St Neots Cancelled & Coaching

Unfortunately St Neots RC have had to cancel their regatta this weekend due to flooding. Please see their website for more info. The next regatta on the calendar is Sudbury on August 4th - more details on previous post, entries to myself or Will H. by Sunday 29th July.

Will Mills has kindly offered to run a special coaching session at normal club time this Sunday (29th) - this will be a great chance to pracitse racing starts etc ahead of Sudbury and other regattas coming up later in the summer. Hope to see you there.

Club Fun Day & BBQ, Sunday 19th August

Following the success of last year's event, Will Notcutt is co-ordinating another DRC regatta and he and Nicola will also be doing one of their famous BBQs. The plan is to meet at the clubhouse at 10am as normal and head out onto the water for some races (full details to follow when we have an idea of numbers, but will also be dependent on conditions on the day), followed by lunch back at the clubhouse.

See the poster in the clubhouse for more information and add your name to the list if you'd like to take part. Families, friends, rabbits and countrymen are all more than welcome to come and join in with the BBQ.

Normal session fees will apply for those taking part in racing. The BBQ is £5 per head; any profit will go to the club.

Sudbury Regatta, Saturday 4th August 2007

This is the annual summer event at our nearest rival club, so it would be great to get a good DRC contingent to splash some red and yellow kit around...oh, and pick up some pots too! The course is 650m upstream and I'm reliably informed that steering can provide a suitable challenge to even the most experience scullers. Full details and regatta poster are available at the Sudbury RC website. Please give your entry details (complete with ARA numbers) to myself or Will Harris by Friday 27th July.

Club Meal & St Neots Regatta

Club Meal, Saturday Evening 21st July - Cornelian

Futher to the many requests for more social events, there will be a club meal at Cornelian (the yummy French restaurant in Felixstowe, Hamilton Rd, disguised as a chocolate shop and run by Clio's parents). Please tell me if you'd like to come - more details to follow on times and menu, depending on numbers.

St Neots Regatta 28th & 29th July

This is one of the highlights of the local regatta season, complete with glass tankards, camping and a disco on Saturday night (oh, and races - 1000m on Saturday & 500m on Sunday - perfect for anyone who thinks they might have a sore head!). We would really like to see a big club turnout at what promises to be a great event. There are good views of the river for spectating and rumour has it that the Nottsies may be doing one of their legendary BBQs! Don't forget, you can bring your family and friends along too, so there's really no excuse for missing out!! Regatta posters can be downloaded from the St Neots website.

If you would like to race, please give myself or Will H. your completed ARA Regatta Entry Form (available to download from the ARA website) with your entry fee by FRIDAY 22 JULY.

Please note: you must have an ARA license in order to race (see ARA website for how to join), and should also equip yourself with kit in club colours, or you could be prevented from racing.

Club Kit

Will Harris is kindly organising an order of club kit (shorts, tranining tops and all-in-ones). Please contact him (or me) for more details and let him know what you'd like and what size you need by 5/7/07. I'm sure fellow club members will be happy to let you try on their kit if you're not sure what size and gear to go for.

As you know, people might be disqualified and prevented from racing if they do not wear club colours to race in, particularly at ARA regattas. It would also be nice to see more people wearing club colours generally to make us feel more like a club and less like a ragged bunch of scullers who just happen to be rowing on the same stretch of surf!! We should make the most of our cheery red and yellow kit to make the DRC presence felt around the region.

We will also be doing another order of social t-shirts soon, so watch this space for more info on that.

Isle of Ely Regatta

Congratulations to John Churcher, who picked up a pot at the Isle of Ely Regatta on Saturday!! Great to see our Chairman leading from the front :-)

Alex & Clio Collect Pots at Peterborough

Well done to Clio who collected the WJ14 Single Sculls pot at Peterborough Regatta last Saturday. Drawn in Lane 1 for her straight final over the full 1000 metre course, Clio got the better of her big rival from Norwich RC, next to her in Lane 2, just before the end.

A solid start from both girls saw them slowly draw away from the other competition and engage in a private battle along the road side of the course. The Norwich sculler inched in front of Clio in the middle section of the race with a long, smooth and efficient stroke action. With 150m to go the Norwich Junior was sitting one length up on Clio but was wandering over into Clio's lane.

One brief loss of concentration was enough to make the Norwich girl whack a lane marker, catch a giant crab and slew right over onto Clio's side. Miraculously Clio's blade passed over the front section of the other boat and a collision was narrowly avoided, but Clio seized her opportunity and, with a quick burst, put herself one length in the lead with 100m to go. A big sprint from the recovering opponent was not enough and Clio took the race by half a length.

Down-to-earth again on Sunday, there was no Junior event for Clio, so she joined the seniors and rowed in the Novices for the 500m sprint event, while Alex got her turn to shine in the WS3 Quad

In her heat, superior tactics, and a blistering start saw Clio lead the fleet by one length at the 250m mark but her lack of size and power eventually told and two of the bigger ladies overhauled her before the end. Still - a superb performance and invaluable experience for future races.

A doubly impressive result also for Alex who won her Novice sculling pot and took a senior point too, as part of the awesome Sudbury WS3 Quad who annihilated their opposition. In the straight 4-boat final on Saturday, the big powerful crew lead from the first stroke, being half a length up in the first ten strokes and extending their lead to two lengths before half way. Here they rather took their feet off the gas (to the admonishment of their coach!!) but were still efficient enough to romp home with nearly two lengths of clear water. Well done Alex - from Novice to S3 in three and a half minutes!

CHRIS JILLINGS