Sunday 12 December 2010

Christmas Head

DSCN1539-robbers We won (jointly with Cantabs) the Mens IM3 VIII category in a time of 7:02; see results.

We also entered a Womens VIII, two mixed VIII's, and two pairs, all of which performed creditably:


104 Chesterton Rage Against the Machine cra m IM3 8+ 1 7:02
103 Champion of the Thames campbell cra m IM3 8+ 1 7:02
225 Chesterton Band Aid cra mx Nv 8+ 2 8:08
218 Chesterton Westlife Invitational m IM3 2- 2 8:10
224 Chesterton Slade cra mx Nv 8+ 2 8:29
133 Chesterton Girls Aloud cra w Nv 8+ 1 8:35
245 Chesterton East 17 Invitational m Nv 2- 2 8:37


Refs



* William's blog

Thursday 28 October 2010

2010/2011 Club Committee

At the AGM, the following people were voted into club positions:

Club Captain:
Chris Wood

Men's Captain:
James Tidy

Women's Captain:
Freya Morrissey/Amy Tillson

Secretary:
Amy Tillson

Treasurer:
Sarah Coates

Equipment Officer:
Andy Southgate

Webmaster:
Andy Southgate

Kit Officer:
Beverley England

Water Safety Advisor:
Paul Holland

Social Secretary:
Becca Scourse

Friday 1 October 2010

Winter ergo league

Fired by excess beer at last nights AGM (doubtless to be blogged soon) Gary finally completed the last phase of the much-heraled Winter Ergo League: actually organising the first session. And so this lunchtime Paul, Gary and I went down to Queens, found out how to work the new safe, sat around for a bit, then finally confessed that we would actually have to do an erg. It was raining.

Out mighty awe-inspiring distances (for 30 minutes, of course) were:


William C 7,582
Gary D 7,307
Paul H 7,240


all of us are about 100 m off our years best. The rules of the competition aren't quite clear: the aim is that we all put in £10 and the winner - he (or she) who improves the most by Christmas - wins all. Improves meaning fraction, or distance, or sheer good looks - this has yet to be decided.

The rest of you are invited to join in.

Monday 20 September 2010

Boston Marathon 2010

Lincoln Stamp End Lock - Boston Rowing Club

River Witham

31 miles (50km). 4 hours, 42 minutes

At 5:30am, I departed for Lincoln rowing club in the company of 9 other crazy rowers. For the second time, I was to row the Boston Rowing Marathon in an VIII. Two other rowers from our club were to row the same distance in a pair.

We arrived at the rowing club, and unloaded the boat while one of the other rowers took the trailer to the other end of the course at Boston, before getting a lift back to Lincoln. This is a logistical nightmare for organisers, as the start and finish of the race are so far apart! As one of the organisers, I had to draw a diagram in the end so that I could get my head round where all the cars and rowers should be at any one time!

The weather did not look good. It was tipping it down as we put the boat together, and showed no signs of letting up. But as we pushed off at 10:56, the rain began to let up. By the time we reached Bardney's Lock, 13.5km further on, it had let up completely! The lock is the most stressful part of the race, with crews competing to get out and back in again as fast as possible. Once back on the river we settled into a good pace, averaging about a 2:30-2:40 split, so we were getting through roughly a kilometer every 5 minutes or so. The km markers are really the only way to know how far you've gone as there are few landmarks on the Witham! James is a great job of keeping us focused and rowing well. He also provided musical interludes by playing rousing tunes via an adaptor down the cox box speakers. We rowed to Smoke on the Water, Don't Stop Me Now and the Ride of the Valkyries! Every 10km or so we had a break to take on water and food, but otherwise we just kept rowing.

I enjoyed this year's row more than last year. The actual rowing was better, the cox box lasted the whole length of the race, James's coxing was really very motivational and kept us better focused, and best of all we finished the race 20 minutes faster than last year!


Picture taken by Mel's brother on Will's camera. Taken form Will's flikr album


The crew from left to right and top to bottom: Mel, William D, Freya, William C, Jo, Anne, Joss, me, James. Six of us (Mel, William C, Anne, Joss and me) did it last year as well! Tom and Andy rowed the pair.

I survived without any blisters, and most people manged to avoid getting too many. Today, I just ache all over - especially in my legs!

Also see Will C's blog, with even a graph of our splits: http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2010/09/boston_marathon.php

Thursday 22 July 2010

Bumps, day 3: ladies day

w1-willow-day2 A day for the ladies: W1 and W2 both bumped up, so W2 are now on for blades tomorrow. Great stuff.

The men fared less well: M3 rowed over (twice) being sandwich boat. Still, the exercise is good for them. M2 rowed over, after closing to within a length of Cantabs 7 but losing it on Grassy. M1 went down about at the White House, painful.

Blogs:

* William (M2)
* Amy (W2)
* Paul Holland for the Cmabridge News.

Also, there are loads of pix on various facebook pages (the pix here is ripped from Jo Crisall's album. It is actually a pic from yesterday, but I haven't seen any from today yet). We should make some kind of collection thingy.



