News
HEAD OF THE TRENT IS OFF - a scratch head is being organised on the Dee Sunday morning
Race Season - After a quiet few weeks of training, the big head races are fast approaching. The Senior Men and Senior Women were due to go down to race Wycliffe Big Head last weekend, but had to scratch due to Illness (get well soon Iwan). So we have Runcorn Head next weekend (20th Feb), Head of the Trent (28th Feb), Womens Head of the River (13th March), North of England Head of the River (20th March), Head of the River (27th March) and Veterans Head of the River (28th March). A good few blisters there then.
Work continues on the 'storm drain improvements' outside the club - not the prettiest thing and pretty inconvenient as we are having to carry launches down the steps, but it looks like the work is well under way.
There will be a party at the club on Saturday 20th March - the evening of the North of England head - so put the date in your diary for the evening too!
11/2/10
All Quiet - In the absence of any news this week, while we are all itching to get back on the water (the ice has gone!) I spotted this video on youtube - what to do if you catch a crab. Interesting if not amusing.
However, this video of Borat at Henley...... is amusing.
15/1/10
Ice Ice Baby
- While Chester is very
picturesque, the cold weather now means rowing is cancelled this weekend due to
the river being frozen over! (Thank you Sue Bein for this photo from Saturday
morning!)
Dee Lane still hasn't been gritted so
there is a good chance cars could get stuck trying to get back up it. So
while you are missing the rowing here is a video Janet Vorberg found
of the Dee being well and truly frozen in 1963 and a few pretty photos taken
on Wednesday.
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| 2010-01-08 Snow January 2010 |
9/1/10
Car Park - John McMahon has asked that members do not use the car parking spaces numbered 2-7 from 8am to 6pm on weekdays. He gets emails from annoyed parkers who pay the club telling him that a car is in their parking space that they have paid for. So if you are going to leave you car in the club car park, can you use the spaces against the boatshed, or we may loose the income from the paying car parkers.
29/12/9
A Busy Day! - Most people have just about recovered from Sunday's exertions. The day kicked off with the Icicle Race which was as dramatic as ever, with plenty of blade catching, brave coxing and the odd holed boat. The crews came back smiling, still wearing their assortments of Santa Hats, tinsel and Carolyn even managed to race wearing a set of angel wings!
After the race, Chris Fawcett refuelled the crews with gluvine before the dashed off to get changed for the arrival of the Lord Mayor. The big Bentley was soon outside the club and the Lord Mayor gave a speech about being Admiral of the Dee and talked about the Admiral's badge of office - the Admiral's Oar (which is very similar to the Grosvenor Chairman's Oar, even if alot bigger and about 300 years older!). The Sims Eight was duly christened 'Admiral of the Dee' by the traditional pouring of champage.
Just as the snow started, everyone went back upstairs where the Sherry Party was kicked off by 'The Harmonettes' singing for us. Graham Jones made the presentation of the Frank Lowe Oar to Karen Hough during the party and once enough of the buffet had been demolished, the floor was clear for the games to start. These included pass the parcel, with each layer demanding a task ("Do I really have to take my tights off so she can lick my foot?"), Knights, Roundheads & Cavaliers (won by Victoria & Will) which was thankfully injury free this year. I think the last set of games was the boat racing - I think as, being a participant, my memory has become a bit vague. However, I do know the Veteran Women beat the Novice Women, Novice Men, Intermediate Men and the Senior Men! Allegations of their Bowman being a ringer are entirely unfounded. I suspect there could be some interesting photos and videos around.....
The Karaoke soon started, with 'memorable' performances of 'I've got a brand new combine harvester' by James Graves (we had no idea that the song was soooooo long), 'YMCA' with none other than John Hoare on the mic getting everyone dancing and the Dawn fanclub persuaded her to do a reprise of her famous cover version of ' do be dooo be dooo dooo Marcarena.....Stoz you git, it is in Spanish again!..dooo be daaaa heyyyyy Macarena'
Brian Chapman took some excellent photos and there is a link up in the gallery, together with photos of the aftermath of the Icicle Races and Sherry Party being up too.
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| 2009-12-22 Sherry Party December 2009 |
I would like to wish Laura Champion the best of luck in her new job in Bristol. Laura has been a valued member of the club and done a great job as Press Secretary on the committee this year. She will be sorely missed when she leaves us next week.
I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year and look forward to providing you all with a new set of stories from the Big Happy Family that is Grosvenor Rowing Club in 2010
22/12/9
Frank Lowe Award - The Club is also delighted to announce that this year's winner of the Frank Lowe Blade is longstanding Grosvenor member Karen Hough. The award is made by the Guild of Goldsmiths of Chester in memory of Frank Lowe and in recognition of his love of the river in Chester. This traditional silver oar is presented annually for the 'Outstanding Person on the River'. It is open to anyone with connections to the River, not just rowers. In the previous 20 years, the only Grosvenor winners of this prestigious award have been Juliet Machin and Dave Carter.
Congratulations Karen!
"A fantastic winner of this award! She pushed us all hard and set us a fantastic example! I believe she has alwasy done this over the years!" - Janet Vorberg
16/12/9
Christmas - The Captain has asked me to let everyone know that formal rowing sessions end on Sunday 20th December . Club circuits restart on Tuesday 5th January 2010 and water sessions on Saturday 9th January 2010.
