Ross News update

Happy New Year!

Read all about what has been going on at our club below.

RRC Spud Head

Great Club Spirit and a Really Enjoyable Morning!

Sunday 17th December saw RRC host it’s first spud head in quite a number of years. Members from all club squads were in attendance with a total of 12 crews taking part over 2 divisions. Rowing from Backney down to regatta finish in singles, doubles, pairs, quads and fours.

Division 1 had some tough competition but the winners were Steve and George in their pair with a rather impressive time for such a small boat!

Division 2 saw many people staying warm in the bar for refreshments, but three determined crews began their row up to Backney (apparently Charlie Pope believes 27 strokes per minute to be a casual row up!). This division brought some more fast paced action with the composite senior/junior crew of Charlie Pope, Annabel Pope, Fliss Cox and Greg Powell taking the overall win of the day in a time of 9:15! Lovely also to see father and son George and Ollie out in a double.

Results

Div 1

Dirty Duck 9.41

Sweet Charity 9.54

PGL 10.34

Doc Budd 10.34

Baynham Williams 10.40

Homewood Hall 10.43

Women of Ross 11.22

JPT 11.23

Beerfest 12.13

Div 2

Women of Ross 9.15

Nigel Shepherd 9.45

Beerfest 10.49

Rowers warming up in the bar

Name that elf competition?

Indoor Rowing Championships

RC Junior rowers, Jacob, Xander, Finn and Leah attended the British Indoor Rowing Championships in Birmingham recently.

All four competed in the Year 10 category – with a 5min ergo. Jacob and Leah also entered the 500m race.

In the boys category, there were 47 competitors and Jacob finished in 6th place, Finn 10th and Xander 22nd. An amazing achievement by all three boys.

Jacob then went onto finish in 4th place in the 500m race – missing a medal by 1.5 seconds. Leah competed against 60 competitors and finished in 12th place, which is an impressive performance.

RRC are proud of all of you. Well done!

Love Rowing MARS feature

Ross Rowing Club have been featured on the Love Rowing Instagram page for our work with Mixed Ability Rowing. Well done to all involved in providing this facility at Ross!

Love Rowing Said:

It’s Thursday which means it is time to share with you another grant projects feedback.

This time it’s Ross Rowing Club whose project works with disabled individuals.

“One in Six people live with a disability. Many rowers and non-rowing members have disabilities at RRC, and we are proud that everyone is welcome and enjoys our sport, our club and our environment”.

Ross Rowing Club have been able to raise their profile as an accessible and welcoming club plus so much more as a result of the grant from Love Rowing. We wish them continued success and look forward to seeing them to continue to grow.

Club Socials ????

Christmas Party – Saturday 16th December

The Christmas party was well attended with some new faces, some that we haven’t seen for a while and of course those you wouldn’t expect to see anywhere else!

The evenings entertainment was… how do we say it… interesting with some rather unusual renditions of some normally well known songs but a good time was had all around and of course more funds raised for our club.

Quiz Night!

Would it even be a new year without a ‘general knowledge’ quiz from Greg?

In the words of one famous Admin Alice “Get revising you never know what’s going to come up in one of Greg’s quizzes!”

With a total of 59 people present, this is the most attended social we have organised to date and saw a fantastic variety of members and their friends all scratching their heads and drinking (spot who the quizzers and who the drinkers are in the photos!)

Words from the quiz master himself:

“I would like to thank everyone so much who attended tonight, I have not seen the club room so full in a long time and the mix of people from juniors (and ex juniors) to members and non members alike. 57 people taking part in the quiz is more than I ever imagined and you helped to raise in excess of £300 for club funds in what was a thoroughly enjoyable night. I will start to get my thinking cap on ready for next year!”

Club Fundraisers

100 Club

It is almost time to start thinking about renewing subscriptions for the ‘100’ Club. Over the next few weeks we will be asking you to pick your numbers for the next 12 months. Each number will be £12 to cover the 12 month period and you are not limited to just one. Please encourage as many friends and family to join as you can. The more people join, the higher the prizes will be, and the more money our club will make.

Friday is Octo day!!!

All that was missing was a bottle of something bubbly to smash over the bow… It is so new and fresh, the toes of the shoes were still stuffed with paper. Makes a change from birds’ nests…

Flooding

January 2024 Flood!

Thanks to Torsten for keeping us up to date through this as always.

Flood clear up plan

As Jonathan has already mentioned we have got off very lightly with only a few centimetres of water getting into the club and boat house.

We have started using squeegees to push the water out of the Clubroom and entrance lobby. Kitchen extractors have been left on and internal doors left open to aid air circulation.

Tomorrow, if the club is accessible we will use the flood cleaning machine to clear water where trapped in kitchens, shower areas and toilets. Then set up the commercial dehumidifiers offered if we can get them there.

Flooding – final update

Great to see members rowing for the first time this year! Thank you to those who were able to stay down to continue the clear up and an even bigger thank you to those who only came down to work.

Retired to the Royal Hotel afterwards and can report that all is good at the club. The flood has done no noticeable damage and but we will be reviewing additional measures that could help with future flood events.

If you have any observations or comments please let us know.

The club has been cleaned, toilets are working, heating will remain on while the gym floor dry out and the car park is mud free.

A particular thank you to Plum who dug a trench to allow water to drain away and another dug by Steve Randall that will help with future flood events.

After the Floods – a feature by British Rowing

British Rowing have updated their article on the Club flooding and being rebuilt to including our experience from last weeks floods. New members might find it interesting reading. You can read the article here.

Sir Colin Shepherd – RIP

Some members will know of Colin Shepherd – a Vice President of the club. Sadly Colin lost his fight with cancer this morning 17th January, aged 86. He had entered hospital for end of life care two days before and his family were at his bedside all day.

And Finally…

Club Coaching

I am sure many you have met Clive by now but let us formally welcome him and his help to the club. He is joining us to try to bring some modern coaching techniques to those crews looking to further and improve thir rowing. Below are his thoughts and aims:

I hope next weekend will be the start of the formal river work for the crew(s) hoping to compete at the Vesta Master’s Head or indeed any of the Putney races in March.  I am expecting to be at the club at 7:30 on both Saturday and Sunday to coach and generally help in the preparation of the crews. 

I would like to start in big sweep-oar boats if possible but that will depend on who turns-up and wants to participate.

Those of you who attended my presentation last Tuesday will know that I am a strong believer in the modern style that has been increasing adopted by most racing crews over the last 6 or so years.  This is probably “situation normal” for most of you but I would like to reinforce all the basics before specifically preparing for head races. 

I propose to start the coaching programme by working on the recovery, aiming to minimise any disruption to boat speed from the finish of one stroke to the start of the next one.

To start with I will ask for a definite pause at the finish as part of getting the crew to work together although that will almost disappear naturally well before we go to Putney.  This week I want you all to think about the key elements of the recovery and if possible practice them during your land training sessions.

For the live Webcam showing current river levels – hit the button below.

Ross Rowing Club welcomes new rowers, young and old, beginners, experienced or returners.
We welcome campers and visitors, and have occasional opportunities to hire our clubhouse and grounds.
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