[Extra pic added, one of Ivan's says Amy, W2 from Wednesday (day 2)]

Wednesday 21 July 2010

Bumps, day 2

DSC_5084-cantabs-chesteron-city_crop

[M1 coming into the gut, chasing City 3 and being chased by Cantabs 2. Not a great pic (sorry) but you get an idea of the distances]

Results:

M1 - down 1
M2 - up 1
M3 - up 1, then row-over as sandwich boat of division 3

W1 - up 1
W2 - up 2

Bumps blogging so far:

* William (M2)
* Amy (W2)

Pix from...

Jo C: Video of W1's bump

Me: mostly M2 posing, and Men's first division.

Chris Woods: M2 and M3, conveniently uploaded to the clubs website; I can never work out how to do that :-)

JET:

* M1
* M3
* W2
* W2 bows

Bumps, day 1

Results

M1 - Row Over
M2 - Row Over
M3 - Down One

W1 - Row Over
W2 - Up One

Video of W2 Bumping City 8

Bumps blogging:

* Amy (W2):
* William (M2)

Known pix:

M1:
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204845

M2:
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204792
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204792

(and, for reference, the 25-26 bump:
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204789 Note no pix of
30/31 cos they bumped out. 27 look grim:
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204790).

M3:
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204732
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204733
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204734 :-(
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204735

W1:
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204819
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204820

W2:
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=204727

Wednesday 7 July 2010

M2 bumps preparation

Bumps preparation from an M2 viewpoint: I'm sure M1 and the Ladies can speak for themselves. So: a couple of weeks ago we too part in the Xpress head (see previous report) and we were, to be honest, a bit rubbish. Full results are here but, in brief, while M1 did well (9:19, 12 seconds down on City) we took 11:20 and got overtaken by a Cantabs crew (Gunning) who we had reason to suspect would be near us in the bumps. This was disappointing. Actually it was worse than that but this is a public forum.

Yesterday was the CRA Timed Race, and in true CRA style the results aren't up as I write this, so I refer you to my bootleg copy. Now (admittedly on a shorter course) we're less than a minute down on M1, and more importantly *we* overtook someone (a poor 99's third crew: alas it won't be 99's 3 in the bumps :-). Perhaps more importantly we beat the Cantabs crew (pretty sure it was the same one, it had AM stroking it again!) by 24 seconds of real time. With their Vets time adjustment they beat us by a few seconds of reported time but we don't care because, aha, there is no such adjustment in the bumps.

According to the CRA charts, and the assumption that they are Cantabs 8, they are the crew ahead of us on day 1, which would be promising, but I've known the charts to shift a little in the run-up. So who knows.

Anyway, lets play pretend: suppose all remains equal, and we're 24 seconds faster over 2,200 m. Boats are 90 feet apart [1] so call it 40 m on the safe side. A boat goes at 5 m/s let us say, so that is 8 seconds, so we need 2,200/(24/8) ~ 700 m to catch them. Hopefully I've got the maths right there, and I think I've erred on the safe side. That is perfectly doable, but given the chaos of the bumps almost anything could happen ahead of them in 700 m, so we have our work cut out.

Things we can do to get faster: bed down, obviously. That was our first row in the Corpus boat, and we weren't expecting a bow-rigged one, or one rigged so low. The blades were nice though. We didn't quite have our full crew. And we still have a bit more training to do (none of this affects any of the other crews, of course :-).

Tuesday 15 June 2010

X-press Head Race

Four Chesterton boats took part in the 2010 X-press Head race. The results were as follows:

M1, IM3 VIII, 9:19, 2nd overall
M2-3, novice VIII, 11:20
Women's novice VIII+ 11:43
Women's novice IV+ 12:34

Helped along by a tailwind the newly formed Chesterton M1 beat the club record for the head course by 9 seconds, not bad for a scratch crew. Lets see what we can do with a bit of practice.

Tuesday 4 May 2010

Wallingford

DSC_4558-boathouse_crop

Chesterton sent two IV's (well, all right, one-and-a-half, since there was some crew overlap) to Wallingford regatta on Eton's rowing lake. Despite poor weather and some excitement at the start we had a good time and achieved passable times. Read the full truth at Stoat.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

A Race Report

Long overdue! Both Jameses have been promising to write one but both have been too busy, so it was up to WC to write the first one:

http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2010/04/horror.php#more


I like the first picture, of all the blades!

Monday 12 April 2010

HoRR video



6 minutes and 5 seconds in- a good shot of us off the start line.

Monday 29 March 2010

HoRR/Vets Head Photos

Well done to everyone who rowed/coxed the Mens and Veterans's Heads at the weekend, especially the crazy people who did it twice! It was a great weekend for all concerned! Race Reports will follow shortly.

Mens Head
Crew

(302/420 with a time of 19.57)

Cox: James T
Stroke: Ralph H
7: James H
6: Tom W
5: William C
4: Tom M
3: Mike P-J
2: Chris W
Bow: Paul H



Vets Head Crew

(92/204 with a time of 15.04, beating loads of men-only boats!)

Cox James T
Stroke: Joss T
7: Claire H
6: Ralph H
5: James H
4: Tom W
3: Paul H
2: Bev E
Bow: Janice D



Here are some photos from the races and links to where there are more.

