ContentsEditorial

4 Working Together Julian Bewick5 Boys Captain 2015 Tom Spackman5 Girls Captain 2015 Siân Cogan

John Chaplin Boathouse6 Behind the Scenes Antony Constantinidi8 The Completion Ceremony Richard Backhouse

10 John Chaplin Boathouse Opening Ray Lockhart11 12 Months Back on the Water Jamie Cox

Articles14 Henley 2014 Valerie Letheren15 A Mug's Game21 A Lonely Road Julian Bewick22 Ups and Downs Julian Bewick23 Musings from the Landing Stage Mike Lawrence26 The Fours Head Mike Lawrence

Articles by Members of MCSBC26 Captain's Summary Joshua Black27 Nantes 2014 Sonya Milanova28 Women's Henley 2104 Ania Chichlowska28 Contrasts Annika Hieronimi29 Steering - How Hard can it be?

Max Leflaive-Manley30 Five Years Rowing Jamie Wiley31 The Boat Club Matthew Wells

Reports - a Selection Matthew Wells32 Ergos in the Floods32 Slimbridge33 Junior Inter-Regional Regatta34 The House Regatta

CoverFront

The 40th Bluefriars Head

Inside frontBoathouse Completion Day

Visitors

Six Captains, a Vice Captain,a Coach and a Boatman

Inside backGirls VIII

Marlow Town Winners

The House Regatta

BackJohn Chaplin Boathouse

Editor Julian Bewick

Assistant Editor Godfrey Bishop

Cover Design Joe Short (1st VIII 1990)

Printer Ralph Allen Press

Coffee MugsAs noted elsewhere in this newsletter, commemorative 2014 coffee mugs have been given to all

who attended the celebration of the completion of the new boathouse at Saltford on 13 Septemberand also to helpers and competitors at the Bluefriars Head Race, held in October.

Mugs have also been set aside for all who contribute to Bluefriars funds. Postage and packingis about £3 per mug, so they are available only by collection from Monkton, unless recipients care topay for the carriage.

If you want to buy extra mugs (good for Christmas presents!) they are available at £6 each.

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Working TogetherRowing is described elsewhere in this

newsletter as the ultimate team sport. It iscertainly true that membership of a crew whichtrains and races together gives an experiencewhich is not only unforgettable but has aninfluence which goes well beyond the results ofraces. Friendships formed on the river in Arcticconditions during January or the wind and rain ofMarch can be long-lasting over many years.However, the team is bigger than the crew, whichis itself a unit within the club. A long-standing andimportant aspect of MCSBC over the years hasbeen the custom that everyone supports othercrews as well as concentrating on their ownprogress; on days when the river at Dundas wascrowded with crews from all age groups, co-operation was a vital ingredient. Sometimes itmeant that the 1st Vlll cheered on the J14 crewas it did a practice course; the tiresome job ofboat loading was undertaken as a club exercise,with everyone lending a hand; even the buildingof a new boathouse in 1968 involved the wholeclub, manhandling building materials to the river.

This important emphasis on co-operationhas suffered with the introduction of timetabledgames, with each age group going onto the riverat different times and on different days. No doubtthe change has been necessary because of theever more complex requirements of the widercurriculum. In the case of construction ofboathouses, health and safety concerns wouldhave kept us away from the Saltford boathousebuilding site even if we had wanted to help.

A few days before the official opening of theJohn Chaplin boathouse, it had to be preparedfor the opening ceremony; contractors arrivedwith tables and chairs; a handful of volunteersswept the floor, put up bunting and balloons andgot the place ready for visitors. Members of theBoat Club, who in former years might have hadtime to lend a hand, were no doubt otherwisewell occupied.

During this preparation work, some boatshad to be moved and members of University ofBristol Boat Club and Avon County Rowing Clubwho were on site willingly helped. This incidentwas insignificant in many ways, but it showed

that Saltford offers not only better water than thatavailable at Dundas, but also the chance to workhappily alongside other clubs to the benefit of allconcerned.Julian Bewick

I am honoured to be taking over as Captainthis year, faced with all the challenges that areassociated with this position. I hope to takeMCSBC to even better places, with the guidanceof Mr Wells and the other coaches. JoshuaBlack will be a tough act to follow, but I believethat in the coming year it will be possible tostrengthen the Boat Club even more so that itbecomes a bigger part of school life than it hasbeen of late.

I am hoping over the next year to encouragethe younger members and to get them excitedabout rowing, wanting to take their chosen sportfurther, helping them to achieve their goals. Ibelieve that it is very important to strengthen theclub from the bottom up. I shall also encouragethose who have not yet given rowing a try tohave a go!

I am looking forward to being able to use thenew Saltford boathouse and take full advantageof it, honing our rowing skills. The new rowingcentre will also allow Monkton to host more localevents and to experience much more side-by-side training and racing; it will also be a greatplace to promote Monkton rowing to the widercommunity. Inter-House competitions help tocreate the fighting spirit essential for winningraces.

Rowing isn't just about training hard, it isabout doing so as a team, but at the same timeenjoying it and making new friends.Tom Spackman - Captain 2015

It's a big challenge taking on the role ofCaptain. I have some great acts to follow withthe prospect of working alongside Tom to leadthe club. A very important aspect for me will beto encourage teamwork. One of my favouritethings about MCSBC is how much the rowersand coaches really support each other. Myclosest friends have been people I have rowedwith, because of the mutual encouragement and

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time that we spend together as a unit. This is avalue I hope to keep up in the next year, alongwith the perseverance and work ethic that thegirls have demonstrated recently.

2014, with all its bad weather resulting in alack of racing opportunities, didn't stop the girlspushing themselves as hard as possible to keepfit and achieve the best. The girls really steppedup last year, mostly because the coaches werewell and truly behind us. I hope this attitude ismaintained, and though the demanding trainingsometimes makes rowing uninviting, I hope to

encourage more girls to join the Boat Club todiscover that it is not all about winning - it's abouthaving fun and being the best we can be.

Last year taught me a lot: how to work wellwith coaches, the importance of communication,how to encourage and push the other girls on,and ultimately how to grow from success orfailure. I am excited about the new year: a newrowing centre allowing us better and morefacilities with more events organised. Siân Cogan - Captain 2015

Five Captains at HRR: Mike Lawrence, Josh Stupples, Tom Spackman, Josh Black, Steve Williams

Three Captains and a Coach at HRR: Siân Cogan, Matt Wells, Roisin Cogan, Victoria Warner

time that we spend together as a unit. This is avalue I hope to keep up in the next year, alongwith the perseverance and work ethic that thegirls have demonstrated recently.

2014, with all its bad weather resulting in alack of racing opportunities, didn't stop the girlspushing themselves as hard as possible to keepfit and achieve the best. The girls really steppedup last year, mostly because the coaches werewell and truly behind us. I hope this attitude ismaintained, and though the demanding trainingsometimes makes rowing uninviting, I hope to

encourage more girls to join the Boat Club todiscover that it is not all about winning - it's abouthaving fun and being the best we can be.

Last year taught me a lot: how to work wellwith coaches, the importance of communication,how to encourage and push the other girls on,and ultimately how to grow from success orfailure. I am excited about the new year: a newrowing centre allowing us better and morefacilities with more events organised. Siân Cogan - Captain 2015

Five Captains at HRR: Mike Lawrence, Josh Stupples, Tom Spackman, Josh Black, Steve Williams

Three Captains and a Coach at HRR: Siân Cogan, Matt Wells, Roisin Cogan, Victoria Warner

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Behind the ScenesThe ACRC/UBBC boatsheds which sat on

the banks of the Avon at Saltford could at besthave been described as quaintly dilapidated. OKfor keeping a boat in (but even that wasquestionable for UBBC) and with dreadfulchanging facilities and one functioning loo (just)in each building.

That we needed to overhaul them waswithout question, but how? UBBC wererumoured to be doing this on their own whichcame as a surprise as they were ACRC's tenantsand needed our permission. It turned out theyhad raised less than half of what they neededwith little prospect of finding the rest. HappilyMonkton were looking for a base on the samestretch and it took very little time to broker anoutline deal between all three which eventuallyled to today's facilities.

However, it took a great deal of persuasionand legal negotiation to get there. On the fundingside the break-through came when SportEngland agreed to consider the project; if ACRCled on this, the grant would be £50k; if UBBC orMCS did, it would be £150k - so UBBC signedthe application and the first anyone knew aboutits success was a report from the awardceremony held in Bristol that the largest chequewould have been handed to UBBC but no oneturned up! Happily once we knew about it wewere able to smooth things over.

On the planning side we were trying to sortout the old poplar trees on the bank which turnedout to be protected - 2 of them were in the way ofthe facilities block so we applied to remove themand were advised to withdraw the application asit would be turned down - better apparently tosubmit with the building details. Meanwhile westarted on the consultations for 1) the trees 2)flooding 3) bats 4) asbestos 5) newts etc 6)highways 7) fire access.

The council officers rejected the consultants'views on trees and bats; we had to have furtherreports on both; the trees, as they did not believethey were diseased despite a 40 foot limb fallingon the towpath and pontoons; the bats, eventhough none were evident - eventually an experthad to camp out to validate this.

None of this was quick and we soon formedthe view that there is a work creation schemehere sponsored by the council. But it did appearwe were beginning to make progress until 3 daysbefore approval of the scheme the council treeofficer noticed that our entrance gate was to bemoved to comply with highway regulations - thenew gatepost would be near the old conker treewhich required a root survey which could not bedone in time - this oversight caused a 6 monthdelay!

And so it went on - in the case of theasbestos survey we could not get sight of thereport which told us that there was asbestospresent, much to our surprise. When the removal

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contractor arrived to assess the cost, he had acopy with him - it showed there might have beena ring washer under our old sink plus a lavatorycistern made of Bakelite. We removed these in10 minutes but still had to pay for the report, hisvisit and sign off. Infuriating and time costly,taking 6 weeks to conclude with demolition heldup.

Legally, things were getting tricky as itturned out that UBBC could not give theundertakings required by Sport England and thegrant was at risk - ultimately we obtained arelaxation of their rules and the award wastransferred to ACRC but kept at £150k to beshared between the three clubs. Another fewmonths had passed whilst we strove to solvethis.

