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

Happy New Year

Couple of photo's for you. The boathouse as it was (with Terry proppping it up) and where we are now with the pilings in place, ready for the concrete to go down.

Not withstanding the limited accomodation normal outings recommence next weekend. Look forward to seeing you there.

Happy New Year

Tim

DRC Christmas

Many thanks to those that turned out despite the ice and snow for the club Christmas meal on Saturday - I had a great time and hope you all did too.



Above: A few partygoers, including King Terry in his tiara

Below left and right: The clubhouse site in the snow

Below centre: Even the Yellow Perils held hands to keep warm in the snow

Happy Christmas!

Wintery Work

As you can see from these pics taken by Tim, all is progressing well with the preparations on-site for the new clubhouse...

Great to see our river looking as stunning as ever too!

Now why is the water only ever that flat on weekdays??!!