Chris has also sent a link to his Head of the Float photos which are now up in the gallery.
12/12/9
Head of the Float - The results are now up on Liverpool Victoria RC's website. It seems Grosvenor came home with rather a large haul of pennants, with wins for the senior men's eight at both IM1 and IM2 (the IM1 race taking the fastest crew of the day), the veteran men's 8, the veteran men's quads (both of them!), the women's IM2 eight composite with Chester University and the women's IM3 eight.
8/12/9
Quote of the Month - After a couple of months barren of things worth repeating, and the suddenly there is a rash of things being said that when taken out of context make me start giggling.
1) When explaining how one of the eights racked in the car park got damaged, Chris mentioned, "The Earl got blown off in the car park". I am sure there was also mention of "Lady Viola was hard up against the wall".
2) When doing some glute stretches before weight training, a Baguette/GG who shall remain nameless, when warned this is a very deep stretch said, "No no, its good, my arse needs some serious stretching"
3) This one isn't smutty.... at
last month's Dee Autumn Head, Chris F went onto the motorway bridge with her
camcorder to film the crews starting. She must have been standing on the
edge of the bridge over the river for about twenty minutes. She felt a tap
on the shoulder and turned to see a policeman....
"Excuse me Madam. Can I ask what you are doing. We have had several
calls from motorists saying there is a woman trying to jump off the bridge."
8/12/9
Head of the Float - I have just got back from watching an Armada of Grosvenor crews at the Head of the Float. Some divisions were a sea of yellow with every squad from the club racing. Perhaps unusually for The Float, the conditions for rowing were great. I am not sure what the results are yet but I suspect we should have a few wins.
Plenty of photos of the racing are up in the gallery.
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| From 2009-12-05 Head of the Float - December 2009 |
5/12/9
Change of Date & Food - The EGM is now going to take place on Thursday 17th December at 7pm. It isn't expected to take very long as it is purely to approve the new rules, so it won't interfere with training.
Danny will also be doing a 'snack option' on his Tuesday & Thursday food menu for just £2.50. Tonight it is going to be Cheeseburger & Chips. He is still going to be doing the usual £4.80 meals - tonight is Sausages and Mashed Potato apparently.
3/12/9
Sherry Party & Another Boat Naming - The Sherry Party is all set for Sunday 20th December and as part of it the Simms Eight is being named. Traditionally the club eights are named after the Grosvenor Family, but we have run out! So in the meantime the eight is going to be named 'Admiral of the Dee' by the Lord Mayor of Chester, who holds the Admiralty of the Dee. Quite a cool name for the boat, suggested by Bran Chapman.
We also have 'The Harmonettes' performing for us this year - a group who will do a few numbers for us and then lead us in the Christmas Carols. The Party kicks off at 12.30pm, with the Lord Mayor arriving at 1pm. I expect we will be having the 'Icicle Race' in the morning.
David Lush has given me a CD of the excellent photos he took from the Duke's visit a few weeks ago and these have been uploaded to the gallery now.
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| Duke of Westminster - Boat Naming - David Lush's Photos |
Bad River - While we have been spared the Cockermouth extremes, the Dee is not very rowable at the moment. The Captain had notices up this weekend cancelling all rowing due to the river's very fast flow and high level. Here is a link to the river flow data at the weir - you can see how much it has increased this week (this link is always in the links page anyway). Keeping an eye on the graph will give us a clue as to how the river is recovering. As I type (Sunday night) the flow is starting to drop quite fast - but we will have to wait and see if it is rowable by the weekend.
29/11/9
Parking - The committee would like members to be aware that the car parking spaces along the wall by the road are used by private, PAYING individuals during the working week. This brings in a small income to the club, so if members do leave their cars in the car park during the day, please don't use these spaces!
Also, if barriers have been put up near the racked boats, please don't move them. They are put there when one of the boats will be taken off the rack shortly and therefore plenty of room to manoeuvre is needed. I am sure you wouldn't want a rigger through your window - so keep away!
29/11/9
Extraordinary - The Club will holding an EGM on 14 December 2009 (Monday). This is to formally adopt some changes to the club's rules and regulations. These include removing the need to have a proposer and seconder on the application forms and changing some parts of the club rules wordings to bring it up to date with various BRA requirements.
29/11/9
Embarrassment - The veteran women organised a squad meal last weekend which was very civilised. However, soon after the food was cleared away..... karaoke began..... oh dear.....
Chris Fawcett just happened to have her video camera with her, and luckily, the highlight of the evening, Dawn 'singing' the Macarena was caught in all its glory. Now on youtube for all to see with another video of everyone 'singing' American Pie....Don Mclean would be sooo unhappy....
14/11/9
Press Coverage - Laura has sent me some links to the coverage we have in this weeks papers. The Chronicle has an article on the Dee Autumn Head and so does The Standard - a similar article (on page 69), but with photos of Tim Betteridge and Phil Hill in their singles....
13/11/9
Boat Naming Ceremony - Saturday's Boat naming ceremony went very well with the Duke and the Lord Mayor visiting the club, and the rain holding off. Some photos are now up from the Duke's Visit on Saturday in the gallery.
