Sons Novices were back on the water for their second regatta of the season: a strangely familiar course but different organiser, Quintin RC - historic club house, roaring fire and, as some members discovered, cheap beer. 

First on were the men (Harrison, Lund, Brinker, Rees, Maunder (cox)) racing N4+. After a strong start last week, they were hoping to build on that experience and get through another round of a crowded draw (12 crews). Of course, these things never go to plan. Up against a spectacularly well-drilled crew from Norwich School, Sons found themselves beaten off the start and by 300m were a length and a half-down, with the schoolboys over-rating them on a very fast ebb tide. Nonetheless, grit and few big pushes allowed Sons to stay with them and as the crews reached the club houses, Sons had pushed back. Norwich, however, proved they had more in the tank and responded with an impressive sprint to the finish winning by ¾ length. The 1000m race seemed to be over in a flash. [Chaps I can tell you that Chairman Baldwin thought you looked good - and he doesn't say things like that every day. Ed]

Next up were the women (Lazarevic , Austin, Parr, Main, Crane (cox)) – racing IM3 after the previous week’s success . In what was fast turning into the theme of the day, their opponents, St. George’s College, took the lead at the start, leaving Sons in the unenviable task of having to play catch up. Despite a solid row, they – like the men - had left themselves with too much to do. They couldn’t make up the ground on St George’s who went onto win the event.

The final race of the day for the novice squad was the men’s 8+ (Hinds (cox); Harrison, Lund, Brinker, Rees, Madakbas, Taralezhkov, Grimsdale, Maunder) racing at IM3 8+. This was Matt and Alex’ s debut regatta, the boat aided and abetted by an experienced cox plus a couple of chancers with points who claimed to have rowed before. In the end it was one of those races you put down to experience. Not a bad start or row, but the opponents, and as it turned out, the winners of the category, Norwich School, were an impressive unit. The final verdict - `easily’ - was more emphatic than we’d have liked but the Sons boat offers something to build on for the rest of the season.  

Andrew Maunder

After merely one outing together (thereby minimising the danger of peaking too early), the Sons of the Thames-Furnivall Composite VIII debuted its racing season in the IM3 category at the Chiswick Regatta on Saturday.  It was a tough draw, with Sons-Furnivall on the Surrey station pitted against Thames RC, enjoying the middle of the stream and Auriol Kensington stationed on Middlesex.  Within twenty-strokes of the start, AK's coxadjudged the centre of the river was broad enough for two crews and promptly rammed Thames, which was Sons-Furnivall's golden opportunity until the umpire's red flag was lofted and a re-run commenced.  Second time round, Sons-Furnivall got off to a better start with David Preece setting a blistering stroke-rate, backed up by Graham Stewart and Ben Jury and with Marc Corbett at bow.   A third of the way into the race, Sons-Furnivall had already taken a length off AK and were impudently coming back at Thames, whittling the deficit down to half a length, at which point Thames realised a successions of pushes might be in order.  This duly gave Thames clear water again and they crossed the line first with Sons-Furnivall, starting to shorten-up, about a length and half behind.  AK finished third, a couple of lengths behind Sons-Furnivall.  Although the row was scrappy in parts, the overall feeling was that for a Composite VIII which had only had one outing before, Sons-Furnivall could go places. Possibly to Twickenham.  Or further, if anyone has space on their trailer.

Graham Stewart

My earnest entreaties have been answered with more than one report of an excellent Sons showing at Borne Regatta. Here from Rory, is an overview of the day, followed by a perspective from the winning men's IM2 4- crew written by Sam, and the single sculler's view from Anna. 

  “Squally winds, heavy rain and overcast skies can only mean one thing… that’s right, regatta season has started.  And so it was that Sons sent an armada of crews to Borne @ Chiswick Bridge Regatta.  Nine entries across three boat classes meant that almost 30 members of Sons were racing throughout the day with Sons crews being involved in both the 4th race of the day and the penultimate.  Winter training on the Tideway however must have some advantages as Sons managed an impressive haul of 5 wins from those 9 events kicking the season off to a successful start.

The Senior Men’s IM3 4+ (Horton (cox), Farley, Long, Darby & Hodgkinson) were first in to action at 9.15am, but were unlucky against a strong LSE crew, resulting in a quick return back to Linden House and a long wait until their next race in the IM3 8 at 5pm. 