Mens Head of the River Race

BigBlade

More at : http://www.bigblade-photos.com/displayimage.php?src=http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2010/meh10/bydivision/&im=MEH_10_02645

Birdman (Hammersmith)

More at http://events.birdmanphotography.com/?Action=VF&id=3691778650&ppwd=nr6706kk

Jet Photographic

Hammersmith

http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=199441

Start
http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=199040



Vets Head of the River Race

BigBlade(loads!)

More at http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2010/veh10/bydivision/153%20Chesterton%20RC%20%28B%29%20MxVB%20C.html

Birdman

More at http://events.birdmanphotography.com/?Action=VF&id=3696888050&ppwd=nr6706kk

Jet

http://www.jetphotographic.com/showphoto.php?id=199650

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Victim identification

On HoRR/Vets Head weekend the tideway is home to many strange blades. Those of you heading down to London to support us this weekend may find yourselves wondering just which club those poor souls struggling in the wake of the mighty Chesterton men belong to.

May I suggest you use this handy guide to tick off our victims.

Monday 22 March 2010

Video of WeHoRR- under Hammersmith Bridge



From 4:30 onwards. Only a little snippet, but it's worth seeing.

Friday 19 March 2010

Hammersmith Head 2010 BowCam

Look out for the unsat sky....

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Blog Layout Edit

Follwing Will's comment below, I've had a bit of a fiddle with the settings. Comments very welcome, and I know the title image isn't great quality! I'm working on it, I just need the TT font that we use so that I can create a better version.

HORR 2007

For those doing the HORR, here is a pic a friend sent me from 2007, when the weather wasn't so good.

horr_2007

Glug glug glug...

BTW, don't you think our blog is a bit thin, in the sense of not-very-wide. How about someone tweaks the settings a bit?

Monday 15 March 2010

The Hammersmith Head



Sparring with Bristol- they're about 3 or 4 seats up at this point, but it's the closest they got.

56/89 overall, 8/21 novice

Yesterday the Chesterton men made the first of two trips to the tideway this spring travelling to Tideway Scullers for the Hammersmith Head. The objective was to familiarise the HORR crew with the waves wind and general chaos of racing on the Thames which is so different to our own little Cam. Only two of the rowers and our cox had previously been on the Thames so there were plenty of nerves as we put our VIII together on the embankment but once we boated everyone settled down quickly.

After a brief warm up we marshalled above Chiswick Bridge and watched division 1 spin off the opposite bank and head off downstream. Soon it was our turn and we were off. The crews nerves showed at first and we started a little slowly with Bristol university gaining ground behind. A strong headwind and choppy river was hampering our style and just after Barnes Bridge the Bristol cox was calling her crew to push past us.... she didn' know there was no way Chesterton were going to be overtaken so soon. We matched their push and raced side by side around the long bend heartened by cheers from our supporters at Chiswick pier and overtaking another crew on the way. It was clear we were a match for Bristol and after James played some mind games with their bow pair we finally shook them off and pulled ahead by a length or so by the finish at Hammersmith Bridge.

The row back to Tideway Scullers was over very choppy water, including the wake of a lifeboat that raced past at full speed but the crew rowed well on the home run. Encouraged by the call of “push 10 for the pub” we were met on the hard by Emma, Sarah and Dan who ensured we got the shiny new boat out without a scratch. The boat was trailered in good time and we retired to the bar, first at tideway scullers and afterwards at The Ship Inn (excellent Spitfire on tap). Everyone enjoyed the experience and I think its sets us up nicely for the main event in 2 weeks time.

More pictures and a video or two to follow!




Crew: J Tidy (cox), R Hancock, J Howard, T Watt, W Connolley, T Mansfield, M Prior-Jones, C Wood, P Holland

More pictures and a longer report here: http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2010/03/mothers_day.php

Results:

