I hate pond weed

Today was the closest I’ve come yet to going in (having got out in the boat - see Splosh! for previous excursion into lake). Simon and I were coming back through the bridge and my bow side blade got completely and utterly stuck in the huge morass of weed. How we didn’t capsize I don’t know (all credit to Simon though, for managing to sit the boat). It then took me ages to extract my blade before we could get going again. Needless to say, light pressure was the order of the day through the bridge after that.

Has anyone got any ideas why it is so bad this year? It is getting so thick we’ll be able to walk across the lake soon!

More importantly, can anyone suggest how to get rid of the stuff, before someone really does themselves some damage?

Caldecotte Circus

Nothing like good weather for bringing out rowers! Monday evening was brilliant, warm, sunny and almost dead calm. The net result was the largest number of boats I’ve ever seen out on Caldecotte Lake at one time. We peaked at ten - a Mens’ Eight, a couple of Womens’ Coxed Fours, a Womens’ Coxless Quad, two Mens’ Doubles and four singles!

Where we were restricted to the South Lake at the start of the session, this made for some interesting traffic jams. This is definitely a new phenomenon, and the lake suddenly seemed quite small. Quite a few needs to “hold it up” during the evening.

The bridge is getting interesting just now; the good weather has led to an explosion in lake weed and going through the bridge is leading to a large number of crabs. Very interesting in singles and doubles!

Star Regatta

Not a good day at the races for the club. None of the five boats entered managed a single win, coming up against good opposition all round. The three juniors (Curt, Luke and Kieran) performed well, especially considering it was Luke and Kieran’s first single race and both Luke and Curt went out to the eventual winner (how big was this “kid” from Peterborough!).

The Women’s S3 4+ boat was beaten in a straight final by Star Club as was the Parent/Child 2x+ of Steve and James, coxed by yours truly.

Photos now on-line at http://mkrc.fotopic.net

Splosh!

Training again tonight, again quite good weather. Just as well, as Alex now knows that when told to “hold the boat” while your partner gets in to a double, he means hold it HARD. Not doing so results in a rapid capsize; still, it was warm so we just got on with it. Didn’t do too badly considering it was only Alex’s second time sculling and first time in a double. We even got up to both of us sculling.

The ladies were out in a coxed four, with Oliver coxing for the first time, the senior guys getting in more time in the coxless and a couple of singles.

Finished off with loading the boats for Saturday - nice to see three singles being loaded! These are for the juniors (Curt, Luke and Kieran), so a good turn out for them.

Sunny and no wind - this can’t be a rowing night, surely

What a great evening for training last night. Really bright and sunny (and hot) and virtually a flat calm. It’s amazing how the conditions make you more up for a good training session. We had quite a busy lake, with some serious work being done out there.

There was the Mens’ Coxless Four, carrying on their hard training, gearing up for Henley, the Womens’ Coxed Four that will be racing at Star this week-end, a Novice Eight a double and myself in a single. The Women were certainly pushed through their paces by Clarissa; she’s sussed the crews’ tactics of keeping her chatting at the end of a length, allowing them to drift halfway back. She now makes them back down to get in a full run if she realises what they’re up to. This crew includes Lindy - hard to believe she’s only been rowing three months or so. She already looks the part and is clearly up for the race on Saturday.

The Novice Eight is coming along as well, with five new guys in it. It’s really nice seeing so many new faces (just wonder what’s happened to some of the “old hands” though?).

Jo was out in the double with one of the juniors (”Twin 1″ while “Twin 2″ coxed the Eight) but the heat and being back at school full time after exams exacted its toll…

It was such a nice evening I just enjoyed myself sculling. My hands (and back and legs) are telling me all about it this morning though. Still, all good practice ahead of the week-end.

On that subject, it’s sad to see another local club struggle with their event. After Northampton had to cancel their Regatta due to lack of interest (I believe MKRC were the only club to put in an entry), seeing Star have to cut their event from two days to one is both a shame and quite worrying. Does this show a decline in interest in rowing, people being priced out of events or (worst of all) growing snobbery of clubs not wanting to complete in “small” events? Let me know your thoughts?

Cambridge Head2Head/Regatta

Our first time out at this event saw a couple of wins and some very interesting racing in the Regatta. It was a long, long day, leaving the club house at 6:00 a.m. to get to Cambridge in time to boat for Division 1 at 8:30. The first crew off was the Women’s S3 8+ crew in the Head2Head - a mere 2.6km paddle down the Cam. Trouble is, you then turn round and do it again in reverse. Some of those corners are seriously wicked as well. The next crew out was the coxless quad; this started out as a Vet B crew but as one of us had to drop out we shifted to a S3 4x and added our nominal vet male (actually, a 17 year old female…). Still, it worked as we posted the fastest time for a quad!!! OK, we were the ONLY quad, but it still sounds good.

On to the regatta in the afternoon. We had a prime view, boating from Pembroke College BC (courtesy of knowing the VC!), of the sheer mayhem at the start. Side by side racing here is not for the faint hearted, with the first half dozen races resulting in as many clashes, with large numbers of enforced crabs. Still, great fun if you were watching.

Our first crew in the regatta was the Women’s Novice 4, who won their first round against CCRC. Having watched previous races, our ladies were ready when the inevitable happened and the two crews clashed blades almost straight off the start. They held on well and were sure of the win when CCRC crabbed near the end. This race and the exertions of the Head2Head caught up with them in the final, when they lost out to Cambridge 99’s.

