Captain's Log: August

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 Özyurt

4x Quad: Big Malc / Collier
4 Henrik Jonstromer, 3 Octavian Puzderca, 2 Tom Broadhurst, 1 Mustafa Özyurt

4+ Neil Pickford
Cox Clara Fennessy, 4 Matthew Gutteridge, 3 Dom Marshall, 2 Rupert Bailey, 1 Tom Clarke

2. 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)