Finish Position, Start position, Crew name and Category

1 2 LONDON RC A SEN.8+ 11:00
2 1 HENLEY RC A ELI.8+ 11:02
3 5 STAR CLUB IM1.8+ 11:02
4 3 LONDON RC B SEN.8+ 11:08
5 15 BRISTOL UNIV A IM2.8+ 11:09 IM2.8+
6 7 BRISTOL CITY RC A IM1.8+ 11:13
7 49 BRISTOL UNIV B IM3.8+ 11:18 IM3.8+
8 12 LONDON RC C IM1.8+ 11:21
9 9 TIDEWAY SCULLERS A IM1.8+ 11:23
10 31 BIRMINGHAM UNI A IM3.8+ 11:24
11 10 HENLEY RC B IM1.8+ 11:25
12 16 W OF ENGLAND UNIV A IM2.8+ 11:26
13 6 THAMES TRADESMEN IM1.8+ 11:28
14 19 BATH UNIV A IM2.8+ 11:31
15 77 TIDEWAY SCULLERS B NOV.8+ 11:31 NOV.8+
16 14 PUTNEY TOWN A IM2.8+ 11:32
17 11 VESTA A IM1.8+ 11:32
18 18 IMPERIAL COLL A IM2.8+ 11:33
19 82 QUINTIN BC A VetD.8+ 11:34 00:35 10:59 Vet C/D 8+ C/D H'cap
20 4 LEA RC A IM1.8+ 11:35
21 46 BRISTOL CITY RC B IM3.8+ 11:36
22 21 MAIDSTONE INVICTA A IM2.8+ 11:37
23 37 IMPERIAL COLL B T/O 11:37
24 8 MORTLAKE AA A IM1.8+ 11:38
25 17 HENLEY RC C IM2.8+ 11:39
26 32 LADY MARGARET BC IM3.8+ 11:40
27 13 EXETER UNIV A IM2.8+ 11:43
28 55 BIRMINGHAM UNI B IM3.8+ 11:46
29 30 CARDIFF UNIV BC A IM3.8+ 11:46
30 33 UNIV COLL LON A IM3.8+ 11:49
31 61 BRISTOL UNIV C NOV.8+ 11:50
32 20 LEA RC B IM2.8+ 11:50
33 47 SWANSEA UNIV RC A IM3.8+ 11:51
34 56 PUTNEY TOWN B IM3.8+ 11:51
35 54 ST GEORGES HOSP IM3.8+ 11:55
36 52 CARDIFF UNIV BC B IM3.8+ 11:56
37 60 RUMS BOAT CLUB A NOV.8+ 11:56
38 51 AURIOL KENSINGTON A IM3.8+ 11:58
39 27 HSBC RC IM3.8+ 11:59
40 63 IMPERIAL COL MED BC A NOV.8+ 12:01
41 34 SONS OF THAMES A IM3.8+ 12:01
42 24 ELIZABETHAN BC IM2.8+ 12:02
43 48 BATH UNIV B IM3.8+ 12:03
44 80 THAMES RC B VetC.8+ 12:04 00:16 11:48 C/D H'cap
45 57 EXETER UNIV B IM3.8+ 12:04
46 35 PETERBOROUGH CITY A IM3.8+ 12:07
47 42 DE MONTFORT LEICS IM3.8+ 12:07
48 28 PARRS PRIORY RC A IM3.8+ 12:08
49 79 BRISTOL UNIV D NOV.8+ 12:10
50 44 W OF ENGLAND UNIV B IM3.8+ 12:10
51 76 EXETER UNIV C NOV.8+ 12:12
52 29 KINGS COLL LON A IM3.8+ 12:12
53 41 SONS OF THAMES B IM3.8+ 12:17
54 69 IMPERIAL COLL C NOV.8+ 12:18
55 83 TIDEWAY SCULLERS C VetE.8+ 12:20 00:52 11:28 Vet E/F 8+ E/F H'cap
56 78 CHESTERTON RC NOV.8+ 12:21
57 59 BIRMINGHAM UNI C NOV.8+ 12:23
58 22 VESTA B IM2.8+ 12:27
59 25 CYGNET RC A IM2.8+ 12:28
60 39 ESSEX UNIV IM3.8+ 12:29
61 68 THAMES RC A NOV.8+ 12:36
62 70 SWANSEA UNIV RC B NOV.8+ 12:39
63 45 HSBC RC IM3.8+ 12:40
64 75 LSE RC NOV.8+ 12:44
65 53 MORTLAKE AA B IM3.8+ 12:46
66 67 IMPERIAL COL MED BC B NOV.8+ 12:46
67 62 UNIV COLL LON B NOV.8+ 12:49
68 43 PETERBOROUGH CITY B IM3.8+ 12:52
69 58 QUEEN MARY BC NOV.8+ 12:53
70 36 MAIDSTONE INVICTA B IM3.8+ 12:53
71 38 BARTS & LONDON IM3.8+ 12:57
72 26 FURNIVALL IM3.8+ 12:57
73 72 BATH UNIV C NOV.8+ 12:58
74 64 RUMS BOAT CLUB B NOV.8+ 13:02
75 71 VESTA C NOV.8+ 13:04
76 81 PUTNEY TOWN C VetD.8+ 13:07 00:35 12:32 C/D H'cap
77 66 BIRMINGHAM UNI D NOV.8+ 13:09
78 74 UNIV COLL LON C NOV.8+ 13:10
79 50 PARR S PRIORY RC B IM3.8+ 13:15
80 40 KINGS COLL LON B IM3.8+ 13:16
81 86 LONDON RC D VetF.8+ 13:30 01:11 12:19 E/F H'cap
82 87 BEWL BRIDGE VetF.8+ 13:33 01:11 12:22 E/F H'cap
83 88 KINGS COLL LON C W.IM3.8+ 13:49 W.IM3.8+
84 84 QUINTIN BC B VetE.8+ 13:58 00:52 13:06 E/F H'cap
85 73 CYGNET RC B NOV.8+ 14:13
86 89 BATH UNIV D W.NOV.8+ 14:18 W.NOV.8+
87 65 AURIOL KENSINGTON B NOV.8+ 14:33
88 90 KINGS COLL LON D W.NOV.8+ 14:44
89 85 PUTNEY TOWN D VetE.8+ 15:29 00:52 14:37 E/F H'cap23 SUDBURY RC IM2.8+ DNS

Sunday 14 March 2010

Tideway results

As most of you know the Tideway VIII raced in the Women's' head of the River race yesterday and are delighted to report we came 248th out of 289 with a time of 22.29. This is a big improvement on recent results where we have come in the 280s. The time on its own does not mean that much as it depends on the weather conditions of the day, but we finished 11th out of 17 in our category of novice club.

