2025
Dear Cygnets
Happy new year! I hope you all had a good break wherever you spent it and have set the resolution to drop 20 secs off your 2K...
It's back to all systems go with Cygnet. I have already been impressed with our first weekend's training - in pretty cold conditions on Saturday, and then heavy rain on Sunday - not many other clubs were out! This update covers upcoming races, the plan for training in the next couple of months, and a special plea from me.Upcoming races
Our attention now turns to the big end-of-winter race: the Head of the River (HORR). This takes place on 22nd March. For those who are new to the sport, it is fantastic spectacle of 400 eights belting down the Thames from Chiswick bridge to Putney (c. 7km) in a time-trial. It is a chance for us to see how our winter training has gone and ranks us against clubs from across the country, and indeed some international crews.
Whilst that is the focus, we will also be entering an 8+ for Hammersmith Head on the 23rd February. This is a slightly shorter race but will allow us to get invaluable race experience.Please can you sign-up with your availability for these races as soon as possible, as well as your availability (as far as you know at the moment) for the water sessions over the next couple of months (just as an indication). Key selection criteria will be outlined below. To enter we also require people to have their British Rowing membership up to date - with the 'Race' membership. Details can be found here.
Training
We will continue with our training days being:
Monday 7pm - Weights
Wednesday 7pm - Ergs
Saturday 8am - Water session; 10am - Erg
Sunday 8am and 10am - both on the waterOn the water, we want to continue focussing in January on getting people out in small boats. This allows us to improve our technical ability, and we will then use the small boats to test people's boat speed - potentially with a few races in the coming weeks - which will help us select the crew for HORR.
As part of this, I'm really happy to see how well people are doing with our new 'floats' for singles with Simon. There has been fantastic progress and we will continue doing this throughout January.On the land, the main thing is building up our endurance base for a 20+ minute race in March. I will shortly let you know when the next 5K test will be (likely late Jan/early Feb), but we will look to do at least two before HORR.
Coaching
A key part of this is our coaching. Simon has been great in getting so many people into singles in recent weeks and that will continue. Wes is due to return in early February - and will then reume retaking the weights and Sunday sessions.Special plea
We are short of a couple of voluntary postions at the moment. One is someone to run our '300 Club' - details can be found here. Another really key one is for a organising in advance the boating for races where Cygnet hosts multiple clubs (and this brings in money which allows us to buy new equipment).
If you are interesting in volunteering for any roles in the club - please do just drop me a line!Cheers,
DomRoy Ellison
29th November 2024
Roy Ellison, 1933–2024
It is with sadness we record the death of Roy Ellison at the age of 91 on Saturday 23 November following a short illness.
Roy joined Cygnet in the early 1960s (his application form has long since gone astray) and counted Mike Arnold-Gilliat, Colin Dominy, Len Huggett, Peter Jeffs, Lawrence McVeigh and Peter Roche among his contemporaries.
The 1960s were a lean time for Cygnet and silverware was sparse. Nonetheless, Roy and his generation were no strangers to adversity, having been among the last to do National Service, and he and his contemporaries kept the club going through this lacklustre era when Cygnet found it hard to boat competitive crews.
Roy’s first love was football: a gifted amateur, he had honed his talents while serving in the RAF in the Far East. As an ex-national serviceman, he came to rowing relatively late: aged thirty something, he would have been classed as a veteran. However, his innate strength and agility stood him in good stead and he soon acclimatised to life on the water.
Lawrence McVeigh, a lifelong friend, recalls I think he joined Cygnet in 63 or 64 as I raced with him, Mick Clifford and Jimmy Dunlop. We won Novice Fours at Peterborough in 1963 or 64. Hamstrung by a lack of new members and poor equipment, it would be some time before Roy ascended through the ranks to ‘junior’ and ‘junior-senior’. Still, there was no shortage of in-house events to keep him occupied.
Business houses and public sector rowing were in their element in the 1960s. Scratch Vllls events, the forerunner of the Business Houses Head, were regular features of the rowing calendar, along with private matches against Oxford and Cambridge colleges and the Armed Forces. As an active committee member, Roy played his part in organising these in-house contests, not to mention addressing the ever present concern of fund raising. His legacy lives on as one of the team who successfully launched the then 200 Club in 1969.
Norman Cowling, one of the new intake of graduates in the late 1960s, recalls Roy as a great club member, down to earth and usually wise cracking. Roy was strong and someone you enjoyed rowing with - a vital sort of club man who would turn out in any crew in any seat, someone we looked up to and relied upon.
Patience was rewarded in the fullness of time. Thus, in 1969 he rowed in an Vlll (pictured with Roy at four) that won ‘juniors’ at Chiswick and Putney Town before competing in ‘junior senior’ class at Richmond, Kingston, Staines and Barnes & Mortlake. While silverware narrowly eluded them at the latter events, the message was clear: Cygnet was no longer in the doldrums.
In 1972, club fund raising received a shot in the arm when Cygnet was invited to do a waterborne publicity stunt for Ind Coope Brewery extolling the virtues of Double Diamond: I’m only here for the beer….it’s DD. As Roy Alder, the bow man in the eight which took part, recalls, Roy was one of the fortunate four who appeared on the advertising hoarding, rowing at three.
The poster lives on in the club’s annals and for many years a larger than life version adorned a wall in our sister club Rudergesellshaft Benrath, a relationship that was forged during Roy’s era. Indeed, Roy was one of the party that made the second club visit to Benrath in 1972, in the wake of the inaugural visit in 1965. These were pioneering times.
Stardom had its place, but for Roy the best was yet to come. In 1973, together with Messrs Huggett, Jeffs and Roche, he won a veteran IVs event at Vesta International Veterans Regatta beating Barclays Bank and Frankfurt, Germany. It was a fitting finale to his competitive rowing career and an especially gratifying win for him and Jeffs, a fellow footballer turned rower.
In later years, Roy continued to make appearances at Old Blades on Henley Friday, as well as the ‘old hands’ winter gatherings at Leander Club and the Civil Service Club. Always cheerful, he never missed an opportunity to liven up the proceedings with the odd wise crack.
Roy is survived by Julia, his spouse of more than half a century, son James, daughter Sarah and a multitude of grandchildren. His funeral will take place at 16.30 on 6 December at Loughborough Crematorium.
With thanks to Lawrence McVeigh, Norman Cowling, Roy Alder and Richard du Parcq
Paul Rawkins, 28 November 2024