Next up were the S3 Quad - thanks to the Rob Roy crew who agreed to the status change from Vet. This was a really hard race but our crew finally ran out winners by 1/3 length. Not bad for a crew that hadn’t rowed together before and had one crewman in his first ever sculling race.

Last crew of the day were Steve and I as Men’s Vet C 2x. Not a good race, with me losing count of the number of crabs and fluffed strokes over the 400m course.

It was certainly an interesting, event packed day. First off, I’d told Graham the wrong time to meet at the club house, so he had to drive over, having got to a deserted club house an hour after we’d gone. Then Terri and Charlene arrived late, having waited for the trailer (which was in front of them). Next drama was putting the eight in the river, when Karen noticed a rather large amount of water coming in through the join - those wing nuts seemed like a good idea at the time, but you can’t tighten them enough.

Later on, when going to rig the four, we found we’d remembered the boats and blades, but there was a marked shortage of riggers. Real thanks to Champions of the Thames for loaning us a boat, allowing the girls to race (cueing great celebrations from Charlene when she found it was stroke rigged instead of our usual bow rigging, meaning she didn’t need to stroke).

We even made the local press as well in the LBO
and the MK Citizen

Bedford Amateur Regatta

Only one crew entered today (the rest of us saving ourselves for tomorrow - see later post) this being the Men’s S2 4+ boat. They beat Kingston A crew fairly convincingly in the first round (2 lengths) before going out to Lea by 3 lengths in the second. Interestingly, the same Lea crew beat Star Club B crew by 4 lengths - this is the crew containing our club coach - so this avoided a real grudge match.

Full results as ever at the BRC site

Abingdon Head 2008

Another windy, cold and grey day, so it must be rowing time again. Sunday was the club’s first visit to the Abingdon Head. We put up four crews in all, these reflecting the growing strength of the womens’ squad with an S3 8+ (first time “Great Ouse” has raced under MKRC colours), an S4 4+ and a VC 2x- entered by them, compared to just a VC/D 2x- from the men.

The eight did really well, coming second (of three) - they lost out to a CORC crew but considering that our crew comprised mainly novices (all the points in the boats coming from two ladies who accumulated their points a long time ago and can’t regress them - sore point) and the CORC crew were more all more experienced (info thanks to a “mole” at CORC!) it was a very strong row, beating Eton Excelsior. The S4 4+ didn’t do so well, finishing last despite a strong performance - however, they had all rowed in the eight and the stream was definitely stronger by the time of the last division.

Both of the doubles were first outings for the crews. Steve L and I came third out of four, but with a competitive time. The ladies weren’t quite so much on the pace but, again, this was their second race of the day.

Must make mention of the marshalling at the boating area - this was as slick and organised as I’ve seen at any event. Well done to Abingdon RC for this.

Shame about how long it took to get the results out - we were waiting around for ages as our last crew was in Division 4 and wanted to know how they got on before going home.

Still, even considering the weather and lack of pots, it was a good day. A nice location, definitely one to consider at Regatta time!

Bedford Small Boats Head 2008

A good turn out of crews today, although without a great deal of success. Highest placed crew was the Mens’ S2 4+ crew who placed second in their category and eighteenth overall; not a bad result given the very limited water time we’ve had recently (see last post!) and that Rick hadn’t rowed for a couple of months at all. Really pleasing was the number of juniors that we put out. This was the highest by some distance and included two rowers in their first event. The Womens S3 4+ placed well in their category - especially considering they are rowing this high up because of Karen’s points (rant time: why, when she hasn’t rowed for 20 years can she only regress to four points - this automatically puts her up against current high level rowers) and again, limited training. The other crews all struggled to make any impact which isn’t surprising given the calibre of the event and that most of the crews were first time out.

I don’t know what it is about this Head and the weather though. The first three divisions were in bright sunshine, a nice spring morning. However, as our quad rowed down to the start, the clouds built up and while we were waiting to spin and start, the hail started…

2K is bad enough at the best of times but when its in a torrential downpour, that really isn’t fair. And it was the first time I’d stroked the boat in a race.

A special mention has to go to Will Jordan though. He raced in no less than three events on the day, as part of the second S2 4+, with Matt (in his first ever race) in a N2x- and finally with us in the S3 4x-. The scary thing is that he seemed to be the least shattered of the four of us at the end of the race in our quad!

Full results for the day can be found at the excellent Bedford Rowing Club results site and my photos are on-line at http://mkrc.fotopic.net

Another windy day

What is it with the weather at the moment? We did get out on the lake this morning but it gave us a pretty good idea of what coastal rowing must be like. The shortage of men continues, with only the top four getting out in the new coxless plus yours truly. I tried (briefly) going out in the single but after being blown back onto the bank then into pontoon (after nearly capsizing twice) I figured that an ergo was a better bet. The women got out, again in the eight, including a newcomer, Lindy. She did incredibly well, especially considering the conditions.

The crazy thing is that Thursday night was so calm we were able to get out then, despite it being a bit dark. Will and I were definitely cheating though, practicing in the double - this means we will have some water time ahead of Abingdon Head! It went pretty well, despite a (very) close encounter with a buoy on the last run. The girls got out in the coxless quad but after an even closed encounter with the dam wall, decided to come in. Martin then did some coaching with them until they froze. Still, a good evening, and much, much better than circuits!