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 In fact, work is progressing so quickly on-site that this is now rather out of date.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