The Duchy had performed brilliantly as ourlandlord helping to problem solve - they werekeen to see the improvement and agreed to anew 60 year lease thereby satisfying BritishRowing who gave a £60k grant to our club. Butthen we found the overall cost of constructionwas going to exceed our combined budget bysome £350k. In stepped The Duchy and offeredto oversee the project and use agriculturalcontractors without a prime contractor; we wouldjust have a series of separate contractors fordemolition, foundations, steel frame, cladding,groundworks and fit-out. This saved the day.Until we found that neither University nor Schoolcould agree to make progress payments to thecontractors. Apparently Prince Charles'screditworthiness was not good enough! TheDuchy then volunteered to pay for all the worksand invoice on completion (but subject to aninterest charge). MCS agreed but UBBC did not -this was a deal-breaker so we had to threatenthem with eviction and to find an alternativerowing club to replace them. They called ourbluff, claiming we were threatening them so weserved the notice and they agreed to sign! Thistook some 3 months to sort out but eventually wehad all the documentation signed andcontractors lined up.

The delay allowed time for a film to be madefor German TV based on a Rosamund Pilchernovel. MCS provided oarsmen, we taught theactors to row and provided our old boathouse

which they re-painted and decked out in bunting.If you want to watch an excruciating film seek out"Unknown Heart"! The rowing sequences aregood and the old clubhouse brushed up well.

In went the diggers and down came thebuildings in a matter of hours. The site was thencleared to reveal a much larger space than wehad realised and which is now filled by the pondwhich was required by the Environment Agencyto receive the water from the roof gutters toreduce flooding risk.

Monkton Bluefriars were then able to holdtheir Head (in October 2013) amongst thefoundations and we found that it worked verywell.

After that the rain started and, when almostall the foundations had been concreted, downcame the record flood, causing damage to fourof our boats trapped underwater on their racks,as the surge hit within a couple of hours onChristmas Eve when the Weston gates werelifted to save Bath.

When the waters receded work started againand we set to work re-floating and repairing thepontoons but our Head had to be cancelled asthe site was waterlogged and with the riverracing down we lost our main fund raising eventof the year. In fact, the top field had turned into amuddy bog preventing car parking so we had toask the contractors to lay a stone foundationwhich has improved the affected areapermanently.

The building works proceeded encouragingly;slowly we saw the shape emerging. When thecladding was finished we started making racksas soon as we could and were allowed to usethem just in time for the summer whilst the restwas finished. UBBC got into their shed as theirterm finished.

Then came the day when we were able tohave a hot shower on site - it was the first any ofus had experienced there and was a realnovelty/pleasure - we hope it remains the latterover the years to come!

Just as the last phase of work on theentrance gate was about to start we had anunwelcome invasion of travellers who spottedthe gate was unlocked on a Wednesday

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afternoon - they promised the police they wouldmove out the following day which got them out oftheir hair. Smelling rats a-plenty we told TheDuchy who contacted their expert - he had thenecessary papers issued on Thursday andarrived with tow truck, police, assistance and anew lock and chain on Friday morning. Theywere out by lunchtime - lessons learned 1) lockthe gate 2) if the worst happens don't rely on thepolice or the traditional and slow court process.

And so now we have a Rowing Centre whichis the envy of the local rowing world; the mix ofcommunity rowing club, school and university iscurrently unique and provides a wonderfulopportunity for rowers of whatever level. Thecanoe club which has cohabited with ACRC foryears has now expanded through merger andshares our space together with a Dragon boatclub so the offering to everyone has expanded.Now comes the phase of learning to run theplace, keep it tidy and clean and what it all costscompared to our forecast.

If you have not yet been to see it, please doso - the clubroom with its balcony, woodburnerand kitchen is wonderful, just check it will beopen when you come! We are not allowed to runa bar so if you must, BYO.Antony Constantinidi

Boathouse Completion Ceremony13th September 2014

Text of speech by Richard BackhouseThe first headmaster I worked for was a tall

and intimidating Scot called David McMurray. Heonce told me that "..There are only two sorts ofheadmaster: those who are glad that their schooldoes not have a rowing club, and those that wishtheir school did not have a rowing club". NOT SO: Iam delighted to welcome you all here to see thecompletion of our new boathouse. It's a thrill to seeit and I hope you are as proud of it as I am.

Of course, a piece of work like this does nothappen without a great deal of effort, and I wouldlike to thank particular people for all they havedone to make this happen, starting with abirthday, because we are also celebrating aBluefriars anniversary. Like most august

institutions the exact birthday of Bluefriars isdisputed and so depending which version youbelieve, it's the 60th, or 50th or 48th birthday thisyear. I'd like to thank Bluefriars for theirexpertise, their financial help, their constantencouragement to the school to give the BoatClub high priority, and their commitment to thiscause. Bluefriars: your financial help hasenabled Monkton's boat club to remain a keypart of the school. I am equally grateful for thatother work - unseen and private - of helpingpupils who couldn't afford to go on trainingcamps to do so, who couldn't afford to trial forGreat Britain, or who couldn't afford the earlyrisky days as professional athletes. For all these,and for the gift of rowing machines to YOIs(Youth Offenders Institutions), and for all theother work that you do, thank you.

There are other donors who have helpedwith the project. In a moment, I will introduce youto one of them. In the meanwhile, may I thankpersonally every single one of those here whosupported this project with your donations, one-off or regular. We really don't take the gifts offormer pupils, parents, current parents and otherfriends of the school for granted. I hope that youfeel, as you look at this great facility, that it hasbeen a good thing, and one well done.

I also need to thank Avon County forleading this project - Antony Constantinidi, whohas been what I think the Americans call 'onpoint', the Duchy of Cornwall for graciouslyallowing us on their land and for theirrepresentative here for his personal support,British Rowing for financial support, SportEngland likewise, Bodmans the builders,Amanda Cracknell for running the Monkton endof the building project, and to Steve Williams,OM and double gold medallist, for coming toformally mark this occasion. Finally, theDevelopment Office team for organising today -thank you ALL very much indeed for, in so manydifferent ways, making the day possible.

So why have we built a boathouse? Rowingis, I think, the ultimate team sport. Footballteams can persevere with only 10 men. Rugbyteams win, even with a player in the sin bin.Some cricketers win matches without batting,bowling, or touching the ball in the field, but I

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don't suppose any of us have ever seen a crewwin a race without the participation andinvolvement of every member of the crew.

My own rowing was at university and thencoaching at Oundle and (when I looked youngenough) slipping into occasional school crews asa ringer in Senior 3 events, but I learneddiscipline, teamwork, resilience, and sometimesthat sheer stubbornness, and that refusal to giveup and lose, which rowing rewards. I am surethere are many here who have learned similar

things, whatever your seat in the boat mighthave been. Rowing is a sport young people canlearn so much from, and are so rarely injured by.It's a sport which takes us out into the naturalworld. It's a sport which takes our pupils out ofthe valley and to interesting places, to Saltfordand beyond. For some here, it has taken them allover the world.

All new school buildings or projects, for me,are about opportunity. And this boathouse is noexception. It's about being able to row side byside, over longer uninterrupted distances,without being held up by the J14 oct that's stuckin the reeds; it's about rowing on bumpier waterso that our rowers will be less surprised whenthey arrive at the Tideway on a windy day.

There's one more thank you before I hand

over to David Chaplin.In a Christian School, we feel especially that

the good things that the school experiences arenot just luck, nor just the result of hard work anddiligence, but that they are blessings from God,so without bowing our heads, or doing any ofother ostentatious things about prayer that wemight do in a church, can I invite all of you to joinin with a resounding 'Amen' as note of gratitudeto our heavenly father from whom all good thingscome. AMEN.

And now, thanks to the Chaplin family: JohnChaplin was a pupil at Monkton until 1952. In hisfinal year, he was Captain of Boats, in a crewthat lost narrowly to Radley in the final of the P.E.at Henley [The only Monkton crew to reach aHenley final - so far - Ed] . After Monkton, hewent on to Queens' College, Cambridge, asother Monkton oarsmen have done. Unlike manyothers though, John was also Captain of Boatsat Queens' where, in 1955, his crew won theLadies Plate.

I am delighted that our boathouse will carryJohn's name, and I am profoundly grateful to hisfamily for their generosity to this project, and thisbuilding. Without you, it may simply not havehappened, so thank you David, Hilary andSimon.

Steve Williamsspoke

before cutting

the ribbon

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John Chaplin Boathouse OpeningI left Monkton in the summer of 1955 and,

not being accepted for National Service, wentstraight to Queens' Cambridge. Having neverreached the dizzy heights of the 1st VIII atMonkton I had to wait until the following year at

Queens' before being involved in morecompetitive rowing. The Queens' 1st VIII of 1955had considerable success, winning their oars inthe Mays and then the Ladies Plate at Henley.John was a member of that crew, of which all butone remained for the following year. I wasprivileged to be selected to take the spare seat,rowing for the first time with John Chaplin.

We won our oars in the Lents in 1956 withJohn as our captain (NB this needs to bechecked. I think he is shown as such on theblade which you will be receiving soon) risingfrom 13th to 9th on the river. When my wife and Imoved recently to a smaller house we werewondering what to do with the oar. At theopening event on September 13, wearing myQueens' blazer, I suddenly had an idea, whatbetter place for the oar to find a new home thanthe John Chaplin boathouse at Saltford!

To complete the story, Queens' were lying5th on the river at the start of the Mays in '56.

We made bumps on the first three nights but justfailed to catch Lady Margaret on the final racethus missing out on both our oars and the Headof the River. Had we managed to do so that oarwould have been even more significantespecially as, as far as I know, Queens' hasnever been Head.

As the crew had won the Ladies Plate in1955 it was decided to enter for the GrandChallenge Cup at Henley instead. Our first racewas on the Thursday. There was a north-westgale blowing and we were drawn on the Berksstation against London RC. As we came out fromthe lee of Temple Island both boats were blownsideways and we struck the boom breaking twooars. We managed to stagger through thecourse but it was a somewhat ignominious exit!But those few strokes (my first at Henley) earnedme my Leander colours!

Maybe the lesson to be learned from all thisis that the standard of rowing at Monkton in 1955must have been at least as high as Queens' thefollowing year!

John became a good friend as well as afellow Christian and it was certainly a privilege torow with him and know him as a colleague ratherthan just admiring him for his prowess from lowerdown the school.Ray Lockhart (1955)

Tom Spackman, Hilary Russell (née Chapman), Steve Williams, Simon Chaplin, David Chaplin, Richard Backhouse, Sian Cogan.

