HWS October 2008
Disclaimer: humour is involved in the following document however no offence is intended so the author cannot be held responsible for any taken.
I learnt an interesting fact on a recent bat course and that is: in a court of law, disclaimers are actually seen as an admission of guilt. Well I want it on the record that I’m not guilty of anything alright? Maybe a small rant about vegetarian food and its total ab…look you’ve got me going already, shall we just get on with this and then we can all go back to whatever it was we were doing before I so rudely interrupted?
So I guess I’ll have to write something now you’ve all attended an event eh? I don’t know, what were you thinking of dragging me out of retirement?! This past summer season I’ve just tended to write something when I can think of something funny to say (just the once in fact, if you blink you miss it) but since so many of you turned up I felt that I should make the effort here and now so I’ve dragged myself out of my sickbed to do so.
Well done for a fantastic effort on Sunday, you’ve exceeded many people’s expectations, other crew’s, your own, the organizers. The most notable comment was, I felt, from the organizers; talking to them afterwards they seemed to express surprise that we were in front coming past the clubhouse on the way back upstream. I think the comment was something like “you [Wraysbury] were still the first boat!” with the emphasis on ‘still’.
Eighth place is a tremendous result for your first race! A brilliant performance, hopefully you are not too achy. Hopefully, if the organizers are on the ball (they can be a bit slow at times over there but they get there eventually ;-)) they’ll give us something to chase next time, I think we’ve earned the right not to be the hare; setting us off first? Pah! What do they know?!
As you know I prefer to keep my opinions to myself at the back of the boat and don’t like to shout unless I have to (this was particularly the case on Sunday, as anything that made me raise my voice, or worse, laugh, induced a bout of coughing and pounding in my head). Anyway when it comes to coaching stuff I generally feel out of my depth and run out of relevant things to say so I tend to leave that to others when I can. However(!)…from the back everyone’s timing looked good for the most part (the photos will reveal all though…), better than I expected anyway, even when you were tired. Inside arms all moving together, the boat kicked when you were called to do so and, importantly from a helm’s point of view, the rocking that has tended to plague recent training sessions had vanished. This makes my job, and in turn yours, so much easier. Nice work, keep it up
Hopefully you didn’t feel any pressure because you’d put the work in beforehand. If you’ve done the preparation then everything is within your control and it is really just another opportunity to perform, no fear. So well done and thank you to Clive for getting all the training sessions absolutely spot-on to ensure you were all at boiling point on the day. Some brilliant calls during the race too to keep the intensity there and stop you thinking about slackening off! Thank you CH.
Thank you also to HDBC and the organizers for putting on a fantastic event, it all seemed to go smoothly from where we stood and sat.
So newbies, this is what it is all about really, training really does have an end goal and not only do you now know the course, you now know what you are capable of. Next time there are bigger and better targets to aim for now that you’ve raised the bar- a new pb, a higher placing (Secklow were only 14seconds quicker in 7th), that most-improved team trophy and finding cakes that retail for less than £1 (I must have misread the prices surely?!...if petrol can dip under £1 why can’t swiss roll? Or has OPEC got a stranglehold on Henley’s pastry supply as well?!). I’m tempted, next time, to make flapjacks for the Wraysbury team. Perhaps we could sell a few for a bit less than the current spiraling prices and boost WDBC funds or use them to balance to boat…
The absence of any hot vegetarian food would follow smoothly and logically on from here but I’ve already raised that elsewhere prior to this report and I’d quite like to remain on speaking terms with the organizers so I won’t dig a bigger hole. Instead I’ll start a petition: If you’d like to see jacket potatoes available for the masses please send your message of encouragement to:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Tell all your friends, together we can make a difference*. There was also, allegedly, some gluten free stuff somewhere, but I think you needed a funny handshake and wink to access them ;-).
The next race is November 16th. Make sure you’ve put your name down for it, paid up and put the work in at training. See you all soon, I’m going to work on my turns so I can pull one off as good as Bristol’s manoeuvre that caught us- fantastic! For now I’m going to crawl back under the duvet to try and shift this bug that I seem to have caught. Standing on the back of a boat in the cold and drizzle and being forced to concentrate isn’t really conventional treatment and I felt dreadful immediately afterwards, although I felt strangely better in the afternoon! It may now work its way along the boat- a neutral could probably write out the seating plan based on the order in which you all drop!
…Ends
*Just in case anyone isn’t sure of my humour, this is a joke! Don’t try and send anything and we can all race happily ever after. It would be just my luck that such an address did exist and based on recent correspondence at work and at play I think my luck in emails has run out of late.
