Clio Takes National Title

The last couple of weekends have seen our young superstar shine ever more brightly with stunning performances in her sculling boat.

The first trip was to a cold and gloomy Boston for the first in the series of four Junior Squad Trials, this one being a 5k time trial in single sculls. 72 girls had qualified from their ergo times and when the results sheet finally came out Clio was a fantastic 8th place!

The reward for such hard work followed a few days later with an invitation to attend the pre-Christmas Junior Worlds training week in Nantes, France, along with 11 other of her potential GB team members.

The following weekend the show was on the road again, heading for The Sculler's Head in London. Normally, many of the top juniors go to Hampton Junior Head that weekend, to race in small boats and demonstrate their speed in front of the Head Junior Coach, but with this being Clio's last Junior year, and with Clio being brilliant over long distances, CJ decided to put her into The Sculler's Head instead.

Going off through Chiswick bridge as the first Junior Woman, Clio could watch her main rivals and race those that mattered over the whole 4.25 mile 'Boat race' course, finishing just before Putney bridge, on a lovely quiet, sculling morning with very little breeze. What a stunning achievement! Our girl won the WJ title in a time of 25 minutes dead, comfortably clear of the next competitor and takes the pennant in what is easily the toughest event on the head race calendar.

Absolutely fantastic, Clio - WELL DONE!

Senior Men's Squad

There is now a Senior Men’s Squad formed of those wishing to commit to a regular squad, but whose time is limited due to family/work commitments. It meets at 7.45am every Saturday, boats at 8am, and is back off the water by 10am.

Participants will usually be taking part in other sporting activities during the week, whether cycling, running, fencing, football, etc. but 'homework' is also set of up to one hour of activity in your own time during the week, usually involving an ergo.

Plans for the squad are the Cambridge Winter League, competing in IVs, and whilst there, practising in an VIII. If possible, we hope to put in a crew for the Head of the River Race on the Tideway in March.

Further information from Neil Cawthorn:
Tel (evenings): 01473 736 278
E-mail: Neil.cawthorn@hopehousesuffolk.org.uk

Suffok Coastal Sports Awards, 2010

Last night was a big night for DRC at the Suffolk Coastal Sports Awards ceremony.

Clio and Terry were both nominated in the individual categories and DRC was also put forward for the club award.

DRC was a runner up in its group and Clio won the Young Sports Personality of the Year award. She will now go forward to the awards for the whole of Suffolk next month. Some of you may also have been lucky enough to hear our young star being interviewed on Radio Suffolk this morning.

This is yet more great recognition for our club in what has been a pretty big year so far - well done everyone!!

Ramsholt Challenge, 2010

Ramsholt Challenge, 11th September 2010

One of the new Exlpore Rowing coxed Ivs on the way to Ramsholt

Well done and thank you to all of the club members who participated in this year's fundraising event, and to the supporting family members who met the rowers at the Ramsholt Arms – the conditions were particularly demanding, with strong winds, a very high tide and choppy water, so the 24 rowers (and coxes) who took part should be especially proud of their achievement.



Special thanks go to Chris Jillings who surprised us all with a cooked breakfast first thing before setting out as well as chocolates on our return. He also manned the launch boat to make sure that everyone was okay and this was particularly welcome in the difficult rowing conditions. Thank you too to John Churcher for selecting the crews.

(left) Ali, Bridget and Chris at Ramsholt

(centre) Chris J. in the launch

(below) Rowers at Ramsholt

Grand Opening of New Clubhouse, 4th September, 2010

On Saturday 4th September over 1oo people, including club members and representatives of British Rowing, joined together to celebrated the official opening of our new clubhouse by Dr Therese Coffey MP.

(Further details and photos to follow soon - feel free to pass any you have, or any memories of the day to Anna or Bridget and we will add them here)

Roundtable Rowing Taster, 2nd August

On Monday 2nd August, DRC was pleased to welcome members of Ipswich Greyfriars Roundtable for a rowing taster session.

Plenty of club members were on hand and things kicked off with an ergo demonstration from Michael Streat. Once everyone had mastered the basic posture on that, the tablers progressed to trying the same thing with blades on the jetty... and then it was onto the water!

To make sure that everyone got an experience of the real thing, we put out a variety of boats: viruses, mondegos and fine doubles with experienced rowers in the bows to give coaching tips, steer and keep the balance.

(pictured left: Tim offers quiet instruction from the shore)

Just to show that we can be sociable too, we all tipped into the Cherry Tree for drinks and food as well.

It was a real pleasure to have the tablers at the club. I hope they also enjoyed their evening and will come back again for another go!

Clio at National Championships, 2010

Many congratulations to Clio for winning a silver medal at the National Championships on Sunday 18th July!!

The event was held at Strathclyde Park and Clio achieved her excellent result in the Women's Junior 17 Single Scull event.