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12 Months Back on the Water.In September 2013, I found myself returning

to work at Triumph Motorcycles in Hinckley after3 years away. I was still living at home inHampshire but making a weekly commute toLeicestershire which meant that I had plenty oftime on my hands in the evenings. It had beenmore than a decade since I had last beenproperly involved in rowing, having given upwhen I got too big to cox at university. I hadalways wanted to stay involved with the sport, soI decided to get in touch with Leicester RowingClub to see if there was any way that I could helpout by coxing or coaching in the evenings duringthe week. After a quick exchange of emails theclub captain was keen for me to get down to theclub and get involved and within a week I foundmyself steering a novice four, in the pitch black,along a completely unfamiliar stretch of river! Itwasn't for about half an hour that I realised thatthis was a first for me, in my ten years of rowingat Monkton and Brookes I hadn't once been outafter dark. The detailed design of the boats andblades has changed a little bit since I was lastcompeting, but it was all very familiar, the noisemade by the boat and the blades, the occasionalsplash of water against my hands and face, andthe smell of the river against the cool autumnevening brought back a lot of good memories. Itmay have been over a hundred miles away fromMonkton, but the memory of steering the 1st VIIIunder the aqueduct as we did a Henley piecewas strong in my mind that evening.

It takes a lot of commitment, particularly fornovices who are just starting out, to finish workfor the day and head down to the river in thepouring rain on a dark evening but I guess this iswhat club rowing is all about. You don't get agames session in the afternoon at work so youhave to be willing to fit your sport in around yourother responsibilities. One of the things I wasmost impressed about with the oarsmen andwomen at LRC was their commitment. I couldshow up any evening of the week to hear thesound of ergos, weights being lifted in the gym,the sight of a crew moving a boat at speed pastthe boat house. LRC already had a selection ofcoxswains and I didn't want to jump in and takeanyone's seat, particularly as I would only be

around in the week, so I volunteered to coachinstead, jumping in a boat occasionally when acrew need someone to steer (or even row whenthey were really desperate). It was irregular atfirst, I always had my kit packed in my bag forthe week and I would wait for an email during theday asking if I could come and coach thatevening. The club had a good coach for thesenior squads so I tended to work with the men'sand women's novice squads, people who hadbeen rowing 2-3 years. It was good to be back,even though it was mostly on the towpath and itwas nice to be involved again, giving somethingback to the sport.

As November came around, and it was notonly wet and dark but also freezing cold, thewomen's novice squad were discussing the ideaof putting together a crew for the Women's Eights'Head in London. I encouraged it, as it alwaysseems easier to train when you have somethingto aim for, and I agreed that I would focus on theirsquad, at least up until the head race.

The squad showed good commitment - onthe water about 5 times a week including at leasttwo outings with me and an ergo session. I felthappy that they would make good progress withthis amount of time investment and over time, itwas thoroughly enjoyable to watch themimprove. I was concerned though. If you knowLeicester Rowing Club you will know that theyhave an excellent boathouse, a good fleet ofboats and blades and an abundance of"keenness". What they lack however, is a longstretch of water. Whilst our outings were in thedark evenings, we were restricted to about1000m of water before we had to stop and turn.Unlike the facilities Monkton has at Dundas, theriver is dead straight as it has been modified byman to suit its city centre location. The stream iswell controlled, it doesn't flood that often and it isextremely sheltered from the wind. But still, it isonly 1000m. The crew were good at turninground. When I started with the crew the longestpiece of hard work they could put in was justover 3 minutes before they had to stop and turnaround. Within a couple of months this was lessthan 3 minutes as they improved. I wonderedhow they would fair racing from Chiswick toPutney?

With this in mind, I asked them to start doingsome longer ergo sessions. At least one trainingsession a week consisting of 2 x 20 minutes onthe ergo with a 20 minute run in between -something we used to do when I was at Brookes.This worked well to improve the fitness of thesquad and over time the distance they couldcover in those 20 minute sessions graduallyincreased. The two sessions I coached them onthe water were split, one solely technical andone technical plus three or four 1000m pieces,turning as quickly as possible in between. Forthe technical work I was using exercises that Ihad first learned some 20 years ago on the riverwith Mr B, Mr Jameson and Mr Conington. I wasamazed at what I remembered from Monkton, asI identified problems the crew were having, Icould normally remember a drill we hadpractised on the water at Dundas to deal with it.Other times we used exercises that the crewshad learned at Leicester. I quickly learned thatone particular exercise could be a bit risky, a"superman" involved coming forward up the slidebefore letting the blade go at the catch andraising your hands up. It worked great in pairsand fours to help timing at the catch, but whenan overly ambitious coach suggested that thewhole crew tried it, the 8 nearly capsized. In thedark, in the freezing cold of a January evening, Iwas glad they managed to keep the boat uprightand we never repeated that exercise.

Watching the improvement in both fitnessand technical ability was very rewarding; at firstthey had maybe one good outing in five, but asthe months went by this changed, until the goodoutings outweighed the bad. Next on the agendawas to get some racing experience. This wasn'tthat easy as race after race was cancelledbecause of the bad weather at the beginning ofthe year. I couldn't attend any of the races, theywere normally in the Midlands and at theweekends I was back on the South coastspending time with my family. I'd send a text tofind out how they were getting on, to be told thatthe race was cancelled because of high winds orhigh water.

It got so bad that a fortnight before the Headof the River, the crew had not yet had a singlerace. The last opportunity before the Tideway

was the Head of the Trent. We agreed if this wascancelled we would scratch the crew's entry forthe Head of the River. It really didn't seem like agood idea for a crew to compete for the first timeamongst 300 other boats on what can be a verychallenging stretch of water.

Thankfully, the race on the Trent was notcancelled and the crew got their first taste ofcompetition. I have to admit, it didn't go well;when I saw the results I was gutted for the crew.They were second to last in their category, andhad even been beaten by the club's own juniorcrew. But, just as I was about to send out adamage control email, trying to encourage themto look forward to the next race, my phonestarted beeping with emails and texts arriving.They had all really enjoyed it. None of themseemed to care about the result: they had theirfirst race and that was what counted.

Over the next two weeks, we made somechanges to the crew and cracked on withtraining, getting a few extra outings in. Wheneveranyone asked me what they could do to improve,my answer was always the same. Miles. Thecrew was starting to look better and I washopeful that we could improve upon our lastresult. With a week to go though, it was againlooking likely that we would have to scratch. Thecommittee was putting restrictions on whichcrews would be allowed to race due to the strongtidal conditions after a winter of non-stop rain. Iwas called to a meeting with the Leicester Clubcaptain, the women's captain and the club'ssafety rep. They wanted to know if I felt the crewand cox were competent enough to race in theseconditions. The restrictions put in place by therace committee didn't rule out my crew on paperas they were entered in the IM3 category notNovices, but the reality was a bit less clear. Iwanted the crew to race, and I was confident inour cox, Emma. My response was that if she washappy then we would proceed with plan A, if not Iwould steer. Secretly, I wanted to steer.

Emma was confident enough to say that shewould do it. I didn't get to race, but I was happyfor her. I think it is fair to say that she hadn'tparticularly enjoyed the race at Nottingham,particularly having to deal with challengingconditions whilst marshalling before and after the

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race. As well as improvements in the crew'stechnique, Emma's coxing had come a long way,from merely repeating calls she had heard fromothers, to understanding what the crew neededto be told - she was now a real asset.

I had agreed that for the Head of the River, Iwould travel to London to be with the crew onrace day. That morning, arriving at DukesMeadows I had a real feeling that I had beenmissing out on something for the last 13 years.13 years! I couldn't believe it was that long sinceI had climbed out of a boat at the end of a racefor the last time. Again it was all very familiar,crews running up and down the towpath warmingup for a pre-race outing, others rigging boats andmost importantly the smell of bacon rolls beingcooked outside the boathouse (probably why I'mnot coxing any more!).

Some of the crew were literally wild withexcitement, the prospect of competing in thesame race as some of the top crews from aroundthe world, especially the GB women's VIII wasalmost too much for some of them! Others werequietly nervous, thinking about the challenge thatlay ahead of them after for nearly six months ofpreparation. Whilst the crew rigged the boat, Itook the cox up on to Barnes Bridge to point outwhere they would be marshalling and as much ofthe course as we could see. I wanted to pass onsome of the knowledge that Mr B and others hadpassed on to me over the years.

After a warm up and a quick chat, the crewboated and I was left on my own at theboathouse. This was a strange feeling, all thebuild up and preparation for a race, but thenwatching the crew row off under Barnes Bridgeas I was left behind on dry land. The last time Ihad felt like this was watching the Monkton 1stVIII of 2000 boat for their race at Henley with mybrother in the cox's seat!

I walked over Barnes Bridge and up to themarshalling point where I found the crew waitingby some steps down into the river. With thestrong tide Emma was relieved that I was able towalk down the steps and hold the crew inposition whilst they waited for the race to start.They were all excited to watch the first boatsracing past and then I pushed them off and toldthem to have a good row, just as so many

coaches had said to me.I got to see about 3 minutes of them racing

as I had positioned myself on the outside of thebend halfway between Chiswick and BarnesBridge. I was encouraged to see them lookingcomposed and right in the stream. I wanderedback to the boat house and waited for whatseemed like forever for them to return.

The crew were buzzing when they got back,but it wasn't until I got home that evening andsaw the results that I could share that feelingwith them. They had indeed had a good row andhad managed to beat five of the crews who haddefeated them in Nottingham two weeks earlier,one of them being the University crew with whomthey share a boat house!

In the next few weeks after the race theweather was warming up and the evenings weregetting lighter. The crew split into small boats asit seemed difficult to get everyone together overthe summer months with holidays and othercommitments. I was thoroughly enjoying myevenings on the river, but I wasn't enjoying livingaway from home. In June I had my last coachingsession at Leicester having secured a new job athome in Hampshire.

'Attention GO'! Three months after leavingLeicester and I'm on the river again, this time inthe cox's seat of an VIII - quite a quick oneconsidering that the crew had only been togetherfor about 15 minutes and we were already doingregatta starts. Most of the crew hadn't been in aboat for a long time and one of them evenclaimed that he hadn't been in a boat since aregatta in Beijing in 2008!