I think the most telling fact is that boat 199 who chased us all the way and only overtook us on the finish ended up with a time of 22.08 (ie 20 secs faster) and position 219 - well within our grasp.

Other Cambridge crews who took part

City A IM1 19.56 25th
Claire A's boat 20.41 79th
City B IM3 20.42 81st
Cantabs A IM2 20.57 104th
City C IM3 21.43 181st
99s IM2 21.48 - must be annoyed to be beaten by City C 190th - but only 40 sec faster than us
Champs 1 IM3 21.50 195th
Cantabs B IM3 21.59 210th
City D 22.29 246th
Chesterton 22.29 248th - City D just beat us by part of a second - presumably the same crew who made a dramatic improvement in Winter league last week


In the novice club category (our category)
Winner was Bexhill and Worthing RC 21.12
Last City of Oxford 24.35
A 3 min range of times - and we are nearer the winner than the loser.

The clubs that beat us were Norwich, Nottingham (both very big clubs), 5 clubs from the Thames and Aberdeen RC. We beat Lea, Eton Excelsior, Kingston, Vesta, Doncaster and City of Oxford.

Thanks to everyone who made it possible for us to go especially Claire, Kate (our cox) and Andy S for making sure the boat would pass the inspection and giving me every single spare part he could think of.

Anne

WEHoRR 2010

2700 athletes, 300 boats, 8 Chesterton rowers, 1 cox, and a day to remember! For several of us is was our first experience of rowing the Women's Eights Head, or 'Tideway', but even for those who had raced on the Thames before, it was still a fantastic experience.




Under Hammersmith Bridge (birdman photography) more here

The forecast was for sunny spells, and although we could have done with a little more sun, we were still lucky to have a bright, not too cold day without a lot of wind. We were boating from Tideway Scullers School, which is positioned exactly on the start line, by Chiswick bridge. We all arrived, some by train and some by car, by 12:30pm, and the boat was waiting for us. Once we had put the boat together, we had plenty of time to eat, pose for crew photos, and try to calm each others' nerves! At 2pm, we went hands on the boat, and took our place in the queue to boat. It all happens very quickly, as there were so many boats waiting to push off behind us. We were very grateful to Janice, Emily and Jo, who helped us with our blades and wellies. And then we were off! Rowing on the Thames! It was pretty exciting, and for many the race nerves fell away.





We then had a short row to our marshalling spot. Our cox, Kate (from Magdelene College) who had kindly stepped in to help out and get practice for coxing Magdalene M2 at the Mens Head of the River Race, very ably kept us on station. It was a constant process of rowing and maneuvering to keep in the same spot against the flow of the tide (the Eights Head races are always rowed with the tidal stream). As we moved up to the start, race nerves started to appear again for some (including me)! Under marshall's orders, we de-kitted and span the boat ready to race. This was it!

We felt like we got off to a strong start. Rowing on the Thames is different to rowing on the rivulet that is the Cam, but we took it in our stride, and kept a good rhythm, rating 28, and rowing quite long. We had gained confidence when we overtook the boat in front (a Durham college second boat) with ease within about 3 mintues of the start. This gave us a great boost and we maintained well under Barnes bridge, and past Chiswick Eyot. Tiredness began to set in, but before long we were rowing under Hammersmith Bridge where we could hear cheering from our enthusiastic support team. This fired us up, and we were determined to look good for them and the cameras. We pushed off Hammersmith Bridge, rating a little higher at 29 and relaxed into the long stretch to the Black buoy. Unfortunately it was on this stretch that the cox box battery ran out, and Kate's voice, which has been spurring us on so well, faded out. She didn't realise how badly we couldn't hear her, so for the last part we were on our own to an extent. Despite this we did still manage to overtake another boat after this point. Although my memory is somewhat hazy, the results tell me that it was another Durham college first boat! Not knowing exactly where the finish was made the final minutes somewhat difficult to judge, and we were overtaken by a couple of boats just before the finish line. Although we clearly all wanted to prevent them coming by, we weren't able to make a united effort to do so. But despite the lack of cox box, we all kept going strongly, coxing ourselves through it to keep pushing. We did lose length towards the end but we kept a good rhythm, and when we passed the finish line, none of us had that much left!



But we still had to row home, back to Tideway Sculler School at Chiswick. It was tough and it took a good hour against the stream. My hands were quite sore, as well as everything else, but it was not entirely unpleasant in the evening light to be rowing down one of the most famous stretches of river in the world! Upon arrival at TSS, we were greeted by our loyal wellie bearers and my James helped pull us in. Soon we were back on land, enjoying Freya's delicious flapjack, and putting the boat back together.

We retired to The Ship on the opposite bank after we had put the boat back on the trailer for drinks and dinner before heading back to Cambridge, tired but elated at having done it.


Chiswick Bridge as the sun set after the race.

Our category (expand for a better view)

Saturday 13 March 2010

Womens' Eights Head of the River Race

Congratulations to the Chesterton womens' crew who came 248th out of 289 crews at the WEHoRR race in a time of 22.28. A very strong performance, and a decided improvement over previous years. Well done to:

Anne
Joss
Amy
Freya
Mel
Ev
Sarah
Alison
Kate (Cox)

Thursday 11 March 2010

Tideway!

