Molesey Veterans Head - Start Order
Please find links to the Head and the Start Order.
The Vet D 8+ are in a field of 9. I recognise most of the clubs at last year's Masters Championships, so this will be an interesting indicator.
The Novices have no opposition (again) and will be in a field of 2 of their own at Vet C4+ and Vet D4+. I think the handicap will make for an interesting little race of our own.
The Vet E 4x are in a field of 4.
Good luck to all crews.
The Vet D 8+ are in a field of 9. I recognise most of the clubs at last year's Masters Championships, so this will be an interesting indicator.
The Novices have no opposition (again) and will be in a field of 2 of their own at Vet C4+ and Vet D4+. I think the handicap will make for an interesting little race of our own.
The Vet E 4x are in a field of 4.
Good luck to all crews.
Maidstone Spring Head Marshalls Briefing - Sunday 20th Feb
Please read the attached notice re a Marshalls briefing. All senior squad members are expected to attend. It would also be lovely to see any junior parents/helpers who would be willing to help out at our head races.
Thank you
Anne Salmon
Marshals Briefing Notice (1)
Thank you
Anne Salmon
Marshals Briefing Notice (1)
Is it Safe?
Pluto was dreaming his favourite dream. He was stroking the coxless four in the final of the Wyfolds. Hampshire, Mollison and Nicholls are pulling him along and they are a length behind with 200 to go. "Push," shouts Pluto and they storm through and win. As they cruise to the landing stage, very rich ladies in posh frocks and big hats race each other to the boat, ignore the other three and smother him with kisses...
Whispering slowly invades his subconscious.
Pluto starts to awaken,
A scuffling noise. A louder bang. Rough, urgent hands haul him from his bed.
"What the hell...." shouts Pluto, but a hand covers his mouth with an evil smelling rag. His head goes dizzy, and thankfully the nightmare closes in on him and he passes back into his subconscious heaven.
*****
He awakens in a cold, damp, dank, disused room. He is tied to a chair: hands to its arms, legs to its feet. He can't move. He has a godawful headache. He is in his favourite Noddy jim-jams and is feeling very cold.
A tall man and a little one enter the room. The tall one puts a case on a table, goes to a washbasin and washes his hands. The short one stands, ominously behind him.
"Is it safe?" says the tall one gently.
"You talking to me?" says Pluto.
The tall one wipes his hands on a cloth.
"Is it safe?"
"Is what safe?" says Pluto, more than a little disturbed.
"Is it safe?" says the tall one, in a more exasperated tone. On hearing no answer, he reaches into the case, and pulls out a dentists drill, plugs it into the mains, fires it up and says:
"Is it safe?"
Getting the picture, Pluto sputters out, "yes, it's very safe, it's as safe as houses, it's safer than safer than safe..."
The tall one walks up to Pluto and positions the drill inches from his face. This time he asks him, as if for confirmation:
"Is it safe?"
"No, it's not safe, it's really unsafe, it very, very dangerously unsafe, I think some people should do something about it," says Pluto in utter desperation.
Too late. The drill enters his mouth and his screams echo through the deserted warehouse.
*****
"Finally got the cut down fin," said a strangely cheery Henry in the tea hut as they were about to join Robin and Tony in the Springfield Sculls.
"What?" said Huggy, amazed, "Pluto has finally cut it down? He's had that fin for 3 months. Oh well, never mind, maybe the boat will turn now. Can't wait to try it out."
"How about now? It will only take a minute to change them," said Henry.
An hour later, Tony finally managed to replace the old Titanic fin for the new slimline shark fin on the Empacher.
"I hope its safe and we don't tip in," Huggy said as they placed the boat into the water.
"Oh, I'm fairly sure it is," said Henry, darkly.
*****
And at long last, the boat turned. Not quite as eagerly as the 'Roger Mobbs', but sufficient to get round the Medway's bends around Maidstone. In a piece from the Malta to Chavsda, we easily cruised round the Marina bend, and only required 5 really hard pulls round the Sewage Works bend instead of the 20 we used to endure before. Henry almost oversteered us into the inside bank at the Blue Bridge bend.
The boat was perhaps marginally less stable than before (not that we really noticed) so all in all, an excellent trade off.
As we washed down the boat, two cars entered the rowing club compound. A black Oldsmobile and a clapped out Polo. The short man got out of the Polo, walked to the Oldsmobile, waved to Henry (who was studiously avoiding them), and drove off with the tall man without saying a word.
Robin went up to the Polo, reached in and pulled out a tin of sardines.
"What the hell does this mean?" wondered a very puzzled Robin.
"Its an old Maidstone gangland message," said the all knowing Tony, "it says Pluto Nichols sleeps with the fishes."