I was a bit of an impostor in this crew. Therewere six former MCSBC Captains on board, and Ihad only ever made it to Vice-Captain. We wereon the river showing off (or showing ourselvesup!) in front of the crowds that had gathered forthe opening of the new boathouse at Saltford. Itwas a privilege to be in this boat, and even moreof a privilege to be present at the inauguration ofsuch an excellent rowing facility. The seniorsquad had often trained at Saltford when I was atMonkton. It was always a rush to leave school,build the boat, have an outing, take the boat apartand get back to the school. Everyone that I talkedto on the day was impressed by the rowing

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centre, and there was a real sense of hope thatthis would push Monkton rowing even furtherforward. My own personal hope is that the schoolencourages the Boat Club to flourish andsupports the oarsmen and women in their pursuitof success on the water. I recall a 1st VIII coachgiving a speech at his leaving party, he spoke ofhis pride in Monkton for achieving success inspite of training out of a shed, in spite of having tonegotiate Bad Corner half-way through a trainingpiece. That is no longer a restriction for Monktoncrews, but a shiny new boat house will not bringinstant success. I believe it will be a motivationand inspiration to many Monktonians and I lookforward to seeing what you can achieve.Jamie Cox, Vice Captain 1999

Henley 2014My husband and I were delighted to accept

our son's offer to attend the Henley Regatta thisyear. He and his wife had successfully bid in anAuction of Promises at a Monkton fundraisingevent but were unable to go themselves.

We were treated to tickets for the Stewards'Enclosure, afternoon tea at the prestigiousLeander Club and, most of all, to be hosted bySteve Williams OBE, an Old Monktonian anddouble Olympic Gold Medal winner in the

Coxless Fours in 2004 and 2008. We learnedthat following his Olympic success Steve climbedMount Everest and then turned his attention tothe television series Dancing on Ice, which heand his partner went on to win!

It was a most wonderful day. The weatherwas superb and Steve proved to be a fantastichost. After watching several races, we met upwith Steve for a tour of the Leander clubhouse,where we were impressed to see his successesrecorded on the Honours Boards. Following asplendid afternoon tea in the Leander marquee itwas time to return to the river and observe someof the later heats before being invited to join thetraditional Monkton buffet supper. Staff, parentsand rowing students made us so welcome.Unfortunately, against stiff competition, Monktonrowers had failed to qualify for the Regatta theprevious Friday but that did not dampen thespirits of anyone there.

We felt really happy that our grandchildrenare pupils at such a great school. Our thanks goto all who made our day so memorable,particularly Steve himself, who explained somuch to us about rowing, mountaineering anddancing on ice!

Valerie Letheren

Six Captains and their crew after an enjoyable outing at Saltford: Jamie Cox, Josh Black, RoisinCogan, Steve Williams, Simon Brown, Mike Smith, Henry Bailhache, Graham Mills, Nick Weldon

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A Mug's Game 60? - 50? - 40? - 25? - 0?

Original documents mentioned in this article arereproduced on pages 18 to 20

The editor tries not to miss importantanniversaries connected with Bluefriars, and atfirst sight it seems to be an easy task this year.

The usual training camp was held in Nantesfor the 25th time; The new boathouse at Saltfordwas opened in September; The 40th BluefriarsHead took place in October. The race wasfounded in 1971, making the 2014 event the 44thin the series, but floods have led to the loss offour races.

That's three anniversaries so far.To add to those, I convinced myself that

2014 was Bluefriars' 60th year.Plans were soon in place to celebrate

Bluefriars' 60th during the opening of the newboathouse. Special commemorative mugs,celebrating all four special years, were to be givento people who attended the Nantes training camp,to people attending the opening of the boathouse,to competitors and helpers at the head race and toall contribute regularly to Bluefriars.

Just before the mugs were going to be madein August, I realised I had made a blunder, whenI came across the 2006 newsletter whichcelebrated 50 years of Bluefriars. The mugs hadto be redesigned, leaving out reference to 60years of Bluefriars, and I had to eat a little bit ofhumble pie!

To add to my confusion, while all this wasgoing on I received an email from Peter Bussell,pointing out that Bluefriars had been founded in1964. An edited version of the correspondencewith him follows,

PB to JMB 2227 29 JulyI was turning out some cupboards yesterday

and came across a document which sets upBluefriars, names those who were to serve onthe Committee, sets out the objects of the Cluband gives notice of the first AGM (on Old Boys'Day 1964)

I assume you probably have a copy also but,if not, I would willingly scan it and email it to you.

JMB to PB 2241 29 JulyIt's very good to hear from you. I have been

in a muddle about the date of the foundation ofBluefriars. We celebrated 50 years in 2006. Nowfor some reason I've got it into my head that itwas founded in 1964. John Ducker was amember of a boat which rowed at Henley TownRegatta in 1956 and he told me that that was thefirst time a crew had raced as Bluefriars and thatthe name was invented specially for that event.

If you really have written evidence that itwas founded in 1964 I would very much like tohave a scan of it along with any thoughts youhave about the foundation. Were you a memberof the committee? The more you can get to mebetter...

You may have heard that we are proposingto make a commemorative coffee mug. Theoriginal design celebrates the new boathouse, 60years of Bluefriars, 40 years Bluefriars' Headraces and 25 training camps in Nantes.

PB to JMB I assume that the formation of Bluefriars

might also have been reported in the OldMonktonian Gazette at the time. Does theSchool hold an archive copy? Unfortunately, myfiling system (attic!) is badly in need ofimprovement. If I do retrieve anything further inthe next few days I will let you know.

Do let me know if I can help any further.

PB to JMB 2230 30 JulyMy filing system has triumphed!!The attached is an extract from the OM

Gazette, November 1964. No 4, Vol II, page 116.Although the year is not mentioned, I believe

the evidence supporting 1964 is irrefutable.The reference to Bluefriars competing at

earlier regattas is something for which I have norecord - other than to confirm that the name doesappear in the 1964 British Rowing Almanackunder 'Schools' as a club for past and presentmembers of Monkton Combe School. The onlyearlier copy of the Almanack I have is the 1956Edition (obviously printed in 1955) and this doesNOT contain an entry for Monkton Bluefriars.

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The Club would therefore seem to have beencreated sometime between 1956 and 1963 butwas reconstituted and given a more formal set-up with effect from 20/06/1964.

It only remains to explore the other editionsof the Rowing Almanack to see when Bluefriarswas first mentioned.

JMB to PB 1410 31 JulyMany thanks for the files. It is worth reading

the article about the 1956 crew which JohnDucker wrote for the newsletter of 2003:www.bluefriars.org.uk/news/2003/Form03.htm

He is relying on his diary which was writtenat the time, so I don't think he will have made amistake over either the date or the substance.

There remains, of course, the fact thatBluefriars is not mentioned in the ARA recordsuntil 1964 or thereabouts. I suspect thatBluefriars existed very informally from 1956.

So I'm going to stick with 1956 as thefoundation year of Bluefriars.

PB to JMB July 31I have done a little bit more digging and got

some details from British Rowing (attached)which I have summarised (also attached)

I hope you can make use of some of theinformation.

I can't comment on John Ducker'srecollection (after all he is older than me!) of afoundation date of 1956, especially if he has adiary record - does anyone know how the name'Bluefriars' originated? Other than the schoolcolours are predominantly blue?

PB to JMB 2123 Aug 3Just to conclude; I have now found a letter to

'The Monktonian', published in December 1956which describes how The Old Monktonian BoatClub entered a crew under the name of 'TheBlue Friars' (note two words!) at Henley TownRegatta earlier that year. This of course largelyconfirms John Ducker's diary notes and gives abit more detail of the heat they lost. I am sureboth of you will be interested to see the attachedcopy.

JMB to PB 1246 Aug 4It looks as if John is right that the idea of

Bluefriars, whether one word or two, was firstthought of by his crew in 1956. And you are righttoo about the more formal beginning of BluefriarsBoat Club.

What I am planning to do, and I hope it's nottoo far from the truth, is to emphasise thatBluefriars came into existence in 1956, but moreformal arrangements were put in place in 1964,by which time, according to one of thedocuments you sent me, Bluefriars had beenoperating for some years. The article doesn't sayhow many, and perhaps that is the subject offurther research, but it seems highly unlikely thatit was dormant from 1956 to 1964.[end of email correspondence]

Further commentIt seems that the name Bluefriars or Blue

Friars was conceived in 1956, So the name willreach its 60th year in 2016; Monkton BluefriarsBoat Club was formally registered with the ARAin 1964, 50 years ago this year.

The coffee mug can celebrate 50 years of Monkton Bluefriars Boat Club in 2014.

In 2016, we can celebrate 60 years of thename Bluefriars and 20 years of the MonktonBluefriars charitable trust.Julian Bewick

Henley Town Regatta 1956 Here are my final thoughts on the first use

of the terminology which includes the words'Blue', 'Friars' and 'Boat Club'

I don't have a copy of the article I wrote forthe magazine so there may be some differencesin what I wrote then and what follows.

Obviously at some point prior to the HenleyTown Regatta on Monday 6th August 1956,those of us involved must have met to discussthe plan to enter a crew of OMs for the regatta. Ipersonally was desperate to get back in a boatagain after 2 years in the army and somehow, Idon't remember how, got together with the otherfour who formed a Coxed Four for the HenleyTown Regatta. I think the crew was Bow:

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Richard Hladik, 2: Nigel Thimbleby, 3: JohnDucker, Stroke: A W(Tony) Butler and Cox: C GS(Chris) Bone.

I have no evidence of what clothing we worebut almost certainly our former Monkton rowingshirt and appropriate colours.

I have no formal evidence of the compositionof the crew but I expect that could be verifiedfrom the annals of Henley Town Regatta. I thinksome of us were welcome guests at Nigel'sparents' home in Reading for the one or twonights we were in practice for the regatta.

As to who suggested the name, I have noclear evidence, but obviously we agreed that wecould not enter as a recognised club but only asa group of individuals with similar backgroundand almost as a joke and play on the wordMONK, we chose FRIAR as a play on words andas Monkton colours were blue in some form orother BLUE FRIARS seemed an appropriatetitle.

At that point I was in the final days of myqualifying as a pilot with the Air O.P wing of theRoyal Artillery at the R.A.F airfield at MiddleWallop as the culmination to my two yearNational Service stint.

I was very mobile at that point in life on myLambretta scooter and I would come over toMonkton on the scooter for key events such asSports Day. On Saturday 28th July I wrote in mydiary :

To MONKTON.MCS Athletic Sports.

Saltford Regatta 1st VIII

as a heading to the detail to follow, Then Iwrote:

off to Monkton at 12.45, over at 2.00 down toSaltford and Monkton beat Stratford by 2½ lengths. Back to Sports which Farm won.

