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Christmas
Ball
12th
December
Tickets now on sale
speak to Ciara, Zoe, Katie, or Sue
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* The views expressed in this diary
are not those of the BBLRC management team. If you find something
offensive or inaccurate, please contact
webmaster@bblrc.com.
The contents are designed to amuse, create debate and inform. If you are
allergic to peanuts, do not eat
peanuts. If you are offended easily, do not
read this diary !
The author is also not particularly bright, so apologies in advance for bad
grammar & inappropriate use of the apostrophe. |
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06/12 -
The Quiz |
After a successful series of morning outings, the competitive edge started
to surface amongst those members of BBLRC and Cygnet gathering in the
bar for the annual Christmas quiz.
Quiz masters Tammy and Ruth were at hand to keep the teams in line - the
half time was marked by a Roast dinner, and so far there have been no
reports of food poisoning. The eventual winners after 149 rounds
were the Fours Non-Blondes, followed closely by Coyles Team.
Finally thanks to Neil, Marj, Sarah R and Helena for doing the
washing up - I was pooped!
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15/11 - Vets Head |
In the words of the song by Renee Olstead 'What
a difference a day makes' ...
The skies cleared for the Vets Head and all of the boats took to the
water. We had a healthy number of entries this year, and whilst
the number of spectators is less for this event than the Fours Head, a
select few of us stood on the hard with cups of tea in hand to cheer on
the competitors. If ever you needed proof that life doesn't end at
28 (minimum Vets age) then here it is.....
Winner
of W Vet A/B 4x 20.45.50
Jo, Rachael, Bea, Bev
Winner
of W Vet C 4x 21.03.86 Ali E from BBL with some hangers on
Winner
of Vet C/D 4+ 21.54.99 Hilary, Lesley, Zoe, Kathryn |
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14/11 - Fours Head
(almost) |
As many of you dear readers will be aware the weather had been at the
forefront of rowers minds in the run up to the race. The morning
came and we were still unsure weather (ha ha ) the race would go ahead -
there was much twiddling of thumbs and small groups of people looking
quizzically at the sky and river.
The race was finally abandoned at 12:50pm, which was about 5 minutes
after we had all changed into our lycra - however it only took us 10
minutes for us to get over the disappointment of not racing, change and
get into the bar. The fact that a few of the ladies did not make
training on the Sunday would suggest that a good time was had by all (Ms
Davies) |
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01/11 - When the going
gets tough ...... |
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.... we generally get wet .....
Having woken up to a very rainy morning, 3 fours went out for a bit of
work on the river care of Richard. Unfortunately the weather gods
were not smiling on us as we battled bravely through the wind and rain
(with the novice crew looking very tidy indeed) - we knew it was bad
when on the way back by Chiswick Pier, having been battered by a couple
of big waves, Dave gave the confidence inspiring call of 'Ooh I think we
might be sinking, so we'd better take off the power' followed 5 minutes
later by 'I really think we're sinking'*. However due to some
gutsy rowing by each of the 3 crews, and some steady coxing by Zoe, Dave
and Sara I am happy to report that all crews made it back safely and
were later seen enjoying a nice cup of tea
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* I would like to add at this point that the sinking was nothing to do
with the weight of the crew but that it was solely down to the hideous
conditions |
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26/10 - New coach |
Salut, Yang shok, Welkom, Benvenuti, Croeso, welcome - to new coach
Richard Ayling who will be sharing the load of coaching us all with Jo
from this week, and lets face it sometimes that's quite a task
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11/10 - I'm
sorry its all gone dark ....... |
..... what I need is a light. Oh darn none available, read this
newsflash to see why.......
On Thursday 8th October at 7.08pm 4 lights were reported missing.
Detectives at Barnes Bridge Ladies Rowing Community are treating the
disappearance as being suspicious. The lights were last seen in the
Ladies Changing Room area of the club, they appeared to be happy in
their cupboard. Dave, the lights carer appeared to be distraught at
their disappearance. He was heard wailing "I want my lights back, people
don't know how much this affects us. I just want to know what has
happened to them".
