Cygnet Weekly Update: Tuesday 31st March

Evening All,

This should just about make it as a Monday night update... First things first, although it was a bit touch and go towards the end of last week, after a couple of disappointing years both the Veterans' Head of the River Race and the Head of the River Race happened at the weekend, and Cygnet were represented on both days.

On Saturday morning, sickness initially left the Masters B crew a man down but we were able to drag Gareth out of his bed to fill the empty seat and enjoyed a decent race, finishing 7th out of 11 in a very competitive field in a time of 20:18. Our Masters F crew also had a good row and finished just under 90 seconds further back, coming in 8th out of 19 in 21:47. On Sunday our novice crew also enjoyed a good row and finished 10th out of 14 in a time of 21:55 - there were quite a few HoRR first timers in the crew, who all did an excellent job coping with some pretty trying conditions while marshalling, racing, and then probably the worst bit - rowing back to the boathouse from Putney (into a wall of wind by all accounts).

From all three crews, a big thank you to everybody who has contributed towards getting them to the start line - coxes, coaches and subs etc. And as ever we need to say a big thank you to the people from both clubs who helped out over the two days doing all the hard work around the clubhouse to make sure everything happened as planned.

It is also worth mentioning that these occasions are just as much social events as they are competitive, and the bar was definitely put to good use once everybody was showered. Our friends from RG Beneath had brought a barrel of alt bier with them, our esteemed Chairman and Mucha enjoyed it so much that they belted out their version of 'Simply the Best' a little later in the evening. On a more serious note we also raised a toast to Peter Sly on the Saturday afternoon - I think I would be correct saying he would have been very happy to see the club buzzing with activity as it was for most of the weekend.

What Next?

Dave has gone away for a couple of weeks to put the results into a big spreadsheet and figure out how we have done once you take account of the overall winner's time, category winner's time, number of Olympians competing etc etc. Once he is back we will (I think) be arranging a squad meeting to see what people would like to get out of the regatta season, which starts at Hammersmith in a little less than four weeks, in the meantime:

This Week

Tuesday is still squad erg night - 8 x 100m with 2min rowing light between each one. Rate capped at 30.

Thursday night - no food planned in the bar this week, but those who are around may well be heading to the pub so let Cris know if you are going to be there.

For the weekend, please put your availability into the spreadsheet (complete it for the whole of April ideally) so Sue can plan outings where possible.

Race Fees - I am told by the treasurer that a lot of us owe money. I have checked and he is right (myself included), if you don't have the bank details let me know, otherwise we should all be settling up as soon as possible. Maybe even overpay a little bit to cover the first few regattas...

Further ahead, it is Sculling Camp the weekend after Easter - let Nick know if you are planning to attend.

I think that is all, just slipped into Tuesday morning.

Ian.