I mention this because although noreference is made to it in my diary, I wouldcertainly have had conversation with CJG whohad been my Tutor during my 6 years as aMonktonian, and that may well have been theoccasion upon which I met some or all of theother OMs who were to be members of theAugust 6th Four at Henley Town I wrote:

"After tea left (Middle Wallop) for Nigel Thimbleby'sat Reading. Tony Butler and Peter Grose turned uptoo but Chris Bone didn't, but did entry form etc." This I assume was when it was decided to goahead to enter for the regatta.Friday August 3rd: Packed and left at 7.30 forReading via Basingstoke. Tony Butler, Chris Boneand I went down to river but no go. Had outing aftersupper at 7.30 and went right up to narrow channeland down in one piece.Saturday August 4th: Outing at 10 went right up totop again and started rowing etc. Back for lunchand over to Maidenhead Regatta. Watched racingall afternoon. Tried to get a boat but no good. Back to Reading and down to river and went outafter very heavy storm. Rowed 6 mins upstreamand not bad. Back for bed about 12.30.Sunday August 5th: Up at 8.30 and down to riverat 10.30 and back 11.30." Later in the day I added"Then to Henley where we had short outingcoached by Stanley Latham. V.G (very good) Monday August 6th: Henley Town Regatta, Dullwith fairly heavy rain, northeast breeze, Off at8.30 to collect oars then to Henley. Raced 3abreast from just above the barrier at 10.15. Off togood start and up a bit to start but lost by 2 and ahalf lengths. Not fit !!!"

There is no question in my mind that theidea of forming an official boat club bearing thename Bluefriars was in no way related officiallyto our use of the term Blue Friars in 1956. I amalmost certain that CJG was well aware of the1956 event as he and I, after our relationship asTutor/Pupil in the Fifties and later as colleagueson the staff during my time on the staff as 1st VIIIcoach 1959 - 62, were in periodic contact on apersonal level. As we still are !!John Ducker

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MONKTON BLUEFRIARS BOAT CLUBTimeline of the earlier years

1964 The Club is formally established as the successor to the Old Monktonian Boat Club at an inaugural annualgeneral meeting held at MCS on 20th June.

The first listing of Monkton Bluefriars BC ('the Club') in the 1964 Edition of the British Rowing Almanack ('theAlmanack') on page 303 of the Rowing Directory - Part 3 - Schools

(The Club is listed as 'indirectly affiliated' i.e. it had an arrangement with an affiliated Club (MCSBC) by which itsmembers were recognized as members of the latter and were therefore entitled to compete at ARARegattas)

1974 The Club was listed as a 'nonce club' of MCSBC. 1975 The Club was listed in the Almanack as a subsidiary of MCSBC1976 The Club was listed as a dependent of MCSBC1978 The Club was listed as an affiliated club for the first time and was also listed as a racing name for MCSBC in

the Schools section of the Almanack's Rowing Directory 1992 The ARA, wishing to tidy up Almanack entries, queried whether the Club was a club for old boys or for

schoolboys out of term.Julian Bewick wrote on 15th August to explain that the Club was what used to be called a Nonce Club, whichwas the description found in old copies of the Almanack.(School crews which raced on Sundays or in the holidays, or whose entry fees were paid privately, ratherthan by the school, entered as members of Monkton Bluefriars. Very occasionally in the holidays an old boymight row as a spare man in a school crew, but very infrequently.

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A Lonely RoadTraining at Monkton can be a fairly lonely

business. Crews often have to row up and downthe river by themselves, without the companywhich can do so much to bring improvementthrough working together. One of my oldcoaches used to call such co-operative training'friendly endeavour', or if the chips were downand two crews found themselves racing, it couldturn into 'unfriendly endeavour'.

Godfrey Bishop kindly agreed to help withthe editing of this edition of the newsletter, andwhile we worked at it, we reminisced about the1992 season. Much has been written and saidabout the rivalry between the 1st and 2nd VIIIs ofthat year. It's worth reading the articles aboutthem in the 1992 newsletter which is availableonline.

Over the years, Monkton crews have trainedenthusiastically and successfully, but bythemselves. A major concern to the coach wasto encourage perseverance throughout theseason, when the crew might meet company ofroughly equal speed just a handful of times atregattas and head races. (It would be nice tothink that all competitions gave thrilling races,but it has to be admitted that the majority ofraces are won or lost by fairly large margins.)

There were many tricks of the trade used tohelp the crew to keep focused on the job inhand. Here are just a few:Frequent timed pieces - results being comparedwith other crews' times, and progress beingenjoyed week by week, with the level ofperformance published at school for all to see.Records were broken occasionally, speeds usuallyimproved gradually during term, but occasionallywe had a bad day with slow times. These had tobe explained and worked on.Exercises - the crew aiming at perfection. I used toreckon that a good crew might do just 10 perfectstrokes during weeks of training. I rememberstopping a crew after 10 such strokes, andeveryone knew what had been achieved without aword being said.Having fun - I remember a very clever tutee whoenjoyed rowing, but didn't have a clue about how todo it. She managed to row with a unique style,

having her seat going towards front stops while theoar was being 'worked' through the water. Youwould think it was impossible! During an outing onthe Erdre in Nantes, when the crew had done somegood work, but looked as if they might go off theboil, we were near Gachet, about 3 or 4 km up fromthe boathouse. BSM (Brian Mawer) had gonethere by car, perhaps to book dinner at theexcellent restaurant, and certainly to watch thecrew from a distance. Before we reached what wasone of our standard stops for a breather at Gachet,I reminded the crew about my tutee's style ofrowing, and we practised it for a few minutes. Wethen appeared round the corner, and BSMimmediately commented - 'that girl!'. It wasperhaps a trivial incident, but it enabled everyone torelax for a while after which the outing continuedhappily for several more miles.Learning to work as part of the unit - This was avery important objective; it not only added speed,but did so when it was really important, when therewas no time for words, just for the vital message topercolate through the crew. In a sense, the coachwas not part of this bond, but he could feel close toit when a single glance or gesture from stroke, coxor captain told him exactly how a particular piecehad gone. I was in the habit of talking to the crewfrom the launch attached to the boat near the stern.The bow and two men were quite clearly unhappyafter one particular outing and it transpired thatthey felt they were being left out because I alwaysparked near the stern. Although this was the moreconvenient place to stop, that little incidentreminded me that everyone in the enterprise hadan important part to play.Enjoy social times together - perhaps just a chat atlunch (the coach often sat with some of the crew). Itwas unusual for a crew to be fast if it did notbecome a social as well as an athletic unit.

In 1992, this somewhat isolated existencewas disrupted by a fast second eight. The crewshad been selected after brief trials by the end ofJanuary. I have been asked many times why apowerful fifth form oarsman was put in thesecond eight rather than the top boat - he wascertainly worthy of a seat there. The answer tothe question could be the beginning of at leastthree full articles!

1 'Every dog has his day'. The talented fifthformer would have a place in the top crew in

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1993 and 1994. In the meantime, a long servingmember of the club in his last year was goodenough to have a first-crew seat.

2 There is a tension between wanting thefastest boat and giving as many people aspossible top crew experience. In 1992 and atother times I favoured the latter solution.

3 What is school sport for? I would say notprimarily for the school, but for the individualswho take part. (In passing, I was interested tonotice on the school website that, in relation topublication of exam results and the choice ofacademic courses, 'schools exist for the benefitof pupils, and not pupils for schools'.) There is afine line here, because once the individualbecomes a member of the crew (or a club or aschool?), loyalty to that organisation is to beencouraged, and both the individual and theorganisation benefit from it.

So perhaps a faster crew could have beenchosen. But, as it was, two fast crews emergedfrom the process. Second eight tails weredefinitely up on several occasions in the yearwhen they beat the First VIII (with time to spare)- indeed they were up almost continuously! Thefirst crew and its coach became despondent alltoo easily, even when the stopwatches andresults were telling all of us that both crews werebreaking records and were by Monktonstandards amongst the best. Both crewsenjoyed a good season; both benefited from the'unfriendly endeavour' of rivalry, but the 1st VIIIperhaps did not appreciate it enough at the time.JMB

Ups and DownsOn a recent walk to the river, I noticed that

the area near the crane on the canal basin hasbeen tidied up. As part of the "improvement" thepath on the canal side of the building next to thecrane appeared to be blocked off. This set mewondering how boats being carried between theriver and the boat trailer could be negotiatedthrough the narrow chicane and along the paththe other side of the building.

Boats used to be carried up from the river on

the upstream side of the aqueduct, but this routehas been made more difficult by the installationof hand rails on the steps; so the standard routefor some years has been the path on thedownstream side of the boat house.

Over the years, it is not only boats that foundtheir way up and down the aqueduct.

In 1968 a new boathouse was built. This isthe Rigg boathouse which is the mostdownstream of the boathouses at Dundas. Tonsof concrete blocks, cement, sand and otherbuilding materials had to be transportedsomehow to the site from the canal basin, whereit arrived as needed on lorries. The canal hadnot been restored, so was empty, though siltedup with unpleasant mud. A small bridge was builtacross the canal bed at the aqueduct so thatmaterial could be taken from the canal basinacross to the downstream side of the aqueduct.Here it was placed in a temporary wooden chute,where gravity took over. The whole of the BoatClub was involved in carrying materials from thebasin to the chute over a period of weeks. Thiswork did not interfere with outings very much,because each oarsman carried two or three bagsacross the aqueduct while on their way to theriver each day.

Some years later (1975), the old woodenrafts, which had been in service for many years,finally collapsed and had to be replaced. Wefound CU Pontoons, which made, amongstother things, concrete street lights and largepontoons for marinas. We were their first rowingcustomer. The wooden rafts had been equippedwith metal bars to prevent them being depositedon the bank as floods receded, but this solutionwas not satisfactory, so it was decided to installtwo large vertical posts between the new raftsand the bank. We went hunting around forsuitable material, and came across the two largepipes which are still in place today. A largecontingent of oarsmen carried them down theaqueduct and helped to put them in place.

Each of the new concrete rafts weighed ashade over 3½ tons, so there was no question oftaking them down the side of the aqueduct. Weasked the RAF (through an OM oarsman pilot) ifthey would like to carry out an exercise topractise heavy lifting. They were helpful and

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came to look at the site, but it turned out that theweight of a raft was slightly over their permittedmaximum for this sort of exercise.

In the end, we arranged that the raftsshould arrive by lorry and be put into the river atLimpley Stoke Bridge. The road had to beclosed, and special permission obtained to havea heavy lorry and its load stopped on the bridge.We would be faced with over 10 tons of raftsfloating downstream, and we had no idea howdifficult it would be to secure them when theyreached the boathouse, so we arranged that therafts would arrive on Field Day. The manoeuvrewas turned into an initiative test, and we had alarge number of oarsmen/cadets armed withropes to secure the rafts at Dundas. It turned outthat we could have done the job with half adozen people, as the rafts could be manoeuvredeasily.