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| 2009-11-08 Boat Naming Ceremony - November 2009 |
Dee Autumn Head Photos - The photographer for the Dee Autumn Head, Hector, has put the photos of most competitors on his website so go and have a look... there are one are two with great facial expressions!
5/11/9
Boat Naming Ceremony - The strong wind on Sunday morning gave the club a good excuse to make sure the boat shed is ship shape for Saturday's ceremony. So a few details for you:
The Duke of Westminster and the Lord Mayor of Chester are attending together with representatives of British Rowing (the organisation formerly known as the ARA!). Members are welcome to bring guest and the dress is smart (blazers, etc - think sherry party).
Rowing is finishing at 10am and everyone should be ready for 10.30am
There will be a drinks reception from 10.30am in the clubroom and a buffet available after the ceremony (which should take place around 11.30am)
We need to keep a couple of spaces free in the car park for the Duke and Lord Mayor - and given the fact that traffic wardens are regularly checking the double yellow lines outside the club - if you can, it would be a good idea not to count on being able to park at the club.
Once the formalities are over, I am quite sure there will be ample opportunity to practice boat racing etc ready for the Sherry Party (which is on Sunday 20th December)
2/11/9
Dee Autumn Head - With a day of almost perfect rowing conditions, this year's Dee Autumn Head was an almost perfect race, with everything running smoothly and the competitors enjoying the racing (and the table full of home made cakes provided by the women's squads!)
The results are up here
Grosvenor won medals at it home race - the Steve Walker's Vet D Quad, Tim Betteridge in his IM1 single, Maria Labedzka in her Vet Novice single, Rob Wareing's IM2 coxed four and Phil Hill in his Vet C single.
Congratulations to Mike Allwood and his team for such a successfully run event.
2/11/9
Photos - Lindsay and Grace have sent me links to their photos from the 140th Ball and these are now up in the gallery - so take a look. I think there may be one or two people who check immediately to make sure there is no evidence of, er, certain things... cough.
2/11/9
Blocked - As people start to recover from Saturday night (apparently it has taken some this long already) a tail of sorrow has come to light. One of our esteemed new members who was revelling at the Ball (although doing it on water alone!) came to her car at the end of the night and found she had been blocked in. Despite many announcements and waiting until everyone was going home, her car was still trapped. A £45 taxi ride home later, and her car was still blocked in on the Sunday afternoon.
Most of the members know to leave keys (usually with Danny) if they block someone in and are out on the water etc. However the driver of this car doesn't seem to have had any concern for blocking someone in. We are still trying to find out who owns the Black VW Passat Estate FV57 JTX. The car was gone this morning when I went to the club - so they have narrowly avoided being reported to the police. If you know who the car belongs to, please let me know.
As the car park is often jam packed (and traffic wardens are in a phase of giving tickets to people parked outside) we need to be extra considerate. Being blocked in is inevitable, so blockers must respect that people will need to be let out.
26/10/9
The Date After the Night Before - I suspect there are quite a few sore heads around this morning after last night's Anniversary Ball. The night went down well, with the first floor decked out, The Veteran Women giving a presentation on their racing in Vienna, Dawn giving Top Totty prizes to the girls, and the 'Novices' (ok, some aren't Novices anymore...) singing their song Summer Rowin' (with apologies to John Travolta and Olivia Neutron-Bomb).
The 'Unofficial' Club prizes were awarded too - With Emma winning the Chunder Trophy, Danny winning the Style Award, Tim B winning the He Shoots he Scores Prize, Carolyn winning the Lucy Lastic Trophy and Toby winning the swimming prize.
The club came together to put the event on and a great deal of thanks are due to Lou, Rachel C, Laura C, Jo J & G, Phil, Rachel J, Emma, Liz, Danny and huge thanks to Becky Elliott and Chris Fawcett.
Danny recorded the summer rowing and I have put it the video on youtube with another clip Danny took for a bit of atmosphere...
If any of you have photos from the night - let me know - I didn't have my camera!
25/10/9
Corporate Regatta - Laura has put up her photos of the 'Corporate Rowing Challenge' which include some shots of the capsize mentioned below. While I was there on the day, I was imprisoned at the bar, so only saw them after they had dried off. But I note that one of them was already dressed for a dip in the Dee - a strappy green top and a floral rubber swimming cap..... nice choice Toby! However, the best photo is of Margaret hoiking Sam out, with Carolyn's giant sumo wrestler bottom obscuring most of the shot..... strange!!
Great photos Laura! Link to them now up in the gallery.
22/10/9
Corporate Regatta - After 6 weeks of coaching and crew bonding, the companies that entered this years Corporate Rowing Event raced today. The 'Pirates of the Caribbean' were the overall winners in a close final against the 'Sumo Warriors' (who won the award for best costumes).
Monkey See, Monkey Do, the team from Trading Standards, won the best supported crew.
However, the highlight of the day had to go to the Learn to Row crew. Shortly before they boated, commentator Lou announced to the spectators that maybe they should be called 'Learn to Swim'. Two minutes later they managed to capsize on the landing stage! However Tanith, Toby, Sam and Jenny got back in, raced and were soon dried off and by the bar enjoying the strange glory that is heaped on any capsizee.
