DRC Makes a Splash in Cambridge

Cambridge Winter League

This was to be another weekend of windy conditions and off-putting weather forecasts, but fortunately the race went ahead as planned and lots of red t-shirts took to the water in singles, doubles and Raedwald. Ken and Chris started off with their races in the 1st division; Jane & I, the Gentleman's 4+, Clio, Em and Tim raced in the 2nd; Chris and Tim raced for a second time in the 3rd division, whilst John and Terry also went out in their trusty double; finally in division 4 Clare & Em and Ken & Nick battled against the pouring rain and wind in their doubles.

Once again club members put in an excellent effort and it was another really enjoyable day. Sadly the weather wasn't quite as good for photography as last time (and also I was the only one wielding a camera!), but I have a few more to put in the album soon. Full results can be seen at CRA online too.

Two results that deserve a mention right now, however, are wins for Clio in the jnr women's singles (is there any stopping her?!) and for Jane & I in the women's doubles. Hurray!! The boys really have some catching up to do now...

Cambridge Champs Junior Head

For the second year running, Clio (seen here showing off her medal from the NJIRC) represented the club at this special head race for juniors and came away with two prizes - one for her single and one for a composite double.

National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships

Clio took part in the NJIRC yesterday...and came home with a silver medal!!

This is an outstanding result - she hasn't yet told me what her time was, but let's just say I don't think I'll be challenging her to any 2k competitions in the near future (or ever, in fact).

Anyone interested in finding out more about the champs can click on the link above.

WELL DONE, CLIO!!

Norwich Head & Capsize Drill

Last weekend was another busy one for DRC...

Norwich Head, Feb 23rd - Clio bravely made the trip across the county boundary and up to Norwich to compete in both her single and a composite double, while Chris Jillings also flew the DRC flag in his single. Clio and her partner from Norwich did particularly well in their race, coming first in their category and second fastest in the whole division. Full results can be found on the Norwich website.

Capsize Drill, Feb 24th - David Hodgkinson organised an excellent session for us to all practice falling out of boats (I'll avoid too many jokes about his experience at that!) and he & Lewis Dann also gave us some basic CPR instruction. I certainly feel a lot more confident about the prospect of tipped out of a scull now (and it turns out that Oliver can knock out a pretty good drum roll when upside down in the water), but hopefully it'll be a while before any of us have to put our new-found skills to the test.

CWL - February 17th 2008

With car thermometers reading -7 as we headed to Cambridge, it could have been a pretty miserable day of getting cold and tired on the water. Luckily the sun soon started warming things up, though, and we could hardly have asked for better conditions.

Ken and Chris braved the 9am start in D1, while the rest of us decided that divisions 2, 3 and 4 were much more civilised. During the rest of the day we had a good turnout from the women (Clio, Clare, Em, Jane, Katherine & Anna) in doubles and singles; Tim battled up and down the river twice in his single, Terry and John teamed up in Reg, the Gentleman's 4+ put in a good effort (despite a little brush with the bank...or was it another boat?) and then kindly stepped aside for the mixed 4+ (Oliver, Simon, Jane & Anna) to take to the water.

At the time of writing, I don't know the results, but can confidently say that we all did really well!!

John Churcher deserves a special mention for rowing the course no less than 6 times (!) and many thanks go to Tim for organising the tow truck and safely transporting the boats to Cambridge and back.

Thanks also to Clare for taking most of these photos (more in the album, please follow right-hand link). As always, feel free to send me any more by email if you'd like me to add them.

Results can be found at CRA online - Well Done DRC!

Races in Feb and March

Hello! I just thought I would draw your attention to some good races coming up in the next few weeks.

Cambridge Winter League (17th Feb and 9th March) - As the first leg was cancelled due to flooding and bad weather, the annual series has been shortened to two races. Time is short and it is usually oversubscribed so anyone wishing to enter the Feb stage should contact me asap.

Norwich Head (23rd Feb) - Full details available on the Norwich RC web page. The course is 4,600m upstream on the Yare - it's long, but not liable to flooding (and cancellation) and a good winter challenge. There's also the promise of a warm welcome and post-race refreshments at NRC.

I regret that members wishing to enter will have to organise their own entries and transport for this race, as I am not able to do it.

Cambridge Champs Junior Head (8th March) - A special head race for juniors. Clio took part last year and it would be great to see the other juniors who've joined the club in the last year taking part this time as well. Full details are on the poster in the clubhouse, or I can email them to you.

January Leg of Winter League Cancelled

Very disappointing news that due to flooding and a bad weather forecast, the first stage of the CWL has been cancelled. The February and March races will take place as normal - more details to follow soon :-(

Pudding Races

Unlike our summer fun day, Raedwald smiled on us today and we were blessed with sunshine, high tide and (relatively) low winds for the first ever DRC Pudding Races.

Tim was master of ceremonies and drew names out of a hat (okay, bucket) to decide the crews and, after a little admiration of the new ramp, we all set off down to the red buoys near Waldringfield. There were just the right number of people for the following doubles: Tim & Oli, Terry & John, Anna & Mark, Bev & Chris, Clio & Em, Roger & Andy. With the tide racing out and wind blowing off the Waldringfield bank, the course rowed by each boat was going to be crucial; four crews decided to cling to the bank, whilst two braved it out on the Methersgate side of the channel. Bev and Chris set off first and set a good pace for the rest of us to maintain. With approx. 1000m gone, Mark & I took the lead, closely followed by Roger & Andy and these two boats stayed neck and neck up towards Methersgate. At this point the others had a little steering difficulty (!) and I thought Mark & I were going to steam ahead to the finish...the trouble was that we were actually only about half way and just a couple of minutes later Roger & Andy started to pull ahead of us. Just as I thought it couldn't get any worse, Oli & Tim appeared from nowhere and also steamed past us to the finish. Terry & John meanwhile had also sneaked up on the other side of the river, but I think we just managed to stay in front. The two women's doubles also battled well against the tide and wind, crossing the finish line shortly afterwards.

Back on the bank, we celebrated with a little bubbly and awarded the puddings to Roger & Andy - a pretty impressive result considering that they hadn't even realised the races were on until they arrived at the clubhouse!

Thanks for adding another great even to the DRC year, Tim :-)