This is the standard video used to teach people about the Tideway. It's very much worth watching, to get a feel for the event and to see it in action. It's also compulsory for all coxswains to watch.

Search "Tideway Head" on Youtube to get some more classics. I particularly like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C9vCYGoPcY.

WEHoRR:

Useful documents here: http://www.wehorr.org/documents/2010-Info-Captains-Crews.pdf

Everyone needs to have read this!

The draw is at http://www.wehorr.org/documents/2010-Draw.pdf

Good luck to everyone racing! I'll be cheering from Hammersmith Bridge.

Hammersmith:

The map of the course is here: http://www.akrowing.com/download/CoursePDF.pdf

We're boating from TSS, which is by the start line, so we'll paddle a bit before marshalling.

Info on the start is here: http://www.akrowing.com/download/StartPDF.pdf

And the draw is here: http://www.akrowing.com/events.php?event=2010-hamh

Wednesday 10 March 2010

A timely reminder...

This is what we're not going to allow to happen this year:






City had a fast start, whereas we were a little bit too slow off the blocks. They gain about half a length in the first few strokes.

The Tidy 2k challenge

Surely I cannot be alone in wondering what Mr Tidys 2K score actually is. I therefore propose a little wager - everyone who wants to take part puts £2 in and guesses a time.

We will get James on an ergo the Monday after tideway and the person who guessed closest wins the pot.

I'm going for 9:24

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Men's Ergo Leaderboard



Tom set off with an early lead, but surprise contender Steven pulled a 7min 2k and knocked our esteemed captain down into third place. It looks like Steven has the potential to knock our current leader off top-spot- or is Tom's lead too great? Will Ralph overtake James, or will the latter have another go, with better pace? What's my 2k score?

Find out in the next thrilling installment...




Link at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AjyCKTce_X42dDVWQWdNcGxWRWZ4RmNVdXRsZmFHY3c&hl=en

New Eight, new Blog



Photo courtesy of WMC

Hello, and welcome to the Chesterton Rowing Club blog. On here, we will post photos, videos to review, the ergo table, and reports and photos from races and events.

The first item of news is the new men's eight. The club now has two decent eights, for the mens' and womens' squads, which will help us to train well and become more competitive in races!
Forthcoming events for the women include the Womens' Eights Head of the River Race on Saturday 13th, and for the men, the Hammersmith Head on the 14th.


Friday 29 January 2010

Club Kit

Club vests, splashtops and other bits

The club kit looks a bit like this:

chesterton_kit

If you want some, please look up the Kit Officer on the contacts list.

Membership

Membership is open to everybody.

Full rowing membership cost £192 for the year payable in one lump sum or monthly instalments of £16 (pro-rata for newbies).

Social and coaching memberships are £20 per year.

Coxing membership is £10.

Bumps membership for the year 2011 was £45 not including entry fees (typically £10 which is paid to the CRA); it will be similar for this coming year.

We also offer 3 month taster membership for £48 for those just taking up the sport and are not sure whether it is for them. The 3 months runs from their first outing in an VIII and it covers all tubbing sessions, all training sessions on the erg, any land training sessions, and all rowing outings for the said 3 months.

Thursday 28 January 2010

Constitution

[This is a web-ified version of the latest version of the club constitution, provided for convenience. The definitive version in Word (boo!) format is available on request.]

Chesterton Rowing Club

Constitution and Rules

1. NAME

1.1. The club shall be known as Chesterton Rowing Club hereinafter known as the Club

1.2. The Club is affiliated to the ARA and CRA.



2. OBJECTIVES

2.1. The objectives of the Club are to promote a wider participation and interest in the sport of rowing in the Cambridge area.



3. MEMBERSHIP

3.1. The following are eligible for membership:



· Membership is open to any person at the discretion of the committee.



· If the club accepts a membership application from any junior, i.e. a person under 18 years of age, the committee shall immediately review its structure and procedures to comply with recommendations set out in the “Child Protection Procedures in Rowing” as published by the ARA”



· Classes of Membership:

· Rowing members

· Temporary members*

· Social, coaching and coxing members


NB: *Temporary Members can be designated as such by any committee member, or by those members responsible for organising an outing, for the purposes of competition, training or recreation. Temporary membership will be held for the duration of the outing only.



3.2. Election:

Candidates for election to membership shall submit a completed membership form to the Membership Secretary. The power of election shall rest with the committee, who may refuse to elect to membership any applicant without assigning a reason for doing so.



3.3. Acceptance:

The committee may at its sole discretion, decline to accept renewal of membership, from any person, without disclosing the reason.



4. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY

The Club shall endeavour to ensure that the talents and resources of all members are utilised to the full and that no member receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, disability marital status, creed, social class, colour, ethnic group, age or sexual orientation or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be relevant to performance.



5. ENTRANCE FEE

5.1. There is no entrance fee. New members shall be charged the applicable subscription rate, adjusted pro-rata for the remainder of the membership year.



6. SUBSCRIPTION

6.1. The rates of subscription shall be determined by a simple majority of the committee and shall be due on election, and thereafter on or before 1 January in every year.