Whispering slowly invades his subconscious.
Pluto starts to awaken,
A scuffling noise. A louder bang. Rough, urgent hands haul him from his bed.
"What the hell...." shouts Pluto, but a hand covers his mouth with an evil smelling rag. His head goes dizzy, and thankfully the nightmare closes in on him and he passes back into his subconscious heaven.
*****
He awakens in a cold, damp, dank, disused room. He is tied to a chair: hands to its arms, legs to its feet. He can't move. He has a godawful headache. He is in his favourite Noddy jim-jams and is feeling very cold.
A tall man and a little one enter the room. The tall one puts a case on a table, goes to a washbasin and washes his hands. The short one stands, ominously behind him.
"Is it safe?" says the tall one gently.
"You talking to me?" says Pluto.
The tall one wipes his hands on a cloth.
"Is it safe?"
"Is what safe?" says Pluto, more than a little disturbed.
"Is it safe?" says the tall one, in a more exasperated tone. On hearing no answer, he reaches into the case, and pulls out a dentists drill, plugs it into the mains, fires it up and says:
"Is it safe?"
Getting the picture, Pluto sputters out, "yes, it's very safe, it's as safe as houses, it's safer than safer than safe..."
The tall one walks up to Pluto and positions the drill inches from his face. This time he asks him, as if for confirmation:
"Is it safe?"
"No, it's not safe, it's really unsafe, it very, very dangerously unsafe, I think some people should do something about it," says Pluto in utter desperation.
Too late. The drill enters his mouth and his screams echo through the deserted warehouse.
*****
"Finally got the cut down fin," said a strangely cheery Henry in the tea hut as they were about to join Robin and Tony in the Springfield Sculls.
"What?" said Huggy, amazed, "Pluto has finally cut it down? He's had that fin for 3 months. Oh well, never mind, maybe the boat will turn now. Can't wait to try it out."
"How about now? It will only take a minute to change them," said Henry.
An hour later, Tony finally managed to replace the old Titanic fin for the new slimline shark fin on the Empacher.
"I hope its safe and we don't tip in," Huggy said as they placed the boat into the water.
"Oh, I'm fairly sure it is," said Henry, darkly.
*****
And at long last, the boat turned. Not quite as eagerly as the 'Roger Mobbs', but sufficient to get round the Medway's bends around Maidstone. In a piece from the Malta to Chavsda, we easily cruised round the Marina bend, and only required 5 really hard pulls round the Sewage Works bend instead of the 20 we used to endure before. Henry almost oversteered us into the inside bank at the Blue Bridge bend.
The boat was perhaps marginally less stable than before (not that we really noticed) so all in all, an excellent trade off.
As we washed down the boat, two cars entered the rowing club compound. A black Oldsmobile and a clapped out Polo. The short man got out of the Polo, walked to the Oldsmobile, waved to Henry (who was studiously avoiding them), and drove off with the tall man without saying a word.
Robin went up to the Polo, reached in and pulled out a tin of sardines.
"What the hell does this mean?" wondered a very puzzled Robin.
"Its an old Maidstone gangland message," said the all knowing Tony, "it says Pluto Nichols sleeps with the fishes."
Medway Invitation Race - Jan 30th 2011
MIRC put in 5 crews at the first race of the year, a friendly 3 mile invitation hosted by Medway Towns Rowing Club. Gravesend also fielded some crews, bring a total field to 14 boats.
While the thermometer read 2C, it felt like -10C as the crews put the boats together in the bitterly cold wind.
The water looked reasonably behaved despite the wind, and we set off fairly confident that conditions would be kind. However, just after we crossed under the M2, we found ourselves in a fair bit of chop... a surprising and novel experience for many of our novice rowers!
However, once the race got underway and we headed back into the wind, we felt the full impact of wind over tide conditions, and the water which seemed Amber at worst at the beginning of the outing rapidly became flaming Red as the waves crashed onto the side of the boats and into them.
I was in the Vet D 8+, and we kicked off at a good pace. We seemed to handle the choppiness reasonably well (I presume a combination of our extra years and our extra girth helped us sit it better). We were encouraged by coming up to the Medway Town's IM4 8+ very quickly (I think this is the crew composed mainly of boys from the Maths School in Rochester who did very well last season rowing at Novice). As we overtook them we took the full force of the inclement conditions, effectively shielding the boys from the worst of it! I think it took us a full minute to get past them. Once past, we stormed on and were very pleased with our row.