Detective Hawtin at the press conference said "This community now only
has enough lights for 2 boats to go out in the dark. The lights play
such a vital role within the community here, they are lost without them.
We want to hear news of their whereabouts whatever state they are in".
Please contact Detective Hawtin if you have any news of these lights
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11/10 - Graduation Day |
I am pleased to announce that two more crews have graduated from the Jo
Byrne school of sculling, by completing the necessary real life capsize
drill. So congratulations to:
Sue and Sarah who went in on Thursday night by the petrol pumps -
yes Dave I know we shouldn't have been that far over but our corrective
action was apparently not sufficiently corrective
Katie B and Sara who went in this morning - sadly I was too self
absorbed to ask for details, sorry (note to self 'must try harder')
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01/10 - The new boat has
its maiden voyage |
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The lovely new boat had its first trip down the Thames....... after the
usual amount of questions being fired at Ali who appeared to be the only
one to have the faintest idea as to how it all fitted together.
However, despite concerns about the amount of water around, the
consensus was that it felt great outing, and everyone was looking
forward to more in the near future.
At this point no-one was quite sure
how the swanky new riggers fitted on the boat
 Captain
Jenny has a "special" love of the boat
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Everyone
needs a little help |
Now, you don't need to be told that our boathouse buddies don't all have
the rowing skill or finesse that the BB ladies have - so its no surprise
that this morning Cygnets decided to get dome divine intervention to help
them along their way. I'll leave it to you whether this decision
was due to the choice of cox or crew
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Motivational pep talk
from Greg the circuits guru |
Dear Boyz and Galz
Greetings from your Circuit teacher!
I would like to thank everybody for putting a great effort on Wednesday.
Not just in terms of effort, there was plenty of that, but also the
general good will and good atmosphere in the class. I'd also like to
thank all those who paid up front - it makes life a lot easier for Marj.
Remember the class is meant to be difficult. But not so difficult that
you hate it and stop coming. Please feel free to let me know if you need
to back off.
No doubt you will be stiff for a couple of days but in about 4 circuits
time you will be feeling a lot less stiffness.
Circuits are about strength and conditioning, flexibility and rowing
specificity. Its great for the heart, lowering blood pressure, lowering
resting heart rate, burning fat and building muscle. It prepares you for
the head races, namely 8s Head and then also a base to succeed on the
regatta circuit winning pots.
Special thanks to Gavin Hunter who was giving me (i.e. jumping) a good
15 inches high with his burpees. Good/nice action and most impressive.
Wyatt and Pickford will be be up against some stiff/big competition.
Uber Special Thanks to Marj and the Cygnet Captain and BBLRC Deputy
Captain for their support.
Have a great week/weekend's rowing and see you all next week |
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Belated Club Day thanks
from Stu |
And so, the 2009 Club Day is now all but a fond and, for some, a hazy
memory but what a day it turned out to be. For the first time in a long
time, the boathouse played host to almost 100 guests over the course of
the day. Both young (over 21’s) and old propped up the bar to toast the
introduction of the ‘Peter Roche’ to the Cygnet fleet and then drank the
day and night (and most of the bar stock) away. We wouldn’t have
expected anything less and are very proud of all you all.
Highlights of the Club Day included:
Some rowing – the most competent oarsman on the day (all now clutching
shiny pewter tankards – you’d better be, I haven’t put mine down yet)
were David, Stu, Bex, Nick, Tom, Bizzie, Barry, Paul, Barry again,
Ricky, Jo, and Charlotte. The most competent ‘string pullers’ of the day
turned out to be Gledders and Lucy.
Some eating – chicken, sausages, burgers, mushrooms, veggie burgers all
cooked up by the returning Tong-meister Nick Wyatt (your warlock-like
skills with the naked flame have been missed Nick – many thanks).
Some cake scoffing – the closest we came to anarchy. After careful
deliberation, our gluttonous judges concluded that Bex Newton was the
Bake Off winner with her......cake?.......my mind gives out as to what
it was but it was great. So there.