Full details and results of the championships can be found here.

Clio in Team GB!

Some really exciting news this evening - Clio has been selected to represent GB at the Coupe de la Jeunesse (Juniors) on Jul 31 at Hazewinkel in Belgium.

This is really fantastic news and comes after many months of hard training and gruelling races and trials.

Hopefully full details to some soon, but very well done to her in the meantime!!

Cambridge City Sprints, Sunday 9th May

Chris Lawrence reports from the Cam:

Thanks to the sterling effort of Nick Redman, I managed to borrow a boat and set of blades from Clare College Boat Club, who recently hosted DRC for a training day. The College boathouse manager is a former opponent of last year’s Sprints (Men’s Novice 1x) , and it was good to have a friendly face to help with the kit. The boat in question was an excellent Burgashell, with a pair of superlight Croker sculls. After the initial paddle to get used to the boat, and get the start right, I felt confident of being able to provide a good race for the bankside spectators.

I met my opponent before the race, an amiable Vet B (guessing age!) from Champion of the Thames, and pleasantries were exchanged. In the spirit of the day, competition took a back seat for a short time.

The race itself, the final of the ARA Novice Men’s Single Sculls, was raced in the third division which started at 12.30. As we were waiting for the command to paddle up and get attached, there was a small amount of tension, but this evaporated once we got to the start line.

I had a piece of luck in being placed on the common station (my preferred one), which allows half a length’s advantage on the start line, but this is compensated for by the bend on which the race is run being in favour of the person on the boathouse side.

“…Champs, Deben. Come forward…….GO!”

After a good start (only slight splashing), I gained a further half length and by the end of the first third of the race, the gap was about a length and a half. Over the next 300m, I kept a steady pace and took approximately another two lengths from him before crossing the line. I was sorry to see him clash (oar) with the bank a couple of seconds later, having made the same mistake myself (twice) last year.

After the race, the Champion oarsman was gracious in defeat. Sportsmanship was shown to be more important then the outcome. After a brief reprieve, we paddled back up to the boathouse, put the boats away and exchanged final handshakes. I departed with my wonderful support crew to collect my pot, and thanked Anton (the college boathouse manager and Cantabrigian) and Nigel (the President of the College Boat Club) for their help, without whose consent to use College equipment I would not have been able to attend the race.

My final word is one of thanks; without the assistance of Nick Redman I would not have even been able to try and borrow equipment to race with, the credit for this win goes to him. But my thanks go out to the whole club; Terry, Tim, Chris Jillings and John, for the time they have invested in coaching me, everyone who has given me tips (far too many to name), Hannah for some outstanding work as Junior Captain, particularly in the face of adversity, and all the other junior competitors (particularly long standing and long suffering doubles partners Megan and Mark).

Now the focus must be on getting ready for the summer. St Neots, Peterborough, and other events are coming up on the horizon. With some solid effort, we should be able to pick up some more pots before the autumn.

Thanks again, Chris Lawrence

Congratulations on winning your novice sculls, Chris!! A well-earned result after many months of training and competition. Many thanks to you as well for writing about the race for our blog - an article showing you to be not just an oarsman, but a gentleman too.

Suffolk Indoor Rowing Champs., 24th April, 2010

On Saturday April 24th, Deben Rowing Club were proud to host the Suffolk Indoor Rowing Championships (sponsored by Health, Muscle and Fitness).

Warming up is a serious business

The competition took place at Woodbridge and over fifty people took part in both individual challenges and team events. Entrants came from all over Suffolk to take part in the event, with representatives of schools from Lowestoft, Stowmarket, Needham Market, as well as those closer to home from Woodbridge and Ipswich.

"Ready, GO!"

The Royal Engineers at Rock Barracks kindly loaned us the rowing machines to use on the day, and the spectators were able to enjoy some serious contests, in particular those between a number of young competitors who were looking to match the British Rowing Gold Medal Targets.

Concentration is key in the face of stiff competition

First home in the Men's Open event was Jamie Cawthorn of Deben Rowing Club and Exeter University in a time of 6mins 50secs. Clio Aubugeau-Williams was first in the Women's Open category in a time of 7mins 39secs. Jack Cousins of Woodbridge School won the junior event in a time of 7mins 34secs, just pipping Chris Lawrence of DRC by 1 second.

All eyes on the rowers

Other individual times were: Graham Aldrich 6.58.0, Steve Fowler (DRC) 6.58.1, Steve Cooper (DRC) 7.01, Neil Cawthorn DRC 7.02, Michael Street (Woodbridge Sch.) 7.03, Will Notcutt (DRC) 7.04, Peter Benson (Skailes) 7.31, Harry Apperley (Woodbridge Sch.) 7.41, Hubert (Cellobeld) 7.51, George Rudland (Woodbridge Sch.) 7.53, Tom Welham (Woodbridge Sch.) 8.20, Bridget Wijnberg (DRC) 8.34, Chris Churcher (DRC) 8.39, Ali Gilbert (DRC) 8.57, Catherine Larner (DRC) 9.25

Very well done to everyone who took part, and many thanks to all those who made it happen.