I am hoping photos will follow soon as the costumes were great and I know there are some capsize photos around :-)
18/10/9
Press Reports - Our new Press secretary, Laura Champion, has emailed me a couple of links to coverage we have had in the papers over the last few weeks:
Chronicle
The Standard (turn to page 73)
18/10/9
Table Top Sale - Mama Kaz (aka Karen Hough) has organised a sale at the club on SATURDAY 17th OCTOBER between 12 and 4pm. If any of you have good quality items that you would like to get rid off and donate to the sale they would be very much appreciated. You can bring them to the club now and they will be stored ready for the sale. And of course, please come to the sale too! There should be allsorts on offer.
5/10/9
Correction - As reported below about the Runcorn Autumn Head - only the afternoon division was called off. The morning division managed to race and..... star new members of the senior women's squad won at IM3 in their coxed four! Caroline Ealey, Laura Champion, Becky Maddison, Goranka Bosanac with Gemma coxing came home with medals. I am unsure how the veterans did (although I did hear that John McMahon managed to go swimming in his single with Mike Allwood stopping mid race in a double to check he was ok).
5/10/9
Runcorn Autumn Head - It seems that the race was abandoned due to the wind and rain. Crews were making their way up to the start and then were told the turn around as the race was being abandoned. Shame.
Let's hope conditions are good for the Dee Autumn Head on 31st October.... of course they will be - the sun always shines in Chester!
3/10/9
Chester Long Distance Sculls - GROSVENOR TAKES THE VICTOR LUDORUM!!!
A very successful day for the club on Sunday with many good wins. The full results are up here.
28/9/9
Learn to Row - The next course is going to be starting on Saturday 24th October at 12.45pm
28/9/9
Ex Member News - We have had an email from a former member of the club who is getting ready to row the Atlantic!
Hello,
I learnt to row at Sir John Deanes in Northwich and then rowed at Grosvenor
during my gap year in the 2000-2001 season. I was part of the womens four that
went to Henley and also in the Tideway 8 that came around 50th, coached by Bruce
Belcher and Richard Peckham. I also came back to Grosvenor during my summer
holidays while at university.
I'm now a member of Jersey Rowing Club (via a few other clubs on the way) and
have become part of a crew that are going to row across the Atlantic in the
Woodvale Challenge, starting in December this year. We'll hopefully be the 5th
womens four to compete the race and will be aiming to break the world record of
51 days! More realistically the race is likely to take around 10 weeks to
complete the 3000 nautical miles from La Gomera to Antigua.
I was wondering whether Grosvenor would be able to support my by putting an
article on your website and a link to our website www.atlanticwaterbabes.com please?
I'd also be very grateful if you could make a mention of our challenge in the
newsletter.
Aside from the Atlantic row it would also be great to get in touch with anyone
there who remembers me!
Thank you,
Karen Radband.
28/9/9
Safety Warning - To all drivers - please be aware that Grace passed her driving test last week after umpteen attempts - so please take extra care on the roads.
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| From Random |
28/9/9
Boat Naming Ceremony - The club's new eight will officially be named 'Duke of Westminster' in a ceremony at 11am on Saturday 7th November. His Grace will be naming the boat personally. So there will be no second outings that Saturday - we all need to get changed into our Jackets & Frocks (think Sherry Party) for the ceremony with accompanying drinks, buffet and photos.
18/9/9
140th Anniversary Ball - Tickets are now on sale for the ball - for facebookers the event page is here.
The event is taking place in the boathouse on the new first floor and will be black tie. Tickets are keenly priced at £39 and are likely to go fast as space is limited. For tickets contact Stoz, Becky Elliott or Rachel Jones
18/9/9
Raffle - Sarah Armstrong has emailed to give the results of the raflle that took place on Saturday 26th August. The winners are:
In total we raised £893.31, big thank you to everyone who sold tickets and also to Brian Chapman, Jerry Poupard and Chris Fawcett for donating the prizes.
17/9/9
World Masters - Grosvenor's veteran women trooped off to Vienna this week. After a cracking season they decided to go up against the international crews. I have just been looking at the results on the Masters website to see how they did. Unfortunately it looks like they didn't win any medals this time, but their trophy cabinets are already growning anyway ;-)
Results for the 8 here and the 4 here.
I had a telephone call a couple of weeks ago regarding the poll about the name of the veteran women's squad. While the results over completely irrelevant and they can do what they wish (are you going to argue with Rachel?) they are over-whelmingly in favour of the entrenched 'Old Bags' tags. However, the 'un-named telephoner' has suggested that the squad have two levels..... the old school, die hard 'Old Bags' and the shiny new, glamourous 'Baguettes'. Well I think that is brilliant.
I will now be in hiding from Rachel.
5/9/9
Quote of the Month - Tonight we had 34 people start the latest learn to row course and they all seem to enjoy the first session....."This is a boat, etc"
When we all sat down to have a chat and get to know everyone afterwards, one of the new athletes introduced himself to the group.... "Hi, I am XXXXX and I have never done any watersports, I don't like them and I don't like water". While another chap, when asked why he decided to join the club said "I was walking in Grosvenor Park a while ago and looked down and thought, ooh, there is a canal, so went to have a look and decided to row on it".
Excellent
For the people who were on the last Learn to Row course, there is a meeting at the club on Saturday 22nd at 10am.