After the rafts were installed, we werevisited by the Chairman of the Stewards ofHenley Royal Regatta, as they were thinking ofinstalling the same equipment. They did so,using rafts with slightly greater buoyancy.

One of the concrete rafts is still in use atDundas, at the downstream end of the newplastic rafts.

Current members of the Boat Club areprobably not sufficiently aware of other regularups and downs. Fuel for the launches isnowadays carried to the river by boatmen; theyhave long since taken over from oarsmen whoused to carry petrol tanks from the garage or thebasin to the boathouse. They also carried dieselfor the generator at the workshop. Now that thecanal is working, this diesel is delivered by bargedirect to the fuel tank at the workshop.

Boat-loading at Monkton must be moredifficult and time-consuming than at any otherclub; but when the whole club was involved withloading boats not only for themselves but forother age groups and crews, it was one of theactivities which encouraged important clubmorale. Unloading boats after events wasperhaps a different matter; it was always difficultto make it anything other than a tediousexercise.Julian Bewick

Musings from the Landing Stage The best laid plans of Mice and Men!

I overheard a conversation the other daybetween two couples holidaying in Italy - onecouple flew out, went from the airport to thecentre of Rome, enjoyed the historicalmonuments and the ghosts of the Imperial mightof the City, paid lots of money for the privilegeand flew back again to GB. Job done!

The other couple motored to Italy - intentupon sharing the experience of the Italians'major City but were overcome by the beauty of asmall fishing village of Camogli, near Genoa.They stopped to enjoy the experience for a fewdays - savouring the scale, the beauty, thesetting and the pace of life.

They didn't make Rome on that trip but planto do the trip next year.

I feel a little like the latter couple - so Ithought I would share the experience.

This has been a long, difficult and seeminglypointless year from a first glance, and it hasbeen tough, really tough! I feel I have trained allyear to no avail. Firstly, I was dropped from theGB Under 23 trailing process after being the topU23 sculler at a set of trials in December andcoming 11th overall behind Olympians and Worldchampions alike. I also won my sculling event atthe British University Championships in May2014.

I have more recently tried focusing on mysculling at Tideway Scullers School, Chiswick(TSS) following a chance meeting with Bill Barry(Alan Campbell's coach). All was going well, Iwas looking at the top quad with a potential of afew international athletes coming over fromabroard and setting me up for my first seriousHenley campaign with the aim to win, and I wasalso trying for the Commonwealth RowingChampionships selection at the same time. Itwas all playing out rather well.

In my imagination, I would win Henley, (orget to the final at least), then be invited back toseat race for the U23 quad having shownconsistency this year on ergo tests (around 6:16on every one) and based on my performanceson the water. I was planning on building from thisinto next year based upon a strong summer of

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racing internationally either at theCommonwealth Games or U23 WorldChampionships. This would be followed by anintroduction to triathlon in the early autumn.However, things didn't quite turn out that way!

Sometime in May I picked up glandular fever(which takes 6 - 8 weeks to mature). The earlysigns came in the build-up to the MetropolitanRegatta. I was tired, had a constant headacheand just felt unwell. Stupidly I pushed on,thinking I was just dehydrated and tired from thetraining. I raced on the Saturday in the strokeseat of the top quad at TSS. Things went ratherwell! We came second in the final to a very quickBorlase's crew in a time of 6:12 in a crew thatcould only have been strengthened.

On the Sunday, I was racing elite singles, Iwas feeling quietly confident as my single hasbeen going well all year especially after mytraining with the Monkton boys and Matt Wellson camp in Nantes. However, things were not tobe as I was about 30 seconds off the pace I felt Iwas capable of, and about 20 seconds behindthe winner. I felt tired and lethargic again, but Ipushed on and the next day I was off to Brive,France on training camp with TSS for some"warm weather training" . This felt good and wasgoing well, but I had a constant headache for thewhole week and felt exhausted after everysession, but this was a training camp!

Finally, we had some seat racing in doubleswhen we got back to the UK, this just seemed topush my run-down body over the edge and I hadto be escorted home from the London DocksRegatta Course because I was struggling tostand up - let alone walk! A few days after this Iwas in hospital (on fluids, morphine andsteroids), it felt like déjà-vu, except this timethere was nothing I could do to get back in aboat and race at Henley. I was out for 3 weeksand at that moment my world felt as if it was allcrashing down around my ears. This seems sillynow, but we have to remember this would havebeen the pinnacle of my year; everything I hadtrained for this year could have come together atHenley. All my plans were now out of thewindow; no Henley meant no opportunity at aWorlds' spot and that definitely meant no chanceat a Commonwealth place.

It has however, left me a lot of time to reflectfrom the landing stages instead of boating fromthem. I feel I have learnt a lot from this year, andthere are a few principles that I would like toshare with you that I feel will help me in thecoming years to get to where I want to be.

Consistency is one of these principles.Without consistency we will not be able toperform at the highest level, particularly in crewboats. How can coaches tell whether we aregoing to perform at a winning standard when wecome to the bigger races of the year? I found thisout the hard way after my performance in thefirst assessment of the GBR trials, where I came71st. This was by far my most disappointingperformance and it was the result that let medown - even following my performance at thesecond set of trials (where I was the top U23).This inconsistency left a big question mark overmy head, in the eyes of the selectors, as towhether I could perform on a regular basis, andunfortunately I gave myself just one too manyblack marks by my name when I suffered a coldduring the 5k test after this second trial (smallmargins). Where was the consistency in that?

Secondly, when I was in School House atMonkton my house parent at the time (JamesShone) stressed to me the importance ofintegrity in everything I did. Integrity is theintegration of outward actions and inner values.A person with integrity does what they say theywill do in accordance with their values, beliefsand principles. Maintaining 'integrity' when thereare so many issues that impact upon one's lifeisn't always easy - but perhaps through adversitya new strength grows and a stronger sense ofwhat integrity means.

I have found that if an athlete displays'integrity' you find a level of community - in whichconfidence, trust and support grows around you.Groups of people who will help you achieve yourpotential and your goals.

Without this support network, an athletebecomes just a performer, essentially just a shell.How is one meant to reach one's goals without thehelp of others, ie a coaching team pushing you on,friends to provide emotional support andorganisations that can provide preciousresources? In point of fact, it is nigh on impossible.

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I also feel that there needs to be a degree ofemotional maturity in order to become a topathlete, or even to achieve one's goals in life.There have been many times this year when Ihave reached a theoretical wall or been thrownoff track. For instance, when I was dropped outof trials, where I could, and was very tempted tofly off the rails, to pack it all in, just to give up andquit. There have been many occasions where Ihave thought about this, but why should Isacrifice my dreams and my ambitions becausesomeone else says I can't, or I haven't achievedenough yet!

Instead of just quitting and packing all myhard work in for nothing, the only thing I can dois to try and achieve bigger and better things thatwill guarantee to turn heads and erase thisquestion mark over my head as it stands at themoment. I intend to be even more disciplined inthe way I approach the sport and more'professional' in the way I deal with people whoare trying to help me but I am intent upon usingthe resources available to me as effectively as Ican - particularly time, as it has a nasty habit ofjust slipping through ones fingers!

Lastly, we as humans have something thatno animal has, and it is what is calledimagination. And what imagination allows you todo is to visualise various scenarios. I feel tobecome the person you want to be you have tovisualise the positive. The problem some of ushave is that we keep talking about mistakes, wekeep talking about the past, we keep talkingabout our trials and tribulations and keep talkingabout the negative aspects of our situation.

However, everybody that has ever beengreat, everybody that has ever had something toovercome, everybody who wanted to succeed -they all had a barrier or an obstacle they had toclimb over or go through. We need to live in thefuture; we need to go into our future every singleday. I would like to think we all have the ability toimagine our future goals and objectives (whetherin sport or life) and this can take us beyond theimmediacy of pain and disappointments. One'simagination has to have wings to take us beyondour troubles and take us to the next level.

I need to persevere so that the success Istrive for will come my way. However, the

journey is a joy in itself; I have met people Inever would have met otherwise, and visitedsome beautiful places I wouldn't otherwise haveseen. I already have a fistful of experiences thatI can carry forwards through life !

Three months on, with hospital visits, bloodtests and health checks behind me and lots ofrest and relaxation - doing the things normalpeople do but without so much as a drop ofalcohol, and as if by magic, I find a fantasticsupport team around me intent upon improvingmy performance.

We have started bringing me back to fullfitness with care and a great deal of intelligentcoaching - so I don't fall ill again with arecurrence of the glandular fever (which is aconstant fear sitting in the background - should Ibecome too tired).

I now have the support of a coach, atechnical coach, a strength and conditioningcoach, physiologist, a masseur and a dietitian - Ieat fresh food at the right times of the day tomatch my training cycle and I sleep at fixedtimes.

My pulse, hydration, temperature and weightare checked on a daily basis and I logeverything!! ... yes, everything! So we knowwhether my body is functioning normally.

My first race will be the Fours' Head inNovember - and I start number '1' in a elite quadwhich includes Alan Campbell (bronze medalist1x from London 2012). So the likes of Leanderand Molesey will be chasing our 'Scullers' boaton our home waters.

I'll let you know whether I was petrified bythe responsibility of defending the TSS win of2013.

Mike Lawrence MCSBC Captain of boats 2011 and 2012

[Thank you for this, Michael and our best wishesfor next year! - Ed]

Just before going to press, we received thearticle which follows overleaf.

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The Fours HeadLast year Alan Campbell (bronze medallist

1x, London 2012) won the Fours Head forTideway Scullers, with World Champions fromthree other nations.

On 1st November I found myself in a'Scullers' elite quad (with Alan Campbell sittingbehind me), number 1 of 416 assorted fours.

We had a lightweight senior oarsman (StewHeap) in the bow and a past Henley winner (NickMarriot) in the stroke seat.

Immediately following us were Leander'sWorld Championship Quad crew, the Leandersecond crew (including the U23 Worlds doublescull), the Squad Heavyweight 4-, the SquadLightweight 4- and the Swedish U23 WorldsQuad Crew (in the guise of Westminster School).

The water was flat, the weather balmy with aslight breeze following a shower of rain. We gaveit a great crack, passing under Barnes Bridgedecorated in 'Scullers' colours, where GordonReay (past Director of Rowing - now withChester Uni) was yelling his head off. Perhaps totheir surprise, Leander didn't overtake us untilHarrods.