Report: Neil Cawthorn
Photos: Bridget Wijnberg

More Boathouse Progress...

How exciting!!!!!!!!!!!

When can we move in, Will??

Boathouse Progress

Here is a pic of the boathouse as of 19th March. In fact, work is progressing so quickly on-site that this is now rather out of date. When I cycled by on Monday, we had a door and some cladding...and by now there is almost certainly even more :-)

New lightweight quad launched at DRC's Cambridge training day

DRC members were welcomed at the Clare College boathouse in Cambridge on Saturday, 13th March.

DRC and Clare College members

The morning session saw the launch of a brand new lightweight quad. Em, Hannah, Kate and Clio put the new boat through its paces under the watchful eye of coach, Chris Jillings.

Junior girls try out quad / Clare College BC

Over two sessions planned and organised by Chris, DRC personnel got experience of both sculling and rowing with Clare College very kindly providing coxes, additional coaches and equipment.

The afternoon session involved a DRC VIII taking to the Cam (and, by all accounts, not looking ragged even when Clio at stroke took the rating up!).

The day was both very instructive and fun, and the large number of juniors present got an idea of what college rowing has to offer.

The DRC/Clare composite VIII gets ready to go!

DRC is grateful to all Clare personnel involved and especially Dr Nigel Woodcock, the Fellow in charge of the boat club at Clare, for his role in organising it with DRC's Nick Redman, who rowed in Clare's colours when he was a student there some 30 years ago.

Thanks to Nick for providing the report above and to Bridget for that below! Photos by Steve and Chris

“Having spent 10 months moving up the rung from beginner to, dare I say, vaguely proficient novice sculler on the Deben – all in double and single sculls, it was absolutely fabulous to get the chance to sweep oar in a 4 and with dedicated coaching from the bank. Yes they really do cycle beside you along the Cam, shouting across the water… although one of those old conical shaped megaphones would have helped. Quite iconic.

It was brilliant feeling us all come together so quickly. We might even have achieved the stage of looking elegant and managed to impress the cox with a solid 30-stroke stretch of “excellent” rowing. I for one am now itching to get onto our beautiful Deben in a IV. Any takers?

Signing off with nicely sore muscles and new blisters :-)”

All smiles after their outing in the VIII!

Junior Trials, Feb 2010

Chris Jillings reports from Boston:

When the November Early Indication Junior Trials were cancelled last year due to horrendous weather, February's trials became the make or break focus to cream off the best athletes for this year's Junior Squad.

A weekend of contrasting conditions met the small Deben contingent supporting Clio at Boston for the two day event. Luckily Saturday was a perfect spring day, with warming sunshine and a gentle tail breeze for the gruelling 5k time trial. Sitting in her shiny new boat Clio paddled off to the start with her friends and nearly an hour later, she appeared round the final bend for the sprint to the line.

Having past the boat ahead and up alongside the next one up the queue, we could see that she had performed well, and when the results sheet said 18th out of 56 we were jumping up and down! With most of the girls ahead of her having opted for sweep selection, it looked like Clio was the within the top ten of the scullers.

Day 2 dawned with a light covering of snow, but a swing in the wind gave a stiff-ish head breeze in the second half of the course. Then came the blizzards came and snow ball fights. With the extra pressure of the previous event having been postponed, Thrust waited 'til zero hour to decide to send both male and female crews to start in either their doubles or pairs, and with the snow still falling the exodus began.

Sadly Clio's doubles partner had pulled out with a back injury and Clio teamed up with a girl from Glasgow instead. By the time the leading boats turned at the top the snow had stopped and the clouds were starting to break. The results, as expected, reflected the couples that practised together and the scratch pairings, including Clio, were mostly further down the list. It was still a superb result from the weekend, however, with just the singles results counting for progression anyway.

New Boathouse (update)

Anyone who has been down to the club, or even just near the river, in the last few weeks will have noticed that work is continuing apace down on the clubhouse site.

The 'bones' of the structure are in place and the floor block has been laid.

All very exciting, and here's a picture (thanks to Chris J.) to show you how it looks!

Suffolk Indoor Rowing Champs, 24th April 2010

Deben Rowing Club are pleased to host:

The Suffolk Indoor Rowing Championships

24th April, 2010

Woodbridge School, from 10:00

Events for seniors and juniors, both individuals and teams

More info and entry forms to follow soon

In the meantime, enquiries should be directed to Neil Cawthorn:

Tel: 01473 736 278

email: Neil.Cawthorn@temple-head.org.uk