Two mighty 8's took to the cold, dark, misty water on Wednesday night. The new concept of mixing up crews to get "equal" power is much favoured and is really bringing on the less able rowers (we have a list)......

The crews had people from both ends of the rowing spectrum, from Jo & Zoe stroking (Annabelle was obviously not available), down to Annelise & Kathryn taking it easy due to recent childbirth and a lack of any pelvic floor muscles....(lets just wait for the complaints to come flooding in...)

However, the surprise of the night, our own Victorian Cox Alex, turns out to be a Cheat !!

Despite being given explicit instructions not to rate over 22, she zoomed off, weaving wildly under Kew Bridge to stop the obviously superior crew from getting past, and the rating going up to about 84 at one point. You could even hear members of her crew encouraging this behaviour !! - the loud Kiwi twang easily heard above the roar of the planes overhead and the crashing of blades into the cold dark water.

O/K, so the technically superior (and some would say generally a bit more pleasing on the eye) crew limped home a boat length behind, but their integrity was intact. They even did a lap of honour to show what good sportsbirds they were.

And finally, all lights that went out came back, a first we think.

Sunday saw a large group of Ladies venture out to Kingston Head, along with a top(ish) team from Cygnet. Very cold n windy (that was just Jenny), but luckily no rain.

Lots of good rowing with a 1st (the S2 coxless 4) and a 2nd (one of the novice crews, also beating our S3 crew - the shame...) place. In a strange twist, when the results were published on the web the next day, it showed a different crew winning the  S2- category !! - we have the pots in our possession, so they can write what they like.

Michelle, Jenny & Rachael. Charlotte had wandered off to get her trousers back from an ex.

The other day, the girls were rigging the new Filippi 4 on the hard, so Dave decided to turn up in his London Ambulance Service Fast Response Car (he was green mobile if any LAS management are reading this !) to lend a hand.

He parked the bright yellow vehicle next to the boat and wearing his uniform, assisted the rigging process.

Annabelle then asks him - "are you working today ?" - the evidence suggested that he was....

Then Bea comes running past and stops and asks in a slightly concerned voice  - "is everything all right ? - is someone hurt ?"

Then whilst the adults (a term used quite loosely...) were distracted, Theo tried to steal the ambulance !!

The new Filippi bow loading 4+ has arrived and been used several times. To date, only Alex's pert posterior has been allowed in the cox's seat (actually, there is no seat, you lay down in the bottom of the boat....). In the rowing seats, larger posteriors have been allowed. The feedback so far is very positive.

However, we still do not have a name for our new boat, so be creative and e-mail your suggestions to the management - thank you.

Boat rigging Barnes Bridge style - lets have a chat first.....

 

The club ventured up the A1 to Peterborough Regatta a couple of weeks ago. In a re-run of last year, this proved to be a very bad decision for Dave who could not go as he had to pick up drunk Polish guys in and around the Hounslow area.

The club won 3 events, one coxed 4 and 2 eights - ALL COXED BY ALEX !!!! - so in one day, she has leapt into first place in the 2008 Potty League......

Congratulations to the crews (who all won comfortably) and to Alex who has now lost her Regatta Cherry in great style.
 

When getting the launch in, remember the people near the edge, especially at high tide !!

Top Tip - its always better to take a photo of someone in a dangerous situation rather than leap to their assistance. "Help help - Sue is in the water !! - I know, I am just getting my camera, give me a chance will you....."

Glad to see Julia is taking an interest in her drowning crew mate !!

Imagine their surprise when a crew turn up for a 7:15 outing, and their boat is gone !!. Interestingly, the boat that should have gone out was still sitting on the trailer de-rigged, having just come back from being fixed.......

CSI Barnes deduced that Alex & Zoe's crew had snuck out in the only rigged 4+ and had tried to cover up the theft by not signing out. That was never going to fool anybody, as we saw them leaving.........


 

The "management" were persuaded to enter a few boats into this prestigious event, and K-T, our mole on the inside, worked tirelessly to engineer a "pointless" race for the ladies.

So, we had a Novice 8 and a couple of S3 4+'s racing.

For a lot of the novices, this was their first taste of racing. They were drawn against Vesta in the semi, and at the word GO, powered into a slight lead. Unfortunately, they then had a couple of incidents that prevented the boat from travelling at its maximum design speed, so Vesta nipped in front. Once the issues had been resolved, the power came back on and Vesta were reeled back in, but alas, distance was not on our side and we lost by about a boat length.

The "heavyweight" aka "fat" S3 4+ were drawn against MAA. On the word GO, the MAA boat (a bow loader) steered right into us and made us steer hard left to avoid a clash. Then, all down the course, the MAA boat weaved around causing chaos. MAA won by just over a length.

A phone call was made to MAA to let them know of our displeasure !!

In the final, the MAA crew were against the "lightweight" (or not as the scales seemed to show...) crew. On the word GO, they steered into us and the race had to be re-started. K-T was heard to shout CHEATS - CHEATS at the point of impact. After the re-start, our crew were up for quite a distance, but were rowed down and we lost by over a boat length eventually.

Dave and Charlotte H-H took a double out in order to watch the final. Interesting.

Well done MAA, steering aside, a good performance.

After all the excitement, lycra was replaced with "typically English" (British ?) attire for Jo's birthday bash at the club. No news of any gossip so far.....
 

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.