7. CESSATION OF MEMBERSHIP

7.1. Any members may resign without notice

7.2. Any member may be expelled by a quorate meeting of the committee, held with due notice

7.3. Any member who has been expelled by the committee may appeal by instructing the Honorary Secretary to call an Extraordinary General Meeting, which shall decide whether or not to reinstate the member, and whether or not to repay any part of the member’s subscription.

7.4. A member shall be deemed to have resigned from the Club if, after due notice, he/shall has not paid the annual subscription by the renewal date. He/she may, however, rejoin at any time during the year by paying the full annual membership fee, subject to the provision of 3.3 above.



8. SPONSORSHIP

8.1. No rowing kit bearing the name of SIMOCO shall be worn in any Chesterton Rowing Club outings, on the Cam or elsewhere, or in boathouses on the Cam, or in the vicinity of Cambridge boathouses.

8.2. Race kit is to be worn for all races on or off Cam, if it has been issued to a member by the Kit Secretary (see paragraph 10.11). Race kit is as described on the club website.

8.3. The Club expects it members to behave responsibility at all times. Members shall not bring the Club or its sponsors into disrepute whilst involved in Club outings and races on or off the Cam.



9. COMMITTEE

9.1. Only members entitled to vote are eligible to hold office. Only paid-up members are entitled to vote at meetings.

9.2. The committee shall conduct the affairs of the Club as a whole and shall consist of at least three members sharing the following offices:

9.2.1. Club Captain

9.2.2. Men’s Captain

9.2.3. Women’s Captain

9.2.4. Honorary Secretary

9.2.5. Membership Secretary/Treasurer

9.2.6. Race Secretaries

9.2.7. Head Coach

9.2.8. Water Safety Advisor

9.2.9. Equipment Officer

9.2.10. Webmaster

9.2.11. Kit Secretary

9.2.12. Funding Secretary

9.2.13. Social Secretary

9.2.14. Crew Captains – non-voting member

9.3. Any committee member holding more than one office shall have one vote. The committee shall have the power to co-opt further members and co-opted members shall have the right to vote at committee meetings.

9.4. Nominations for the position of Captain, Honorary Secretary, Treasurer and other Officers shall be put forward in the form of a motion under the terms of Rule 11.5

9.5. The term of office for elected officers shall be for one year, and members shall be eligible for re-election.

9.6. The committee may at any time request an independent examination of the Club accounts.



10. DUTIES OF COMMITTEE

10.1. Club Captain:

· The Club Captain shall be responsible for guiding the activities of the Club in accordance with its general policy as expressed by the majority of its members.

· The Club Captain shall represent or arrange for the representation of the Club at ARA regional level, CRA delegates’ meeting, and at meetings of other organisations.

· The Club Captain shall ex officio be a member of any other committee of the Club.

· The Club Captain shall have the ultimate responsibility for deciding which individuals shall row in each crew and for what crews are formed.

10.2. Men’s Captain:

· The Men’s Captain shall be responsible for formation and development of the men’s crew in consultation with the Head Coach.

· The Men’s Captain shall help with and promote the selection of Men’s crew captains.

10.3. Women’s Captain:

· The Women’s Captain shall be responsible for formation and development of the women’s crews in consultation with the Head Coach.

· The Women’s Captain shall help with, and promote, the selection of women’s crew captains.

10.4. Honorary Secretary:

· The Honorary Secretary shall be responsible for the organisation of meetings of the committee and of the Club, and the recording of minutes relating to such meetings and all correspondence relating to the general business of the Club.

· The Honorary Secretary shall provide a point of contact for general ARA correspondence.

10.5. Membership Secretary/Treasurer:

· The Membership Secretary/Treasurer shall be responsible for processing membership applications and renewals, shall ensure that membership forms are correctly filed in, and shall provide membership figures for the ARA membership declaration.

· The Membership Secretary/Treasurer shall be responsible for collection of all membership fees, and for payment of these into the Club’s bank account.

· The Membership Secretary/Treasurer shall keep such books of account as required by the General Meeting.

· The Treasurer shall prepare the books annually and shall produce at the AGM accounts showing the financial state of the Clubs.

10.6. Race Secretary:

· The Race Secretary shall process all racing entries from Crew Captains and scullers, so that the Club can submit race entries in a co-ordinated way. While a single Race Secretary is preferred, not more than two Race Secretaries can cooperate to perform these duties.

· At the Race Secretary’s discretion, and in consultation with the Treasurer, the Club’s bank account may be used to pay all crew entries together for any event, in which case the Race Secretary is responsible for ensuring that the Crew Captains recover entry fees from the rowers and pay these back to the Club. A levy may be applied to any race fees paid via the Club’s bank account to cover interest and risk of default, as agreed by the committee.

10.7. Head Coach:

· The Head Coach shall advise on coaching related matters.

10.8. Water Safety Advisor:

· The Water Safety Advisor is responsible for keeping the Club up to date with ARA guidelines and regulations on water safety and for ensuring that this information is disseminated within the Club. The Water Safety Advisor shall keep such safety records as are required by the ARA.

10.9. Equipment Officer:

· The Equipment Officer shall be responsible for maintaining equipment in a safe and serviceable condition.

· The Equipment Officer shall be responsible for all contractual arrangements between the Club and other parties, particularly but not exclusively hire of rack space, hire of equipment, hiring out of the Club’s equipment.