The Novice crews were out in force and were represented in the Mens Nov 4+ and Womens Nov 4+ and 8+ (apparently the strength of the Men’s Novice 8 had scared off all the opposition!) and the men were quick to settle in to regatta form winning their first ever side by side heat against Eastbourne College.  Unfortunately their early promise led them to a semi final clash against a very familiar looking LSE crew and the Men’s Nov 4+ (Maunder (cox), Harrison, Lund, Brinker & Rees) had to take comfort with some good racing experience to take them forward for the season.

The Women’s Nov 4+ (Crane (cox), Lazarevic, Austin, Parr & Main) also had a flying start, taking a good local scalp against Putney Town in a very closely fought content.  Their ¼ length victory was enough however to set up a final against the American School London and after some initial confusion at the start line (resulting in a premature row over by ASL and a subsequent appeal) the women showed a great deal of composure and mettle to row out a clear verdict in their first ever final.  A great result for a crew who have all come through the Sons “Learn to Row” programme.

The Women’s Nov 8 (as Nov 4+, plus Pinheiro, Lugg, Wanot & Bell) unfortunately couldn’t capitalise on the success of the 4+ but rowed well against a well drilled Thames 8 who went on to win the Novice 8+ category.

A closely fought heat in the Men’s IM2 4- was brought to a swift end by the disqualification of Kings College for repeated steering warnings setting up the final against HSBC.  The Sons crew (Haeata, Rutterford, Cook & O’Hare) had a length lead by the half way point and never looked like giving it away, finishing comfortably and securing another win for the day.

Conditions meant it was a day more suited for larger boats, but Sons still enjoyed success in the singles as both Faith Jamieson (Mas B) and Anna Caffyn (Mas A) showed great determination to win their respective races (against MAABC and Furnivall).  Faith and Anna led from the front in both their races and wins never looked in doubt.  The long row home against the tide post event was probably not the celebration either had in mind but success was well earned.

Although not the final win of the day (that pleasure fell to Anna) it was the Men’s IM3 8, a straight final against Furnivall, that was the hotly anticipated event.  After the withdrawal from the Dewar shield earlier in the year, the Men (as IM3 4+, plus Tchoubouroff, Versteege, Price & Foden) were keen to correct the Hammersmith pecking order.  An aggressive start put the crew 2 ½ lengths up by the half way marker and from there rowed home to a comfortable win.  A pleasing result for the men, but tougher opposition will be quick to follow.

Barring the weather, it was great event at Chiswick and the Sons supporters had plenty to cheer throughout the day.  A great start to the season and hopefully a sign of the season to come.

Sons are racing again this weekend at the Chiswick Amateur Regatta (Sat) and Wallingford (Sunday).”

I've always like the Bruce MacLachlan, the red and white Lola that Sam, Ross, Joe and Rory are in this season. We vets used to go out in it, and that was because, in our minds at least, we were the only ones that could sit it . But this crew seem to have mastered the balance, giving them the platform to use their impressive power.  

"The Sons M4- has been training as a crew for not all that many weeks. Even in this short time we have felt things coming together and are happy with progress so far. But of course, the only way to know how we are really doing is to line up for a race and the Borne regatta was our first opportunity.

Our first race was scheduled with a crew from Kings College London. We did not know what to expect from this boat club and we would not find out that day either. Unfortunately our heat with King's was not going the full distance. It would seem that you are testing the patience of an umpire who warns you before the start and then again repeatedly during the race. Kings had lined up against us, but on our side of the river and too close to us entirely. The race began as it should and we got away perhaps a little slower than we would have preferred. We conceded half a length to their boat in the first few strokes. But that was all we gave away. Once we found a rhythm we began to move back through them with every stroke. But they were moving closer to us and our blades clashed twice. The umpire shouted at them, telling them to move away from us. The race continued and it seemed our two boats were matched for speed. It was going to be a great race. But the umpire continued to shout warnings at Kings and eventually he had seen enough and raised the red flag. Our first race was over after 300 metres with our opponent disqualified for not allowing us a fair race.