Some advance notice for you too - Club circuits start again on Tuesday 15th September at 7pm in the Clubhouse - people on the learn to row courses are welcome to come to those to (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7pm)
17/8/9
Stourport Regatta - Grosvenor brought home another haul of pots at the weekend, this time from Stourport Regatta. The Novice Men, Tim Goldsborough, John McMahon and Grace Neal were the worthy victors.
Grace has been very efficient and written a race report and posted her photos on facebook for us to have a look at.
16/8/9
20 days to go!! - With less than 20 days to go the prize draw date is looming, so you need to return tickets stubs and cash ASAP. Give them to Sarah A who will be at the club on Tuesday (11th) and Wednesday (12th) or to Chris Hudson. Anyone who has yet to buy/sell tickets and would like some should e-mail raffle@rocketmail.com or see Sarah A at the club.
1st Prize - Olympic shirt signed by Redgrave & Pinsent 2nd Prize - Digital Camera 3rd Prize- £100 cash 4th Prize - MP4 player
10/8/9
(PS - It looks like Peterborough Regatta went with a swing - but I haven't heard anything about it yet - so someone tell me! All I have seen is a tent pole and a bra coming off.....)
Learn to Row Tournament - Last night the club saw the end of the latest Learn to Row course and we rounded it off in style with a tournament that mixed the learn to rowers with the novice squads. Four eights raced and the eventual winners were congratulated by the Captain. -
The Winning crew was Paul, Becky M, Steve, Laura, Kevin, Karen, Lisa and Emma (who was called away to drink - so was ably replaced by Becky E for the final races).
Danny provided us with a BBQ and Jo kept us hydrated at the bar. There are lots of photos up in the gallery now.
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| From 2009-08-06 Learn to Row Tournament |
The learn to rowers who would like to do some more rowing have been asked to come down on Saturday 22nd August (in the morning I think) - Chris will send an email out with exact details shortly.
The next 8 week course is starting on Monday 17th August at 6.30pm.
6/8/9
Poll - Well I know it isn't actually open for debate, and democracy doesn't really apply to the readers of this website as a whole, but it has been suggested to have a poll on what you all think they should be branded.....
4/8/9
Race Report - Rachel Jones has written an adrenaline pumping race report telling the story of the Old Bags Eight and the gold medal winning four from Veterans Henley. Now up in the results section.
Rachel has also asked me to talk about the 'rebrand' of the aforementioned Old Bags to the 'Grosvenor Goddesses'. This is to reflect the influx of new, thrusting athletes into the squad. So GGs it is from now on!
4/8/9
Learn to Row Tournament - Just a link to the poster for info:
31/7/9
AGM News - A record seems to have been set.... the AGM all done in less than an hour tonight. No unusual proposals, all members happy. A few new members on the committee - Rick Anderson is to be Vice Captain, Laura Champion the Press Officer, Liz Jervis the Treasurer, Becky Elliot is the committee member in charge of 'housekeeping standards'. Facilities manager is unfilled, and the committee member in charge of gym equipment was unfilled, but Kirk Chester got his arm twisted after the meeting to do that one.
Madame Grosvenor (AKA Chris Fawcett) remains as Chairman, Phil Hill as Vice Chairman, Chris Hudson as Captain, Mike Allwood as Secretary, Stoz as Social Secretary, Jo Jones as Bar Manager, Colin Morris as Membership Secretary and Mike Allwood also heading up the Veteran Men in charge of the Dee Autumn Head.
Chris Fawcett announced as part of her report that the Duke of Westminster has given permission for the new eight to be names after him and His Grace will be coming to the club to officially name the boat one weekend in September or October... date to be confirmed.
The 140th Anniversary Dinner and Ball has been set to take place on Saturday 24th October. Tickets will be on sale soon at £39.
29/7/9
AGM - The Club AGM is this Wednesday - 29th July 7.30pm. Please come!
26/7/9
Bewdley Regatta - STOP PRESS........Goranka, stalwart of the women's novice squad for the last 6 years is no longer a novice! How she will cope with this elevation of status we are not sure.... but WELL DONE GORANKA!!
I haven't heard Sunday's results, but on Saturday the Novice Women did very well and ended up in a Grosvenor vs Grosvenor final in the coxed fours. Goranks, Becky Elliott, Becky Madison and Laura Champion were in the winning crew. Grace Neal also won her novice pot in single sculls.
Ben Dickinson and Tim Goldsborough had some 'steering issues' apparently in their singles and the double. The novice men did very well for their first regatta - getting through to the final on Saturday.
The Old Bags didn't race (they found out before going down) as there was no opposition.
There are plenty of photos to choose from courtesy of Kathy, Grace, John and Chris - links are up in the gallery.
26/7/9
Learn to Row - The current learn to row course is coming to an end soon, and we have a had a great set of athletes. There are some photos up in the gallery of one of the sessions.
To round off this course we are going to hold a tournament on Wednesday 5th August (from 6.30pm) where the learn to row athletes will be racing. The Novice men and women have been invited to come and get involved and it would be great if the rest of the club could come down and support, help and meet them all. The BBQ will be on and the bar open!
The next Learn to Row course is starting on Wednesday 19th August.
24/7/9
Scratch Regatta - Despite my dithering over the weather, and last minute decision to postpone the event, I was persuaded by the novice women that the sun would shine on Sunday and we should go ahead. So we did, and everyone got soaked! However, the racing was great fun, Danny did a very welcome BBQ and Jo, Rob & Victoria keeping the bar running for all the honed athletes.