· The Equipment Officer shall be responsible for insuring the Club’s equipment and ensuring that the Club is covered for public liability.

10.10. The Webmaster:

· The Webmaster shall be responsible for insuring the Club’s website and other electronic services, such as mailing lists, online boat booking etc.

10.11. Kit Secretary:

· The Kit Secretary shall be responsible for design and procurement of racing kit for the Club and for the issue of T shirts showing the name of the sponsor to all new Club members.

10.12. Funding Secretary:

· The Funding Secretary shall be responsible for finding means to improve the Club’s income. These may include sponsorship, fund-raising events, sports events etc as approved by the committee.

10.13. Social Secretary:

· The Social Secretary shall be responsible for identifying social events which should encourage socialising between crews and groups within the Club and between Clubs.

10.14. Crew Captains:

· Any number of Crew Captains may be co-opted onto the committee. Crew Captains shall organise crew outings and provide the Race Secretary with accurate details of crews, preferred entry status and preferred division times. Crew Captains shall recover race fees from rowers in their crews, on behalf of the Race Secretary.



11. COMMITTEE MEETINGS

11.1. The committee is responsible for the general conduct of the Club’s business and activities.

11.2. The committee shall meet during the year, as required by the business to be transacted.

11.3. Special meetings of the committee shall be called by the Honorary Secretary on instructions from the Club Captain, or not less than three committee members.

11.4. A quorum shall consist of not less than three officers who have been elected at a general meeting.

11.5. In the case of casual vacancy among the committee, the said committee shall be entitled to appoint another eligible person to act until the next AGM.

11.6. Not less than seven clear days’ notice shall be given of a committee meeting, such notice being sent to all current committee members.



12. GENERAL MEETING

12.1. Fully paid up members of any category shall be entitled to vote at General Meetings. Non-members, and former members whose subscription has lapsed, shall not be entitled to vote.

12.2. An Annual General Meeting shall be held in the autumn of each year. There shall be laid before the meeting a statement of accounts made up to the 30 September immediately preceding.

12.3. An Extraordinary General Meeting shall be called on the instructions of a simple majority of the committee or on a requisition signed by not less than 3 members of the Club entitled to vote.

12.4. Not less than 21 clear days notice shall be given, specifying to all members the time and business of the General Meeting.

12.5. At any General Meeting, a resolution put to the vote of the Meeting shall be decided by a show of hands of those entitled to vote, except when more than one nomination has been received for a position on the committee, in which case voting will be by secret ballot. In the event of a tie, the result shall be decided by postal ballot of all paid-up members.

12.6. At all General Meetings, the Club Captain shall preside or in his or her absence, a Chairman for the meeting will be elected from the committee by the voting members present.

12.7. At all General Meetings not less than five members of the Club entitled to vote shall constitute a quorum.

12.8. Absences of quorum: If after half an hour from the time appointed for the meeting, a quorum is not present, the Meeting, if called at the request of the members, shall be dissolved. In any other case, the meeting shall be adjourned until a time and place to be fixed by the committee. If a quorum is not present within half an hour from the time appointed for an adjourned meeting, the members present shall be a quorum.

12.9. Accidental Omission: Accidental Omission to give notice of a meeting to, or the non-receipt of notice of a meeting by any members shall not invalidate the proceedings of a meeting.

12.10. Election of men’s and women’s captains: only men shall be entitled to vote for the men’s captains only women shall be entitled to vote for the women’s captain.

12.11. Where one member holds more than one committee post, that member shall only be entitled to one vote.



13. LIABILITY

The committee shall manage the affairs of the Club. Financial or legal liability incurred in the rightful exercise of their office shall not however be the personal liability of the committee but shall be the responsibility of the Club as a whole.



14. ALTERATION OF CONSTITUTION

14.1. This constitution shall be altered amended or rescinded except by a General Meeting of the Club.

14.2. A resolution to give effect to a change must be passed by at least 75% of the members present at the General Meeting, and voting on this behalf.



15. DISTRIBUTION

In no circumstances can any profit be distributed to members. All profits generated must be used in furthering the objectives of the Club.



16. TERMINATION

The Club shall not terminate except by a resolution of a Special General Meeting convened for the purpose and, in such an event, any surplus assets shall be handed over to a body or bodies with similar objectives to a charity or charities agreed by the meeting which formally terminates the Club.



17. POWER OF DECISION

Any matter not provided for in this constitution or any question over the interpretation of it shall be dealt with by the committee whose decision shall be final.



18. SAFETY

The committee shall appoint a member to act as Water Safety Advisor whose duty it will be to understand the requirements of the ARA Code of Practice for Water Safety and advise on their prominent display, their observation and their implementation at all times.



19. DECLARATION

All members shall be required to sign a membership form which shall include a declaration of any applicable health problems, and which shall be kept by the Membership Secretary. Any relevant health problems may be communicated with officers of the Club and to coaches as necessary to ensure the safety of rowers.



20. VALIDITY

This constitution replaces any previous version of the constitution or POR documents [CW1] and is the only document applicable to the Club.



Approved at the Annual General Meeting, September 22nd 2011.





Signed by (Club Captain) ...................................... [Christopher Wood]



[CW1]For review, intention not clear.