We finished 6th overall and 4th of the elitequads - but what an experience - my first at thislevel in the sport. Mike Lawrence

Articles by members of MCSBC

Captain's summaryFive years ago, I was given the opportunity

to row at Monkton and little did I imagine thatone day I might be Captain! I feel extremelyprivileged to have been Captain for my last yearat Monkton. It has proved to be the mostchallenging and enjoyable year. A key personalachievement was that I managed to qualify forthe preliminary GB trials last October and,although I did not progress further through theprocess, I learnt a great deal about commitment,hard work and perseverance. I also found theexperience hugely enjoyable.

Although the weather was not conducive torowing on the river during the Lent Term, it didlead to many hours on the ergos and in the gym.It was wonderful when we did finally get on theriver and thanks to our land training we wereable to put in some encouraging performances at

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Gloucester and the Junior Sculling Head.For the past 25 years, one of the key events

of the season has been the annual trip toNantes. This year was no different and, duringthe Easter holidays, 20 senior rowers set off toNantes to concentrate on training in preparationfor the regatta season. During the week wecovered some 110 km and all returned keen tocompete!

Although poor weather meant thecancellation of some rowing fixtures, we weresoon heading up to a sunny, if slightly windy,Nottingham for the National Schools' Regatta.This proved to be a day full of great racing withthe 1st quad race providing me with one of themost exciting races I have ever been in! Itshowed that we had improved hugely in a veryshort space of time and we set our sights firmlyon qualifying for Henley!

Back at school, we continued with somegood training leading to some greatperformances throughout the whole club and afew wins at Marlow Town Regatta.

The week prior to Henley was spentpractising on the course where training wentwell. We were very grateful to Mr and Mrs Cookfor their generous hospitality which enabled us tobenefit from this aspect of the Regatta.Qualifying for Henley is always a challenge asthe standards are exceptionally high and eventsattract a large number of entries. We did our bestand were very disappointed not to qualify.However, there is no doubt that it was a fantasticexperience.

Although our focus throughout the year wason competing at the various school events andqualifying at Henley, probably one of the mostenjoyable events of the whole season was ourown Monkton House Regatta. In spite of a verypoor weather forecast, the sun shone and it wasgreat to see so many members of the school -both staff and pupils down at the river with asignificant number taking part in what proved tobe a fun day.

Overall, I am very pleased with how the2013/14 season went but what is probably mostimportant is that I do feel privileged to have beena part of Monkton rowing. I have made some

great friends, shared some fantastic experiencesbut through it all I will remember the team spiritand endless laughter that has been a constanttheme. Joshua Back - Captain 2013/14

Nantes 2014I had long known about the traditional (25

years strong!) rowing camp in Nantes, andstories from the students had me looking forwardto the ten days in France since I started workingat Monkton in January. Having experiencedNantes, I can see why Monkton chose to gothere. University of Nantes are fantastic hosts,and have a great piece of water to row on. Evenwhen we were all exhausted, the camaraderie ofthe Boat Club remained strong. I was reallyproud to be part of it. Previously I havewitnessed camps where the intensity of thetraining and competitiveness of the rowersgained the better of them, or where having funcompromised the quality of the rowing, or wherefatigue didn't allow for much productive studytime. I must say none of these was really thecase for us, as we struck the right balance.

For me, the focus was always going to be oncoaching, especially after the challenging termwe had had because of flooding. I took the WJ184x out for their first outing on the Saturday and in10km we managed to make some great changesto our rhythm. The focus, energy andwillingness to learn which the girls displayedright away let me know that they were a crewthat could go quite fast. As the week went on,we tweaked the crew order and grappled withsome difficult times when fatigue was taking itstoll on the rowers, their hands blistered and theirmuscles aching. We pushed the girls harder thanever to continue improving and they met everychallenge thrown at them. The final 2km raceshowed how the technical changes had beentaken on board, and demonstrated their driveand desire to go fast. I cannot express enoughhow much I admire these young women for allthe hard work they did in this week of trainingand they were an absolute joy to coach.Theirdetermination and growing confidence will setthem up well.Sonya Milanova - GTA Coach

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Henley Women's Regatta 2014Women's Henley has been a highlight of this

rowing year. It was a racing experience like noneother we have had before. Racing side by sidedown one of the best known courses in the worldwas exhilarating to say the least - an opportunityI would jump at if it arose again. Not only wasthe race special, but the whole occasion aroundit. The Cook family hosted us for the night sothat we could train the day before, theirhospitality was overwhelming and made theevent relaxing, fun and the hard rowingpleasurable. It was also an opportunity for ourWomen's J18 quad to show how much we hadimproved in the previous couple of months. Thecrew missed the presence of Ellie who could notbe there for the day due to her end of year

commitments. However, Hannah Street fromYear 11 did us proud, and stepped up to themark to form a new and very able quad. Eventhough we were surrounded by the bestwomen's crews in the country, plus someinternational ones, we did not feel too out ofplace. Mr Wells encouraged us to achieve oneof our best performances, and the quad cametogether in an effective rhythm to carry ussmoothly and efficiently across the finish line. Totop a memorable day, the weather was glorious,and helped to make it a splendid Britishsummer's event.Ania Chichlowska

ContrastsBefore I joined Monkton last September, I

had been rowing for about three years inGermany. I rowed for my club and my school invarious kinds of regattas throughout the year. Iused to row in a double or a coxed quad.

When I arrived at Monkton, I was a bitconfused because rowing was not available as achoice for games in the Michaelmas term.However, I was happy to hear that we were ableto row in the following two terms. In the Lentterm, I learnt that English people love ergos forfitness, when the bad weather and flooding makeit impossible to row. I was sad that I wasn't ableto go on the river until the last few weeks of term.Thanks to my good ergo scores, I was put into acoxless quad with three other girls: Siân Cogan,

Ellie Clear and Charlotte Griffiths. Because ofour lack of training caused by the bad weather,our first two events didn't go too well.

Then we went to Nantes for the trainingcamp - an experience I'd never had before. Ithink I learnt more about rowing in those tendays than ever before. Finally, in the Summerterm, the first boat was announced: Bow: Annika,Siân, Ellie, Ania.

What really surprised me were the majordifferences in training and rowing in general. InGermany, there are mostly water or ergosessions, whereas at Monkton there is a varietybetween ergos, circuits, weights and water

Hannah Street & Felicity Giles - WJ16 2x Marlow Town Regatta

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sessions. Moreover, at Monkton, the coachesfocus on our technique and want to improve theselected crew. In Germany, I used to switchboats from training session to training session.Sometimes I would go out in a quad, whereas atother times I would go out in a single or adouble.

One skill which I brought to Monkton waspushing off the landing stage all together withoutthe help of a coach, a method I didn't encounterat Monkton though I had started that way inGermany.Annika Hieronimi

Steering: How hard can it be?As rowers progress through the club to year

11 and above, one of the significant changes thatoccurs in quads and fours is the shift from theboat being steered by a coxwain to being footsteered by one of the rowers.

When, at the beginning of the year I wasgiven the bow-seat of the senior quad (andtherefore the job of steering the boat), Ireassured myself that I could confidently steer asingle scull and that hundreds of rowers footsteer quads every week. After all, how hardcould it be?

The first job of every rower sitting behindstroke is to follow the stroke-man's rhythm,mirroring his every move, which requires focusand precise timing. However the bow man hasadditional responsibilities, the first of which issteering.

The most important thing to get used to isthat unlike in smaller boats, which are steered bypulling harder on one side or the other, the boatis steered using a rudder which is attached bywires to your foot, so that the boat will turn whenthe foot is twisted. This may sound simple butthe rudder, which is only the size of a credit card,

is turning a boat about 8 metres long. Thismakes the boat very insensitive and so itrequires a lot of concentration and judgement.Like all things, this gets easier with practice, butsix months later I still make regular errors!

In addition, the steersman also has theresponsibility of giving most of the commandsand calls in both racing and training. This mightbe quite easy on its own, but added to bothsteering and rowing it all starts to feel like tryingto rub your stomach and pat your head at thesame time, and requires a third level ofconscious thought!

Finally, as if doing all this in training isn't

Guy Hooper, Lennart Wennmachers, Matt Mannings, Patrick Gracey - J16 4x at Marlow Town

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hard enough, the pressure only increases in racesituations, when the stakes are much higher andeverything is happening much faster!

Looking back, I'm really glad that I was ableto steer the 1st quad over the last year. I'veenjoyed the challenge and learned a great dealfrom the experience, even though I've regularlycome very close to destroying one of the BoatClub's newest boats during close encounterswith other boats on the river, knowing full wellthat the responsibility is all mine! Max Leflaive-Manley

Five Years RowingI've really enjoyed my final year in the Boat

Club, rowing in the 1st quad, Easter training inNantes and some very good banter. Althoughcompetitively we have been hampered byflooding and a loss of valuable water time in theMichaelmas term, I have had a really good timeand we've been steadily improving throughoutthe season.

This being my last year I can't help but lookback on my 5 years of rowing at Monkton.Despite the turbulence caused by experiencingthree directors of rowing, it has been brilliant.My fondest memories of the club have to comefrom the Nantes trip which has been differentand eventful each time. Just having theopportunity to train as we do in Nantes and to bein such a relaxed environment with friends, issomething you don't get elsewhere at school.

Although it may be somewhat clichéd,rowing has genuinely changed my life. Coming

from the prep and in no way sporty or fit, rowinghas got me fit and healthy. Now I'm competing atrowing events with the 1st crew - something Icouldn't have imagined five years ago.

Of all the aspects of school, rowing willdefinitely be missed the most. I hope to build onthis foundation at university.Jamie Wiley

Max Leflaive-Manley, Jamie Wiley, Tom Spackman, Josh Black - 4x at the National Schools Regatta

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The Boat ClubThe 2014 season certainly was a

challenging one for the Boat Club. Not onlyhaving to compete against other larger, strongerschools, we found this year a new formidableopponent in the weather. Being new to theregion and the school, I can categorically say Ihave never seen flooding to the extent which wehave had this year. It left us with a situation ofwater, water everywhere but far too much to rowon.

This obviously delayed the actual rowingespecially with year nine students who didn't geton the water until their half-term break. However,in true Monkton tradition we soldiered on andcreated some events on the ergo which werebrilliant and we will be sure to continue thesenext season. We held a competition againstBryanston School in the Chapel [surely a first?but I do remember storing an VIII in the chapelover the Easter holidays - Ed] which proved tobe a monumental success, Monkton winningseven out of the eight events on offer.

Once rowing on the water was under way,we built up through the season with somefantastic performances from all age groups.