There are some photos up in the gallery.
The winning crew was made up of Tim Betteridge, Roxi Parkinson, Becky Elliot and Sarah Armstrong, coxed by Chris Fawcett and Chris Hudson presented them all with glass tankards. Well done!
20/7/9
Scratch Regatta - It's on! Well subject to the weather - but all is set for Sunday after normal rowing - so from 12.30pm. The bar will be open (necessary to drink between races....) and there will be a BBQ on the balcony.
So come down, put your name in the hat and you never know who you could be racing with! The racing will be in coxed fours from the Bandstand to the Clubhouse .
Even if you don't want to race - come and cheer the crews on and veg out in the bar.
14/7/9
Veterans Henley - Old bags do it again! The coxed four of Karen Hough, Rachel Jones, Fiona Claymore and Janet Vorberg, coxed by Sarah Armstrong won their even yesterday in Henley. The Old Bags 8 did well, but were knocked out. The Veteran Men were also knocked out. Jo and Iwan raced in singles but unfortunately didn't bring any medals home - but Iwan did bring a broken boat home after 'someone' fell on top of it on the trailer. Oops.
While wondering if we should refer to the veteran men as the 'Old Farts' to match the women's much prized 'Old Bags' tag, I have been informed that there are moves afoot to rename them 'Grosvenor Goddesses'. Hmmmmm - think I still prefer the self effacement of the old name.
The race report should be arriving soon.
12/7/9
Gong nomination - Sarah Armstrong has let me know that Senior Men's coach. Paul Turner, has been nominated for 'Sporting Champion of the Year'.......
A link to the article about it is here.
10/7/9
BALLS - A lot of people have been asking about the Summer Ball. Unfortunately the venue we wanted couldn't do it for the price we wanted (Red House). However, plans are still afoot to hold a 'posh frock' event..... but I would like your help.
Robin Witter has again been very generous in offering use of his River Garden which is a fantastic venue with the pool, jacuzzi and the general setting. However, due to the cost of marquees (upwards of £4000!) once the food and band/disco are added in, the ticket prices get rather expensive - I would estimate around £60 each. So, another option would be using a function rooms in one of the city centre hotels (or race course) which would bring the cost down. Finally we could hold a dinner in the club - (without the smart marquee lining as at the last dinner) and have a DJ afterwards.
Remember, we don't aim to make any profit from these events, just to cover costs and for you to have a good time. So - could you vote in this poll? And could you get everyone else who may not check the site regularly to vote too?!
6/7/9
Raft Race - It would be a good idea to avoid being anywhere near the land stage on Sunday morning (12/7/9) as it is the annual Chester Raft Race. The race starts at about 10am (the start line is usually outside the Boathouse Pub) and the rafters have to go downstream over the weir to the finish line before paddling back up to the meadows.
Anyone on the river when the rafts are about is liable to be pelted with flour bombs, rotting fruit and be asked to 'show us your cox'.
Prize giving (for fastest and best presented raft takes place on the meadows at around 12.30pm, so the river should be fairly clear by then. There are usually BBQs going on on the meadows after the race until late.
6/7/9
Henley Royal Regatta - Sarah Armstrong has sent in a race report which is now up in the results section.
3/7/9
Henley Royal Regatta - Ben Dickinson tells me that it was so hot at Henley yesterday that gentlemen were allowed to take their jackets off in the Stewards enclosure. Crikey - what next? They will be letting women in wearing boob tubes soon.
Anyway, unfortunately the Grosvenor 8+ that was pre-selected to race in the Thames Cup were beaten in the first round by 2 1/4 lengths. However, this was against the Molesey A crew who have been seeded and was the fastest race of the day by some margin. I notice from the HRR results page that Agecroft were also knocked out as was one of the Royals crews.
2/7/9
Swimming - I suppose if you are going to capsize, this week is the week to do it. Not so good if your coach has their mobile phone at the ready to send me a photo of it though........
However, true to form, it was done in style (what would you expect from the girl who came to the barn dance, not in a mere cowboy hat and checked shirt - oh no - full on cow complete with udders is the way to do it).
Kathy explained her style:
"um well... i pretty much pushed off from the landing stage and capsized the first time... the second time i managed to get in a few strokes so i could capsize right in front of the Boat House pub so all the diners could see... i am very considerate like that you see"
Thanks to Chris Fawcett for the photo!!
1/7/9
Quote of the Month - The new learn to row course has kicked off with a huge number of new rowers - this week there were two eights and a four out. Of course with any new rower, there is an element of worry (what number am I?, why does this seat keep rolling around?, does my bum look big in this lycra?) but Chris Fawcett told me about one of the eights where the coach was heard saying,
"Three....... THREE! If you could just stop screaming then maybe the rest of the crew would be able to stop panicking....."
I wonder if Three was a 50 year chartered accountant?
27/6/9
Prize Raffle - Sarah Armstrong has emailed to say that the tickets for the raffle are now on sale. There are some great prizes (ie ones that you would actually want to win!):
First Prize Signed (by
Redgrave & Pinsent) GB Olympic Shirt
2nd Prize Digital
Camera
3rd Prize £100
4th Prize MP4 Player
(photo's, video player etc.).
