Deben rowing club now has an exciting new website:
Please go to the new site for all of the latest information and news about the club.
Deben Rowing Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK
The community-minded shop had wanted to
help raise funds for a new boat to cater for the growing female
membership at the town’s rowing club, and Katherine was impressed
with their ambition and made room in her formidable diary of
engagements to be there.
Then, with a flourish, she revealed the
new boat which was sitting on stage behind her. The Swift, Club A,
lightweight double had been named the ‘Katherine Grainger’ in her
honour, explained chairman of Deben Rowing Club, William Notcutt. It
was paid for through funds raised from the evening and by the ladies
section at the club and will be used exclusively by them.
The new boat will serve as a fitting
reminder of the evening. Katherine’s humility, determination, hard
work and application were an inspiration to all who heard her and the
queue to have books signed stretched all around the room.
Katherine’s visit had been scheduled
to last two hours, but as time moved on she refused to cut short any
of the personal interactions. Family groups came forward and she
engaged in conversations, finding out personal details before making
an individual inscription in each book and then leaping out of her
seat with her gold medal to pose for a photograph with her admirers.
Finally, with the audience gone,
Katherine still did not rush away, insisting on thanking the
organisers of the event and encouraging the ladies group at Deben
Rowing Club in their endeavours on and off the water. She took
delight in acknowledging the time and effort that had gone into every
element of the evening, including sewing metres of red and yellow
bunting and baking themed gold medal biscuits, and wanted to take
away souvenirs for her friends.
You may have read that Katherine Grainger, who won Olympic Gold in the
women's double sculls at London 2012, has just published her
autobiography, called Dreams Do Come True, which has achieved some
great reviews.