One of the highlights of the season for mewill always be the J18 (year 11-13) Girls' VIIIwinning at Marlow Town Regatta. The shrieks ofdelight could be heard on the opposite bank over800m (half a mile) away. The second, whichreally sums up rowing at Monkton was theHouse Regatta, which brought elements of thewhole school together. The fantastic atmospherewas created jointly by the music department,providing an exceptional pop band; and theschool catering, providing strawberries andcream for a real summer event. We had someexceptionally tight racing which showed howmuch loyalty the students have for their Houses.The day was rounded off by two eights of currentstaff members racing over the DundasChampionship course. We finally got to knowwhich teachers where better - 'arts' or 'sciences'with a verdict of over one length to the 'arts' boatmuch to the dismay of the Principal (seven manin the losing boat).

We continued at Nantes with our 25th

training visit there for a fantastic rowing camp.The students really took control of their owndestiny and showed how hard they wanted towork - the first time since I started as Director ofRowing that I have seen this.

The year ended with creditableperformances by our top two boats at HenleyRoyal Regatta. The boys, for the second time inthe season, just missed qualification (only thetop ten out of sixty five other quads qualified). Avery competitive event but our boys held theirown well in the qualification race. We entered(for the first time) a girls' quad at Henley RoyalRegatta. These girls had gained experiencefrom racing at Women's Henley two weeksearlier; their 2000 metre time had come down byby more than 40 seconds in three months - amassive improvement and something which as acoach I am very impressed with.

The next season is looking exceptionallyexciting with the introduction of the new rowingfacility at Saltford. This will enable us to pushour top performers further and also to create asafer environment for the students who arelearning the sport for the first time.Matt Wells

ReportsEdited versions of a selection of reports

by Matt Wells sent by email to parents after events

Ergos in the Floods - January 2014Flooding played havoc with Lent term rowing

this year. Early in the term, Director of RowingMatt Wells explained how the extreme weatherhad impacted upon the racing schedule. Beforethe end of January, he organised a 'dry race' withevery member of the club competing on the ergoagainst each other. To make the competitionmore interesting, all the rowing machines wereconnected up and projected onto a screen,which gave a great representation of what washappening.

He told us: "After competing for many years Ican tell you that the one thing I dread the most iscompeting on the rowing machine. It is one ofthe hardest things you can do especially when

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you connect them up to all the other machines.There is nowhere to hide. Quite rightly we hadsome very apprehensive rowers prior to the start.What is apparent though is that every personrose to the challenge and either smashed theirprevious score to bits or in some cases repeatedthe very good performance they had achieved inthe previous week."

In the senior boys' race, Alex Leflaive-Manley took the honours whilst the senior girls'race was won by Annika Hieronimi. The Juniorboys' competition was won by Martin Ninov andthe Junior girls' honours were taken by OliviaCaesar. There were some impressive individualachievements with an average improvement of24.7 seconds over 2000m. The boy of the matchwent to Dan Buxton moving his PB on by 47seconds; a massive achievement showing therewas still more to come. The girl of the matchwas a very difficult one to call and had Mattthinking hard. There were some tremendousimprovements and a staggering number ofpersonal bests. Finally, he confessed: "This timeI am going to cheat and am going to award theprize jointly. Both the girls I have chosen onlystarted rowing 14 days before the competition.The first girl of the match is Olivia Caesar: it wasthe first time she had rowed 2000m on the ergo,achieving a 100.9% gold medal time - somethingnot done by any other Monkton athlete." Hissecond girl of the match was Georgia Spackmanwho had improved her previous best ergo scoreby over 1 minute - "truly brilliant"" glowed Matt.

[Of course, the floods just got worse but atleast the fitness levels improved! - Ed]

Slimbridge Training CampI think that for the first time this year I can

categorically say two things: we have just hadour first on-the-water rowing outings andsecondly we have had good weather.

We must have appeared completely madwhen we set off for Slimbridge on Friday into thedarkening clouds with a storm on its way. Everyhour I was checking the weather forecast to seewhat was expected. This time I risked it and itpaid off. We arrived in a rain storm and

unloading the trailer seemed foolish so we hid itbehind some trees and hoped for the best. Thenext morning the wind was howling but for oncein the West Country there was no rain,something we don't seem to experience veryoften.

The first session was to unload the trailer,which luckily was still there in the morning, andrig all the boats. The weather did seem to becalming but it was still a little too rough for a firsttime outing of the year. We then set up a fourmile, muddy run along the canal back to theaccommodation, a challenge I felt that each ofthe rowers would attack in their own way. Weset them off with some of the slower runners atthe front and the faster ones towards the back.This way we could all experience what it was liketo race each other but also it was very like arowing head race which is a processional timedevent.

After the long and muddy run it was lunchand time to relax before we headed down to theboathouse for a proper rowing outing. For oncethe weather seemed on our side and the waterwas lovely and flat, and, believe it or not, sunny.Everyone got on the water and there was adefinite chirpiness as we headed back to thelodge. Luckily for all, there was just enough timefor a stretching and core session before supperwhich helped to take away some stiffness andprepare everyone for the next day.

Sunday was a fantastic day with almostmirror calm water and a warm bright sun. Thisreally was a good time to go rowing and I amsure for some it will have made a lasting andhopefully very positive first impression.

Although this was not a regatta I am stillgoing to award the Girl and Boy of the Weekend.All the students were incredibly well-behavedand a credit to the school, but I am going toaward Sofya Zakharov Girl of the weekend forher gutsy performance during the run and herdesire to improve during the rowing sessions.The Boy of the Weekend has to go to BarnabyJanes for simply incredible intuition as a cox. Asone of our very experienced coaches said 'hesimply knew what he was doing straight away, Ihave never seen that before in a cox.'

We now need to have a few more days like

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that to cement the technical aspects of rowing tothe power and fitness which they have alldeveloped in the land training.

Junior Inter-Regional Regatta 2014 This event is held in Nottingham over 1500m

between the 12 regions of the UK. Each crewhas had to go through a series of trials in orderto race at this event. Monkton crews wererepresenting WAGS - West of England andWales.

Simon Brown our professional coach tookthree boats and reported as follows

"Leaving school at 6:00am on a rainySaturday for a three hour minibus journey toNottingham Water Sports Centre is probably notthe most popular way to start the weekend. Inrowing, getting to the event is often just thebeginning of a long and challenging day andtoday was no exception.

Olivia, our W J14 sculler, was first to race.She was clearly very nervous and just to add toher stress levels soon after boating realised thather blades couldn't turn in the gates (this waspanic number one). A few frantic mobile callsfrom her family at the water's edge sent mecycling at top speed down the footpath armedwith rowing's "go to" tool in an emergency - a10mm spanner. A few minutes later she was onher way to the start and got there with 2 minutesto spare. After a poor start she maintained thegap and finished in 6th place agreeing afterwardto push harder over the first part of the race inher B final.

Next on the course were our J16 scullers Maxand Guy. As Max is holding down a place in thefirst quad and Guy being a natural all-roundsportsman,a place in the final seemed a certainty- not so fast, here's panic number two..Unfortunately, an error in judgement and too longspent faffing about with toilet stops, toilet stopsand a toilet stop just for luck caused them to misstheir race. So straight to the B final. (Oh dear!)

Our fearless J14 quad came next. If youhave seen these guys on the water you will knowthat finesse and smooth technique is not theirstyle. Sculling with gritted teeth and pulling ashard as they can they let the field slip away after

a continual supply of crab strokes. I think most ofthe lake was in their boat by the finish line!!However, it was a good crew effort and anotherMonkton boat off to the B final.

Each crew had a much better second racewhich was very encouraging, given that theconditions were getting worse by the hour. A verystrong headwind was whipping up the water andalso making getting onto the start nearlyimpossible.

The J14 quad battled well in their B Finaland stayed with the pack until halfway when acrab took all their boat speed away. They stillsculled as hard as they could and pushed all theway to the line but came in last. The J16 doublehad a real test in their race. Drawn in lane 6 (theworst lane in the wind conditions) they were upagainst it from the word go but they managed torow through lanes 5 and 4 to earn a verycreditable 4th place. Our WJ14 sculler, Olivia,got off the start much better and at one point wasin second place. It was all looking like it wasgoing to be the race of the day for Monkton butthe windy conditions meant that catching a crabwas definitely on the cards ... yes, you'veguessed it. Swim Time!! Panic three. Olivia fell inwith about 750m to go. Thanks go to the nicepeople of Nottingham for fishing her out sopromptly.

To sum up the day's action, I think everyperson in our team learnt a lot about thechallenges and pressure that multi-lane racingthrows at you. You could look at the results andthink the day was not a success but the lessonslearnt in all boats and the experience gained willundoubtedly help these athletes in the future.

My sculler of the day was Guy Hooper (whostroked the J16 double) for being cool underextreme pressure and really taking the race onfrom half-way with a gutsy performance. Welldone to all who competed, for their greatteamwork and sportsmanship on the day.Crews: J16 2x Bow: Max Leflaive-Manley; Str:Guy Hooper J14 4x+ Bow: Rory Murchison;Jeremy Got; George Adams; Str: Fergus Essex;Cox: Barnaby Janes WJ14 1x Olivia Caesar

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House RegattaMany thanks to all the parents, friends and

family supporters who turned out to watch agreat day of racing at the Monkton CombeSchool House Regatta. We ran 16 races overthe Dundas 487m course over a three hoursession. The highlight of these has to be therace which was set up between the MonktonStaff. Have you ever wondered, as I have, whowould win a race - teachers from the Maths andSciences building or those from the otherblocks? We managed to put out two full eightswhich is fantastic when you consider how manyother commitments all these teachers have. Myquestions were answered with a strong victory ofhalf a length to the teachers from the "Arts"blocks. Maybe next year we could have aparents versus teachers race??

The best races of the day however werebetween the Nutfield and Clarendon girls' first

coxed quads and Farm and Grove in the juniorboys' quads. In each of these races both crewslead at different parts of the race, highlightingwhy rowing can be such an exciting spectatorsport. The verdict in both cases was 'a canvas'(3 metres), Nutfield winning the girls' race andGrove winning the boys'.Event Girls BoysJun/2nd 4x Nutfield GroveSen/1st 4x Nutfield GroveJun 2x N/A EddystoneEights Nutfield Eddystone

From the outset, I had thought aboutcancelling the event because of the weatherforecast, of which I was constantly aware, but Ihave to say that on this occasion the predictionswere wrong, and the weather just added to whatwas a great event.

Farm v Grove at the House Regatta 2014

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