Certainly rather better than cheap bottle of wines or last years 'cute kittens' calendars that seem to be the staple for a lot of raffles ;-)
The tickets are available from Chris Fawcett, Chris Hudson & Sarah Armstrong (email raffle@rocketmail.com). If you could help by selling tickets to your family, friends and work colleagues it would be great. Just think of all the times you have had to buy tickets from people at work... turn the tables! Most members should have been given tickets to sell, but if you haven't, please contact Chris, Chris or Sarah.
26/6/9
Marlow Regatta 2 - Oops - the videos were actually from last year's regatta - but I will leave them up as it is still amusing to see Paul Turner racing in a big floppy hat.
Chris Hudson has sent in some results.... Neither the 4- or 8 made the final. However the 8 was quick and was good enough to pre-qualify for Henley. The 4- will have to qualify though - but they have a good chance.
Chris took some photos at Marlow and they are up in the gallery.
22/6/9
Marlow Regatta
21/6/9
Women's Henley Race Report - Grace has emailed the race report and it is not up in the results section. Well done Girls!
21/6/9
Women's Henley - Just had a text message from Grace telling me that the senior women have qualified for tomorrow in their four (Natalie, Grace, Laura & Caroline with Alex coxing). They will be racing City of Oxford who were a fast crew at Metropolitan Regatta. Chester University qualified too and were racing this afternoon.
Here is a link to the results page so you can check how they do (racing at 9.13am Saturday 20th)
19/6/9
Bad Coxing - Just spotted this video on youtube - nothing to do with GRC - but amusing/scary/cringeworthy....
18/6/99
National Veterans Regatta - GOLD!!! Grosvenor came home Nottingham with a few medals on Sunday - Phil Hill in his single, Karen, Rachel, Fiona & Janet in the coxed four (with Camilla coxing) and Iwan won a gold and a Silver. Both Rachel and Janet have done great race reports that capture the mood of the day which are up in the results section.
Brian Chapman and Sue Bein have some photos of the racing and medal ceremony now linked to in the gallery section too.
16/6/9
Cycle Chester - Have you noticed the silver bike 'sculptures' that have appeared around Chester - such as those on the fountains roundabout? Chester has been chosen as a 'cycling demonstration town' and has been awarded about £2million to make things better for cycling in the city and surrounding areas. As a fair amount of us cycle, it might we interesting to have a look at the Cycle Chester website. It is 'Bike Week' this week, so there are various events on, including free security marking of your bike on Tuesday at the Countess of Chester.
14/6/9
Swimmers - Chester Triathlon Club are holding the Deva Triathlon on Sunday 21st June 2009. This is the email we have received:
The first wave of swimmers should start at 08:00 and the last wave at 08:50 or, perhaps, 09:00. This means that we should be completely clear of the river by 10:00.
Around 350 to 400 athletes be taking part. Current on the day permitting, the swim course will be the same as in previous years. It will start at the steps near the bandstand on the city-side of the river, go under the suspension foot-bridge and proceed upstream for a distance of about 750m before turning at a large, red buoy to swim back to a specially erected exit-ramp on the Handbridge side. Total course length will be 1500 metres.
Due to the early start on Sunday, we shall set out the buoys after about 16:00 on Saturday, 20 June. This is a line in the centre of the river.
We would appreciate it greatly, if you would advise your club members that the event is taking place and, for the safety of all, consider delaying any outings until 10:00 on 21 June.
I also noticed on their website that the Dee Mile is being raced by swimmer from the Red House to the Suspension Bridge on Wednesday 17th June 2009 at around 7pm - so this will affect anyone wanting to row that evening too.
8/6/9
Met Regatta - Chris Hudson took some really good photos at Met at the weekend and the link is now up in the gallery section.
3/6/9
DUCK KILLERS!!! - The novice women, while near Eccleston in their eight managed to do a bit of wildlife culling this weekend. Imagine poor Donald and Daisy duck swimming along, enjoying the sunshine then suddenly the sprawling washing machine of the novice women (that is an assumption - not actually seen them row) suddenly appear and Daisy looks round to see Donald being bludgeoned with a blue and orange striped oar, to be left floating, feet up.
Much wailing and covering of eyes ensued... by the girls. Meanwhile, the crowd of spectators on the bank gasped (why are there always people watching when you cock up) made the girls feel even worse when a gundog was sent in to retrieve the corpse.
When interviewed shortly after the incident, Daisy said 'Quack', waggled her tail and flew off to a life alone.
So.... girls.... if you find revenge attacks of duck poo from on high - you know why....
2/6/9
Race Report - Grace has written a report on Met Regatta at the weekend and this is now up in the results section.
If any of you have photos, let me know so they can go up in the gallery.
2/6/9
Wildlife - We seem to have an exhibitionist swan who has made her nest on one of the small landing stages near the club. While it is undoubtedly a safe place to nest (discounting scallies pillaging the nest) the swan has got to crave attention since the nest is just a few feet from the trail of tourists that walk down past the club when the sun is out.
Mute swans sit on their eggs for about 37 days - so should be long before we see them hatching.....
30/5/9
Committee - The minutes of the May meeting are now up in the members area. If you read them and you feel a wave of boredom about to overcome you - have a look at this photo.