Some drinking – where do we start? And when did it finish? 4am
apparently. We’ll leave the gossip to the new Blygnet bogsheet. All I
can confirm is that ‘Jagerbombs’ are the new black.
So thanks to all of you. Whether you were helping out or passing out,
you made the day so special.
Stu
Cygnet Social Sec |
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FISA Masters
Vienna 2009 |
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16 years after the FISA Masters was last
held in Vienna, it was back to Austria again this year. In the intervening
years Masters rowing has grown exponentially, especially in the women’s and
older categories. Racing now extends over an extra day but the number of racing
seats has more than doubled – to a whopping 9600 (including 1000 in mixed) this
year.
The racing was held up briefly by the local naturalists who voiced their
objection to their designated swimming area being disturbed by rowing boats by
swimming out onto the course. They were duly removed and racing finished back on
time.
The proximity to so many
countries in eastern Europe meant that the standard of entries was high and
British wins few on the ground, but ....
Jackie, Joy and Hilary won Vet F4- together
Hilary also won Vet D4+ and Mixed D8s and was 2nd in D4x
They had a great time, if a little exhausting, but are very excited that next
year the Masters is off to Ontario, Canada - a course described as being in the
‘heart of wine country’ sounds like Masters heaven.
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Women's Eights Head 2009
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(is that apostrophe correct ??)
Results from the 8's head.
Well done to everyone who took part. Great effort from everyone
secured us some great results:
1st boat came 48th in 20.27.57
And importantly beat Sons A and Putney Town A, we were also in
41st position at Hammersmith bridge so with some 'into the wind'
rowing practice there is great potential
Vet D boat came 68th in 20.47.55
Hilary's comments from the stroke seat of the Ole Birds Boat@
:
We had a really good row (Kathryn made a huge difference). Shame
to lose the pennant by 5 secs (but I dont see where we could
have gone any faster) but they have changed the system very
nastily (we'd been winning too much) - we'd have won by 17 secs
on the old system. And I bet we were the only crew with two
grandmothers and a breast feeding mum on board!
2nd boat came 148th in 21.39.75 (which just shows how close all
the boats are!)
Tom reckons there is a lot of extra boat speed that can be got
out of both boats (ie 1st and 2nd) quite easily so again a
promising row!
Novices came 201st in 22.07.96
Importantly they came 5th in their division - well done!
Full results are available on the website:
http://www.wehorr.org/results/2009-results-time-2.pdf
Quote of the day from Alex: "lets stamp on their
Cox" - makes your eyes water just saying it.....
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WELCOME TO 2009 @ BBLRC
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Sorry it has been a long time coming - lets hope it was worth
the wait.
If you have any photos, stories or information you want
publishing, just let us know. Its your website, anyone can
contribute.
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26th Feb. Where does the
money go ? - handbags or engines ?
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After listening to the many moans about the launch engine, and
trotting out the well used phrase "its most likely user error" a
few hundred times, the clubs top test pilot took it out for a
spin and discovered to his horror - twas fecked.
To be fair, the engine was scrapped by Cygnet about 8 years ago
and purchased by us for about £35, with the actual launch still
attached. So all in all, not a bad return on our investment.
A quick call to Mark The Engine man as he is known (he may be
single if anyone is interested ?) - and £2k is spent in a
flourish of text messages and phone calls.
So, we now have a launch with a shiny new 4 stroke engine with,
and get this, an ELECTRIC START. So, rather than teetering
around at the business end pulling cords, you now just sit down,
adjust, and turn a key - hey presto, engine starts and off you
go* see below.
For the technically minded, a couple of facts. Firstly, it is a
different type of engine, AND DOES NOT NEED ANY OIL ADDING TO
THE PETROL. Just use Unleaded straight out of the pump.
Secondly, it does take a couple of minutes to warm up, so plan
on floating around for a while before you put it in gear and
drive off, or not, as it will most likely stall if you try this
too soon.
Jenny has already been out in it a couple of times and it still
seems to be functioning as designed, so it must be idiot
proof easy to use.
If anyone wants a lesson on launch driving, approach the
management.
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Barnes Bridge Ladies
Rowing Club