The Novice Vet 8+ had a hard time of it, and I could see them falling back through the field, and being overtaken by a couple of quads. They tell me they were actually rammed to a stop by a MTRC quad and took the best part of a minute to get going again. A tough introduction to 2011. They came off with smiles on their faces having clearly enjoyed the experience. I suspect they won't encounter conditions like that at a formal race.
The Vet E 4x had an interesting one. Slightly overboated, they were fine and dry going to the start, but the wind over tide did for them, and they would have sunk if it wasn't for the Morpheus' buoyancy compartments. Astoundingly, they rowed on (despite the last rat having vacated the ship, and the band having packed up their instruments) and they crossed the finish line heavily swamped but afloat and 8th overall. Brave boys.
I can't report fully on the Senior boats; an IM3 8+ and the Novice 4x, though I did see the quad cross the line, very fast and seemingly full of beans. Our lads came in 1st and 2nd respectively, and with the Vet D 8+ a few seconds behind in third, we had a successful, and strangely enjoyable start to the season.
RESULTS of the JANUARY 30TH MEDWAY HEAD INVITATIONAL
CREW POS TIME
MAIDSTONE 1M3 8+ 1 19.05
MAIDSTONE NOV 4X 2 19.15
MAIDSTONE VET D 8+ 3 19. 23
GRAVESEND VET B 2X 4 20.15
MEDWAY IM4 8+ 5 20. 36
MEDWAY MXD VET 4X 6 21. 32
MAIDSTONE VET NOV 8+ 7 22. 17
MAIDSTONE VET E 4X 8 22. 48
MEDWAY M VET 4+ 9 23. 03
GRAVESEND W 4+ 10 23. 36
MEDWAY MIX 4X 11 24. 11
GRAVESEND VET 4- 12 25. 13
GRAVESEND MIX 4+ 13 26. 10
MEDWAY W 4+ 14 27. 25
While the thermometer read 2C, it felt like -10C as the crews put the boats together in the bitterly cold wind.
The water looked reasonably behaved despite the wind, and we set off fairly confident that conditions would be kind. However, just after we crossed under the M2, we found ourselves in a fair bit of chop... a surprising and novel experience for many of our novice rowers!
However, once the race got underway and we headed back into the wind, we felt the full impact of wind over tide conditions, and the water which seemed Amber at worst at the beginning of the outing rapidly became flaming Red as the waves crashed onto the side of the boats and into them.
I was in the Vet D 8+, and we kicked off at a good pace. We seemed to handle the choppiness reasonably well (I presume a combination of our extra years and our extra girth helped us sit it better). We were encouraged by coming up to the Medway Town's IM4 8+ very quickly (I think this is the crew composed mainly of boys from the Maths School in Rochester who did very well last season rowing at Novice). As we overtook them we took the full force of the inclement conditions, effectively shielding the boys from the worst of it! I think it took us a full minute to get past them. Once past, we stormed on and were very pleased with our row.
The Novice Vet 8+ had a hard time of it, and I could see them falling back through the field, and being overtaken by a couple of quads. They tell me they were actually rammed to a stop by a MTRC quad and took the best part of a minute to get going again. A tough introduction to 2011. They came off with smiles on their faces having clearly enjoyed the experience. I suspect they won't encounter conditions like that at a formal race.
The Vet E 4x had an interesting one. Slightly overboated, they were fine and dry going to the start, but the wind over tide did for them, and they would have sunk if it wasn't for the Morpheus' buoyancy compartments. Astoundingly, they rowed on (despite the last rat having vacated the ship, and the band having packed up their instruments) and they crossed the finish line heavily swamped but afloat and 8th overall. Brave boys.
I can't report fully on the Senior boats; an IM3 8+ and the Novice 4x, though I did see the quad cross the line, very fast and seemingly full of beans. Our lads came in 1st and 2nd respectively, and with the Vet D 8+ a few seconds behind in third, we had a successful, and strangely enjoyable start to the season.
RESULTS of the JANUARY 30TH MEDWAY HEAD INVITATIONAL
CREW POS TIME
MAIDSTONE 1M3 8+ 1 19.05
MAIDSTONE NOV 4X 2 19.15
MAIDSTONE VET D 8+ 3 19. 23
GRAVESEND VET B 2X 4 20.15
MEDWAY IM4 8+ 5 20. 36
MEDWAY MXD VET 4X 6 21. 32
MAIDSTONE VET NOV 8+ 7 22. 17
MAIDSTONE VET E 4X 8 22. 48
MEDWAY M VET 4+ 9 23. 03
GRAVESEND W 4+ 10 23. 36
MEDWAY MIX 4X 11 24. 11
GRAVESEND VET 4- 12 25. 13
GRAVESEND MIX 4+ 13 26. 10
MEDWAY W 4+ 14 27. 25