We would then meet HSBC in the final. This time we knew our opposition well enough to know they can produce some quality boats. It would by no means be an easy race. After sitting about for an eternity in the cold and constant rain typical of a spring day we again moved onto our starting position. At last the call came "attention, go". We were away, this time our start was good and even without looking over to the HSBC boat I could sense we hadn't give them an inch. Then Joe made the call for length and we responded. Stretching out to full slide and still we were rating up at 36. It wasn't long before we were beginning to edge ahead. But they were still on us and well within an effective strike range. One solid push from them could bring them back up or even ahead. Suddenly there was a flash of colour on our left as a navigation buoy zipped passed our boat, narrowly missing our bow side blades (Rory will tell you he judged it perfectly). I then noticed the umpire was giving instruction to the HSBC crew to move away. They were quick to respond and moved away so there was no chance of them being disqualified. This race was going down to the line. I could hear them calling for pushes as they tried to come back on us. But we would have none of it and without a word we responded, extending our lead to close to a length. We could hear the Sons supporters calling from the bank, the finish was near, we only had to hang on now. But the finish line never came, or at least, there was no buzzer to say we were home. So we hammered on and on until eventually the umpire realised and called for us to wind down. Then they raised their white flag and it was official. We had won our first race and it was free from opponent disqualification. It just so happened to be a final and thanks very much that will do fine.

We are very grateful to the organisers for such an enjoyable regatta and a big congratulations to all the Sons rowers who raced on the day, especially the many boats that won their events." 

The IM2 8+ is a relatively new combination, and despite having a winning start to the season last week at Borne we knew that this weekend would be a different proposition. At this early point in the season, we're not really a crew yet, but we just wanted to get out there and race and see what we could do.

With our stroke man missing for Chiswick regatta, we reordered ourselves and had a good crack at Lea in the first round. We stuck with them off the start, but as the race unfolded it was clear that we didn't quite have the pace to keep with them, and they drew away to win by about 2 lengths. 

The next day we assembled the full crew and set off for Wallingford Regatta at Dorney lake. We knew the standard at Wallingford would be very high, and the real aim was to set benchmark 2k time to work from for the rest of the season. The three school crews in our heat predictably shot out of the blocks, but we were able to work off a Putney Town crew, who were a similar pace to ourselves. In the end they pulled away in the last 500 to beat us by 3 seconds, but we now have a good view of the work we need to do over the next few weeks. 

We came off the water, and knew that in terms of preparation, race tactics and just gelling as a crew there are some very obvious things we can improve, and have to improve, in order to perform better. The good thing is that we'll soon be in Bulgaria on training camp, where we will be working on all these things, and we'll be back stronger than ever come June. Our next regatta will be back at Dorney on the first weekend in June, and then we'll see if all our work has paid off.

Emile Farley

I joined Fitness First last year and I'm not sure I'll renew. It's warm and dry in there, you can't get run down by the Tupperware Navy and unless the fountain is even less salubrious than it looks, there's no risk of contracting a water-bourne disease. The thing is though, it's boring. And that brings me to this weekend's regattas. After the euphoria of last week, it seems we have no wins to report. A despondency hangs over our little corner of Hammersmith, but here's the thing - I haven't heard anyone say they were bored. Win or not, I'll bet that this weekend will have sharper memories for our competitors than the gym for all those people who did that. Anyway, here is an account of how our novices (except we can't call the IM3 girls than any more), got on from Andrew, news of the Sons-Furnival VIII from Graham and of the Sons IM2 VIII from Emile. Thanks to all three - it's easier to write about a win but, to me, weekends like this last one are still important in the life of the club. 

There'll be a good and logical reason why there were some Maoris at Linden House today, even if none of us know what it was. They were nice guys too, posing for loads of shots and it didn't take too much thought to decide which one to put on this page. They provided an oddball moment in a day of bizarre incident. As the crews came past the Sons of the Thames Rowing Club, it could scarcely have been closer.  Oxford appeared to be making a huge push and were within a canvas of Cambridge who then seemed to counter with a push of their own. As it turned out, neither crew need have bothered. Just round the bend, Trenton Oldfield was lowering himself into the water...

Back at Linden House, a big effort by the staff attracted a good number of customers to the barbecue despite the crowd being one of the sparsest for years. A few were game enough for the Sons ergometer challenge, including one or two who had definitely rowed before. With this, and our new banner and flags outside, people in the passing crowd will have registered that there's a rowing club operating out of Linden House - a definite improvement on previous years when you wouldn't have known that. 