Nothing to do with the club, but I thought it was funny ;-)
27/5/9
More Senior Women! - Grace, in a cunning effort to get her quote of the month off the top of the news page, has sent in a great collection of photos taken by her other half of the Senior Women training on the river. I have put a link up to them in the gallery...
25/5/9
Met
Regatta
- The draw is up for
Metropolitan regatta on Saturday:
Senior Men have entered IM1 eight, coxed four and a coxless four and IM2 four
for Saturday then an IM1 8 and 4 on Sunday.
Senior Women are racing IM1 and IM2 coxed fours.
All but two events have heats so should be able to get some good racing! :-)
25/5/9
Senior Women - Saturday morning saw seat racing for the Senior Women's four - the closest races seen for some time. A hard decision, but the crew is now set for their races at Met and Henley.
Having spent the morning with them I thought it would be appropriate to add a new feature to the website..... Quote of the Month. To start it off we have an extract from one of the shortest books around, Grace's Guide to Rowing Self Effacement.
When asked why she didn't drive - was it never having got round to taking the test, or just being very bad at it, the answer was....
"Well, you can't be good at everything - it annoys people".
Thank you Grace. I suspect we will have some more entries from you in the future ;-)
23/5/9
Senior Men - Ben Dickinson has sent a photo of the Senior Men's 8 racing at HORR this year.
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| From Rowing |
20/5/9
Barn Dance - We had a great night at the club last night at the Barn Dance. Danny and Amy provided food for the dancers, the bar was busy and the first floor provided and ALMOST perfect area for the dancing. The floor was pretty slippy for the high speed flinging, but I didn't notice any falls. Virtually everyone came in a barn dance costume, but special mentions have to go to Nat and Matt for their particularly authentic outfits (orchestrated by Nat I suspect) and particularly to Kathy who came as a COW! Complete with udders :-S Photos of the event are up in the gallery.
The latest learn to row course is just finishing and so a good few of the 'newbies' came along - so it was great to see them. Hope they all stay with the club when the course finishes.
17/5/9
Chester Regatta - Our home regatta was another relatively quiet event this year - the weather was pretty rubbish for rowing - strong wind and patchy rain. There were a few wins for us though - old bags doing well in their events. The points system put a lot of squads off entering, fearing straight finals and picking up unwanted points. A few photos are up in the gallery
17/5/9
Shrewsbury Regatta - The Novice Women and Old Bags went down to race at Shrewsbury on Saturday - unfortunately no wins though. The old bags lost in the eight by half a length and one of the Novice Women's crews rudder broke, so they had to stop during the race :-( Let's hope Chester Regatta brings more luck.
10/5/9
Boat Allocation - Chris Hudson has prepared a table showing each squads allocation of boats - this is in the notices section of the member's area.
21/4/9
Photos - New albums from various social events, including the Wine and Cheese tasting evening have now gone up in the gallery section.
20/4/9
Committee Minutes - the minutes of the March committee meeting are now up in the member's area.
10/4/9
Raven Magazine - Past issues of The Raven, the club's magazine/newsletter are now available in the member's area, thanks to Joe Robson.
1/4/9
Training Camps - Grosvenor is hosting two training camps next month. Vesta from 10th to 15th April and Broxbourne from 17th to 19th April. These clubs are paying us for using our facilities and this in an important contribution to our income!
26/3/9
Wine and Cheese Tasting - tickets for this every popular event, hosted by Mike Allwood at the club are going on sale this week at £12 each. Please buy them in advance from Mike or Stoz. In the past the event has sold out very quickly as the club can only hold about 45 people for this. Details on Facebook and the poster is here.
26/3/9
Tideway - Over the last couple of weeks, the Senior Women, Senior Women, Veteran Men and Veteran Women have competed on the Tideway - with varying results. Have a look at the results page for information.
25/3/9
Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race - Jo and Victoria will be opening up the bar and running a sweepstake on Sunday 29th March from 2.30pm so you can all watch the race together on the new big TV (thanks to Phil Hill!). They will also be running a sweepstake. Poster for the event is here.
23/3/9
New Landing Stage - the new landing stage is now installed - well it is a large extension to the existing one and it is great. Thanks to the Senior Men's squad for putting it together in time for the North of England Head.
22/3/9
Learn to Row Course - The next course is starting on Wednesday 1st April at 6.30pm. Contact Chris Fawcett for more information - details on the learn to row page.
21/3/9
Twitter - Brian Chapman has set up a twitter account for any members who are twitters and want to update the page via text. Go to http://twitter.com/grc1869
15/3/9
North of England Head - being held on Saturday 14th March 2009, the first division starts at xxxxx. In the evening we are holding a party as usual - to celebrate any victories (or even just blisters). DJ Doc Jo is on the decks for the Disco and it is a fancy dress party - some free drinks for people in costume - while stocks last! From 8pm.
10/3/9
New Web Site - As you can see, the club website has had a bit of a re-vamp. As well as the usual information, we also now have a forum, members area and new galleries.
New Eight - The club has just bought a rather nice Felipe Eight for the 1st Men's crew - which we hope will serve them well for this years Head of the Rover Race. It took it's time coming though - the boat was snow bound at Pangbourne for quite a time before we could collect it!
The Boats in the car park are going to be re-arranged - with the racks placed along the long wall at the side, to allow access to the boats without as much manoeuvring over cars! The car park will loose some space unfortunately - but we need space for the boats!
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