Sunday was spent at Dorney lake at the Wallingford Regatta, now a full 2k rather than 1500m - thanks !!

We had a S3 8+ and an S2 4+. The +'s were Dave & Alex.

The 8 stormed off the start in the joint lead for a while, then dropped into second up till the 1000m point, and then slipped down to 4th on the line. Great race and they got to go home early...

Pictures on the photos page.
 

It seems that Nick "Psycho" Bates has asked Annabelle to marry him.

Just for the record, they live together and have a child already.

Things are just different these days.
 

Saturday saw the ladies travel up to Oxford for the Oxford City Bumps. Now, for those of you who did not go to one of the ex Polytechnics at Oxford or Cambridge, this is a type of race where, like cricket, the rules are strange and slightly random. The basic principle is that all boats are attached to the bank at regular intervals, and when a horn sounds, a Le Mans start is undertaken and everyone races off in a wild attempt to catch the boat ahead of them. If you catch that boat and have "overlap", you can then stop racing as you have "bumped" the other boat. Simple ? - oh no.....

We had 4 crews entered, and 2 of these boats were never bumped, so they get a prize - a small wooden blade (slightly tacky to be honest). A third boat would have also won a prize if the dumb cox had understood the rules a bit better and not driven his boat into the bushes !!

At his second attempt with the same crew, disaster struck again when he was rammed from behind by another BBL crew before the start, and unknown to him, had lost his rudder. So, off they went - straight across the river into the far bank !! - with much shouting and various people not rowing at strategic points, they weaved and bobbed their way down the course and actually bumped the crew ahead !! - there was sweat on his brow.....

The "top pie eating crew" crew, coxed in a more professional manner, won every heat in less than 15 strokes and never actually went past the boating area !!. The problem was that the organisers in their wisdom started the second BBL crew behind these greyhounds, so they then had to try and catch the crew that started 2 places ahead !! - and they rose to that challenge and did this in every one of the 4 races (albeit with about 100 metres to go in the last one..). Surely these are the true heroes of the day ?? The famous rowing faces and grunting noises were used to good effect.

The "light brigade" also had a good day, bumping twice and being weighed once !

Pictures now available.
 

Last weekend, a few brave souls went (were forced..) to go to Dorney lake for a bit of seat racing.

Despite global warming, it snowed on Sunday and covered the whole country in a blanket of fluffy stuff.

The evidence.

------------

K T - phone home.......

Special - very special.... and Charlotte looking for cake.

Where is the cox ?? - can you spot her / him ?????

We left the boats unattended for a couple of minutes and look what happened.

 

If you drink too much and sleep with a man.

T gave birth to this little bundle of joy on 7 March at 07:25AM. Unlike other BBLRC / CYGNET children, it was also given a name straight away, George Eric Stephenson, (see Theresa / Mike, its quite easy...)

George is the one at the bottom of the photo.

As some may be aware, the webmaster hates children with a passion, but having studied the photo for a few seconds, has to admit that that is a very cute Bear.....

Saturday saw over 1800 women in lycra powering down the river in the 2008 Women's Eights Head of the River Race. Cygnet men young and old (and weird) were falling over themselves to help out. Matt has taken some fantastic photos, these will be posted later. Stuart went the extra mile and actually took part !! - well, he rowed back in place of Sarah W who had to nip out at Putney in order to go ski-ing, as you do.

The results, well, just outstanding.

Sarah C's crew, coxed by Dave, came in at 101 overall, in a time of 21:37. Less than a second separated boats 99 to 101. Margaret jumped in at 6, in her first outing since getting back from rowing the Atlantic the day before !! - she is the "brown one" (and we are led to believe, its an all over tan...) in the photo below.

Jo's (Zoe's really...) crew, coxed by Ali B, came in at a blistering 35th place overall in a time of 20:36. This is the highest place since BBLRC records began !!

And finally, the Pikey Composite Crew, stroked by Hilary, coxed by a Thames lad, and powered mostly by Ali & Jackie D from BBLRC, WON the Vet category in a time of 21:14 !!. They were actually racing as Vet E, so their adjusted time was 19:05 - which means they would have won the whole race !! - unfortunately, the adjusted time only counts against other Vet crews - boo hoo.

236 crews raced on the day, and crew 87, Molesey C came 235th. Why is this important ? - because they literally crawled across the start line in front of Sarah C's crew, causing all kinds of problems. Crew 86 was virtually at Barnes Bridge by the time crew 87 managed to limp across the start line, after Dave was told to "behave himself" by the start marshals as he went for an early overtaking manoeuvre, pre Chiswick Bridge...... So, they had no one to chase down, and because they were so good, no one caught them up !!

Later that evening, some BB ladies got very drunk.

More photos later.

Nice blade work.

Nice hair and nice rowing face !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a (winning...) motley crew....

 

As the WHoRR gets closer (it's tomorrow...) - several members of the club have been offering sacrifices to the all powerful God of the Sea in order to gain protection in the great race.

(Richard du Parcq ??)

Ali & Dave have both sacrificed "fins", whilst Jenny has gone one further by offering both a launch light (quite expensive) and a whole cox box (very expensive).

Lets hope that all these items lying on the bottom of the Thames will bring us good fortune. If not, next years fees may have to go up to cover our costs......
 

Last weekend, the "boys" and Martha promised pancakes, but then failed to turn up at the same time as 2 boat loads of BB Ladies, so they took the situation in hand and tossed a few pancakes themselves.

Eventually, a few Cygnet tossers athletes turned up and assisted by mostly eating rather than making.....

The evidence.....



 

January saw Anna leaving for the warmer climate of Sydney, Australia, to join her man who left some weeks previously.

A few friends had a lunch comprising of tofu, lentils, beans, brown rice and organic, eco dolphin friendly Cola at a nice little restaurant in Fulham.

The clubs best looking & most powerful rowers were present, along with a very hungry and somewhat disappointed cox. Even the dairy free ice cream failed to impress him.




Later, Sarah & Anna were seen staggering out of the White Hart pub. Luckily, the London Ambulance Service were on hand to look after them.

Anna is on facebook, so log on and keep in touch.

We all miss you xxxxx
 

Two powerful 8s went afloat, and eventually raced (great marshalling...).

No wins, but some excellent times, with the S2 crew beating the Cygnet Vets - oh how we laughed.

Photos HERE.




 

Various club members have been away ski-ing this year.

Dave & Ali took the youngsters away with them, Kelly, Charlotte and Huma. See photos page.
 

Ladies,

Sorry its taken so long to wake up from the deep winter slumbers. Normal service is now resumed.