Where the Cambridge victory leaves the club sweepstake is currently unknown, but if today shows anything, it's the importance of the cox in a Tideway race

At a guess, Trenton Oldfield is not the toast of Oxford tonight - and thoughts have to be with Dr Alexander Woods the valiant Oxford bowman who rowed himself into unconciousness after Oxford lost an oar in a clash. 

Eights were the duelling weapons of choice in the Sons of the Thames Rowing Club scratch regatta on Saturday 14th April. ( Incidentally, anyone thinking that I keep writing Sons of the Thames Rowing Club simply to improve search would be absolutely right.)

Now then... after a complex crew selection procedure involving a specially written computer programme and a hat, three mixed Eights took to the water for a sprint from the green post below the island to the LCSC mast. You might think that a friendly club event such as this would never generate quite the adrenalin of a regatta, but there again - there's something about being judged by your peers isn't there? All three Eights moved off together and it looked to be close until a backstay collapsed in the Colin Price and a seat something-or-othered in the Spirit leaving the crew of the Les Scrine to cross the line first. I've got some film of this which I will be putting up soon. 

Abandoning camera duties I decided to occupy the six seat in the Spirit for the next race. The boat felt as if it was moving quite well and I was confident that we would win until the first start. This ended in a port and starboard with the Les Scrine crew a seat or two up. Restarting, it was close again until a crab in the other boat gave us several lengths lead which proved to be enough, despite a gutsy chase. 

There was an unconfirmed rumour that the Spirit crew were the winners, and with an eye on the very nice mint chocolate medals Drago had bought, I decided that this must be true. 

Big respect to Drago for organising and to Lu and Sanne for providing the excellent roast lamb (a whole one) and salads. The event seemed to work well both as a social and in simulating some of the tension of side by side regatta racing. 

Our two novice crews, containing many rowers who came to the club from our Learn to Row course last summer continue to improve. Alex from the men's Eight offered this comment:

 "Pre-race outing. Wet. Change into dry racing kit. Go racing. Wetter! Wait about. Cold. Race! Now warm but still wet! Good rowing. Head to head with Bath Uni. Almost holding them off. Too late. Still good rowing. End of island. Row hard! Sons cheering. Row hard + Look good! Finish! Cold and Wet. Tea. Food. Tea. Food. Drinks. Waiting...

Results. 14/30! Everyone happy especially Mirko. (Forgot shower before Tea)."

 And from the women's crew Lubica said:

"A fine effort by both novice squads, where both the women's and men's teams took considerable time off their first head race two months earlier. The men's novice squad had an especially good race, where they came ahead of many more experienced crews, and finishing middle of their category."

 Good luck for the summer regattas everyone. 

As summer faded, a single sculling mania gripped Sons of the Thames Rowing Club. We vets abandoned our quads and doubles for the gladiatorial challenge of the single - and jolly tiring those Saturday morning outings became. 

Speaking as the sap writing this piece, I hadn't done a Scullers Head before and wanted to compete in one before I move on to the challenges of Crown Green Bowling.

Jan was there too, after a summer in the single mostly acting as pace boat to Cat Hart; as was our Chairman Baldwin of the flowing stroke and Les who's won enough pots for Sons to equip a pub.

Faith was competing in her beautiful Stampfli, recently reclaimed from the above mentioned Hart, as was Ed Hillyard who has been placed in or around the top 100 for the last three years. 

So there were seven of us in the log-jam of singles floating down to the start, Colin's cheers of encouragement at Mortlake carrying above the ominous clonking of spoon on glass fibre. 

After the crush of queuing it seemed quite peaceful going with the stream in the middle of the river and I struggled to find my race rhythmn. It wasn't until Barnes Bridge that I was joined by my regular companion Mr Pain and started to settle down, the flash of orange Lee Rowing Club spoons in the corner of my eye giving me a target.

Happily, I struggled past the other competitor outside the club, cheers from the pontoon adding at least half a pip to my rating. And then it was just that watery road of pain down to Putney, and a big effort to pass another couple of boats before the line. 

As it turned out I was placed 211th which, need-less-to-say was not good enough to beat Ed Hillyard who was well out in front at 123rd. There were some good performances from other Sons too, often achieved without a lot of physical conditioning which shows the technical skill that many have.

The Sculler's Head is a strange way to spend a morning, but I think I may be there again next year.